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.....

They are all excellent suggestions. (And the reminder of 'the chalet school gets nits' made me snort and wince in equal measure - recently had to check curly-haired DS for these and his hair isn't much past his shoulders when wet - I would cry if I had to check all, or even any, of those girls with curly hair down past their waists...) - but my vote goes to the interminable Christmas play at the chalet school.

Oh, btw - I've been AWOL so I presume those who asked for access to the onedrive are now joyfully wrapped up in its contents, but if anyone is still waiting and hoping, PM me!

Lots of good titles - we should keep them in mind for future threads. But meantime my vote would go to 'Anyone for Fretwork? Exciting times at the Chalet School' because I don't think we've had a hobbies-themed title before. And what could be more thrilling than a spot of jigsaw-making?

We are just getting ready for the next fete...after all, if we are going to make enough to keep two beds going at the San we will need a lot of jigsaws and raffia mats...(Even with amazing dinner sets painted by Wanda)

I shall make the most wonderful baby clothes. I shall smock them with my almost-French fingers. And amazingly I shall complete enough to have a stall on my own (a good one took me a good month to do when the dc were small).

I'm going to steal borrow Herr Laubach's so-precious book with its priceless and irreplaceable illustrated plates so that I can copy them for my painting on china. What could possibly go wrong? Whoops-a-daisy, second thoughts, better stick to cutting out paper dolls.

I have asked dear Joey and she likes the Fretwork title because she thinks describing the Christmas Play as interminable is really rather rude, but fretwork is terribly exciting.

I am one of those who has zero imagination or artistic skills and fingers like hams which hate a needle - can I contribute some scrapbooks, with artistic input from those of you that have it on where to place the horse's head and wreaths of flowers?
My vote goes to the Christmas play as it made me laugh and is appropriate given the time of year. If too rude for dear Joey how about some kind of interminable winter rain and sea of mud title - the force of the water crossing the stream in spate that makes me shudder to remember it or the walk that was no walk but a series of hops and mini lakes that ended up in a ditch and being parboiled by Matey; happy days
Nell thanks for the one drive - have loved the unabridged versions altho there is not as much missing as I had assumed from the various threads, more background and details. Going to treat myself to some fill ins and the La Rochelle books next.

The Lost Chalet School in honour of a very old CS book I borrowed from the library months weeks ago and now can't bloody find. I have to keep renewing the darned thing but they're going to want it back eventually...

The Lost Chalet School in honour of a very old CS book I borrowed from the library

You found a Chalet School book in the library? Cripes, that hasn't happened to me since about 1972

can I contribute some scrapbooks, with artistic input from those of you that have it on where to place the horse's head and wreaths of flowers?

Oh yes, the dear little mites at the San will be so pleased to have books full of cut-out pictures to look at because there's sod-all else to do with all electronic communication banned and darling Jo has the only radio allowed on the Platz so that everyone's forced to attend her deadly radio parties

Yes, Mornington, I joined the library service for the neighbouring county just to get my sticky paws on some of their CS books I hadn't read. Then I ordered them from the library at which they are kept, which happens to be the end of that county, about 90 miles away. This particular book looked so old and fragile, I thought the librarian was going to put white gloves on to hand me the revered tome.
I can't even remember which one it was - but I do recall it was very good! And it had a plain blue cover. We're having the house redecorated so I made the fatal error of putting it somewhere safe!

I've just discovered this thread and I'm overjoyed! Please may I too have the details for the shared account - I've got some catching up and refreshing to do. I only ever had the first 12 or so...

Oh, the one with the plain blue cover. That narrows it down. Have the library kept hold of it in reserved stock or something?

I'm reading the most brilliant book at the moment. It's called War Among Ladies by Eleanor Scott, and google tells me it was published in 1928 - there's no date on the book itself, and I thought it was early 30s so I wasn't out by much! It's about the ladies of a girls' high school staffroom, and the first part is very sad because it's told from the point of view of an older teacher (yikes, 56 and she's portrayed as nearing her dotage). She's hopelessly incompetent and out of date, and the girls ride roughshod over her, but she can't retire early because she would forfeit her pension. Did that really happen? You lost the lot if you went early? It's agonising, because the reader gets to hear the impatience of the younger teachers who all want her to leave, but she has to keep putting herself through what's described as daily torture because in her words 'I cannot afford to go'. There's some fascinating detail about daily and annual routines which helps me understand why EBD described the CS as free and easy when it looks so rule-bound to us.

I'm just about to start part 2 which I think is told from the viewpoint of one of the girls. If you can get hold of it, I thoroughly recommend it.

Oooh, that sounds brilliant mornington - I shall look it up at once.

Yes Mornington, it looks like it was last loaned out in about 1960. Not found it but have at least started tidying my bedroom which might make it easier.
And re War Among Ladies It reminds me of when some of the CS middles bullied a teacher, think it was Miss Norman, who couldn't afford to leave as she was paying for the care of her sick mum or something.

Our library has a couple of Chalet Schools (School at, Princess, I think) They're the recent Armadas too.

With eight messages left and in the spirit of compromise, how about -
Some Fretwork and the Interminable Christmas Play at the Lost Chalet School?

Some Fretwork and the Interminable Christmas Play at the Lost Chalet School

A masterstroke! Come on, chums, let's get this thread wrapped up so that we can get busy with jigsaws, carols, baby angel costumes and hunting for ourselves. [raids fine box to pay for some new blades] [wonders what happened to the nits]

New thread here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_books/2753541-Some-Fretwork-and-the-Interminable-Christmas-Play-at-the-Chalet-School?watched=1

Thanks for the sparkly new thread, EmilyAlice. Now, who'll help me finish off this one? We can't leave until it's complete, you know - it would be like going straight onto cake without eating up your bread and butter. Or should that be helping yourself liberally to kuchen but ignoring the fancy twists?

Well I managed to lose the Lost in the title, which is what you get when you have prefects in their late sixties...

The mystery of the lost "lost"?

It was meant to be .... and the Lost Chalet School in the title, but I missed it out.

Never Mind! I expect Joey will find it and appear waving it like a school girl!

(do I get the last post? Never done that before!)