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! :-(

Nell isn't your 2yo trained to instant obedience and knowing that they come second to all "mamma's" needs, especially not to disturb her sleep yet?

Reading Bride comes and I have to say I think her reaction to finding her study vandalised quite OTT. I mean she goes red, white, nearly faints, can't talk, and then cries herself into hysterics and is put to bed. And she's meant to be fairly unemotional!
I can understand her being angry, but that seems a little overkill for an 18yo.

It also isn't totally clear that it is malicious aginst her as a person which is what it's immediately assumed to be (and of course is). I'm sure there were several of the naughty middle/juniors who held grudges to the prefects.

I think today is the sort of weather the Chalet School liked to take long walks into the mountains.
Most of the time it's looking beautiful, full blue skies and quite hot. Every now and then it suddenly completely clouds over and we get a very heavy thundery shower.
Of course their thundery showers were usually overnight so they could have the fun of an overnight stay in a random barn in the middle of nowhere that they'd thoughtfully left some food just in case the Chalet girls should need it, but it would explain why they so often got caught out.

I never go out without a packet of chocolate in my knapsack, just in case.

Yes, I have to admit that I have been tempted to go a climb a random mountain in the torrential rain. It's incredibly warm in between downpours, too! I would like to remove my blazer but I know it won't be allowed. And chocolate is mandatory wherever I go.

Even if its just to the shops. :)

Dd asked if this was the sort of weather the chalet school had in Austria.

Ooooh, I am excited! Just started packing the flat up (we are moving next weekend) and found a box of books, containing several CS books I'd forgotten I had! I have never done a proper list of all the books I have/have read, but it turns out I DO have a copy of Bride, Barbara, Ruey, Future and Redheads. Plus my GGBP version of Exile, which I couldn't remember where I'd put (I have the Armada one, but it's not the same).

And now I have to put them all in another box until I can unpack them all at the new flat

DeWee sadly not, though on the plus side he's definitely no spineless jellyfish.

I always think it's particularly cheeky that the staff tend to combine seizing collecting chocolate for communal snow-hot-chocolate with tutting at the greed of the most notable contributors. (I am thinking particularly of the coach in New/United but I am fairly confident this is not the only such occasion.)

I've not read Bride Leads yet, but I do think nearly fainting with the outrage and upset of finding her room wrecked is far, far more reasonable than properly fainting at the passion play, or because you've seen someone sleep-walking...

I have been skimming Excitements. It has a Reunion-esque moment where Miss Annersley advises Frau Mieders not to eat too many of Joey's buttery cakes because she is fat already and also this gem from Joey herself: "Well, here we are, five foundation stones of the school! Of course I'm included! You four may have been staff, but I was just as important. Have you forgotten that I was the very first pupil of the school?..."
As if anyone ever gets the chance to forget it.

I have realised that my DM is the same age as OOAOML. Strangely this helps me understand my DM.a bit better - she often comes across as a bit rude or careless of people's feelings for example, but when I read Chalet girls talking to each other in the "you must be dotty" or "don't talk such rot, you goat", it seems like a cultural context.

Come to think of it, my DM went to boarding school in Wales as a day girl, and later went on walking holidays in the Alps a lot. Hmmm...

Is she a champion butter-in, Elisaveta ?

I certainly thought so as a teenager, SockQueen!

Can she clarion, Elisaveta?

I had FOMO and read Bride. I didn't like it very much - it reminded me that the decline does definitely begin with the island books. But it does score a very full CS bingo card - almost all the legendary lines are in there: spineless jellyfish, justice tempered with mercy, it's-not-cheek-it's-just-Mary-Lou, the ridiculously shocked reaction of the most obvious candidate being chosen as Head Girl (although I do think having Miss A turn up to your house to tell you this does deserve to be met with shock), delighted laughter at Jo's eternal schoolgirl nature. It was really only missing the line about never yet needing glasses.

It also has Pam Slater as very much part of the staff team and not this not-fitting-in outsider she's suddenly retconned into when she declines to move to Switzerland, which reassured me as it was what I vaguely remembered. She actually reminded me a lot of Nell Wilson in the earliest books - a big voice in the staff room.

I wanted to like it, as Bride is one of the nicest characters of her generation I think. The Bettany children could potentially be really interesting in terms of how they feel about the various childhood separations, but presumably EBD couldn't criticise the Bettanys in the way she did the Carricks or the Cochranes.

nell my lamb did you dare to ignore the first weeks of your child' life. It's never too early to train a baby my dear ask Mrs Maynard.

My boys have been taught to wait on me and in the holidays I am a spoilt woman! Ha bloody ha.

I went red and then white and fainted for 2 hours after I saw the state of dds room
this morning.

Elizaveta if she told you to mop up beware she could be Joey in disguise.

I did the same when I surveyed the state of the kitchen just now after DS1 has left for the day.

I'm reading Shocks now. Its not the best is it?

For the earphones debaters:
www.photodetective.co.uk/Earphones.html

Her tones are certainly bell-like on occasion!

I like Bride, she has normal coloured hair, wears glasses and tries really hard with the irritating Lavender. I get all defensive on her behalf when Jo makes her super insensitive remark about her looks in Bride Leads.

Thank you for the link, Alice. It's just a bit of a batty look, isn't it? The plaits round the head look which Con says she's going to go for is better - like that Chelsea girl from Celeb Masterchef.

The fifth picture on that page is Jo, right?

I also feel defensive of very-normal-looking (and remarkably well-adjusted!) Bride, too. I also feel defensive of exceptionally beautiful Sybil, in a similar way. Women: can't do right for doing wrong, even when they're not actually doing anything. Hmph.

My mother does that red-then-white-then-nearly-faints thing pretty much every time she visits my flat. Unfortunately she never gets as far as the "can't talk" stage.

thebody it's true, I am just feckless, like poor Lydia Maynard or Prince Balbini or Emerence Hope's parents. Alas. Maybe I should just ship DS off to his aunt's and swan off to the outer reaches of the empire instead...

Sounds tempting Nell. Would your aunt like another two DCs from me? They would call her brevet while I go and investigate space travel.

Can't see why not, Elisaveta. Afte all, does anyone ever decline new brevet nieces or nephews? (Is brevet aunt an actual thing, btw, or just a CS thing?)

I just googled it and it's a sort of honorary military rank. It sounds to me like one of those words that only exists in EBD world, like 'trig', 'revers' or 'sonsy'.

I had to google "trig and trim" collectively to get an explanation which didn't assume I meant trigonometry. I wonder if Dylan Thomas had knowingly borrowed it from EBD?

It's one of the great things about reading the books on a kindle, you can look up all those random words. I think Ferry always looks very trig

I came across "ukase" last night, a Russian order.

She is quite obsessed with giving girls boy's names isn't she? I don't know whether this was a desire to be one of the boys as men have a better place in the world, or some butch lesbian subtext? I do remember as a child being into those kind of names, thanks to EBD and George in the famous five, but have ended up giving DDs very girly names. I have not met EBDs standards.

Gruss gott, lieblings. I'm safely back from two weeks of trying not to kill each other mother/daughter bonding with DD1 in Mayrhofen. Highlights included: getting caught in a storm on the Penken mountain and having to take refuge in a hut (sadly not of the peasant variety, not a zither to be seen, and DD let the side down by not having any slabs of choc in her pocket); seeing the church in the Mariahilfe district of Innsbruck where Bernhilda got married; reading about the trip to Mayrhofen in Princess whilst on a cable car overlooking the town, and embarrassing DD by saying 'Gruss gott' to everyone I met. And of course, drinking hot chocolate with featherbeds of whipped cream. I was genuinely rather taken with Innsbruck - I think I would have loved it even without the EBD connection, but going round it looking for places mentioned in the books made it extra special. Sadly I didn't get to the Achensee (Tiern See) as the day we planned to go it was pouring with rain and neither DD1 nor I felt like a lakeside trip that day - nor did I want my first glimpse of Austria's loveliest lake (it must be, EBD says so) to be on a dull, rainy day. It will have to wait for the return trip!

I studiously ploughed my way through the early books while I was away. I got from School at the Chalet to halfway through Rivals, including a filler on Deira's first term. It was fun, but whisper it softly, I could do with reading something a bit more substantial now! Does saying such a thing get me expelled from the thread as a sad disappointment to everyone?

I've been away for a few days so only just got to read that link now Nell. It's brilliant and really cheered me up as I struggled with coming back to earth after spending a few days in a part of Ireland I really really love.

I agree Bride Leads the Chalet School is a bit flat, particularly given what a strong and realistic character she is. Definitely a sign that the Chalet School series is on the wane at that point. I could understand 'Peggy' being quite weak as she's such an insipid character to begin with, but I think EBD could have made Bride a much more interesting and inspiring head girl.

And yes, her reaction to her study being thrashed was OTT.

Cerita you actually took refuge in a hut hope you at least managed to heat some snow.

Agree that Bride is disappointing. It's strange how EBD's favourites - Joey, Len and Jack - are so far away from her readers favourites.

I'm am in the serious decline of the Swiss books now. I have just finished Challenge where it seems like she lost the idea of the story line. At the start there are hints that Evelyn is going to have a run-in with Jane, then it all peters out to a story about Jocelyn.