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Original poster

International Incident at the Chalet School

999 replies

RueDeWakening · 23/11/2014 22:05

Hear ye, hear ye! Gather ye hence, all angels (be-costumed with slightly tacky silver halos and suchlike) with your lark-like notes and prepare to dazzle us all with your charm.

No, not you Joan. Shop bought cake and cheap looks for you, my dear. See Matron for some milk on your way out.

OP posts:
NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 31/12/2014 18:49

There is a really beautiful fic on the SDL about Herr Marani in the concentration camp. I can't remember whether I linked it before but I will link it again later on. I properly cried.

hels71 · 31/12/2014 19:07

The other bit that always makes me feel weepy is in Jo of when The grandmother talks about Natalie who died. Even as a child I found that so very very sad. It's such a short section too...

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 31/12/2014 20:41

Yes, agree hels - that is another really sad tale, understatedly so.

Beautiful Herr Marani fic.

DeWee · 31/12/2014 23:14

I agree about "Natalie", one of the quietly sad points of the books.

When ds (age 7yo, which I think was the age of Natalie when she died) puts his arms round my neck and whispers "I love you" at bedtime I always think of her saying "My boys are great boys, but I shall never forget the feel of my Natalie's arms round my neck, and her whisper as she wished me Happy Christmas for the last time."

I shall miss that from him when he grows up-although he tells me that he is going to live with me until he's 28 and still will want me to lie with him until he's asleep. Grin

hels71 · 01/01/2015 09:12

My DD is 7 now and that is what I think of when she hugs me too. Mind you, she has informed me that she is not leaving home until she is 56....

Flappingandflying · 02/01/2015 09:09

Natalie was sad and also lovely Herr Marani. Very brave of EBD to kill him off but then in the time she was writing many of her readers would have had family killed. mornington - that was lovely.

Now ladies it is nearly the start of term. Are your uniforms, velveteen dresses and white frocks labelled? You know how Matey will be if your mothers have failed to pack the trunks correctly.

Do you think the Ozzane twins will still be there.? They've been at the school for about thirty years now. Has their father finally realised that they are thick and he's wasting his money (although needed for fretwork).

FruitPudding · 02/01/2015 10:40

To be fair, only one of them was thick but can't remember which. The other deliberately stayed at the same level to keep her twin company. I seem to remember Miss Annersley explaining it all to a pupil (Mary-Lou?), as you do.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 02/01/2015 12:04

My mother has duly packed my trunk in the one true way that Matey will accept. Because grown women who do not work at the school and (sometimes, at least) were never at the school themselves still stand in wholesale awe of that domestic tyrant. Hmm

EmilyAlice · 02/01/2015 14:30

My trunk is packed (sudden Proustian memory of the smell of my wooden trunk when it went off to university by train a week before I did).
I have oiled my laxy stick, greased my skates and Cook has made some smashing toffee for my tuck box. I am still waiting for the Doctor to sign my medical certificate though, hope it turns up in time, would hate to be late. Perhaps Reg could sign it for me?

morningtoncrescent62 · 02/01/2015 16:46

Oh goodie, term's about to begin. Hols have been super, but it's always good to see the dear old Chalet again. I wonder whether there will be any interesting new girls? I can't wait to see the looks on their faces when we tell them you have to do lessons in French and German, the poor things always look so appalled. Mind you, the promise of afternoon tea with their favourite author always cheers them up.

Father Christmas brought me the most tophole Swiss army knife with sixteen blades. I'm so looking forward to throwing dropping it out of the train then jumping after it and walking the rest of the journey. OK, wrong series, but I'm sure the general principle is transferable. If I manage to lose it somewhere around Amiens I should make it to the Chalet footsore but triumphant somewhere around mid-February I reckon. Save me a corner cubey, someone!

Thanks for the link to the Herr Marani story. Hankies at the ready.

Flappingandflying · 02/01/2015 17:38

OK (last chance to use forbidden slang) Morny old bean. will do. I wonder what shade of pretty cretonne curtains our dormy will have. I shall be sheepdogging some new girls who are local to me. Their mother has been struggling with them as they are so unruly after their father, who is an international professor of caterpillers, has been on a five year expedition to the Andes. Mother and I paid a visit and after I had sung them some tunes in my almost choir boy like voice, and handed round the cakes whilst simultaneously playing with their little boys of 2 and 4, their mother has decided they too will be Chalet girls. They start this new term and I have to see them on the train. One will be in Lower V, I think as she is about 24 and the other will be with the babies of 14. Their names are Trebuchet and Giverny. Giverny is most awfully pretty with long blonde hair, violet eyes and a pink and roses complexion. Their mother seems a little weak and coughs a great deal. My father, who is their doctor, has had lots of whispered conversations with mother in the corridor and I have been told to be very kind to them.

DeWee · 02/01/2015 19:23

Can I've a window cubey please this term. I'll be responsible and promise not to go running after kidnapped princesses except when strictly necessary.

hels71 · 02/01/2015 19:41

I have been busy packing too. My mother left things out that I wanted to pack, so I removed my winter coat to add them in. I hope I remember to take it out of the wardrobe and put it back in....

Original poster
RueDeWakening · 02/01/2015 21:07

I haven't packed yet. Mother and father live abroad, and I'm in the care of a harum scarum relative who has no sense of pretty much anything, really. She's a bit bonkers artistic.

I shall go to Bluewater the outfitters in London and get some suitable clothing, I'm sure nobody will mind if it's not quite uniform, will they? I'm trying my best...

OP posts:
hels71 · 02/01/2015 21:31

If you try to match the colours then no-one will notice until you are safely at the school....

Original poster
RueDeWakening · 02/01/2015 22:09

Excellent. Are we in brown and flame, or blue with crimson revers?

Do we know if there was a changeover period where girls could wear either uniform, by the way? Seems a bit expensive wasteful to have girls start one term in the brown and flame and be expected to present in blue 4 months down the line. I'd go nuts if it was my kids' school!

OP posts:
TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 02/01/2015 22:09

I have packed my expanding suitcase with some random brown and flame things, including my Sunday white muslin and an evening velveteen. I have not packed a massive teddy bear or some shoes for wide but short feet, being slender of insole. However, my overindulgent aunt Sylvia has allowed me to pack about 9 dresses because I need that many changes, even at school. I'm sure Matey won't mind.

Have saved the Herr Marani fan fic to read when PIL have gone home. It would be rather embarrassing to weep copiously in front of them.

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 02/01/2015 22:12

Yes there was, I'm pretty sure. At least there was mention made in Ruey of a changeover period because parents wouldn't love them for a swap. Not sure about the original swap in Barbara.

hels71 · 02/01/2015 22:16

I don't think there was any changeover between the island and Switzerland, although I have a vague thought that they had not taken any new girls the term before the move, and most of the new girls before that were from the other chalet school and would be staying in the UK. Mind you, any family who could afford the fees and the travel out to Switzerland and the skiing stuff probably would not have batted an eyelid at more uniform?

Flappingandflying · 02/01/2015 22:22

Just remember the shawl to wear crossed over your chest. What is this 'Bluewater' that you speak of? is it a large lake surronded by mountains. Ah. The artistic mother....head in the clouds.

Actually, the mothers did fall into certain categories

  1. Sensible, jolly types who didn't fuss but who cared. This also includes the European mothers who are depicted very fondly.
  2. Delicates who hovered fretfully twixt life and death but still churned out the odd sprog.
  3. The indulgent, empty headed who ruin their daughters by spoiling them
  4. The caring but inefectual who need Guiding By a Man
  5. The downright awful like Julia's mother or the spy woman who makes her son follow Joey and Robin in Exile who generally die a death.
  6. The ditsy artistic ones.

See you all in the dorm. Trebuchet is already showing signs that she might not be a good chalet girl as I saw her laughing outside the chip shop with Jeff Binks and her hair looked suspiciously curled. I don't know what to do so I've written a very long letter to Aunty Joey (I can call her aunt because my mother's nurse went to school with their cook's cat) and she can deal with it during the first sunday tea.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 02/01/2015 23:21

Ooh... There could be a really interesting bit of fic on Hermann(?)'s mother, if anyone had the particular history knowledge for it.

Don't forget that fluffy empty-headed Maisie Gomme turns out uber-Chaletian Jo Scott. Which is kind of realistic, I suppose - similar parenting has varied results, shock horror! Grin

Interesting to wonder how the girls' parents would have felt about various moves. Wales to Switzerland does at least involve some warning; moves from Austria and Guernsey occur under such circumstances that you could scarcely imagine any reaction but relief. But the move from Plas Howells to St Briavel's? It's not exactly a tiny distance, and doesn't it all happen v quickly (isn't the chapter where they find the Big House the first chapter of Island? Maybe weeks before the beginning of term?)

DeWee · 03/01/2015 01:11

I don't get the impression that there was any change over when they moved to Switzerland. They're all swooning over their new outfits in the train and smoothing them down with careful French fingers, with no mention of any change over.

Bit of a difference from Nicola and Lawrie where the head said they could wear the old uniform if they had it, so Nicola was expecting to be the last in the uniform.
Actually I thought that was slightly strange. I would have expected some sort of deadline on it.

When out juniors changed uniform it was given out at the beginning of January, asking that they all got the new tie by September, and all except the year 6 in September (who would be leaving in July) would be expected to have the rest of the uniform the following January. So a year to change, which really most people can manage naturally.

DeWee · 03/01/2015 02:10

I don't get the impression that there was any change over when they moved to Switzerland. They're all swooning over their new outfits in the train and smoothing them down with careful French fingers, with no mention of any change over.

Bit of a difference from Nicola and Lawrie where the head said they could wear the old uniform if they had it, so Nicola was expecting to be the last in the uniform.
Actually I thought that was slightly strange. I would have expected some sort of deadline on it.

When out juniors changed uniform it was given out at the beginning of January, asking that they all got the new tie by September, and all except the year 6 in September (who would be leaving in July) would be expected to have the rest of the uniform the following January. So a year to change, which really most people can manage naturally.

DeWee · 03/01/2015 02:20

Sorry about double post. The computer is making up for my sewing maching which is skipping stitches and about to be consigned to the bin if it doesn't buck up its ideas soon. It is allergic to lycra and I've only another 14 waistcoats to go. Sad Angry

EmilyAlice · 03/01/2015 05:57

Up early tomorrow to get the boat train ready to meet all you jolly folk in Paris. Last trip to Bluewater for a bit then back to boring French shops
Got my medical certificate and the doctor says it is only a virus so Matey should be fine with that. Done last minute holiday tasks with GD1 golly, that science was hard.
See you all tomorrow in the Gare de Lyon...