A fête worse than the Chalet School

[EmilyAlice]

Roll up, roll up!
Bid for a mortgage on the doll's house! Pin the tail on the St Bernard! Guess the weight of the handsome doctor! (Or pin the tail on the doctor and guess the weight of the St Bernard). Knit a lime green liberty bodice against the clock!
The Chalet School fête is open.....

Time for the half term expedition. Where do you hope we're going? And whose turn is it to be rescued by a handsome doctor?

I don't think anyone's nearly drowned in the Murtensee yet? Or I could volunteer to fall /be pushed / jump off the town walls there? Anything for some special milk and a handsome doctor.....

Let's go to Berne, the Fast Nacht festival looks very weird there and not at all religious so less chance of Mary Lou being really pious

Can I meet a nice Doktor please? I have been single for about 50 years now, and I'm hardly going to find a DH house sitting for Joey on the Welsh borders. I can chuck a Middle into the Aare and with any luck a Medical Man will happen past. (Not the type who carries a machete in his trousers and then drugs me for a week though, that's just creepy).

I'm sure the good Herr Doktor will be enchanted with your girlish prettiness, Eelisaveta, but just in case he needs a little extra persuasion it might be a good idea to practice slumping to the floor still, grey and to all appearances dead. He won't be able to resist that one.

I vote for a jolly jaunt to a derelict factory in the West Midlands owned by a multi-national corporation caring paternalistic British institution. What fun! Six hours on the motor coach on the way there, an hour and a half back. I'm sure if we sing Parry's England it'll make the journey fly past. And of course there's always the chance of a major road incident with whole squadrons of handsome doctors in attendance.

Ah but he'd notice you stepping heroically aside and fall for your modesty and loyalty :-)

(In any case not sure my darling husband would be terribly pleased with me going for the doctor :-).

Ds was sick all over the doctor when he tried to see his tonsils yesterday. I guess that's a Chalet school fail.

Oh no witchend - gales of girlish laughter, and it will become one of the school's most beloved legends.

It will, and it will be re-told time and time again and we will all laugh as much as the first time.... and all new girls will be told too.... and it may even end up in the book of legends in the library. (or have I imagined that Jo or someone sends someone to look up a story of past events in the book of legends in the library??)

Room for a little one?! with a name change in the spirit of the thread obviously!

I was having an early night (you know, that mountain air is tiring) but stumbled across this thread (thankfully without spraining an ankle or anything thanks to my stout nailed boots) and just had to read it all. And now comment obviously... EElisaveta has caught my eye on a few threads and I was so excited to realise that I'm not the only adult who still reads these books... Imagine my excitement at finding this whole thread

Waving back! Yoohoo all! Jolly busy here at the Château, how did the half-term jaunt go? Could do with an army of helpers from the gardening club to help clearing brambles, digging and and planting the vegetables. Any one for an expedition and some Kapok humping?

I caught your eye Margots? wonder what I've been saying It must have been my undefinable air of being someone special.

Hello EmilyAlice! An expedition, tophole. And gardening too! Let's wear headscarves and red lipstick, that always goes down so well with Bill.

EElisaveta that would be the user name

Had a wee splurge (money isn't awfully plentiful at present, you know) on the new pre-prequel and unabridged Head Girl after reading this thread last night which amazon prime will deliver tomorrow!

If the gardening party would enjoy an expedition to the Scottish Highlands for rambling and gardening, I'm sure I could provide a tophole feast as a reward!

I must tell you all about our jaunt to Spain! We crept out leaving Dear Joey in bed (we left a naice bottle of Calvados on the bedside table) and whirled all the way down from the north of France to the south of Spain without turning on the engine once. Unfortunately Gaudenz's Spanish cousin was still working in the apartment we had booked so we ended up in a jolly villa instead. It had heavy oak furniture, lace table mats, cut glass galore, hundreds of ornaments, candles everywhere and antimacassars on all the chairs. We really might have been in fifties Switzerland except it was owned by Norwegians.
It took me a week to clear everything away so the grandchildren didn't trash it and another week at the end to put everything back. Such a pity I had left Anna to take care of Dear Joey.

Hello, my dears! Tell me all the hanes! Now I know no one remembers me but I appeared back in the Tyrol days of these threads and EBD has resurrected me a la Winnie Embury or Irma von Rothenfels. So do shove up and tell me how many children Joey has now!

I am bowled over by news of a prequel - why is it not payday yet? Counting days until Tuesday, my lambs!

Cheddar my copy of the pre-prequel arrived today. Just as well DP is working away, it will be read and on the shelf and he will be none the wiser

I remember you, Cheddar - like you, I'm a foundation stone. Known as Old Lumpy to my friends. Joey has about 62 children at the moment, but half of them are boys so they don't really count, and the girls are somewhat insipid as they've shared Joey's characteristics between all 31.

So it's off to the Scottish Highlands in motor coaches for a spot of gardening is it? What could possibly go wrong? While we're up there we should definitely teach our new girls how to hump the kapok. Then we can unearth some secret passages and divert the course of a river or two before heading back south to check out Emily's Spanish villa.

Enjoy the pre-prequel those of you who have yet to read it.

Must buy the prequel with the excuse dd2 would like it.

However I'm really excited by the news ggbp are doing Malcolm Saville's Marsden Baines series soon. I've got nearly all his fiction except the last one of that which seems impossible to get. Hurry up is what I say!

I'm reading Margaret Bettany: Headmistress over on the Sally Denny Library at the moment. It's an epic tale (I've reached chapter 68!) of how things might have been had Madge not married Jem. It goes right from Tyrol days (with an explanation of why the Madge/Jem marriage doesn't come off) to the School's 25th anniversary. There are a few new characters, but mostly it's familiar people, though some stories do diverge quite markedly - the lives of Joey, Mademoiselle, Grizel, Betty W-D, Biddy and Hilda all pan out very differently from in the EBD version. It's told at quite a breathless pace which it would have to be, given the amount of history to get through - so the characterisation isn't brilliant, but I don't suppose there's space to make it any more so. And the standard of written English isn't what it would be in a print book. But it's absolutely fascinating to follow how one major change and the reasons underlying it can have such a huge effect on so many people's lives. I'm hooked, and if anyone has some spare internet time, I recommend it.

Mornington, thanks for the recommendation! I've got as far as Betty Wynne-Davis - about to the Highland Twins stage. I am liking it - I do wish Madge featured more after Armishire in canon. I don't agree with taking Joey's actions away from her, though! Also, I miss the Abbess and the interactions between her and Bill. I'd like a similar fanfic where Joey has her schooldays unchanged, and is a good person, but then goes and gets a life as an adult - becomes an Authoress or goes to be a lady-in-waiting for Elisaveta or something.

I'm loving Grizel's story in this, though!

And today is payday and I've just purchased The Bettanys on the Home Front. I really want A Chalet School Headmistress but I can't find one cheaper than £35, which seems a bit excessive.

I don't know if you do FB, but there is a chalet school sales and wants page there and someone on there might have a copy of Headmistress cheaper?

Ooh good recommendation Mornington! I like the alternative stories for Grizel, Betty and Bette, and the takes on incidents like Fauna's 'seeing'. The author doesn't like Joey much, does she? I'm a bit distressed by a couple of 'gotten's and an 'okay', but mostly just not buying Hilda's alternative story line. I just can't see the Abbess as hetero or marriage material really. But lovely to have Madge as ongoing focus. I've only got as far as Lavender and enjoying it hugely.

I'd like a similar fanfic where Joey has her schooldays unchanged, and is a good person, but then goes and gets a life as an adult - becomes an Authoress or goes to be a lady-in-waiting for Elisaveta or something.

My vote would be for unchanged schooldays and then university to study history. She'd have a whale of a time in the thick of everything, become politicised, and set up house with Simone in Red Vienna. Not sure what happens after that!