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Original poster

A fête worse than the Chalet School

999 replies

EmilyAlice · 29/06/2015 13:30

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.....

OP posts:
Original poster
EmilyAlice · 05/07/2015 13:53

Not much of a tablecloth person; I inherited my Mother's fine linen tablecloths but I have never found a way of ironing out the creases. Hmm

Possible Disasters for Tablecloths.

  1. Used to catch girls jumping from burning chalets causing irreparable tear.
  2. Used to wave from opposite side of ravine after chasm appeared, but blew away and veiled the Jungfrau for ever.
  3. Stained beyond Anna's powers when Joey fell on the tea-table / dropped the teapot / gave birth to quins on dining-room table.
  4. Pin holes visible after costume making party night.
  5. Used for wedding dress of Freudesheim's latest charity orphan.
  6. Thrown away by Anna and replaced with plastic tablecloth and paper napkins causing death from shock of entire Maynard family.
OP posts:
EElisavetaOfBelsornia · 05/07/2015 14:26

Gosh Obligatory we will need to treat you with great care. A diet of unpasteurised milk, cream cakes, sweet bread twists and gallons of nectar like coffee will sort you out. Plus early nights, folk dancing and an expectation of unquestioning obedience.

Anyway, during your extended period of illness, did you happen to see any doctors at all? The geometry mistress is at least 23 by now and possessed of an elusive beauty (bronze eyes, violet curls and a slender figure) so we really need a member of the medical profession to happen along soon. Perhaps she could supervise the clock golf?

hels71 · 05/07/2015 20:53

If the menfolk have dug the holes so deep that we trip (or you trip as I am busy playing) then surely a doctor or two will automatically appear??

morningtoncrescent62 · 06/07/2015 22:13

I've just seen some bloke clad only in a stethoscope and one of Emily's fine linen tablecloths emerging from the bronze-eyed geometry mistress's bedroom. What can have been happening? Perhaps she was taken so ill that he had to wrap her in his coat... and shirt... and trousers... and other unmentionables... to keep her warm. I do hope she's OK. Perhaps I should go in and offer her some of Obligatory's special milk. Or maybe send Nell in to play the Red Sarafan on her golden-toned saxophone.

morningtoncrescent62 · 06/07/2015 22:15

Ooops, I got my saxophonists mixed up. Of course, it's Hels who plays the sax. Although I'm sure Nell could play the geometry mistress back to life if she put her mind to it. How hard can it be?

EElisavetaOfBelsornia · 06/07/2015 22:57

It's all right Mornington, I heard Matey say that Herr Doktor Grand Marnier has given Miss Plush enough special milk to float a boat. She certainly seems keen for a bit of a lie down now. I do hope she'll be all right for progressive games tomorrow.

SockQueen · 10/07/2015 10:33

Hello my lambs! I haven't been around on the threads for a while, but felt inspired by my recent trip to Switzerland. All in all it was rather disappointing, really. I went on a boat on Lake Lucerne, and completely failed to fall in and be rescued by any handsome passing doctors. We walked up a mountain and there was no thunderstorm requiring us to take shelter with local peasants - and there was even a handy nearby chalet selling fresh milk and cheese just for such an occasion! On said walk we also found a meadow full of beautiful wildflowers, but there were no swarms of hornets and none of us picked any and thus avoided falling into a stream while trying to wet them. Were we doing something wrong?

DeeWe · 11/07/2015 08:05

Next time maybe you need to take group of school children in the hope one of them needs rescuing to attract your nice doctor.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 14/07/2015 16:42

I have just been looking for a picture of an Important Dead Economist to put together with a brief bio for work-related purposes, and she has the celebrated earphones!

I feel sort of betrayed. She was a supercool economist and shouldn't have Joey hair. Sad

morningtoncrescent62 · 14/07/2015 18:45

Oooh, envious of Sockqueen's Swiss trip. I hope you managed to take in some wonderful radio parties while you were Up On the Shelf. No better entertainment has been known to woman. Nell, I'm not sure in which decade your supercool economist wore her earphones - I couldn't tell whether it was a recent death or some time ago. If the earphones dated from the 1920s or 30s then they might have been supercool, no?

Have I told you all I'm off to Pertisau at the start of September? I have a work thing in Vienna - the same thing happened last year but the dates didn't work out for me to get to Pertisau on the way. This time I've organised my annual leave better, so it's hey for the most beautiful and bluest lake in the Tyrol for a few days pre-work-thing. And no, DeeWe, I'm not proposing to take a bunch of schoolgirls with me, even to attract a horde of doctors.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 14/07/2015 20:56

Oh, so much envy mornington. Are you going to just marvel at the beautiful lake in a sort of casual any-old-tourist way, or will you do actual Chalet things like go on the steamer and the mountain railway and go off in search of the dripping rock?

Yeah, to be fair the supercool economist did probably have her earphones in the thirties, maybe even the twenties. (She died in the 1980s, but a quick google image search suggests that she changed her hairstyle in her later years. I still feel tainted by the Joeyness of the earphones, though.)

hels71 · 14/07/2015 21:37

Maybe Joey copied her? (must try to remember these are not real people...)

I am also envious of the Achensee visit. I keep trying to persuade my other half that it would be a good place to visit but he keeps saying it's too expensive (ok fair point) b ut that he does not think that a holiday with me going on about oh look, this is where Joey jumped in/fell in/slipped down etc would be fun....he is such a spoil sport.

DeeWe · 16/07/2015 17:51

My beautiful dd1 (14yo) has just had her hair trimmed. When I say trimmed I'm talking about over a foot off (donated to a charity).
It was down to about her thigh level and took so much washing, brushing and looking after that it's quite a relief. But there's one book (CS and Jo?) where it talks about Frieda having hair down to the ground. I can't see that being compatible with the morning rush as described:
This is the rising bell for the continental girls with hair waist length or longer
rising bell for everyone else. Grin

But dd1 hasn't yet subscribed to the "we're older do need to put the hair into one tail not two", as she's still insisting on two plaits. She obviously needs a ML to take the lead.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 16/07/2015 18:11

Down to the ground. Shock

Maybe the two plaits is because you're keeping her young, in the Maynard-approved fashion? I hope she's looking forward to a coronal of plaits, or better yet earphones...

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 16/07/2015 18:13

Ooh, there's a baby names thread about Loveday!

hels71 · 16/07/2015 20:39

My 7 year old has long hair, down to her bottom. She often has two plaits, but also sometimes one. I am sure Joey would not approve! I have yet to try ear phones on her....may give it a go!!!

athelophobia · 16/07/2015 21:20

Just bought another 3 Chalet books :D Still barely halfway through, but getting there!

iwanttogotothechaletschool · 16/07/2015 21:31

New girl here, may I join in or do I need to have a near death experience/ major character changing epiphany/ marry a doctor before I can be a real Chalet school girl?

On the subject of near death experiences I wonder how many of them there were over the series? Joey must of accounted for at least 70% of them.

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 16/07/2015 21:49

Near death experiences resulting in doctor-marriages are always a bonus!
My bet would be that approx a third of the books contain a near-death experience. That might be shockingly conservative of me but I'm sure there are some that don't... Jo of? Camp? Exploits? Lintons? New House? Jo Returns? Gay, Three Go, Tom, Rosalie?

NellWilsonsWhiteHair · 16/07/2015 21:51

Oh wait, I suppose the bit in Tom where Tom, Daisy and co get lost in a blizzard might count as a near death experience? Probably a third was far too conservative!

EElisavetaOfBelsornia · 16/07/2015 22:32

Frieda's hair was to her hips - that's why she was perfect for Sleeping Beauty in the tableaux.

Camp has Jo falling into the pit and the hornets - more screaming with laughter than cold, white and to all appearances dead incidents though. Exploits has Corney falling into Das Maultasch picking illicit blackberries. Three Go has OOAO working herself into near death!

EElisavetaOfBelsornia · 17/07/2015 00:06

Actually, Exploits is the Thekla one isn't it - so there was the frilly petticoat and candles incident too. Though it generally gets a lighter treatment when it's a less sympathetic character!

hels71 · 17/07/2015 07:20

In camp Juliet and grizel fish up the "body" does that count?

iwanttogotothechaletschool · 17/07/2015 09:06

There's also Len getting set on fire by Grizel in Carola.

EElisavetaOfBelsornia · 17/07/2015 09:10

So basically, there are loads of fragile and delicate girls who are at a school chosen to be near their seriously ill relatives. They then catch colds, fall off mountains, are set on fire, fall through ice or down holes or are kidnapped by lunatics or usurping cousins. No wonder there is a 'quick, marry a medical professional' trope, it's sheer self defence!