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! :-(

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I find "being trained to obedience" and "not being a jellyfish" are quite at odds with each other (unless my brain has had too much sun!)

How can you be virtually trained to say "how high?" when someone says "jump" yet be a strong, capable decision maker ? Surely independent thought would go further to develop a girl's strength of character than blind obedience "I'm busy right now, you jump!"?

Which in my mind also goes against being trained to argue from cause to effect and back again.

As a parent, I often found my DD questioning why things were done instead of just doing [she is such a procrastinator!] so while she does what she's asked, she always like to know the reason why.

I have now confused myself nicely.

Thanks for the link, Nell

Just finished Highland Twins and really enjoyed it. One thing I didn't like was the way the 'robber' turned up to identify the girl who had been a traitor and I was totally confused and then, after he had identified Betty Wynn Davies, we were given a flashback to what she had done and all became clear. I felt that wasn't really treating the reader fairly.

I would also have liked some clarification that Fiona was right in her vision of Jack still being alive rather than him turning up for the nativity play and then a reference to 'when I got your cable saying you were safe' in an almost throwaway line. Why was that cable not a dramatic point in the story??

But a great story otherwise.

NellWilson's You seem to be doing alright now!

I don't like fan clubs at all and don't join in either. That was before I joined this club and discovered the library. Once a month, for the last however long it's been, two hardback CS books arrives. In order. Like Lovefilm only so much better.

Hah! Wasn't it Highland Twins that had the X rated episode when all the sentient young had to be removed from the house for Jack and Joey's (no doubt noisy) reunion?

Always used to make me laugh (through my happy tears. )

Such a bizarre detail for her to include.

thicket... I don't mean to be rude but go away or I will report your posts.

Threads are not the place for advertising.

Anyone would think you didn't have complete faith in Fiona's second sight, Vintage!

Am I remembering right that Betty, like Thekla, is gratefully reformed by her expulsion?

Joey that's exactly what I was thinking, they're incompatible goals, and really the one EBD is consistently championing is Not Being A Jellyfish. Whilst repeating the same admiring line about children trained to instant obedience. I think Not Being A Jellyfish especially comes into its own in the war years - the formation of the Peace League, Robin running out to Herr Goldman, the slightly mad bit where Emmie Linders' brother drops a friendly message instead of a bomb - none of these things are at all obedient!

Zero no! Really? That's nearly as gratuitous as the exiguous swimming trunks!

I think that was my finest hour.....poor Herr Goldman. Len on the other hand was a spineless jellyfish - look at how traumatised she was after being accused of shop lifting.

Aw, poor Len. I feel sorry for her, she's fairly harmless and always well-intentioned. It's true she'd never have been able to just rush out to try to help Herr Goldman, though. Nor revive anyone with her singing, I bet.

Nor drench innocent passers-by from the window.

Joey told Daisy and Robin that they would have to go to bed in an hour as she wanted 'some time alone with Jack'.

But she just meant standing in his arms gazing out at the sunset didn't she??

Surely I haven't misremembered the hordes of homeless young being shoved out of the door with a hastily packed spongebag and directions to the next house along the road?

I would hope the sun had the grace to cover his eyes...

Of course she did Vintage. What else could she possibly have meant?

Ok drenching poor Eigen was NOT my finest hour although I'm not sure why I had a basin of water in the first place? I mean did I have an old fashioned wash stand with jug and bowl of water? but then why couldn't I simply use the bathroom like a normal person?

Oh I remember the fan club wars. I got chapter and verse from one of the protagonists who I ran into in the mid-1990s when it all kicked off.

Unfortunately the details of who said what when and why it was all so awful were so spectacularly boring that I have long forgotten them.

I hope Miss Stewart isn't around - she doesn't approve of Americanisms like ok

Robin of course you couldn't use the bathroom. You were the Robin! So you were petted and tucked up into bed right up until you had enough and told everyone you were going to be a nun.

while living with someone and having the time of your life partying and living it up

No wonder you never came back into the books!

Poor, poor Eigen.

Vintage you missed out the bit where she murmur to him what a solid lump he is. Zero my lamb I think you must have confused Highland Twins with some low-brow book Joan Baker was showing around.

Miss Stewart is so completely unreasonable but nonetheless gets to be pretty and popular - I like this. It wouldn't have been allowed in the Swiss books. Btw why doesn't Miss Stewart talk in that weird lisssp like Flora and Fiona?

In Rivals Jo's face is described as "high-bred" - wtf does that mean? For context, it is in the same sentence as Maynie looking like a "jolly, frank Englishwoman" and Simone being "typically French".

Len does drench innocent passers by- or is involved in fighting off the 'robbers' in Joey & Co in Tirol somehow at least. I can't remember who does what

Isn't the jellyfish thing about how you cope with adversity? You don't break down, rather than what you do and using initiative. Fine distinction I admit!

I looked it up thanks to the transcripts...Len is first out with a bucket and second to throw it over the poor hikers they think are bank robbers after Margot (of course!).

Nell - I think it's because Charlie comes from the civilised part of Scotland rather than the outer isles where they never see anyone from England ever... and still speak Gaelic (I think Clem mentions this when she arrives in Three Go?)

It's on a par with the funny turns of speech that some of the French and German girls have when speaking English.

Oh, fair enough. And not forgetting Biddy's Oirish, either.

Eating, isn't initiative likely to be a v hard thing to learn once "trained to instant obedience", though? Granted, there are times when it is Appropriate to be un-jellyfish-like, and times when it is Appropriate that a woman's voice is ever sweet, gentle and low, but instant obedience can't teach anyone to differentiate. Mind you, EBD keeps protesting that Robin is one of these continental obedient sorts and that's plainly rubbish - as well as her finest hour and Eigen's shower, I've also just snorted at this bit-
"Cornelia says," began Amy, "that they are a set of pie-faced owls."
Robin nodded her head. "That is true. Me, I will tell them so when I meet them."

I'm fairly sure I've not read Joey and Co. Should I? Quick précis of why bank robbers are chasing Margot? Or why bank robbers would be so ill-prepared that a bucket of cold water will see them off?

but but Nell in my defense I thought that was a compliment! You must remember French was my mother tongue (for the 100th time why? My mum was Polish and my dad English!) so English was not my first language and I thought a pie-faced owl meant that they looked very intelligent.

ZeroSomeGameThingy You were terribly, needlessly rude and I doubt that mumsnet would see a problem with my post, were you to report it, given that I wasn't 'advertising'. I was sharing something that I thought everyone would be glad to know, with the best of intentions. I'm not affiliated to any fan club other than being a member of one. I'm also a longstanding lover of CS books and thought I would be welcomed into the thread. Instead, you chose to tell me to go away - not even a pleasant explanation about why you had a problem with my post. The problem could have easily resolved. I haven't been told to 'butt out' so rudely since I was an unpopular schoolchild. Somehow, the tone of your introduction to this thread has put me right off coming back. There's nothing about the spirit of the CS in the way you treat newcomers, anyway! I will return to my solitary reading!

Nell you must read Joey&Co.! It's the first book with the Richardsons in it, there's some classic getting lost on a mountainside, artery-severing, paper games (I introduced Book Reviews to my brothers and they played nothing else for three days), appendicitis, Daisy bashing, and of course the bank robbers who weren't bank robbers.