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 once broke my finger during a netball match and then still went on to score the winning goal! I didn't get carried off to the San, though.

I never quite understood why they put so much effort into the theme for the Sale. If the objective is to raise money, why are you spending weeks organising clothes?!

In one of the books it said they could just have a plain sale, but for the younger girls half the fun was dressing up..

Also the Sale is the big entertainment in the area at the time, so I suppose the decorations and theme and games stop it being just another jumble sale?

Mornington I was horribly unsporty and never in any teams. Nor choir. Closest I got to saving the day might be when two girls in a play got drunk in most un-Chaletian fashion and I had to slap them, shove them on stage at the right moments, and try to sing while holding them upright. Thankfully they were playing giggly schoolgirls so we got away with it.
Though now you mention it, we had various cliffs in the grounds and a friend still insists I pushed her over one. She just slipped and I couldn't catch her!

There was a grafitti campaign to get rid of the "black-haired dinner lady" which we assumed succeeded as prefects were grilled about it and she did leave.

I'd have been one of those background studious EBD characters. Or Jan Scott from Kingscote. Definitely an Untrustworthy Type, not allowed to be a prefect, etc. Fine by me - prefects had to supervise behaviour in Chapel, whereas I'd managed to skive off practically every time (thrice weekly for 10-minute assembly, about an hour on Sundays) since the fourth year. Of course if Miss Annersley had taken the services, I might have been won over by the simple faith...

I know that I'm just a new girl but can we do a sale based on the novels of Josephine M Bettany or, and I'd really like this one, legends of the Chalet School. I'd like to work with the Special Sixth on refreshments - we could sell the special milk.

Now see I was thinking of a wine based sale....or would that just be a step too far? i am not even sure where the school is any more..

With each form dressing as a different grape?

Maybe....or just as bottles? I thought for competitions we could have spin the bottle, how many things can you make with a cork, guess the wine by the taste, blindfold wine pouring,

Ive just tried to log onto the shared drive for the first time in a year or so and the password I have doesnt work any more, if anyone has the new one i would be very grateful!

And Tom is making a real model pub, complete with miniatures for the raffle. Or actually hasn't she done that before?

She did make an Inn once and they had to guess the name. There were no miniatures in it as I recall. However if there were then there is the comp.....how many units of alcohol are in the pub??!!!

I loved the idea as a child of her dolls houses and was most envious. However as an adult I suspect it would be the sort of thing you groan inside when your dc wins because it's big and scrappy and you know it will fall apart and upset them.

I don't think Tom's would have fallen apart....she was a master carpenter surely?

I'm always surprised at what I assume is the disconnect between the quality of items produced for the CS sale, and the quality of items I know would be produced by any random school I've ever known. Mind you, this is less intriguing for me in the case of Tom's dolls' houses - I'm willing to believe she was a carpentry genius - as compared to the scrap books and so on that I just can't imagine why anyone would want.

I came here to say that I have just found clock golf and a police force (rather than a school) run "on English lines" in Gladys Mitchell!

If anyone is still hanging on for onedrive access, let me know.

I've always wondered about the quality of stuff on sale too. And where on earth the people living up on the Platz manage to put all of the stuff that they buy year in year out. Do the prefects just buy it all then dole it out as prizes in the winter months?

If I could have OneDrive access I would be grateful

Do the prefects just buy it all then dole it out as prizes in the winter months?

Yes! And also, you know when they're scraping around for prizes for paper games and so on, and they end up contributing their own hankies and a bit of lace and so on - was that really an exciting prize for the younger girls? I realise this sounds completely spoilt-modern-girl (and I'm really not very materialistic, honest!) but they always sound such horribly half-arsed prizes. Hugely generous of them to donate, but I kind of think I'd be happier with no prize at all, and just the treat of winning itself, rather than being presented with Peggy Brittany's handkerchief or whatever, and having to pretend I was thrilled with it.

And and and, why is it applauded that Matey randomly stockpiles the food that is intended to feed the school, and diverts it into jam-making for the Sale instead?!

I've PM'd you OxfordshireLass.

Currently reading Future. Had not registered before that Minnie the minibus is lime green and cream...which apparently are Con's favourite colours!

I've been reading 'Althea Joins' after the comment above from Pontefractals. It really is awful, isn't it? So much so I can't remember whether I've read it before or not, it's so dull. The part where Len falls onto her art and gets paint on her face I assume is meant to be screamingly funny, but the arrival of Randy Reg lusting after her in her school uniform only makes it additionally grim.

I came here to say that I have just found clock golf and a police force (rather than a school) run "on English lines" in Gladys Mitchell!

Coo! Which book? And was it published pre- or post-EBD using those same phrases?

I'm not reading any school stories at the moment, but I watched the BBC repeat of The Romanovs (missed it first time round) and it's put me in a Russian frame of mind so I'm thinking I might give Masha and The Youngest Lady-In-Waiting a re-read.

Now then, girls, I know this is controversial, but I'm wondering if we couldn't give Joey and Madge a year off, and book a Lady Opener with a more - erm - public profile for the Wine Sale, to attract the crowds to the Platz and save the prefects from having to buy up all the tat for prizes. Any ideas? I was thinking Mary Berry might fit the bill, or perhaps Maggie Smith.

Ooo Judi Dench??

So much so I can't remember whether I've read it before or not, it's so dull.
This is basically my feeling on Althea too. I assume I did read it, and only a couple of years ago when I did an almost-complete read through the whole series, but it clearly made zero impression as I can't remember it! Is it the one with the strange pink worm, or is that elsewhere?

Ooh, another Lady Opener, that will make a change. I suppose Mollie Bethany and OOAO are out of the question? Kate Middleton? Michelle Obama? I definitely vote Michelle Obama.

The clock golf and the (Greek) police force "run on English lines" were in Come Away, Death - published 1937, so clearly plagiarism/Chalet inspiration on Mitchell's part. I love a bit of Gladys Mitchell - I came to her via the CS too really, Greyladies published a couple of her books (both with school/college settings). Ditto Josephine Tey, actually - I started with Miss Pym Disposes entirely because of the PT college setting. I don't think I'd have ever picked up a detective novel otherwise.

Bettany. Not Bethany. Autocorrect clearly more familiar with the bible than the Chalet School.

Yes Nell, it has the pink worm, Kathie Ferrars leaping into a moving speedboat then accidentally making it go even faster until someone else leaps in and stops it , and a burglar incident. It really should be more memorable than it is!

Incidentally in the burglar catching, Nancy Wilmot sits on him until the police come to take him away. She has always been described as plump, and clearly he's supposed to be flattened by her huge weight. This is undermined by EBD saying she sat her "ten stone plus" on him . Ten stone? That's a skinnigallee by my terms!

I have to say, you're inspiring me to read it again now!

Are we maybe supposed to infer that the 'plus' is a very substantial 'plus'? I know everyone was thinner in The Olden Days etc, but Nancy's tall with it, isn't she, and by any measure ten stone is not worthy of the constant remarking upon she gets for it!

Although, if would-be burglars can be flattened by 10st, I should definitely rethink my irrational and irritating burglar anxiety stuff...