Thread 18 - TalkLair: "That's no moon. It's a space station!"

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 17)

We've had our heatwave - is this it for the summer? All is lush and green in our LairGarden, flowers are blooming, berries are ripening...

In the TalkLair, all the windows are open, the Pimms is chilled, the MN massive salad is ready to serve. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Gym knickers.

Especially delightful for cross country, which for boys was genuinely cross country but for girls was right through the middle of town. On market day.

Oh yes! Fully kitted out and calling "take your sweaters off girls it's not cold!"

The only exercise I actively enjoyed at secondary school was a sort of interpretive dance thing, for girls only (no idea what the boys did then) where we wore these pale blue Grecian tunics and swanned about the hall to nice music doing graceful turns and arm lifts.

Ha, ha, Britinme, we did that at the all girls school I went to! Well, the older girls did anyway. Every year we'd put on a dancing display on the lawn and proud parents would sit and watch the strange cavorting and scarf waving of their girls. One year I glanced over at where my dad was sitting and he was hunched over, bright red in the face, howling with laughter and trying to stuff his hanky into his mouth, which set off a load of other parents. It was a big relief to leave that school before I had to do any of that stuff.

Oh, the things you manage to forget! We had to do that too, though in gym knickers (or hockey skirts if snow had stopped play). The class was divided between the enthusiastic floaty ones, who wafted, and the sarcastic Rolling Stones fans who rolled our eyes and - er - didn't. I thought I had wiped our Mick Jagger-esque rendition of The Fossils from Carnival of the Animals from my mind! I suspect Saint-Saëns might have appreciated it, though.

I can just picture it 🤣

I remember only one session of interpretive dance at my school. We had a temporary games teacher, who introduced the session then put on the Je t’aime (moi non plus) music. No words, no moaning that got, but we all knew the music. It was weird.

MiniPSB is totally unsporty like me, and unlike his good at cricket & football father. But at one school they had some high wires, so he got into climbing and his secondary school had a small climbing wall so he used that. He still goes to climbing walls with friends. He also loves walking so gets quite a lot of exercise that way.

Oh goodness, the dancing talk has reminded me that regular PE lessons were suspended during Ramadan, and the non-Muslim girls were instead subjected to "interesting" alternative exercise options. We did gymrama, which seemed to involve twirling ribbons and bouncing balls in a rhythmic style to the accompaniment of music. One year, we did ballroom dancing in the school hall - put into pairs, taking turns at being the 'male' lead, while the PE teacher barked "ONE-two-three..." over a tinny recording of the Blue Danube. I think that year we learned the waltz and the foxtrot

If only you were more famous (or perhaps infamous), you could probably win Strictly on the back of that!

My only ballroom skill is the waltz, which I was taught at an army party in the early 70s by Major Andrew Parker Bowles, who was squiring Princess Anne around Cyprus. In those days he was very slim, blond and handsome and utterly charming ... and also quite a competent dance instructor.

That's definitely a step or three up from me learning the Viennese waltz from our local Catholic priest, who was simultaneously asking me about my A-levels - to the accompaniment of a visiting German oompah band.

I went to a co-ed school so we had ballroom dancing lessons (very occasionally) with actual boys in our year. I still remember one boy fondly who had had actual lessons out of school and knew what he was doing and knew how to lead. Oh Peter, I wonder what happened to you! I hope you’re still waltzing somebody around a ballroom somewhere.

We had dancing lessons too and I loved all the skipping about with the polka. The waltz was a bit more sedate, but we also did American square dancing and that was fun.

Sorry to bring it down, but daughter's friend died late on Friday night. He'd been improving and was off the critical list, but he just went and couldn't be resuscitated. Just awful.

Oh that's so sad, Sinner. His poor parents!

How awful, Sinner. How's your daughter doing?

That's just awful, Sinner. Poor lad, and his parents.

That is so horribly sad @SinnerBoy That poor boy and his family I hope your daughter is OK, what a thing to have to process at her age.

Yes, my daughter is handling it quite well. She was quite and rather down yesterday. She said she wants to go to his memorial, but not his funeral.

Poor lad has a sister of 14, too. I can't imagine what they're going through.

Awful thing to lose a child so young. Hug your DD @SinnerBoy

Oh that’s awful, @SinnerBoy , so very sad and so much for his family and friends to come to terms with.

@SinnerBoy Yes, my daughter is handling it quite well. She was quite and rather down yesterday. She said she wants to go to his memorial, but not his funeral.

Sensible, considerate girl you and MrsS have raised there, Sinner. That shows a great deal of maturity.

That’s so sad, Sinner. His poor family, and the school.

It’s rare that a child that age dies, thank goodness but it’s so shocking when it does happen.

As distraction, I offer a truly boggleworthy house: www.mumsnet.com/talk/home_decoration_pictures/5434816-oh-my-days

Trees are at peak around here - it hasn't been as spectacularly lovely an autumn as I have known, but there are some individual trees that are lovely. I saw one today.

Even the Sycamores down the road look lovely here this year. Usually they go a dull beige but this morning as I walked to the station they were lovely yellow. It almost made up for the train being late, which meant I meant I missed my connection…

I was enjoying that house earlier, @NoBinturongsHereMate. I assume the current occupiers must go in and out via the back door.