Tag Archives: smoking

BBC employee discovers drug den in Edinburgh’s Stockbridge (Rousse)

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Dreamaticus

My high-powered job on Radio 4 required regular trips to London for meetings. Because I needed to be up early the next morning to catch the 05:40 train, I had to consider my sleeping options carefully. The first possibility was … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ailment, ailments, BBC, bed, bedroom, beds, box, chain-smoke, classmate. classmates, clothes, den, disturb, doctor, documentary, downstairs, drug, Dundas Street, Edinburgh, employee, illness, illnesses, job, mad, meeting, meetings, menopausal, menopause, middle-age, night, prescription, prescriptions, radio, Radio 4, Red red wine, reunion, room, single, sleep, sleeping, smoking, squatter, squatters, Stockbridge, surgery, tablet, tablets, television, train, UB40, undergraduate, upstairs | Leave a comment

Ski-ing and smoking (Rousse)

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Dreamaticus

The hotel brochure displayed page after page of glossy photographs of bright young things enjoying Alpine conditions on the nearby Scottish ski slopes. This gave the impression of glamour, when in reality the hotel itself was little more than a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Alpine, blonde, brochure, cow, dining room, glamour, light up, onesie, photographs, Scotland, Scottish, ski-ing, slopes, smoking, trouble, woman, youth hostel | Leave a comment

Astragal window repair (Rousse)

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Dreamaticus

One stormy night night we settled down to sleep in our bedroom, with P and S there too, tucked in on the floor by the wardrobe. The next morning we discovered that the majority of the window’s astragal panes had … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged astragal, bar, barmaid, bed, chain-smoke, fix, floor, hall, hallway, house, night, repair, smoking, storm, stormy, wardrobe, wind, window | Leave a comment

Exception to the Health Act 2006 discovered in West Sussex (Rousse)

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Dreamaticus

All we siblings raced out of my in-laws’ house and jumped into the car. It was a bit of squash for the ten of us, but the distance was short to the coffee shop in Chichester. There we were served … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged car, Chichester, coffee, drive, driving, Health Act 2006, house, in-laws, pale, runner, shop, shy, siblings, smoke, smoking, spotty, tall, thin, tobacco, waiter | Leave a comment

The smoker of Stockton-on-Tees (Rousse)

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Dreamaticus

By complete coincidence all the people at our end of the table were from Stockton-on-Tees. There was even a spot for my brother-in-law MF, despite his lack of PhD. Of course, ST had sneaked in (as usual). It amused me … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blood, bloodstream, brother-in-law, fix, meal, nicotine, PhD, smoker, smoking, Stockton, Stockton-on-Tees, table | Leave a comment

Britain versus France: dress, architecture and smoking (Rousse)

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I lived all alone in a one-bedroomed apartment in Paris. Today I was heading to the airport to meet AM. It was very cold outside so I wore several layers: a long emerald green satin ballgown, topped with a long-sleeved … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged airport, apartment, architects, ballgown, cold, cotton, French, green dress, jeans, loafers, overcoat, Paris, rez de chaussee, shirt, shoes, smoking | Leave a comment

Translator sets up home in “lawless” Stornoway (Rousse)

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I envied my friend J’s new life on the Isle of Lewis. She set herself up in a small bedsit where she worked as a translator. She offered several languages, including Gaelic. However, although I hankered after J’s new Hebridean … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bedsit, envy, Gaelic, Isle of Lewis, landlords, languages, lawlessness, Outer Hebrides, pubs, smoking, Sundays, translator, Western Isles | Leave a comment

International cellist fails to avert breakfast party disaster (Rousse)

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Dreamaticus

The star attraction at our breakfast party was international cellist US. I was so proud to have successfully tempted her over from Denmark to Hexham to spend the morning at my long-dead grandmother’s house. Other guests included JC and VJ … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bits, Broadway Gardens, cellist, Denmark, grandmother, grannny, Hexham, jam, jeans, raspberry, Scandinavian, smokers, smoking, toast | Leave a comment

Farmyard noises trump smoking as acceptable behaviour in public (Rousse)

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Dreamaticus

It was the day of my big performance. It didn’t go quite as anticipated. Granted, my father kept his promise not to heckle me. Instead he did much worse by interrupting the vote of thanks with farmyard noises. The speaker … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged behaviour, farm, farmyard, father, heckle, heckling, inaugural, lecture, noise, noises, performance, professorial, smoking, speaker, university, yard | 1 Comment

Deadly and expensive, but ever so cool: Rousse debates smoking with an addict

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I didn’t believe JG when he said that he would give up smoking for our Caribbean holiday. A victim of peer pressure in Strasbourg (so it appeared to me, at least), he’d been addicted to the deadly habit since 1984. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1984, Caribbean, cigarette, cigarettes, cool, cost, dead, deadly, death, expense, expensive, health, holiday, kill, peer, peer pressure, pressure, smoking, Strasbourg | Leave a comment