Tag Archives: walk

A mountain ban (Rousse)

Posted on March 12, 2023 by Dreamaticus

On holiday in the far north of Scotland, I joined a walking group. Each day the leader took us a different route across the moorland, up the mountains, and along the beaches. It was wonderful. One morning we climbed a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ban, beach, hill, information, moor, mountain, office, sandwich, Scotland, Suilven, tomato, tourist, walk | Leave a comment

Mid-summer’s Day in Cornwall – with curry (Rousse)

Posted on November 12, 2018 by Dreamaticus

It was super-early on Mid-summer’s Day in Cornwall and I was lucky enough to observe the locals and a selection of animals march up the hill in the annual sunrise procession. I could not fathom how they managed to persuade … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged animal, celebration, confusion, Cornwall, curry, hill, line, mid-summer, minibus, neat, process, sunrise, transport, walk | Leave a comment

Illegal gazebo sausage rolls (Rousse)

Posted on September 21, 2018 by Dreamaticus

TPR was so hungry that forgot his manners completely and fingered one of the sausage rolls on a plate inside the gazebo. None of us had permission to enter the riverside property after our long walk, let alone picnic on … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bargain, breach, coin, etiquette, food, garden, gazebo, horro, hungry, illegal, owner, permission, picnnic, pocket, property, riverside, roll, sausage, stranger, TPR, walk | Leave a comment

The lost and a linguist in Toronto (Rousse)

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Dreamaticus

TPR and my cousin N both left the shopping mall before I had a chance to put my change into my purse and gather my bags. When I eventually followed them out into the Toronto streets I could no longer … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged apartment, bus, bus stop, change, foot, friend, holiday-maker, linguist, lost, mall, menu, mobile, phone, purse, seafood, shopping, Spanish, street, Toronto, TPR, transport, walk | Leave a comment

Encounters with chartered surveyors (Rousse)

Posted on March 31, 2018 by Dreamaticus

I had encounters with two chartered surveyors on the same day. The first – RA – spoke to me of his ‘elephantine’ features as contrasted with my ‘beauty’ as he walked me to a tube station in London. I did … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged award, beauty, chartered, chestnut, elephantine, encounter, English, feature, garden, London, sculpture, station, suburb, surveyor, tube, walk, wall, win | Leave a comment

Checking for Czechs (Rousse)

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Dreamaticus

I tried walking home along country lanes at night time, but this proved too dangerous. Even in flashing trainers it soon became obvious that drivers could not see me, and that I was risking my life. I changed my plan … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A40, accommodation, bonus, boy, car, check, city, conversation, country, Czech, dangerous, daylight, deal, demean, driver, Edinburgh, flash, flat, foreign, friendship, growl, hair, hitch-hike, holiday, holiday-maker, home, in-laws, intinerary, lane, life, location, man, Manchester, Manchester Metroplitan University, map, night, north, Nottingham Trent University, old-fashioned, passenger, pet, plan, plate, risk, see, slip road, student, trainer, trick, trip, wait, walk | Leave a comment

A box of sayings from Switzerland (Rousse)

Posted on January 23, 2018 by Dreamaticus

When SL first held the open the small box I thought that she was offering me a cigarette. On closer inspection I saw that it contained long slim strips of card. On each there was a different uplifting saying or … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged arm, box, card, cigarette, drive, motto, present, purchase, saying, sell, strip, Switzerland, tears, uplifting, walk | Leave a comment

Jo Jo the poison pen email writer pushes stressed academic over the edge (Rousse)

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I was in the habit of commuting by train to the headquarters of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in London. There I worked in the basement on an unending series of grant applications. From time to time … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 1984, 1985, Abersystwyth University, academic, acusation, application, Ayr, basement, bid, bloody, break, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, CILIP, crash, document, email, fall, family, favour, fear, frighten, grant, green, happy, home, identity, impudent, ingratiate, insult, iPhone, Jo, Jo Jo, March, miners, mother, Nokia, Orange, pen, Penelope Wrightman, phone, pointless, poisen, protest, pseudonym, reality, rude, safety, shiny, shorts, sister, spy, stairwell, stress, strike, suicide, T shirt, tears, temper, tiles, TPR, transport, Volvo, walk, white, woman, writer | Leave a comment

A rescue from classroom chaos (Rousse)

Posted on August 24, 2017 by Dreamaticus

The classroom was in chaos. Bowls of soup dropped down from the ceiling. My ex-colleague KB had prepared far too much for a one-hour class, and I was unconvinced that colouring-in was an appropriate undergraduate activity. JM came to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ceiling, chaos, class, classroom, colleague, colouring-in, embrace, hand, madness, rescue, room, soup, undergraduate, walk | Leave a comment

Conference barbed wire and a baby (Rousse)

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Dreamaticus

I dished out advice on how to live a healthy life to my young charge as we walked along Edinburgh’s Queen Street. From here we were catching a bus to a conference. She listened patiently as I highlighted the value … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged advice, baby, barbed, calorie, conference, Edinburgh, exercise, eye, gym, health, keynote, membership, newborn, Queen Street, scratch, seat, skin, speaker, view, walk, wire | Leave a comment