Tag Archives: work

Unbearable workloads: could cloning be the answer? (Rousse)

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Dreamaticus

Locked away in a hall of residence room in Nantes, I wasn’t coping very well at all. I had returned to the city to take some extra courses and gain credits for a full French undergraduate degree, even though it … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beach, beret, clone, clones, cloning, degree, Florida, girls, graduate, graduates, hall, holiday, iSchool, load, Nantes, qualification, qualifications, residence, reunion, room, school, skirt, studies, Teesside High School, undergraduate, university, Washington, work, workload | Leave a comment

Working at home with red wine, Indians, a blind man, and hairy legs (Rousse)

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Dreamaticus

I spent a morning with AB and WB “working at home” at their Edinburgh flat. RL was also a day-time regular at the B residence thanks to generous time off in lieu arrangements that he had negotiated with his gullible … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged blind, body, Braille, business, Edinburgh, flat, hair, Indians, Irish Setter, legs, lunch, plumage, reader, red, time of in lieu, TOIL, wine, work, work at home, working at home | Leave a comment

Toothbrushes and telephone tutorials (Rousse)

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Dreamaticus

KA won the argument and she, SM and the children would stay the night in Edinburgh rather than face the long drive back to Hexham. As KA got E and R ready for bed, I rummaged around in the green … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged argument, babies, baby, bath, bathroom, bed, bedroom, call, cheek, cupboard, drive, driving, Edinburgh, favour, favours, fitting, fittings, furious, fury, futon, Hexham, honours, kitchen, mobile, phone, project, row, Saturday, study, telephone, toothbrush, toothbrushes, weekend, window, work, yellow | Leave a comment

An intruder, a storm, and the terrible after-effects of tree resin rain (Rousse)

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Dreamaticus

There’d been a number of break-ins at our flat over recent weeks, none of which had triggered our burglar alarm. We were sure, however, that it was just matter of time before we would walk in on the culprit(s). When … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged acoustic, after-effects, alarm, alternative, arrest, bell, black, bouquet, box, boxes, break-in, burglar, caramel, celebrate, celebration, chocolate, chocolates, coffee, conversation, culprit, cushion, cushions, damage, door, flat, flower, flowers, fly, flying, friend, friendship, garden, gardens, ground, guitar, gym, hall, headlice, house, houses, identity, intruder, kettle, kitchen, lice, lifestyle, loss, memory, mother-in-law, mystery, neighbour, neighbours, paralysed, paralysis, peanut, peanuts, police, policeman, prison, rescue, resin, Russian, sitting room, sky, sofa, stiff, storm, stranger, tea, TPR, training, tree, weather, wind, windy, woman, work | Leave a comment

Rousse bakes mini lemon meringue pies while her husband holds court in the bath

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Dreamaticus

My first problem was that I had to choose between three competing commitments all taking place on the same night. My second was that I had promised my boss that I would attend one of them. However, I now had … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bath, boss, colleague, colleagues, commitment, commitments, computing, dead, death, dinner, Edinburgh, elite, flat, fridge, industry, kill, lemon, meringue, network, pie, pies, priority, Scotland, Scottish, TPR, visitors, work | Leave a comment

Winning ways with the language of love (Rousse)

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Dreamaticus

I was well aware that for over a decade my colleague A dismissed my work as completely trivial. It was well-known that he had no respect for me whatsoever. Then one day we happened to be assigned to the same … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged colleague, France, French, intern, internship, language, languages, love, placement, respect, talent, way, ways, win, winning, work | Leave a comment

Innovative scheme helps students clear debt (Rousse)

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Dreamaticus

Everything changed when I accepted the new role at work. Now my tiny office was crammed full of students and admin staff. It didn’t help that everyone brought along their own favourite items of furniture to help make the room … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged admin, afford, ball, ball gown, barley, barley-legged, beach, beard, blue, bus, buses, debt, debts, dress, faint, fee, fees, franchise, furniture, gown, grant, grants, hall, hide, lecture, legged, library, loan, loans, Lothian, marketing, New York, noise, oak, office, patrol, patrols, pebble, photo, photograph, photographs, photos, polytechnic, reading room, reading rooms, repository, robe, robes, satin, scheme, screen, silent, sky-blue, space, staff, student, students, study, table, trip, work | Leave a comment

Facebook time-waster ruins picnic (Rousse)

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Dreamaticus

We took a break from packing up all our belongings for the big house move to join S and K for a Sunday picnic. With the children away on some kind of outdoor adventure weekend, this was the first time … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged children, denim, Facebook, Friends, horse, horseplay, house move, laptop time-wasting, move, moving, packing, picnic, play, rug, shorts, student, students, Sunday, time. waste, TPR, trivia, wasting, work | Leave a comment

Campus security OTT (Rousse)

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Dreamaticus

KT was furious. “This will never work!” she complained. I tended to agree with her. The new security system on campus now required us to swipe our ID cards every time we emerged from a stairwell. How would the office … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged campus, corridor, entry, exit, ID, office, security, staff, stairwell, supervise, work | Leave a comment

Corridor card games (Rousse)

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Dreamaticus

Instead of dealing with my mounting e-mail backlog, I helped RK set up the playing card game along the red-carpeted corridor at work. We laid the enormous cardboard figures of the jacks, queens and kings flat over black plastic sheeting, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged backlog, bin liner, card, cards, carpet, ceremony, corridor, e-mail, email, graduation, hide, jack, king, lake, Queen, red, sensor, sensors, student, students, swim, work | Leave a comment