Laurie Taylor column

The Departmental Secretary
Department of Mediaand Cultural Studies
University of Poppleton
Poppleton
PP12 6HP

Dear Maureen

I do hope that you are enjoying your holiday in Scarborough (or was it Filey?) As you know I had expected to be spending this week at Stirling University as part of my Saga holiday. Both Mrs Lapping and myself were very much looking forward to using the Stirling campus as a base for discovering the neighbouring highlands and islands.

At the last minute, however, we were informed that Stirling had been over-subscribed and we were, therefore, relocated to our second-choice university. This proved an unfortunate development because Mrs Lapping had failed to read the booking form with sufficient care and inadvertently nominated Poppleton in this position.

We have, however, been given a very pleasant guest room in a relatively unfamiliar part of the campus (on the edge of the science park) and there is some real pleasure to be had in being able to provide one's fellow guests with precise directions to such essential destinations as the medical centre.

There was one rather nasty moment when the bursar failed to recognise me in my informal holiday clothes and rather brusquely ordered me out of the senior common room, but such unfortunate incidents are very much offset by the advantage of being able to pop into the office every day to pick up one's post.

Best wishes

(Professor Lapping)