The Lucas North Faculty of Parachute Studies at the UMN

[DumSpiroSpero]

Not entirely tasteful, but it's what we all hoped really isn't it?

::Totters in::

Possibly the worst gig I have ever attended was the Worzels, which we went to en famille a hundred years ago, because my dear mama thought my little brother would enjoy it.

But, hey. I am just back from a proper grown-up night out with The Bloke. We were part of a star-studded audience for the last London performance of the divine Kevin in Richard III. He was magnificent.

We hardly go to our Library - I prefer to buy used books on Amazon for 1p + postage or for 20p at local bookstalls -but am mighty glad we have it. The raeson my Fremnch is still passable is that we go quite often and in my head I am Catherine Deneuve.

Any Chateau Nuits Saint Gisborne left?

Angel eyes, honestly. Fallen angel eyes at very most

No rush about the lyrics though, I feel your pain.

Incidentally can you get these 'ere smart phones wot you can MN on, on a pay as you go basis?

Saint Gisborne? There's a joke, if ever there was one.

My French has disappeared more or less entirely, especially the spoken variety. When I try, Islandish comes out.

::staggers in, reeling from the excess testosterone flooding the Priory::

Too much sodding male stuff on the goggle box today - rugby, F1, football, more rugby then Strikeback . Meanwhile I have been sewing and doing laundry and behaving very much like my 19th century self.

Gah.

However, the highlighters have been extremely busy and a final analysis of the marks show you all deserve A*s for your informative and exceptionally well ReseArched papers. They are excellently illustrated and contain......

I give up, I can't concentrate because I'm too busy laughing at Would I Lie To You and the two headed jumper .

You can get the Smartphones on PAYG but the phones themselves are £+++++ and the cost of downloading stuff is pretty pricey too.

Perhaps you should be concentrating on the nuits with Gisborne, peut-être?

I get similarly confused between German and Italian. I think it's to do with which language was learnt most recently - when I went to Berlin, I found myself trailing off mid-sentence, as I could find the Italian words but not the German.

No idea about smartphones, as mine is one of these.

I got as far as a respectable GCSE in French. I could find my way around, eat, book a hotel - all the basics but would be stuffed as far as actual conversation goes. Miss S has been.going to after school French club for a year already do hopefully will have a bit of a headstart when they start learning it 'properly' - she seems to be quite interested in languages so fingers crossed.

Glad you had a good evening, Maud. I have just bought DD some kids Shakespeare books and only realised when they turned up that R3 is one of them so will have to have a nose. I ditched history at 14, so now I've got interested in the subject (largely thanks to you guys I've got a hello of a lot of catching up to do. Am starting with this, which is admittedly a kids book, but will give me an overview so I can then take a closer look at the stuff that interests me.

The two headed jumper reminds me of one of the Shopaholic books where the heroine buys a frightful reject jumper with two neckholes because the shop assistant says Madonna has one just like it. Lady Gaga hadn't been invented then or it could have mentioned her and been quite plausible.

Sewing, LadyD? What, pray? A little muslim number in which to bewitch dear Jasper?

I didn't realise you were poised for a party, too. Are you going to have pass the parcel?

We aren't having a party, just family round for a tea-party. But we will do pass-the-parcel

Maud, glad you enjoyed Richard III

Mine is a PAYG Smartphone - was 'only' £99. It's apparently the cheapest PAYG smartphone around but I know very little about these things. For £10 top-up you get 100MB of free internet per month. I must say though that I find it a nightmare to MN on it - very slow, virtually unuseable.

LadyD, we just finished watching WILTY on iPlayer - the jumper thing was hilarious. Miranda was fabulous in that episode.

Night, everyone!

I was thinking a two-headed jumper would be just the thing for a tete-a-tete with Harry Kennedy.

I was as near as bi-lingual in French at one time, that is why Ii am so annoyed to have lost it.

I just did not dare contemplate the thought of nuits in the context of Gisborne, Maud. but if you insist...

I get similarly confused between German and Italian. I think it's to do with which language was learnt most recently

Yes, yes, this is definitely true! I studied French for years and years but have never spoken it since, other than a mumbled "merci" here and there. Yet because DrT and I used to go to Venice a fair bit I taught myself some Italian and I now find myself thinking of Italian words instead of French, despite having hardly any Italian knowledge compared to French. And words that you learn once in an RL situ stick in your head far more than ones you say over and over again at school. We were stuck in Venice when there was a strike on an - it was about 10 years ago but I could still tell you the Italian word for strike because it was relevant at the time, yet I bet I would struggle to conjugate avoir, despite doing it probably twice a week for years at school.

Speaking of 'Les Nuits' - try

The Spacemeister was truly magnificent. ::sigh:: Because of the vagaries of the curriculum, I only ever covered the Romans, the Saxons, The Tudors, the Victorians and the First World War. It was hard going tonight, as various inconvenient heirs and claimants to the throne were bumped off, trying to remember who was related to who (and how).

Good night, Twiggy!

Preview: A closer look at the stuff that interests Spiro

This is going to sound bizarre, but the 100% honest truth is that the only history lesson I can actually remember was when we learnt about the princes in the tower. When we took our options it was either ancient history or WWI & II, neither of which remotely interested me at the time, so I opted for Geography, which was nothing like I expected and also completely tedious.

As for you Massive...how very dare you!

Speaking of dare, I told my dad a bit about Gisborne's Revenge this afternoon - he laughed his head off!!!

Right - I have laminated Bele the Birthday Fairy and her wands and cut them out, laminated and cut out all her magic objects for the Treasure Hunt.

Now it's time to play guess how many sweeties make it into the party bags!

Eh? I think you've got your speed-dial wires crossed, Massive. Surely that's what interests you? This, I thought, was Spiro's particular field of interest.

You know me Maud - I'm not fussy.

Oh I missed Maud's Richard III post - was it fabulous? Very of you. Lord D really is not into 'theatre' so we don't go ever much.

My sewing was nothing as interesting as a new frock for me. I have been sewing LordD's pantaloons back together as he helpfully caught the pocket on the armrest of the train seat on Friday and ripped the side seam open. I was also sewing new buttons onto some school cardigans which my neighbour gave me earlier for MistressD, and name tags obviously. Then MasterD2 decided he wanted to wear shorts rather than trousers but nowhere stocks shorts any more so I had to buy trousers, chop off the legs and hem them. And my sewing machine is broken so I had to do it all by hand.

Spiro, I was made to give up History at 14 too. My school wouldn't let me do 2 humanties GCSEs and only 1 science so I had to drop History and do Chemistry instead - which I promptly failed . But I'm trying to make up for it now. My favourite period is from Eleanor of Aquitaine/Henry II up to Elizabeth I. I love all the scheming and interfamilial wars.

I was thinking a two-headed jumper would be just the thing for a tete-a-tete with Harry Kennedy.

Definitely Spiro .

I was speaking wholly in a historical context, you see, Maud. Not in an agricultural, miltary or security one, fr the moment

Same at mine Lady D - couldn't do history and geography although to be fair probably wouldn't have wanted to at the time anyway.

Thankfully I only had to do single science!