Some Fretwork and the Interminable Christmas Play at the Chalet School

[EmilyAlice]

Now girls, line up and listen because this term is a busy one. Firstly we are combining our hobbies club and the Christmas play, so we will need our fretworkers to get busy on the scenery, some beautiful découpage for decorations, our nimble-fingered needlewomen on costume duty and some scrapbooks for - er...
Now one other thing girls. As you know the Chalet School has moved from the Tyrol, to Guernsey, to Armishire, to some island or other and thence to Switzerland.
This term we have moved again and the first thing I want you to do is to find out where the bloody hell we are....

I posted a couple of times on the old thread. I think I'm a day girl rather than a border

A day girl in Outer Mongolia? Yikes!

I think we need a few new traditions for our new location, so I propose naming the dormyurts after vegetables instead of flowers. Would any of the new girls care to join me in Mushy Pea? It's so pretty with our north-facing flaps and not-quite-green cubey curtains.

lolament, was that you arriving on horseback this morning? How wizard! Perhaps we should try to peruade Miss Peters from Malory Towers to join us on some kind of exchange arrangement so that you have some horse-mad company.

I am in Crottes de Reindeer. Our curtains are beige with dark brown patches.

I think I am in spinach....and Joey has made us some delightful green curtains! (Oh I think it was a Norwegian who could not speak anything but her own language....but I still think there was a Russian somewhere,,,)

My jalousies are liberally besprinkled with little florets of broccoli. Does one have a plumeaux or a reindeer skin in a dormyurt?

Oooh, bags me being one of the horsey girls like Clarissa and Bill (Wilhelmina) in Malory Towers! Or Norah something who suggested playing polo at a Sale.

Thank you for the welcome EmilyAlice, I suppose you were named after both your grandmothers. I was named after a poem about a bog which I rather love actually. I do not have any particular hobbies for the hobbies club because I am mostly into blackmail which does pay for itself, I have to admit, but you have to do the research which will be hard from Outer Mongolia. So I thought I might make a Doll's House instead and I have already started on a 1:20 model of a rather special place in Switzerland (no not the San that would be tasteless). I'll give you a clue, the comp. will be Guess the Name of the Collider.
No one has mentioned the baths so I am guessing you have gone Chill Off due to the climate.
Longing to meet you all.
If I can choose please can I be in Samphire? It would remind me of home.

That wild Irish scamp Nora/Norah Fitzgerald will be gutted to have missed the chance to come to the Chalet School, but I'm sure she will travel and trip over it and recognise the girls in their gentian blue uniform - just as well Lady Russell rejected the idea of changing the name to The Yurt School.

I think I'm in Mushy Pea with mornington, and wondering if my clumsy hands could copy the cheerful local embroidery...

Evening Chaletians! It's bloody ages been a while since I've seen you, I think I've been in isolation in San for something or other. I expect I nearly died.

If we're in Mongolia, perhaps the Pet Club could be revived (I'm sure there was one, once - in Tyrol? Or am I mixing my series?), and we could all keep a horse at school. There's lots of opportunity for death-defying accidents jolly escapades on horses I imagine.

I'll bag a bed in Mushy Pea I think, and will take up fermenting for my hobby. There must be something other than milk to do it with, surely? Anyone spotted a juniper bush yet?

I would definitely also like to take up juniper fermenting.

I'm so glad I'm not the only Mushy Pea in the dormyurt. I suggest we constitute ourselves as juniper fermenting HQ, and make sure we sing while we work to complete RueDeWakening's recovery.

Special milk, anyone?

Bags me too in the fermenting club! Although in Mongolia with the horse piss fermented milk mentioned upthread, doesn't that bring a whole new meaning to the term "special milk"?

I am utterly confused by Stars being named after a bog. The only blackmailer I can recall right now is Vera Smithers in Rivals - was she a blackmailer or was it poison pen letters? Thekla did some blackmailing too, I suppose.

Wash your mouth out, Stars, Chill Off baths are for wusses! Cold plunge all the way - perhaps in a cascading mountain stream very vague on the physical geography of Outer Mongolia

I like the idea of reviving the Pets Club, which seemed to consist solely of Rufus and some sort of lizard brought in by Cornelia - a chameleon or an iguana or something which they chucked in the garden and forgot about. Bet that didn't survive the winter!

I'm looking forward to a proper ramble across the steppe! Or do you think we'll have to stick to the mountains in order to ensure a sufficient supply of death-defying acts of bravery and handsome doctors?

I like the sound of The Yurt school. I expect there will be lots of brawny Mongolian men to be caretakers. Plenty of opportunities for dramatic fire escapes too when the fire (or do they have stoves?) in the yurt gets out of hand.

I'm here, I'm here!! Sorry I'm late, I got on a train with Peggy Bettany, Carola Johnstone and Jack Lambert, all of whom claimed to know exactly which way to go...

Fortunately Dr Jem picked us up in his car, he had no problem fitting the seven of us in . I bagged lots of interesting looking magazines which he'd left in the back seat to make some topping scrapbooks for poor local children. Have I missed Madame reading her ~interminable~ play aloud to a rapt and enthralled school?

Can I join the school please? Been reading staying at Joey's to get me used to big crowds for ages, so feel I am ready. Might need someone to explain the languages rule to me (what languages are we speaking in Outer Mongolia?) and to explain why we need to do hobbies club. Obviously as a new girl I'm not expecting a big part in the play (when will rehearsals start?) but I would love to be a peasant in a crowd scene please.

Ooh I love the sound of Outer Mongolia. Can I be in Calabash - sticking with the lime green theme
I think I might try calligraphy and write out an inspiring poem or maybe whittling animals if they permit knives

Oh Princess, what a relief; I was very worried that you had been kidnapped on the steppes...
Willow won't the animals mind being whittled?
Bienvenue à Primrose.

Gosh EmilyAlice hasn't anyone told you we're not allowed to go up the steppes until we're prefects? Deney won't be happy if she hears I've been up them!

Well since we're in Outer Mongolia, I imagine we'll need to speak...well, English, French and German, of course everyone in the world speaks at least one of those. Apart from the natives, and we don't associate with them until they've been civilised by means of joining the Chalet School and completing at least a term.

Can you develop a complexion in Outer Mongolia? I think I'm in Carrot with its bright orange curtains, clashes beautifully with my hair! But I'm sure developing a complexion will help!
I'm starting on scrapbooks, now shall I start with views or animals?

My mother had a cough when I was four so now I have a message from the great man in Harley St saying he will not be responsible for anything that should happen re. cold tubs.

I was named after a poem about a marsh and some green glass beads I believe Aunty Joey thought of it. Anyway, it's better than Len.

Please could we have a kit list for packing? And are you importing bread twists and black cherry jam or buying them locally?

Do we still get the coffee with positive featherbeds of whipped cream in Outer Mongolia? It's such tophole luck when we get one as a treat!

How do I find out what dormyurt I'm in? Is there a list somewhere? And what's this about speaking French and German? Surely not in lessons?

Oh yes, in lessons and free time and everything. But don't worry, you will soon pick it up especially if you learn 10 new words a day and hear everyone else around speaking it. And if you don't pick it up you will get fined so you will learn really quickly..