To ask all Chaletians to get ready for Madame's birthday?

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

Pop to the splasheries my lambs and after you've brushed your hair till it shines we'll have a quick practice of 'I sing of Margaret so fair'.

Once we've finished casting the movie, that is....

[TheObligatoryNotQuiteSoNewGirl]

Okay, here it is: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2131237-To-wonder-why-MNHQ-still-havent-given-us-our-Chalet-School-topic

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

I'm planning a trip to the Tirol. I might at some stage include my OH in this too. Depends. Or DD. She's quite keen. I might marry her off to a doctor yet! She is quite elderly though, being 18 and 3 months.

Nell we must have a midnight English Tea Party then. On the roof. I'll bring the tea. Might pass on the raw bacon though.

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Joey we would get blacklisted - when she accosts the poor new girl and instructs them they can bring a friend with, she'll carefully and breezily explain that we're excluded from this, on account of abusing her tea generosity. :(

Obligatory that is an excellent title my lamb!

I want to be planning a trip to the Tirol now... I think it will have to wait til DS is big enough to be left, though. Can't see what's in it for a toddler, esp if there's no Die Rosen to leave him in.

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

tinuviel that's a future CS girl

Do we need a new thread asap?

[TheObligatoryNotQuiteSoNewGirl]

Do you think we should name the next thread "AIBU to wonder why MNHQ still haven't given us a Chalet School topic?" ?

[Tinuviel]

Yes, New House has the trip to Mayrhofen where they forget the fruit.

[Tinuviel]

Yes, they do so that would be the one with Melanie Lucas - can't remember the name of the book. I'm sure there is another trip while the school is still in Tirol - possibly New House. You realise that I'm going to have to go and check now!!

[JuniperTisane]

I'm sure the Maynards take a trip to the Zillertal in the family bus don't they?

[Tinuviel]

Hope you enjoy your trip to Mayrhofen, Cerita. It's a lovely place and a great trip up to Achensee. Make sure you take a walk round Achensee to Geisalm so you can pass under the Dripping Rock (it had a corrugated iron roof last time I was there so you don't get wet!)

There are 2 trips to Mayrhofen - the first is in Princess but I can't remember the other one. They also hide in the Ziller Valley in Exile.

[JuniperTisane]

Ha! Guernsey Gache is just a type of fruit bread. You spread it with butter .

[LittleBearPad]

I always figured that Gache was so yummy that one slice wouldn't do so you had to 'come again'.

[MsCeritaCello]

In Guernsey (and I think later books, because Anna had learned to make it) they have gache, which is described as a Guernsey cut-and-come-again cake. This has never made sense to me. Does one not cut any cake and come back for more until the cake is gone?

I'm not so desperate for tea that I'd have to trip over to Freudesheim several times a day. I bet Nancy and Kathy had their own supply in any case, so I'd be joining them.

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

Nell You and me both. I chain-drink tea. I would be over at Freudesheim so often that Joey would close up that gate in the fence pdq!

I would be peeking through the window wondering why the lights were on but no-one at home while Joey was hiding behind the sofa thinking "go awayyyyyy, leave me in peace!"

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

They also have croissants at some point (in a cafe), in the one where Miss Bubb turns up again, dying.

There is something they have in Guernsey/Wales, in place of kaffee und kuchen, but I can't think what it is.

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

The little potato balls sound like potato faces to me.

Don't listen to me, though - I always wanted the melted-down-snow hot chocolate.

In actual fact I would be screwed if I went to the Chalet School because I would have to go to Freudesheim to get my fix of "English tea". I do like coffee but tea flows through my very veins.

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

That's probably why in the CS books they had so much 'repetition', ie learning by heart so they could reel off reams of Shakespeare on demand. Not saying that it has a huge educational value but it must work your memory well

I agree. I can recite The Owl And The PussyCat and The Soldier and am word perfect. I have no idea why we had to learn those by heart but there they are in my head forever yet where my keys are or what I actually went upstairs to get, are those questions that I don't know the answer to.

The little potato balls sound nice, maybe I'm being a tad harsh on EBD. This was a thought that I had around 6am so probably still under the influence of too much milk last night.

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

Oh, and hot chocolate made with snow, and abandoned black round loaves of bread helpfully stashed in goatsherds' huts, for avalanches

mmm my tummy is rumbling now, I can't wait!!



Hope they obeyed the old rule, don't eat yellow snow!

[Tinuviel]

Should have 'Joey' at the start of the last post!

[Tinuviel]

Very right about the sort of work. I have a copy of my old maths text book for years 10/11 and I don't even know what it's on about most of the time. It doesn't even look familiar once I get past the cover and the contents page.

I also remember looking at my grandma's Junior Cambridge exam which she took at 15, so 1923. On the English Lit one question was "Write out someone's speech from Act ... Scene ... of the Shakespeare play they had studied. I said, "But what if you didn't know that speech?" and the reply was, "You just learned all the main speeches!"

That's probably why in the CS books they had so much 'repetition', ie learning by heart so they could reel off reams of Shakespeare on demand. Not saying that it has a huge educational value but it must work your memory well.

[Tinuviel]

I love that 'sauerkraut' is described as exotic. It's a very typical ordinary food, certainly in Austria and I definitely wouldn't describe it as exotic. Very tasty and well worth trying, so long as you cook it right!

[RobinHumphries]

They have fondue at least once (admittedly that was a half term trip) In the later books balls of potato, crispy on the outside and meltingly delicious on the inside are mentioned a lot.

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Oh, and hot chocolate made with snow, and abandoned black round loaves of bread helpfully stashed in goatsherds' huts, for avalanches.

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

There's one where they go on a train for a picnic (and someone leaves a basket behind) - that one features quite a good range of fruit iirc: apricots and grapes and something else - some kind of berries or cherries maybe?

Obviously Thekla and her bacon but that's a disapproving tale.

In Oberland they have some kind of cabbage in a white sauce? And soup, which they take exception to being served in bowls.

[JoeyMaynardsghost]

I used to think that was propaganda too Nell but OH who was born in the 50's recently cleared out a cupboard with his old school books in (can you say Hoarder?) and I had a look through the Maths books that he worked from at 11 and I think my brain imploded.

Definitely overworked it so I had to go and lie down on my bed for a while. Matey was very concerned and made me drink more milk. Miss Annersley wanted to put me back down to Kindergarten.

I am worse than terrible at Maths - my O Level Maths I got a U but oddly enough for mental arithmetic I am usually spot on.

This morning I was thinking about CS food. EBD wasn't a foodie, was she? Every "special" meal is cold chicken, salad and ices. Apart from roast veal, what else did they eat? Not counting the bread twists and kaffee und kuchen. Oh and the blankets of whipped cream. Whipped cream wouldn't blanket anyway - it retains its shape once whipped.

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Well-educated children were doing more difficult work sixty years ago though, weren't they? Or am I just buying into some dodgy propaganda to believe this?

Vintage I think distaste for maths just makes you a better EBD heroine.