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Autumn Term at the Chalet School

999 replies

Vintagejazz · 25/09/2014 11:19

Just starting a new thread here as I can't spot a new one.

So my lambs feel free to keep spreading the hanes, but watch the slang!

OP posts:
NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 08/10/2014 16:23

Yep - and I can picture everyone else around her gasping with mirth and going "only Joey! What will she think of next?", too.

And she'd insist that your gifted goat in Bangladesh was named Malvina, or something.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 08/10/2014 16:25

I had a bit of spare time and made you all a Chalet School drinking game for the summerhouse.

Name-related EBDisms
1 shot if a character's name changes from one book to the next. Bonus shot if it reverts back to the original later on.
2 shots if a character's name changes within the same book.

Age-related EBDisms
1 shot per year lost or gained
2 shots per year lost or gained within the same book (actual birthdays excepted)
Finish the glass if it is Peggy Burnett, who remains in the Second Form for approx twenty years

Sedatives
1 shot if given by a doctor
2 shots if given by Matey
3 shots if given by someone else (may be a kidnapper, may be Hilary Graves)
Bonus shot if the sedative is only required because someone fell into a box

Cameo appearance by a doctor
1 shot if he immediately marries someone
2 shots if he is someone's father
Finish the glass if neither of these and s/he is simply a doctor doing their job

Pregnancy
1 shot for knitwear-related hints: wearing a shawl or knitting a vest
2 shots for hints regarding incapacitated status: woman is not to be troubled just now, is not fit to take long walks etc
3 shots for the word "busy"
4 shots for "the family's having an extension"

Births
1 shot if one baby (pity the mother)
2 shots if twins
If it is triplets, drink the bottle and promptly fall asleep. You will never hear the end of this one.
Bonus shot if a difficult labour is hinted at.
Bonus shot if baby named after Madge.
Two bonus shots if baby named after Jo. Add another if the baby named after Jo is born to someone nobody can remember.

Hair
1 shot each time a Senior signifies her adulthood by putting her hair up. (Add another if said hair is put up 'in a coronal of plaits'.)
1 shot for each and every mention of chestnut hair. (Add another if combined with violet eyes.)
2 shots for hair hacked off in a fit of passion
2 shots for Miss Annersley 'playing hairdresser'
2 shots if a sensation is created by - gasp! - switching from two plaits to one
3 shots if disaster dramatically improves someone's appearance

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 08/10/2014 16:26

1 shot for each of the following
-Sheets turned sides to middle
-Night spent in goatherd hut
-Tears in Miss Annersley's study
-Everybody adores Madame
-Matey changes her name again
-Cooking mishap
-Former bad girl becomes well-regarded Head Girl
-Detailed description of dormitory curtains
-Anyone remarked upon as fat, enormous, skinnigalee etc
-Mlle Lechenais' nectar-like coffee
-Painful-on-the-eyes Gaelic or toddler-speak
-Mistress described as a poppet
-Unconvincing explanation as to why Joey is special
-Unconvincing explanation as to why Mary-Lou is special

2 shots for each of the following
-Jo is Matey's heart's darling (wild horses wouldn't drag it from her)
-Eyes which have never yet needed glasses
-Jo will be a Chalet girl even when she's a great-great-grandmother
-It's not cheek, it's just Mary-Lou
-Lime green anything
-Winnie Embury is a house-end
-We want strong helpful women not spineless jellyfish
-Justice tempered with mercy
-Peggy Bettany is the star of the pantomime. Again.

EmilyAlice · 08/10/2014 17:52

Oh dear. Joey Goes to the Oberland.
OH and I have just spent the whole of dinner discussing the logistics of driving from Wales via Windsor for lunch, Folkestone and the boat train by late afternoon, train to Paris and a drive to Simone's chateau near Provins for a late supper. We don't think it could be done. Never mind five adults and eight children in two cars and then three adults and eight children in André's big Citroën.
Am I overthinking this?
Hmm

DeWee · 08/10/2014 18:50

Wat a fun gammmmmmmeeeeeee Nell canttt wat to plays it agane when this head ache hash gon... Grin Grin Grin

morningtoncrescent62 · 08/10/2014 19:15

Would you like me to serenade you with my saxophone, DeWee?

GoogleyEyes · 08/10/2014 19:49

EmilyAlice

I was wondering that, too. And why they seemed to fasten the twins into wicker car seats with long reins, but then remove the car seats for nap time.

Oh, and I've never read Jo to the Rescue, and now I'm desperate... I love the holiday books.

EmilyAlice · 08/10/2014 20:05

I was quite surprised by the car seats. We got one for our firstborn in 1972 (after the carrycot rolled off the back seat) and my MiL thought it was a ridiculous and unecessary new invention. The Ford Anglia had to go to the garage to have holes drilled all over it for mounting points.
I like the holiday books too. Refreshing absence of plays / sales / fayres etc
BTW I have actually turned sheets side to middle. How many shots is that worth?

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 08/10/2014 20:11

For that, finish your own bottle and finish everyone else's too. Pass go, collect 200. Make it 400 if Matey was supervising you.

hels71 · 08/10/2014 20:12

I am teaching myself to play the sax. The noise is quite impressive.....Those pinewoods must have been a long way from anyone else for them to keep it a secret!!!

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 08/10/2014 20:15

Pinewoods, cars, homes: all expand and contract at will depending upon the needs of the plot!

DeWee · 08/10/2014 21:08

I want a house like Joey's that expands to fit number of children and random people that want to come and live with me-although on the living with me, they'll need to be separate apartments to keep my sanity.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 08/10/2014 21:43

Freudesheim expands to whole new wings for visitors, I think - doesn't this happen for Stacie, and possibly also Grizel?

Lurknomoreladies · 08/10/2014 23:10

I suspect Freudesheim is actually built using the same technology as the Tardis. As in fact is the house Jo and co go to stay in in Jo To The Rescue. They fit about 600 many children in it with ease.

Has anyone ever considered the possibility that one of the doctors is in fact THE Doctor?

hels71 · 09/10/2014 06:49

Now that could make a very interesting story!

EmilyAlice · 09/10/2014 06:49

Talking of expanding cars, which is the book where they get the lime green campervan and go off to the Tyrol? It is driving me mad trying to find it.
Quite true about expanding Freudesheim. I have just been reading the bit where Joey sees it for the first time and it doesn't sound that big? A dining room, choice of two sitting-rooms and the kitchen quarters with a nifty ladder for Anna to get up to her bedroom.

JuniperTisane · 09/10/2014 07:30

Thats the one with Melanie Lucas isn't it? Future CS Girl.

Its probably been mentioned before but there's a bit in Exile (I think) about Marie coming back from America to Guernsey and only needing a little house for her family - something like 6 bedrooms and 2 attics are enough as long as its got a garden? (Can't remember the exact details).

I guess a 2-up, 2-down terrace isn't on the radar then.

EmilyAlice · 09/10/2014 08:02

Oh thank you, of course it is.
I think it is six bedrooms and three reception rooms; quite modest really.
The other thing that puzzles me is why Elizaveta has to go charring when she gets to England to get enough money to go to Joey. Couldn't she just send a postcard?

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 09/10/2014 09:09

Can you imagine? She'd reply, 'airily', something like "can't be done I'm afraid my lamb: Jack is still driving around in a bath-chair and the family's expecting an extension in July so money's a bit tight here too. Hope to see you soon - a few weeks' hard work ought to see to it, if I were you!"

Yeah, I always snort at that bit in Exile too, though I suppose for someone like Marie six bedrooms does genuinely seem tiny, war or not. I also can't quite work out whether it's just Marie and her family who'll live there, or if she's planning to share with - erm - someone. (I would have to look and see who I mean - could be Frieda, could be Wanda? There's another family coming from America at the same time, isn't there?) Because if they are going to share, that's modest by even sub-nobility CS standards!

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 09/10/2014 09:11

I do really like that bit in Highland Twins though when Elisaveta shows them her ruined hands and cheerfully says they've fed her babies and put a roof over their heads and nothing else can matter, though.

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 09/10/2014 09:19

Agree Nell, grown up Elisaveta is fab.

Vintagejazz · 09/10/2014 10:16

Loving your game Nell

OP posts:
TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 09/10/2014 10:32

Marie is sharing with Wanda and her kids in Exile.

Whyamihere · 09/10/2014 11:31

I always thought the first Chalet they used for the school must have magically expanded at some point. In either the first or second book Madge is worried because they don't have enough beds for the amount of borders and ends up sending Simone and Frieda over to Le Petit Chalet, there must only be about 30 borders at the time, yet the school grows term after term and they don't build the Middle House until four or five years later. Where did they put everyone?

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 09/10/2014 11:35

At one point they turn a big attic into a dormitory...um. Not sure! Grin