Tag Archives: university

Rousse escapes the timetable but gets trapped by her past

A timetabling mix-up meant that it was now up to me to entertain the final year students for two hours. I rummaged in the box of handouts that I had taken to the last class in the desperate hope that … Continue reading

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Security enforcement with Charlie Drake and sliding with Suggs (Belle)

Thirty years after I did it the first time, I was now moving into my hall of residence. This time round I was at ‘a Northern University’ but had no idea which one. When I lay on my single bed, … Continue reading

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Home improvement – with sheep (Rousse)

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)

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)

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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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