Tag Archives: work

David Mitchell’s ancestors and Rabelais (Rousse)

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Dreamaticus

David Mitchell and I were meant to be studying, but we kept on catching one another’s eye across the library table. As I wondered what it must be like to be married to him (lucky Victoria Coren) I found it … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ancestor, ancestors, caravan, class, classes, concentrate, cruel, David Mitchell, deadline, dissertation, e-mail, email, grandfather, Isle of Skye, John Forbes, library, marry, parishioner, parishioners, Rabelais, reunion, reverend, sin, Skye, Sleat, study, sympathy, teach, term, University of Birmingham, Victoria Coren, Victoria Coren Mitchell, work | Leave a comment

James Corden, Johnny Vegas, and a couple of neglected twins (Rousse)

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Dreamaticus

James Corden – or was it Johnny Vegas? – was the father of my twin baby sons. In our unconventional family set-up he did his best to care for the children while I was at work, but never thought to … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baby, care, children, condition, diagnose, eczema, exercise, family, father, game, James Corden, Johnny Vegas, juggle, kids, Michael Joseph Pennington, neglect, shrink, Stuart, tea saucer, treat, twin, twins, work | Leave a comment

German treasure trove reveals its secrets (Rousse)

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Dreamaticus

TPR was the jumping champion. He was the first person who had ever managed to leap from a standing start at the bottom of the pit on to the turf above. Everyone had said that it was impossible, yet my … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bull, chains, champion, chest, children, contents, farmer, forget, German, gold, helmet, helmets, hero, husband, jewels, jump, kitchen, lid, pile, pit, room, secret, secrets, teacher, TPR, treasure, trove, turf, Viking, work, yard | Leave a comment

Boris Johnson’s PhD (Rousse)

Posted on May 8, 2014 by Dreamaticus

Boris Johnson’s PhD thesis was so ancient that the yellowing paper cracked as you turned the pages. Presented in two battered cream-cloth bound volumes, the content was somewhat disappointing. I’d hoped that it would come in useful as I did … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged authority, Boris, Boris Johnson, cloth, company, contact, crack, cream, dissertation, doctoral, doctorate, expedition, fishing, industry, Johnson, Linlithgow, pages, paper, PhD, spy, study, Sun Microsystems, text, thesis, uni, volume, volumes, work, yellow | Leave a comment

Rousse’s one night stand

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Dreamaticus

I had been a faithful wife for almost three decades and now I’d blown it after a brief (but fun) encounter with XY (also married) in the marital bed while TPR was fast asleep along the corridor in the spare … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged asleep, bed, bedroom, card, cards, Christmas, corridor, covers, Craiglockhart, enounter, faithful, futon, guilt, house, infidelity, innocence, invention, married, mouth, night, one night stand, passion, photography, promiscuity, ride, STD, study, taxi, test, town, TPR, wife, work | Leave a comment

Party disaster (Rousse)

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Dreamaticus

My fiftieth birthday celebration was a disaster. Everything was wrong: The timing – a Wednesday lunchtime when everyone was at work The venue – a boring hotel dining room in rainy Manchester The guest list – dreary external work colleagues … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged celebration, colleagues, dining room, disaster, dull, food, guest, guests, hotel, Manchester, parents, party, rain, speech, timing, venue, Wednesday, work, wrong | Leave a comment

Northumbria University’s funfair recruitment drive, and two naughty sisters (Rousse)

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Dreamaticus

When my sister heard that I had a meeting in Newcastle she said that she would like to see me afterwards. Northumbria University had changed considerably since my last visit. In an apparent effort to recruit more students, the campus … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged alley, behaviour, bollards, business, commitments, decorations, displays, drive, eeting, expenses, external, family, finance, Friends, funfair, garish, generosity, hotel, Jesmond, metro, naughty, Newcastle, Northumbria University, old, Range Rover, recruit, runner, sister, students, support, unemployed, university, work, wreck | Leave a comment

A deal with Oracle goes wrong (Rousse)

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Dreamaticus

X shouted an insult at me as he left campus at 4pm on Friday – just as I was arriving at work to clear my e-mail. He was convinced that I was not doing a proper job of looking after … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accusation, campus, deal, donate, drink, e-mail, fail, Imperial, Oracle, PhD, research, smart, staff, strangers, students, supervisor, teaching, TPR, university, work, wrong | Leave a comment

Debenhams Bristol: a unique shopping experience (Rousse)

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Dreamaticus

While BD looked after the three Christmas cakes in his shop on Park Street, I popped up the road to Debenhams to buy some tins so that I could carry my baking home with me after work. The Bristol branch … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged baking, branch, bright, Bristol, cake, cakes, carry, Christmas, Debenhams, elevator, elevators, experience, home, lift, lifts, Park Street, shopping, staff, tin, tins, tiny, unique, work | Leave a comment

Ten year-old genius develops new app to measure distance (Rousse)

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Dreamaticus

My new best friend was MS, the ten year-old daughter of an external work colleague who was on business in town. MS very proudly showed off a new app that she had just developed. It was an electric ruler that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged angles, app, business, cheeks, chin, colleague, daughter, develop, distance, distances, electric, face, friend, glands, pointy, ruler, screen, swell, swollen, throat, virus, work | Leave a comment