Tag Archives: university

Proof-reading in the bunker (Rousse)

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Dreamaticus

The University was almost bankrupt, yet needed more space to house its staff. The only option was to dig underground. BP invited me to ‘the bunker’ to proof-read an important document. Just hours before the deadline, however, the first draft … Continue reading →

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Lion cubs join Oxford University for freshers week (Rousse)

Posted on January 29, 2025 by Dreamaticus

Dressed only in a navy blue towel, I wandered around chilly Oxford cursing the snow – and TPR, now onto the xth affair of our marriage. The new undergraduates looked both puzzled and proud at their achievement of winning places … Continue reading →

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Lockerbie one-upwomanship (Rousse)

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Dreamaticus

I was working as an au pair for a vile vain woman who treated me as her inferior in status and intelligence. She also employed three young foreign woman in her kitchen at night. When I learnt that the others … Continue reading →

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Oxford University cheat (Rousse)

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Dreamaticus

HVJ’s father passed on the telephone message. ‘Your daughter N is struggling with a final year essay. Please could you help?’ I couldn’t believe that it had come to this: Oxford undergraduates using their mothers as ghost writers.

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Aristotle, Shakespeare, Pirandello, Henry IV – and a shop for sale in Stirchley (Rousse)

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Dreamaticus

The university reunion in Birmingham was a very dull affair, attracting only the quietest of my former classmates. I eventually managed to persuade JG into a conversation. She spoke of her preference for the study of Latin and Greek over … Continue reading →

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Royal family advisor also offers careers advice and cares for a new baby (Rousse)

Posted on November 6, 2024 by Dreamaticus

Queen Consort Camilla was easily pleased with packs and packs of Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes. Prince Philip (not dead) was a more tricky customer. He suddenly remembered a family that lived on a remote ranch in the mid-west of the United … Continue reading →

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A Sheffield cult and Sunderland snobbery (Rousse)

Posted on August 25, 2024 by Dreamaticus

All that was left of TPR was his black hand-knitted jumper. It was almost as if he had shed this – his ‘shell’ – as his final act before his disappearance. The only clue to TPR’s whereabouts was a last … Continue reading →

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Boxes and foxes (Rousse)

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Dreamaticus

KH handed me a small white box with a promise that he would explain the contents just as soon as he had checked the pan on the stove in the kitchen. When he failed to return, I popped the box … Continue reading →

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Life as a Victorian student (Belle)

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Dreamaticus

I had made it to Oxford University! I couldn’t remember how this had happened – or what I was ‘reading’ – or why I had travelled back in time to the 1890s, or when I had become a 20-year old … Continue reading →

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Wedding speaker shamed (Rousse)

Posted on August 4, 2024 by Dreamaticus

VAE stood up from her pew seat, marched over to the speaker, and admonished him in front of the whole congregation: ‘This is a wedding of a couple very much in love. It is customary to speak about them during … Continue reading →

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