To wonder why MNHQ still haven't given us our Chalet School topic?

[TheObligatoryNotQuiteSoNewGirl]

Because we probably shouldn't still be hanging out in AIBU, four (or is it five?) threads later.

I've been reading all the lovely transcripts, and although I started Prefects yesterday, I don't want to finish it, because it's the last one! :-(

By the way I was reading Problem last night and Miss Annersley announces to the whole school that Simone has had a baby boy and even though only some of the sixth formers vaguely remember her as a teacher from their kindergarten days, the whole school cheers because they know she is Mrs Maynard's friend.

And then Simone rings Bill and asks if the entire school can have an extra day off for mid term to celebrate her son's arrival and the school agrees and makes the parents do all kinds of rearranging of plans and hotel bookings to accommodate this extra day.

Jeeze, even Madame didn't make requests like that, let alone some past pupil who hadn't been pupil or teacher for about 15 years. Beyond Daft.

And then Joey gets all critical because she has had another boy and not a girl for Tessa (?) to play with

BUt yes, rescheduling all their plans is ridiculous.

Have just started reading Ruey - Matron says this is the first time she's allowed any of the triplets to share a dormitory. She warns them not to play any pranks or else they'll be separated again. She has put Len and Con in one dormy and Margot and Ruey in another. Now, Margot, maybe, but when have Len The Responsible and Con The Dreamer ever, but ever, played a single prank in their entire school career?

No, wait, I tell a lie. It's Len and Ruey in one dorm; Con and Margot in the other. Still, my main point stands.

On the ever-fascinating subject of characters' ages: Matey. Our beloved Matron Lloyd-or-possibly-Gould, first name Gwynneth. How old is Matey in the Tirol years? She's just been described in Ruey as 'in the early fifties'. She makes her first appearance in, I think, Head Girl, which must be the best part of 20 years earlier. Does it ever say in those early books how old she is? Can she really be only 30-odd at the beginning? She is never described as young and always seems decades older than Bill/Charlie etc. Have just flicked through Highland Twins by way of comparison and discovered that Matey is 'a good 20 years or more older than the young mistress (Miss Edwards)'. When did Miss Edwards come to the School? Tirol as well, wasn't it? So assuming she was in her very early 20s when she started at the School (anyone know which book that was? I'm pretty sure she's in Rivals at least - doesn't she take over the babies from Miss Durrant?), she must be late 20s or so by Highland Twins. That makes Matey late forties or early fifties even then! Yet somehow, she has aged scarcely at all by Ruey.

Which, knowing how EBD does aging, Cheddar , sounds about right...

I'm not sure anyone is allowed to age beyond their early fifties, apart from Die Grossmutter obviously, and Miss Bubb, but they are never young. Miss Annersley must be pushing sixty by the end of the series, when would she have retired?

I kinda think good on Simone, snatching her adoration where she can. Can't seriously imagine having the brass neck for it, mind.

Actually I would have really liked to have phoned my old school when I had my third and asked them to give a half day in celebration (well if I could have recorded their reaction).

I really don't understand what makes the chalet school so different do I?

Margot had her naughty moments, but Len and Con were incredibly well behaved and deeply uninteresting and it was a bit ridiculous the way EBD tried to make Len the new Mary Lou. Len was the kind of girl you would have liked well enough at school, but whose name you would have struggled to remember at the twenty year reunion. Nice but dull.

And Matey was never, ever in her thirties. She was born 65 and remained 65 and don't dare anyone argue with me

Isn't Miss Annersley 50-odd by the end, not 60? Isn't she 32 when she becomes Head Mistress in A New Chalet School/United CS? So add roughly 20 years (internal chronography based on the triplets' ages, as opposed to internal chronography based on the School being 21 in Coming of Age, which doesn't make sense if Joey is 12 at the beginning and 21 in Exile). I can't remember where I'm getting the specific age of 32 from, mind you. It's a later book but I'm not sure which one. Oh, and Bill is 30 in A United CS, so she's also 50-ish by the end of the series.

On the subject of Matey, which book is it when her sister dies and suddenly you get all this rather lovely section focused on Matey grieving? Of course she gets whipped off to Freudesheim and Joey sings to her, but I think that whole bit is rather sweet.

Herr Laubach and Herr Anserl age...am now thinking about Frau Meiders and Sally Denny, who also seem to start off middle-aged and just stay there forever.

It's like a maths exam.

How old are

a) Matron
b) Madge
c) Joey
d) Robin
e) Rosalie Dene

Please ensure you show your working.

I bet we'd all come up with different answers!

I always picture Miss Annersley as late forties/early fifties - from pre war to digging for victory to the thrifty fifties to dealing with a trendy Joan Baker who liked boys. She was always just this wise, kind but strict midde aged woman.

Is she definitely 32 when she becomes head? There's a confusing bit later on (maybe in Challenge ?) when she says she was Nancy's age; Nancy is definitely late thirties by this point. It is the permanently middle-aged who cannot age.

Rosalie Dene is either two years older or two years younger than Joey. She says so at some point, poss Reunion.

Bill and Madge are fairly reliably twelve years older than Joey.

Robin is a fairy-nun so her age never matters.

Do Frau Mieders or Sally Denny ever retire?

A fairy-nun? Well I can't honestly say that I've been called that before!

You don't want to retire in CS world. A couple of years after retiring you die! That's why they are so keen to keep on working

Rosalie is 2 years older than Joey. She is in the same form as Grizel.

Matey was definitely born 65 Vintage

I think when Robin arrives, she's 6 and Joey is about 14. And is Daisy Venables the same age as Robin?

Just read a bit in the New Mistress where ML says she's frightfully sorry about Clem's parents dying and Sybil says oh well, they hadn't seen them for ages... That's all right then, Sybs.

When did ML's Mum move to Switzerland? Was it when she had her accident?

Daisy is younger than Robin by a year or two. I think in New House Daisy is 9 and Robin is 11 or thereabouts. Joey is 12 nearly 13 when the Robin is 6 (in Jo Of).

I don't know where I'm getting 32 from! I felt v sure but I can't remember which book it was.

I've got a copy of Hilda Annersley: Headmistress which I think has some discussion of her relative age. I will have a look after I've done bedtime etc.

I think Sybil is such a funny character - hard to get a sense of, sometimes. I want to champion her as being a bit hard done by, and certainly I feel sorry for her, but I can't honestly work out whether she's especially likeable, really. I think a lot of the comments/expectations around deaths are a bit odd, though. EBD may be being perfectly of her time, though? I don't know.

I find them strange as well. I mean I'm a grown adult whose father died 2 and a half years ago and I still feel desperately sad and adrift. And then I read about kids who lose both parents and are meant to just take it in their stride.

I have just finished A problem for the Chalet School and, having started my 5 week holiday from work, am going to bask in the war and Welsh years. I have begun reading Exile (which I haven't read since I was a child) and can't believe how superior it is to the Swiss books.

Yy. Robin's dad dying is dealt with so quickly - he's suddenly dead at the beginning of Exile and then I don't think she ever mentions him again. It does say she has periods of crying for him, but it all seems to be over very quickly. He always seems second in her affections, mind, well behind Tante Guito and Oncle Jem. Compare that with EE Nesbit in the Treasure-Seekers stories - the fact the Bastables' mother died some time ago is very central to the plot and characters, even though iirc it's been a few years because 6yo HO doesn't remember her at all.

What is the point of Clem's parents dying? As far as I know it's suddenly mentioned in Trials and never before or after. Is it just to give Mary Lou a cast-iron reason for needing to write a letter this instant? Couldn't EBD just have gone with forgetting her birthday or something a bit less drastic?

YY Cheddar (though I think it's actually the beginning of New) - and, almost worst, is that the Robin's 'bravery' in dealing with it so promptly comes from seeing Bette Rincini cope similarly with being widowed with two young children.

I wonder whether Robin is more adoring of the Russell's by way of gratitude - I don't know if that's too much awareness to impose on a child who is very young when she joins their family, and I don't mean to slight Madge especially who I do imagine treated all of the children she raised as her own.

I wonder if what's being applauded though is a kind of sedate and silent grief, rather than a total pushing it under the carpet - the way Nell and Hilda both speak about losing their parents many years earlier doesn't suggest it's something to really be instantly recovered from.

I was brought up to be instantly obedient and I wasn't allowed to grieve or fret because it affected my health. I was always more grave though unlike Daisy and I lost both my parents at a much younger age.

I adored Madge simply because she replaced my own mother. My father was older and firstly abandoned left me in the tender care of strangers and secondly was not really used to little children. Although I knew he loved me he was a bit old-fashioned and also still grieving for his wife who I reminded him of (although strangely enough Adrienne ended up looking like me and having my mannerisms despite being related by my father).

The Russell-Bettany-Maynard clan did treat me like family though so when I left to pursue life outside CS world I was able to leave my few valuables to the trips.

Most of the parents are killed off puely and simply so they can be adpoted informally by another family, usually Joey, but M-L's mum in Clem's case.

I was always surprised that ML's mum survived so long as M-L was an obvious adoptee for Joey. Maybe by making him mum just so nice and insignificant, she escapes that particualr fate.

I've just pulled my back putting the washing out. I have sent my SLOC an email telling him he needs to provide me an Anna to hang the washing out, look after the dc and do everything esle of any effort, and I need some of Matey's special milk.
His reply?
I'll be home about 6:30.... Jack would never have said that to Joey!

But Joey would have had to take on M-L AND Verity.

DeWee surely your SLOC means he will be home at 6.30, bringing your Anna with him?

Also, why isn't Margot trained to instant obedience? And one of the boys too, I can never remember which is which but I know one's a bad'un.