Tag Archives: university

A messy office Christmas party followed by seaside coffee and cake in Aberdeen (Rousse)

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Dreamaticus

A mixture of colleagues from all stages of my career came to the staff Christmas party. These included: my old boss JH; the wife and eldest daughter of my old office-mate SM; current colleagues DB and LD; a tall, skinny, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Aberdeen, boss, cafe, cake, Christmas, cleaner, coffee, colleague, daughter, fancy, floor, mess, messy, morning, moustache, note, office-mate, party, seaside, sleep, tidy, university, wife | Leave a comment

A Star Trek screening and a sick bed sanctuary (Rousse)

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Dreamaticus

I was in no fit state to trek across the mountains after my operation, but TPR made me do this so that he could watch Star Trek films at the university cinema, snuggled up to a couple of women, who … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bed, beeline, building, bus, campus, change, cinema, extra, fit, home, HR, mountain, operation, pay, sanctuary, screen, screening, sick, snuggle, Star Trek, stop, TPR, trek, undergraduate, university, women, work | Leave a comment

Dealing with workplace bullies (Rousse)

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Dreamaticus

When I congratulated Captain C on his thirty years of service at the University, he introduced me to his brother Martin. Although I had known Captain C for decades, until this point I had no idea of the existence of … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged brother, bully, cheek, intervene, office, subling, suffering, support, table, target, university, witness, workplace | Leave a comment

Bike theft at Queen Margaret University (Rousse)

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Dreamaticus

The Californian sunshine lifted my spirits so high that I was convinced that it was unnecessary to padlock my brand new bike outside Queen Margaret University. Of course, when I came back out of the building, my bike was gone. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bicycle, bike, building, California, cycle, padlock, public, Queen Margaret, spirit, sunshine, telephone, theft, TPR, university | Leave a comment

Academic is owner of magnificent mansion on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne (Rousse)

Posted on December 9, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I knew that it was unconventional to take one’s sibling to a school management meeting, but now that mine worked at the University (albeit in a different department), I thought that I would get away with it. SS glanced over … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, admire, art, black, blue, briar, bush, causeway, children, door, gate-crash, glorious, Holy Island, house, interior, lecturer, life sciences, Lindisfarne, magnificent, management, mansion, meeting, mother, name, north, Northumberland, notes, paintwork, panel, path, peel, pharmacology, photo, plan, red, rich, school, scrap book, scribble, sea, sell, ship, sibling, sky, stop, text, tide, TPR, university, upkeep, view, water, wood | Leave a comment

University cuts pay bill by cutting academic hours by a third (Rousse)

Posted on December 2, 2017 by Dreamaticus

When JK hacked into RK’s email account he found over 5000 confidential messages exchanged between university admin staff on the subject of academic pay. The Principal had had a hard choice to make in respect of financial savings. To avoid … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, bag, bill, Christmas, colleague, confidential, cut, drop, email, finanical, gauze, hack, hours, pay, present, Principal, redundancies, redundancy, saving, semester, toiletries, university | Leave a comment

Marine biology meets Information Science at Loughborough University (Rousse)

Posted on December 1, 2017 by Dreamaticus

Dressed in a shimmering, metallic ballgown, JH spun around the room with TPR. AM looked on in envy. Meanwhile all I wanted to know was why my colleagues at Loughborough University were encouraging Masters students to write Information Science dissertations … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ballgown, biology, dance, dissertation, envy, examine, guest, information sceince, lecturer, Loughborough, Marine, Masters, qualified, shimmer, spin, students, supervise, university | Leave a comment

Why bother with home-made Christmas cards? (Rousse)

Posted on November 11, 2017 by Dreamaticus

EH sat at the far end of the sofa, watching me as I cut out shapes from unused Christmas cards to make some cards of my own. ‘What is the point of doing that?’ she asked. ‘I like to make … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anniversary, bother, card, cards, celebrate, Christmas, cut, dress, family, home-made, homemade, path, shapes, sofa, teenager, TPR, university, wedding, window | Leave a comment

Mistaken for a Harvard academic (Rousse)

Posted on November 3, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I trundled across the playing field of the University of Edinburgh by shopping trolley and suitcase on wheels. It was difficult to balance myself when lying prone on my two vehicles, but manageable so long as there was a slope. … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged academic, balance, Edinburgh, Harvard, mistaken, shopping trolley, slope, suitcase, sunglasses, university, wheels, women | Leave a comment

Love at the cosmetics counter (Rousse)

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Dreamaticus

My young charge and I ran a cosmetics counter in a department store. Customers were few so we enjoyed a lot of free time to get to know each other and – eventually – fall in love, despite our 36 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A level, A*s, application, assistant, black, conference, cosmetics, counter, customr, department, dress, employment, HE, higher education, hopeless, love, shop, spots, store, university, white, work | Leave a comment