Thread 14: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The Observer's original exposé: The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

The 13 Observer items currently available on their online 'The real Salt Path' page: The real Salt Path | The Observer

3 more from The Observer:

‘Hope is extinguished’: CBD patients respond to Salt Path...

The real Salt Path | The Observer (The Slow Newscast)

‘We thought: it can’t be the Salt Path couple – they’d ha...

Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement: Raynor Winn

Thread One ^www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?^

Threads 2-11: Links all in the OP of Thread 12

Thread 12: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5384574-thread-12-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 13: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5386458-thread-13-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse welcome. It would be helpful to read at least some of the Observer items above before posting. There are currently 16 interesting items on The Observer website and linked to above.

To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Please do not engage with visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. We have done amazingly well together for thirteen very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

Are we all becoming Hyperglycaemic from all the fudge?
Have shares in Cadbury's gone up?
Can we remain cheerful in the face of such shameless glumwashing?
Will I need to fill up with much petrol this thread for the drive-by scoldings?
Will our Chloe H get exclusive interviews with the disgruntled peregrine, tortoise and Hollywood rabbits?
What has our Simon A got to say about this, preferably in verse?

Keep to the path. No saltiness. May the fudge be with you.

I left school in 1978, after 6th form, and I'm trying to think what options were on offer to those who were less academic or less inclined to stay on for 6th form - A levels were the only qualification on offer in 6th form in my school and I don't think that was unusual.

And I can't think what people did! Largely, I suppose, because my friendship group did stay on at school. But those that left school at 16 usually got a job of some description.

Some of the girls went to do some sort of nursery nurse qualification; hairdressing was another option. Really I can't think what college courses were on offer for girls; boys definitely had a much wider choice of apprenticeships. Maybe "office skills"? Though I know that was taught at my school to those who weren't going to do A levels.

I'm sure I'm not the only person of my vintage here - does anyone else know what a girl might do at post-16 college in the late 1970s, if not A levels? I'm now interested just because I'm trying to remember - I neither know nor care what SW might have done!

As a very,very old pharmacologist, I am very interested in the mention of Pregabalin.
Gabapentin and Pregabalin are most often used for neuropathic pain {often experienced with diabetes).
TW's pain is where?
As with all drugs, there is a knock on effect, and these drugs can block the release of dopamine,

I’m being a pedant but GCSEs weren’t a thing in the 70s or most of the 80s. We did O levels or CSEs. Just had to get it out there, sorry!

Evening all, blimey, i spend a weekend away and have about a thousand posts and more from Chloe H to read. I have slogged my way here like a Raymoth on the SWCP…….but no fudge. Or noodles. Thanks again to everyone for your various contributions, and for the laugh out loud moments like Sally Forth. And name changes to @indignantfrother and the coinage of glumwashing. Apologies too @PullTheBricksDown for misattributing your intro of the drive by scolding phrase. Mistakes were made etc etc.

nice to see the name of the journalist quizzing the Minack actors on Fbk. Chapeau, sir.

I’m now more convinced than ever that most of the story is Embellished Bollox, and some quite frankly Just Bollox. I agree with the theory that the events of 2015 were retrofitted to 2013 and a lot of googling was transformed into encounters. And why it matters? Others have said it more eloquently than me, but the emotional hook of the story is the homelessness and terminal diagnosis and curing illness. Take those away and you’ve got a story of petty grifting and grumbling around the South West. And I just cannot get past them sitting having Christmas dinner with the Hemmings, knowing they’d stolen all that money.

Far fewer people did A levels back then. You were more likely to do something job related at college as part of a day release train on the job scheme or apprenticeship. YTS anyone?

i should also state that endophins (my area) leads to a release of dopamine.

@indignantfrother

TOPS courses were available then and that included book-keeping. Other clerical and secretarial skills too.

Wasn't sure whether to admit this or not but I used to belong to a knitting club and one of those books was purchased. We didn't knit any of the patterns though.

I’m the same vintage. Most pupils at my comp left at 16, very few of us did A Levels. And 1979 when I turned 16 it was definitely O levels still not GCSE. Girls who left at 16 often seemed to go on to secretarial courses at a technical college. I remember a couple doing hairdressing, some went straight into other jobs like retail.

0 levels in just English, History and Art and a CSE in maths would definitely not be the standard for going on to do A levels in most places

GCEs poss & PP’s typo.

I have just dug out my naked rambler photos ready to add as a distraction when we get a drive by scolder. I have been saving them since June 2013 (before Tim and Sally had even set foot on the SWCP) when my friend and I stumbled on him sitting in a field having his lunch.

c’mon interlopers - I am ready for you!

No GCSE then - it was GCE (O levels) and CSE.

We didn't knit any of the patterns though.

A likely story.

YTS was a bit later, I think - early 80s.

Observer exposè coming up.

Would they do both secretarial skills and plastering day release at a technical college? As SalRay’s jobs were in the administrative area it’s likely that that’s what she did and we know Mothtim was a plasterer…

OT but I have name changed (my first one) and on other threads my new name is showing up but on this one I am still AlertCat. Any Name Change Correspondents know why?

Here’s a photo of Moth we haven’t shared before. Found in a German article from 2022 but I am not sure where he is in the photo. Somewhere on the Cape Wrath Trail?
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/medien/ueberland-raynor-winn-reisebuch-1.5706489

I believe you can only post using one username on a thread so your name change will only take effect from thread 15.

Did you post as AlertCat when you first posted on this thread? If so, that’ll be why your name hasn’t changed to your new name. Otherwise, I’m not sure - sorry!

Eew - wouldn’t have chosen that shirt with these shorts

Thanks Choux and Fandango! Dual identity, I could become a double Mumsnet agent 🕵️‍♀️ 🥸

Ha!

Thanks to @TonstantWeader for new thread coinage/band names:

Just Bollox
Embellished Bollox

Thanks to @CarrySlipStitchOver and @TonstantWeader for the new title and nom de plume for Book 4 to replace On Winter Hill:

Petty Grifting and Grumbling around The North by Sally Forth

Why would MothTim go to college when his whole family are in the business? Surely he'd just learn on the job in those days. Perhaps he was actually doing repairs at the college. 😁