Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I'd feel difficulty called Susan Parkin "Sue". It just wouldn't... be appropriate! I was called Munch, I suppose, because I was the school fatty, never to be taken seriously, always a "fun" personality, and was quickly given a comedy name. I notice it on the Forum too. If I get ...

Perhaps she was young for her year then. The cut off seemed to be round about Christmas, not September, but quite a few people were even younger - in our year I know Trish Buddle was the youngest with a birthday in early May, but Eileen Downing wasn't much older than Trish. My birthday is mid augus...

Today's Church Times contains a reflection by Rev David Bryant, an OB and retired vicar, on the CH graces. You can read it at http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=85166 .

It was purchased for its robustness, and I remember Dad telling me, when he and Mum returned from the shopping trip, that the Salesperson jumped on the lid of the closed case to demonstrate just how tough it was. xx I still have mine too - a blue Globetrotter. We bought it in Bognor before my first...

Carol of the Birds Out on the plains the brolgas are dancing Lifting their feet like war horses prancing Up to the sun the woodlarks go winging Faint in the dawn light echoes their singing Orana! Orana! Orana to Christmas Day Down where the tree ferns grow by the river There where the waters sparkl...

Various other hymns come to mind, too. I can't remember the first line, but Something something isle Where every prospect pleases But only man is vile - Which goes on to comment "The heathen in his blindness Bows down to wood and stone" Funny really - those fanatical Christians would quit...

(Off Topic! :wink: 20 more posts and I'll be at 2000!!) No - I still don't like the idea of a cat in a collar, let alone a collar with a bell. A collar doesn't tie in with the dignity and superior bearing of a cat. Collars are all right for - pant pant, loll tongue, woof, anxious-to-please, woof, p...

That's a funny thing Katharine. I can remember doing the washing up of cutlery after meals, because those baskets were so disgusting. We just used to froth them up and down in the washing-up water - but they still had little fragments of old food clinging - oh yuck! It seems really unhygienic to me...

You are right Jo, Miss Griffith-Williams was lame - she also sniffed alot and seemed to have a permanent cold. She not only sounded boring, I think she really was truly bored! Miss Coles was a fabulous history teacher and inspired me as well with a great love of history. She taught with passion and...

Another (non-resident) maths teacher I remember was Mrs Thomas, the local Methodist minister's wife, who worked at CH part-time. In those days, when 'clergy wife' was virtually a profession in itself, it was quite unusual for someone in that position to have a real job, and some of her husband's co...

If the whole school went I must have been there, and I think that this has been mentioned before, as has the money given to us on St Matthew's Day, both of which have been completely erased from my memory. I definitely don't remember it so perhaps we can conclude that the girls didn't go. I do reme...

The version of Yorkshire rivers that I learned definitely included the Don - I wonder if the boundaries moved after my time (1956 - 62)? What I cannot now remember though are the stations on the Trans Siberian Railway, some of which made wonderful substitutes for swear words - Vladivostok, Verkhoya...

The conversation would be of our Church, St James, Clapham Park, the services, people who had given their lives to the Lord, an old enemy (the Rev Carter of St Stephens, Clapham Park) Both these churches are in our deanery - the vicar of St Stephens is Area Dean. I'd love to know more about this riv...

Ouch... yes, I encountered the same sort of thing when I went to Oxford and desperately tried to blend in. Nobody ever seemed to notice I was a fraud, or if they did they were too polite to say so. And I still haven't quite mastered the discipline of of the prompt and automatic thank you letter - I ...

. I was pretty unhappy at school. How about you? My unhappiness came from buying into the whole DR "being responsible" thing uncritically, trying to conform and failing. I always had a suspicion that I was missing something, but lacked the nerve to flout the régime deliberately, as some ...