Tag Archives: university

Home improvement – with sheep (Rousse)

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Dreamaticus

The house was a-buzz with DIY and related domestic projects. While my university friend SB hosed down the steps to our New Town basement, TPR dismantled the broken external door handle to take for repair by the locksmith. It was … Continue reading →

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How to survive the first week of term (Rousse)

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Dreamaticus

My work life was falling to pieces: the only computer available to me for running a complex statistical package was an ancient XT; my first tutorial of the academic year lasted only 30 minutes because I hadn’t prepared enough material; … Continue reading →

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How to find love: happy relationship remarriage (Rousse)

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I trailed the country as a guest at numerous weddings as all my school and university friends signed up to the new craze of “happy relationship remarriage”. This wasn’t about finding a different life-partner, nor renewing vows with any incumbent … Continue reading →

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The running club birthday party and plans to ruin Rousse’s reputation

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Dreamaticus

It was a huge effort to sandpaper the silver coating off the polystyrene cake rounds but I wanted everything to be perfect for the running club birthday party. We started promptly at 07:30 with all the familiar faces around the … Continue reading →

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How to do well in REF: check your soap bag (Rousse)

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Dreamaticus

Without full details of how to submit to the Research Excellence Framework, UK university staff had two broad options: (1) to guess the requirements and work towards them; (2) or to ignore the whole exercise until the actual criteria were … Continue reading →

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Bathrooms à deux (Rousse)

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I was back at University looking for the bathrooms. After exploring the entire ground floor at last I found one but was stopped from entering by the sign on the door. This bathroom was NOT for use by single people.

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London university appoints controversial vice chancellor, conference acrobatics, and a flood (Rousse)

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Dreamaticus

Emerging from my slumbers to a soundtrack of the Radio 4 Today programme I was very surprised to hear mention of an external colleague’s name. The big news was that DW had been appointed vice chancellor of one of the … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Ross’ theatre date and a threat of war in Edinburgh (Rousse)

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Dreamaticus

Every time that we stopped to take a photo on our walk along the headland the gap between us and Jonathan Ross narrowed. Eventually he was so close behind us that we could hear every word he shared with his … Continue reading →

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Gordon Brown in the background while Rousse begs bags for belongings

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Dreamaticus

Ugh – teenagers! I was helping two young friends pack up their university accommodation at the end of term. They were hopeless, unable to decide what to keep and what to throw away, virtually inert while I did all the … Continue reading →

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The Glasgow School of Spelling, David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Limmy and a retirement home for celebrities (Rousse)

Posted on February 21, 2011 by Dreamaticus

It was very sweet of the organisers to remember me, but I really didn’t deserve any recognition at all at the engineering teaching awards ceremony. I suspected that BB was behind this. The biggest clue was that it was one … Continue reading →

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