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.....

Goodness, she's doing well to be reading any of the CS books at 7, let alone Exile.
I have just read Leader for the first time, having joined the library service in the next county specifically so I could order their CS books! Really enjoyed it, and got two more to collect this week!
You're right, EBD does use ejaculate rather a lot!

Well, she ran out of books on holiday and I had School at the Chalet downloaded on my kindle and needed to keep her quiet on the way home. And then she asked me for more so I dug out my paperbacks and she's working through them in order (though there a big gaps, I've only got about ten of them).

You can get school for kindle????

Well, let's face it, there's nothing harmful in them in terms of swearing, sex, drugs, alcohol, or violence. Apart from a couple of kidnappings, the numerous accidents and near deaths, and matron's habit of slipping a little something into the milk, that is!

hels I think GGBP did a small number of them for kindle - School at, Exile, possibly Camp IIRC. You have to buy them through GGBP directly rather than via Amazon.

It does sound extremely nice to be able to share the CS with offspring!

I often titter childishly at ejaculations. And erections. Although sometimes I don't notice them if I'm reading more attentively.

I have ordered Attic Term... I have also ordered GGBP copies of Rosalie, Mary-Lou, Barbara and Maids of LR. I now have no money left.

Mostly, though, I popped in (on this lovely quiet Sunday) to ask whether we need one more practice of whatever it is we're doing for Madame's birthday tomorrow? Hopefully one of us has now had an idea (to bless herself with) and we have a lovely song to sing beneath her window, a mountain expedition, the necessary weather conditions, a charming painting of the Tiernsee, a tea service from Innsbruck, a wood carving from some overpriced trading post near the Gornetz Platz, and some wonderful costumes made from nothing but sheets, pillowcases and safety pins?

I had forgotten what day it was tomorrow! Who is going to make sure we are all up bright and early for serenading??

(and thanks for the info re kindle versions..i will visit GGBP! I have got School by the River on my kindle now!)

I thought maybe we could go all modern for the painting. I've got a 3m x 5m blank canvass. I thought we could run over it with paint on our feet and it could represent Chalet girls mountaineering. Madam has a huge blank wall in the drawing room and I thought it's just the thing to encourage small talk with visitors.

Not safety pins surely on our costumes! Matey would have a fit! It must be all sewn and unpicked. That might create many more holes but one must do as Matey says surely!

What about this song for outside her window: (Sung to the tune of Tomorrow from Annie)
The sun'll come out tomorrow
So we better wait for the expedition
Till there's sun
We don't want to find, tomorrow
There's a flood and we can't get back
Again!
Tomorrow, tomorrow, it's raining, and thunder
We'll get stuck in a storm again

Oh, topping song Witchend!

The canvas sounds top-hole too. We will have to make sure only the right girls are allowed to skip gaily across it, though - no lumpen Joan Baker feet, or wossname - the one who Nina gets all funny with after a gym accident hurts her musical fingers and about four people tell the poor girl off. And at all costs we mustn't let Jo play slidey mats in the paint.

Someone now has slang fines to pay I believe! I am sure Topping and top-hole count as slang!

The song sounds perfect!
Slidey mats in paint sounds great fun though!!

I read my first Chalet book at 7 too. "A Genius at the Chalet School". I was hooked and spent 5 or 6 years reading as many as I could get my hands on. I've revisited some as an adult, usually in times when I've needed some comfort. My all-time favourite is "The Chalet School and the Island".

I suggest we tell Jo she's got a special part to so at the end. That she'll have to prepare all day for. Maybe she could sing Madam off to sleep or something?

I just read Rosalie from the library, nell.
Thought it would be about Rosalie Dean, having not clocked the order, but it's actually about a Rosalie Way, a girly, sensitive sort, who has never been to school before, and who has a crush on Tom Gay.
It's quite a short book and unfortunately not an awful lot happens!

Ah, I'm rather fond of Rosalie, papergirl - it's not an absolute favourite, but it's probably in my top 10. It would definitely be better if it were about Rosalie Dene though!

Are we ready for singing? It's going to be a glorious day! Who has a vert true treble and can provide the starting note????

Tra-la-la
Nymphs and she-he-perds come away, come away....

I think Madge is 115 today, depending when you count from. Do you think she's bored of these birthday celebrations yet?

Watching Wimbledon this afternoon. What court is Katt Gordon on? She was near enough a certain for Wimbledon so she must be there somewhere!

Loo! Damn, I'm about 11 hours too late. Ah well, at Madge's grand old age I'm sure she appreciates not being woken up until the evening - and just in time for Jo's glorious solo. Jo may be over 100 herself, but she's never lost those golden choirboy tones, and she's still a Chalet girl.

I have ordered Attic Term... I have also ordered GGBP copies of Rosalie, Mary-Lou, Barbara and Maids of LR. I now have no money left.

Oh, Nell, I do hope you've put a few schillings by for apfelstrudel and boat rides on your Tyrolean travels. Which must be approaching, nicht wahr?

Did you not find Rosalie a bit, well, irritating, Nell?
Those long ringlets, the crying, the sulks...
Funnily enough, it seemed all a bit lacking with no disaster in which someone has to be rescued by a peasant or a doctor! Even Jo fails to put in an appearance, due to a difficult birth!
It wasn't awful, just a bit lacking.
I also recently read Leader.
Thank god for the library! Worth checking out by anyone who lives in or near Staffordshire!

Heh, papergirl - I think the absence of Jo is definitely one of the plus points of the book!
Rosalie is not particularly one of my favourite characters, although I don't dislike her and do like the cohort she's in. I think we had some discussion a few pages back on this thread about whether she's a nice example of 'different types of girl are OK' in the CS (compared with Blyton who has no patience at all for the wet girly girls).
I find it quite charmingly slashy not just Rosalie/Tom but also Nell/Hilda. I think it's also got a bit of weather signs in it which always amuses me, and definitely an absence of any nativity play or sale!

What did you make of Leader? I can't remember much about it, apart from the bubble bath incident.

mornington my lamb, better late than never! Madame did look so pleased, didn't she, with yet another set of crockery. And Jo's golden voice reduced her to tears! So touching.

I have about six weeks before we go to the dear little lake Achensee Tiernsee, so I will get paid again first. I definitely must put aside some schillings for boat trips and apfelstrudel, although I understand from the books that oniony-smelling milk and blackened bread will always be provided free of charge in weather-induced emergencies.

Leader annoys me from beginning to end.

The beginning annoys me when their parents say Jack and Anne can go when Jack is 13yo-but Anne is 2 or 3 years older so it really isn't fair on her. Surely any parents would say "you will each go when you're 13yo"?

Then all the fuss about how Len is the only one who can answer Jacks's questions. No, they're fairly simple most of the time. I'm sure dd2 could have answered most of them and she's younger than Jack...

Then we have the tricks. They're quite well done, including when they don't believe Jack. I don't think I'd have believed her either
However when she tells them that the snake wasn't Jack's fault and none of their either and Margaret Twiss busts into tears. "Wawawaaaa" I think is the actual term. Because she knew and didn't say anything. Honestly. She's meant (I think) to be older than the rest of the form, which puts her at least 14yo. Really grates. Would be okay if they were 4yo... possibly.

And then Jack is so unpleasant when she's found to be right any sympathy with her goes.

Oh and the screams at finding bubbles in the bath

Oh, yeah. It's all coming back to me now.
The bubble bath thing baffled me somewhat, because does anyone ever get into the bath before they start the water running?

Ah yes, found the references to Rosalie on the previous page. I did read those at the time they were posted but still had it in my head they referred to Rosalie Dene not Rosalie Way. Why does EBD choose the same name for two characters?!
Rosalie annoyed me because of the long and tedious description of the fancy dress evening. Like fetes and sheets and pillowcase parties, they make me yawn!
I quite liked Leader, and seeing how Len had developed into a, well, leader. But the bubble bath and snake tricks - much ado about nothing. And Jack is annoying at times.
Just had a text from the library to say another book I ordered is awaiting collection. Can't remember which one it was but am disproportionally excited!