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 agree about the prequels - I loved both of them. I also enjoyed Guides and Peace and I liked Hilda Annersley - Headmistress but it's published by someone else (not Girls Gone By) with much poorer editing so you have to switch off the part of your brain that screams in agony when a comma should have been a full stop cares about punctuation.

For some odd reason the owners of the ApartHotel resort next door vacated as soon as they knew we were coming, and their little place is perfect for la Bella Villa Maynardi. There's bags of space for radio parties and some excellent floors for slidey mats. I've bagged a bed in the new annex, Cosa Nostra - is that where the Olive clan are setting up their dormy? We can hump the kapok by day and enjoy the fruits of the distillery by night...

Some wizard ideas for the Sale already, keep them coming.

I thought you would join me in Marsala dormy Mornington. We have such pretty dark red curtains....

Oh, yeah - I also agree re: Hilda Annersley: Headmistress. Very well worth a read, but would have benefited enormously from a more robust edit.

I appear to share an office with Matron Webb. I am remembering what Shakespeare said about a woman's voice...

I'm tempted by your offer of Marsala dorm, EmilyAlice, but I hear Mary-Lou's going to be your dormy pre, and you know how awfully on the spot she is. Meanwhile I'm working on my latest game, pin the pony-tail on Len. It's going to be masses of fun and I'm sure it won't bring back any traumatic memories of the catastrophe late unpleasantness.

I keep meaning to ask, has anyone bought the Chalet School Encyclopedia? I keep seeing it on the GGBP website and momentarily being tempted but then I wonder a) what would I actually use it for, and b) might I end up using it a bit too much and getting truly fixated? Has anyone seen/bought it, and if so, what do you think? I see it runs to four volumes!!

Actually pinning the severed plait on someone is a brilliant idea for a game. It could be the highlight of our party games for ever....
"The Chalet School and the Severed Plait". Just perfect.

Thanks for all the recommendations / reviews. I think I'll go for one of the Bettany ones next as they seem to be available on Amazon.

Now - items for the hair themed sale. Is hats stretching a point too far? I thought I'd knit lots of bobble hats in lime green? What do you think?

Roll up, roll up! Have your hair done by a headmistress! The Abbess will give you a nifty new do; whereas Bill will show you how to arrange your tresses a la poudre.

Mornington, I haven't bought the Encyclopaedia because I strongly suspect that between the lot of us on this thread we know just about every fact that might be in it. Although maybe it has background to random things mentioned by EBD. I don't know!

In my Headmistress theme, Madge will teach you what "heiliges wasser" means, and how to get your hair shampooed under stress. Mademoiselle Lepattre will...um...shriek at the sight of your severed plait?

Yes, and we could have a boring paper game where you have to list every CS Old Girl with hair past her waist/knees - why are there so many of them?!

Re: the encyclopaedias. I have 3.5 of them (the last one is hopefully in the post on its way to me!) - I'm not sure I would really recommend them, in spite of this thoroughness.

The actual encyclopaedia bit (as in the alphabetical entries) are all the characters ever ever ever - basically compiling every semi-significant mention they ever get, in chronological order. I do find this useful for fic purposes in particular, and it's also good for when you can't remember what book something happens in, and it's amusing to note how many references there are to the Abbess' eyes which have never needed glasses etc, but I think a lot of this could also be answered through these threads and/or google.
The character entries are broken up with short articles which are probably very interesting but I confess I've hardly ever read any of them. I think there are probably 3-4 such articles per volume.

There are lots of lovely pictures included (illustrations from the books - all B&W) but they're not labelled and it's not always obvious from the surrounding text which book they're from, which can be frustrating!

Happy to loan out my copies by post if you want to see before you buy...

Loan out copies 😮😮😮. Oh my goodness I COMPLETELY FORGOT I borrowed several books from Cheddar which must be in one of the unpacked boxes. I am clearly as heedless as a schoolgirl. I am so sorry - can you please PM me your address to return them? @TooImmatureCheddar
(trying out the new hashtag thing)

Don't worry about it! Were they the Abbey ones - did I send you School By The River or not? Will PM my address but there's no rush.

I also need to post you some books back. Sorry @TooExtraImmatureCheddar (what's this about a new hashtag thing?) - I will post them this weekend.

I wish my hair grew to below my waist. The longest it's ever got is about bra strap length and it was so straggly and crap. One of my friends used to have very long thick ginger hair - she didn't cut it very often and it would get about hip-length and then she would have it hacked off to waist level and leave it for another few months. I often wondered how long it would get if she just left it. I seem to recall Laura Ingalls having knee-length hair.

Nothing obvious has happened in response to the @username thing. What's supposed to happen?

It's supposed to PM you, but I forgot the Extra bit of your username which might be why. Technology isn't my strong point at the best of times . Thank you for being understanding!

Thank you for the books, Nell! I had completely forgotten that DD wrote you a note too - it was lovely to be reminded!

Glad they arrived safely! DD's note was very sweet.

Dd1's hair was down to her thighs at one point. It's now "short" (only to her waist)

It was an absolute pain. It could take 2-3 hours to wash and brush out and dry. If she had it loose for more than a short time it would be so tangled.
It looked fantastic for about half an hour, but after that it would be in the way and getting in things.

Ah, when I were a lass [stares starry-eyed into the distance] 'curtain hair' was a thing - long, straight hair parted down in the middle which you flopped in front of your face like curtains and tossed back theatrically from time to time. If you've ever seen The Brady Bunch, think Marcia Brady and you'll know what I mean. My hair is best described as wavy, and my sister has tight curls. We learned young that we were never going to be fashionable...

So, I'm reading Head Girl because Juniors put me in the mood for it. In the famous Stuffer and Maria train incident, we're told that the Robin beds down and goes to sleep as soon as they get into the train at 9pm. She wakes once, during the altercation with the professor, and when they get out of the train at 5am, she's carried, fast-asleep, to the pension. So let's say, allowing for being wakened up and giving her an hour to get back to sleep, she's had 7 hours by then. Joey and Grizel go off soon after but are wakened by Maynie chatting to the ladies, and Joey again during the professor episode. So they've had perhaps 6 hours' sleep. Maynie gets two hours' sleep between the professor episode (around 10pm) and the Stuffer waking up, then she sleeps again until they come for the tickets at 4am. So she'll have had around 4 hours' sleep. We're told they are whisked away to their (town centre) pension as soon as they arrive at Basle, and they go straight to bed when they get there. So presumably they're between the sheets by 6am at latest. They then all sleep straight through until noon. Now I know they had a broken night, especially Maynie, but that would mean the Robin having 14 hours' sleep altogether, Grizel and Joey having 12, and Maynie having 10. Really? I mean, I would probably have a quick nap once I arrived at the hotel if I'd had a night such as the one described in the train, but I'd probably have got up again about 9am and made sure I kept going. [mutters darkly about spineless jellyfish]

Do they sleep sitting up? I think Robin in no way requires 14 hours sleep - I'm sure her normal bedtime is at about 6pm until she's 14! And they aren't travelling on the next day - they're pillow fighting and going shopping and sightseeing. How does the Robin manage to be tired again for bed at that rate? The others I think can be explained by the broken sleep effect - and I don't think you would sleep particularly well in a train anyway. I went on the sleeper from Aberdeen to London once and hardly slept at all, and that was in a bed.

Ha. I bet Maynie didn't sleep til anything like noon, but lazed about in bed reading (not sitting up, no bedjacket) and putting off the moment when she would have to get up and attend to the children. This is what I would do if I could get away with it, probably regardless of how disrupted my night had been.
(Incidentally I got more-or-less that sleeper recently, Cheddar! Slept very badly northbound, but extremely well southbound - until the train woke me up by banging around reconnecting itself at Edinburgh at about 4am, and then DS woke me up again falling out of bed at 5am - he stayed asleep, Robin-style, as I scooped him into my bed and spent the next two hours clinging onto the edge and trying to get back to sleep... Oh, how I wished for a child who was more of a spineless jellyfish and could be made to sleep some more at home until I was ready to face the day...)

I think the Robin sleeps about 14 hours a night as standard, which is somehow weirdly tied up with her instant obedience - she literally sleeps on command. I think one of the earliest and hardest lessons I learned in motherhood is that this just does not happen in real life. Even when they obviously need to.

DS (age 2) woke up at 4.45 this morning and insisted he was up for the day. Silly boy! Anna Joey would have had him trained to instant obedience by the tender age of 3 months and he would in any case be in the night nursery attended by the Coadjutor and not climbing into my bed, digging pointy toes into my ribs and requesting Paw Patrol and Weetabix.

(What were you doing North of the Border? Did you meet lots of people in full Highland dress saying 'p' for 'b', speaking Gaelic and sitting to the north of their hearths?)

Ah, Cheddar my lamb, it sounds as though you need to get yourself packed off to Penny Rest!

Now that you point it out, I realise that Scotland was a huge disappointment in EBD terms. Although DS and I did manage to go wandering off up a small mountain before dawn, which struck me as pleasingly Grizel-like. (It was the mountains we went for, really - still yearning for the dear little Tiernsee, no joke. Can completely appreciate that EBD was so taken with it she had to set her fictional school there.)

DS and I did manage to go wandering off up a small mountain before dawn, which struck me as pleasingly Grizel-like.

Did you take plenty of apples? I know what you mean about pining for the dear little Tiernsee. I don't think I'll be able to go back this coming summer (too many family obligations) but I'm definitely hoping to go the summer after next. Anyone who hasn't been - go if you possibly can! I'm very cross with myself for leaving it all these years.

I know it's been said before, but blimey, EBD doesn't half go on about how pretty the girls are in Head Girl. I wonder if they cut some of the descriptions in the p/back, because I'd not noticed it quite as much before. I was particularly taken with the description of Gertrud who we're told is 'still as pretty as she had been at the time of another journal of the school'. Does EBD ever describe a girl as getting less pretty as time goes on? As far as I can remember they all get prettier with age, rather than pretty children being disfigured by teenage spots or anything like that! The only changes in appearance I can call to mind are described positively - unless you count the odd minor character who puts on weight - maybe reaching the giddy heights of 10 stone.

Ooh, I've got a feeling they were cut - you remember that link that's been posted on these threads a few times, summarising what's been cut from each book? I'm sure it comments on one book where a lot of descriptions of hair get cut, and that this is actually a good move by Armada - that could well have been in reference to Head Girl.
I guess it's not entirely unreasonable that gawky 13/14 year olds grow into better-looking older girls/young women (I always think Simone is one of these, and Mary Lou too). One of the problems here, I think, is that everyone is either outright pretty or otherwise has a pleasant face because of their pleasant character, and given that CS girls aren't allowed to be unpleasant for more than a term, it's therefore impossible to not be attractive!

EBD does like to describe pretty things - mountains, dormitories with flower-bespattered cretonnes etc - so I guess it's partly just an indulgence along those lines.

Has Sophy Hamel become less attractive when she tips the table over in Reunion, or just gained weight? I can't remember... (Obviously there is no reason at all IRL to assume these things correlate, but given some of EBD's bonkers comments on weight it wouldn't altogether surprise me.)

Apples - alas, only one each. That'll be where I went wrong, and why Joey didn't come haring along to rescue us.
DS and I have talked about going back in Feb 2018 - he's especially keen for snow - but I've since realised that, if I can do a Joey and reproduce at will, I may be 'very busy' around that time. Hmm. Got to go back at some point though, and echo the recommendation that everyone who hasn't been yet also does so!