This one is for everyone who got a cuteness overload for these three lion cubs at the Taronga Zoo When I tried to draw them they turned out more like Olympic - or Commonwealth - mascots. [The Birmingham one is Perry the bull]. As for the trees - the TREES! And, yes, I did miss the date - my fingers temporarily thought it was June. #MissTakes
That duotone enters into the whole Jumpers and Jazz mood at Warwick [QLD]. I'm about the grey and the purple at any time.
"Shoulders"! I thought - as I remembered Put me on your shoulders. Turned out our travellers were caravanning and packing and unpacking said caravan. Stabilo purple and Apple Images have a history of not playing particularly nicely. The diamond formations and the sheepskin. You may recognise the swirls from the curtains. And the stop mat for the back wheels - it is one of those brake/shock absorbers [the latter which were embedded for me from a Science experiment 30 years ago].
Diamonds are everywhere during this time. Specifically people finding these mini-diamonds and shaping them into facades. Also the whole Disney Renaissance Aladdin - diamonds roughened and in the rough.
The colours are so far out on this! It appears RGB Apple does not understand green... #ItsNotEasyBeingGreenIsIt ? [also this image took a while due to having #TheQueenofMigraines on the 21st and not actually being able to draw anything sensible until the 23rd-24th July
One person is usually the origin point in these crowd-type scenes. I focused a lot on their legs and new ways to design their torsos and muscles. #MindSports #SportsPerformance #SportsScience #CommonwealthGames #AustralianDreams
I leave you with a detail from Small boy and the passing parade. The woman is standing behind/beside the caravan. Her feet are near the wheels. And the bath is below after some white space.
Any sufficiently differentiated teenager defies the science and creates magic. When an emerging writer met Frank Herbert when she was 13 - that was a magic moment which took her into a literary stratosphere and made it more approachable. [let me think - the emerging writer was Catherine someone and she does speculative fiction]. And today's teenagers would have you LISTEN TO and FOLLOW the science. Isn't that right, Greta and Beata? #ourhouseisonfire
"As long as you wear your flippy-floppy hat and clean up after the dogs and don't have the dogs clean up after you; you can go to the beach".
Geology in the garden: shells and rocks of every sort as well as leaves and flowers. It is a great garden for science and for humanities and both of those sorts of learning. #thetwocultures #cpsnow
Skating on roller skates. Facing in the other direction, meanwhile ... There were some waves which made the young ladies feel like celebrities.
"Keep your friends close and your animals closer!"
When tiredness passes over into overtiredness it can be very unpleasant for one and one's friends. Especially as it was past midnight. Would they get the explorer into the blanket before the witching hour?
"It's not THAT he's frantic - it's what he is frantic ABOUT". In this case - it was about a puzzle and putting it back from the floor. "A place for everything and everything in its place". The little fellow was taught some version of this.
A very sportive pair those two. Lots of pennants; medals and ribbons. And jodhpurs and boots in the case of the young lady on the right. Some look forward to kicking their new footballs; others like to throw balls on or near a wall.
The Gingerbread Kid and the gingerbread cake - along with the gingerbread kid's biggest supporters. Sometimes people are just too good to eat. Sometimes all you want to do is eat them. You can do this in a dream.
Our youngest explorer in his grey nightgown and slippers. It had been a very rainy week and the ground was uneven. So someone put out the welcome mat. What was behind the door? Was it a minibar? a refrigerator?
Flowers and balloons and pull-along ducks. The kind that waddle. Sometimes you can't choose your nicknames - they choose you. For example - if people see you waddling like a duck - you get called "Waddle-duck". "Coursework first - then celebrations!" said the lady in the purple hat and the green dress.
Not many people know that to swoon is to faint. And f a i n t - one of these young ladies did that when she was at the most central of Central Stations in Warsaw to meet her friends. The other young lady is insouciant. As you would be if you travelled first class and expected Firsts in the coming five years.
Dreaming clouds and dreaming stones. Everyone is supposed to be three stones apart. And each one has their own cloud. I believe Dibs said: Every child should have a tree that is all its own. Every child should have a mountain that is all its own.
Across from the Bodhi Tree and the misty mountains. Sometimes the world can be so misty and so frosty. That is when your shadow self steps in.
Chipotle on the brain! And tomatoes; avocado and so on. Even malt from the malt shop.
Dreams are very strange things holding them in space and time. And I don't know how that red got in there.
Some of these animals went on the live export journey and from the United Arab Emirates to the Fremantle Port Authority they had to come.
Hands and feet and new friends. If you look very closely you will see the Central Station young man perhaps when he was very very young. I think it's the eyes.
Rice paddies are full of work and love, very often.
There are four children and two animals.
And we will end today's adventures with a spa bath or the kind that comes in jets and has towels.
Did you know that Pink Floyd does Friday Fundraisers? #pinkfloydfridays #stayhere #withme #pulse #runrabbitrun
Good writers do backgrounds when they can. Better planners do the background FIRST and respect it and put it in due proportion. That way the foreground and the middle of the field can pop out or stay disguised/camouflaged depending on what you want to do.
Such was the German President's speech and Queen Elizabeth the Second's on the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe / Liberation Day.
Orientation, too, is important.
In the theatre set design can be very abstract and symbolic. So, too, in music videos and their staging.
Such was the case in The Eddy which was released on the 8th May in the Netflix world. It was done by the director of LA LA LAND.
What a wonderful first episode. I needed something to keep my hands and brain busy.
The drawings come in three by three.
I used five colours and/or shades.
The bottom is a sunset-type image and there is much showing through when it comes to yellow and pink and purple.
The top has a two-toned brown background and then there is red green yellow and blue.
And I wouldn't be me if I didn't do all the colours at some point.
The middle illustration reinforces the point about backgrounds.
There are people walking all over the pile of rocks and other people floating in fine-tip pen.
One of my more amusing philosophical moments this May when I was reading the Oxford Companion to Philosophy [the 2005 edition which I acquired in 2012-13] was about SLIME - not the Internet phenomenon precisely - how SLIME is applied in philosophy. It takes up this third space between what is concrete and what is abstract. And it often connotes feelings of disgust and of fascination - this emotionally ambigious space which is a sense of productive uncertainty. A sense - too - of sensoria and qualia.
I had some more serious moments too. On the 29th April 2020 for instance when I spent time with Makers of Modern Culture and I wanted to know more about the speech act as one of the UK's greatest philosophers has it. This philosopher is J. L. Austin and he disseminated these ideas about the three forces [well, these are the three forces which are the most famous].
Illuctionary which is defined as what is done IN saying something
[Anthony Flew: 1981]
Locutionary which is the act OF saying
and finally perlocutionary - what is EFFECTED IN OTHERS by the saying.
These are applications of performative utterances.
Quickly summarising: we have in, of and by - "little words that pack a big punch" [I seem to remember an almost preternaturally verbally agile young man called Billy in Beautiful Child {T L Hayden 2002} who said that - and specifically about the word bad
Could easily have been his classmate Jesse - probably unlikely to have been Gwennie because she only came to the class sometimes - and the others Zane and Shane and Venus].
In philosophy - and especially in analytical philosophy - you have to look after the pennies. Even then you have not the guarantee that the pounds will look after themselves and grow interest.
I credit/blame Stephen Toulson and his definitive logical text The uses of argument [1959].
That same day was the 250th anniversary of Yorkshire merchant seaman and explorer James Cook and his coexplorer Joseph Banks when they arrived on the east coast of the Australian continent. You can read more about James Cook and Joseph Banks in The Conversation. Also in the Conversation's CURIOUS KIDS section there was an 11-year-old who wanted to know
CAN THE WORK ON CORONAVIRUS STOP WAR?
Good question! And never too soon to learn about the roles of multilateral organisations! For those of you who can read on the side ... and especially the green highlighted bit ...
The legacy, of course, was and continues to be deeply contested.
During the beginning of May I was pointed to a review of a movie called In Deed which was about a young boy called Benny and how he and his mother Melva meet Abe.
Abe is a churchman of the evangelical persuasion [that issue of the Monthly: Schwartz Media was kneedeep in evangelicalism and charismatics - Shane Danielsen was not immune!] and essentially he thinks/hopes/wishes his church can cure Benny. #mentalisation #filmmaking
A lot of my neurodivergent friends and interested and interesting people will probably have perceived and conceived where this is going.
Unfortunately [?] I did not get to that bit.
I did see scenes of Benny in his school - Abe is a cleaner there - and how he and Melva interact in church - and some attempts at exorcism and getting the demons/spirits out.
And how the rest of the family is - like the sister - and the woman who visits after an interaction in the waiting room.
Another interesting movie I watched - and had wanted to watch since January 2019 -
was Marwencol
which was an artistic and technical paracosm very relevant to this weekend - the macro and the micro ones.
Marwencol is this Belgian town which became a stopping place for veterans and travelling folk who are represented in the form of dolls - Barbies for the women and action figures for the men.
It grabs the viewer and never lets them go in the central dilemma between worlds.
Photography plays a role in disseminating Mark's universe of World War II figures that are based on people in his life that he imagines and reflects on and remembers.
People like Wendy and Colleen and Anna and various of his male friends from before and after the cataclysmic attack which results in brain injury and the associated effects.
There are moments when Mark walks on the streets of the real world with a well-modelled and sturdy tank.
There are so many swirly feelings and swishy feelings [the latter my invented set of concepts for dress; costume and genderplay / genderbending and exploration].
Thank you to the maven who recommended Kanopy.
One can watch 15 movies standardly - that is one movie every two days if you are sensible and/or use the credit-free work.
I noticed there was one on Valued Roles and Normalisation and another musical one.
Lots of sporting interests covered/explored too.
Was looking for a book about The death of theFitzroy Football Club ...
That was one of those slimy moments of machination and Machievellian feeling - Holmesby represents it so well and so objectively.
One of the more wonderful sporting and human interest moments was when Adam Scott called up a fellow golfer and turned up to their club through the help of a significand ...
A very lovely Tete-a-tete. Probably not like the ones in Paris cafes between 1929 and 1979 between de Beauvoir and Sartre and their circle - which are so well covered by Hazel Rowley #goodthingscometothosewhowait #andtothosewhosurvive #thriving #flourishing #copology #continentalphilosophy #existentialism #riversideoaks
I don't often think of knowledge in terms of the things I wish I had had as a teenager. I do wish that I had been able to process and cope with that knowledge - and with not knowing - in a decent way and with grace.
I think of people I know or wanted to know better; or feel better or different about. I think of things within and outside myself.
Especially the things I wish I had given - and not taken.
The times I won and I lost - and the times there was no result; or no apparent result.
The things I could and would control - and the things I failed to control - and should not have tried.
If you are bitten by the bug you give without ordinary thank yous.
And with the gratitude in the world - there's no such thing as an ordinary thank you! Or thank you and gratitude become ordinary. Thanks Theo Peeters.
With Avril Lavigne's debut album I got the sense that she was a very grounded young woman, especially when dealing with her professional relationships. This too I can identify with because I sought a professionalised or professional-adjacent identity - which was congruent with my personal life and aspirations and the people and the environment about me.
Interacting with knowing - are remembering and imagining. I did not know if they were a special form of knowing - and of course knowing comes in many forms.
Many students are advised
and knowing goes beyond remembering
when they are doing their terminal examinations.
And I think: "Ah, true!" If knowing did not go beyond remembering I think I would be pretty unknowing and unknown - and because it does there are so many possibilities and truths.
I learnt about the greenness that Lavigne sings about when I was reading The Getting of Wisdom - Laura - a rural scion - becomes a schoolgirl at a prestigious high-fee school and moves in very different circles in which she always feels an outsider and thinks she could get on the inside without sacrificing herself or earning very much cred.
Credibility was a presiding issue with my teenage self which laid on my heart and that I pressed on others - whether they were adults; peers; seniors; younger people. I wanted to believe you and to believe in you apart from the relationship that was between us - I wanted to know that you were something solid [and sweet and yummy].
How you could get it and lose it and get it back again informed and stretched my mind.
Credulity is another closely related word - it reminds me of times when I might have fallen for that - but I didn't! Or I might have - and did not see the consequences until later. There will be more about consequences and comeuppance - or maybe there will not be...
To be or not to be
that is such an emerging adult/teenage question! Thank you Hamlet and happy birthday to the man; the writer; the behemoth we know as William Shakespeare.
One example of adolescent rebellion I represent in my own drama is a young woman who thinks despite all the evidence Bacon wrote the plays. Very un-stateswoman-like moment! Tapping into the fear and delusions of her mother.
Another big word which begins with C would be conformity. That implies, of course, that you have a form or a shape. Or that you can be formed and shaped. It's okay to be amorphous! I thought of a very cool line today:
she bounced back like Silly Putty
which was based upon an experience I had the Easter long weekend 2020 of taking out Silly Putty - which had now become very slimy! [Lots of 2010s and 2020s teenagers are loving their slime at the moment - and I was very fond of Gak; so much so that I had it in my home prior to a disco. It is a good touch and it makes a good noise]
I had made the Silly Putty for the first time in 1995 during a science exercise.
So the Silly Putty was out of a Lego block or two or possibly a window.
What I remember about the putty is that it was very light and green from food colouring and it could be well-pounded. It was also made so that it could be put in a canister.
Two more C words for you - complaisance and complacence/cy [I think this latter is how Americans would write - the former is how Francophones would do it].
And compulsion. Now my younger self knew that:
There is no compulsion in religion
and that was from reading about a Malaysian prince who had kidnapped the children he had had with an Eurasian-Australian woman who came from these very persecuted beginnings as a schoolgirl and a teenager - I would never forget
Chinese; Japanese; dirty knees; money please
and it didn't make me any less racist!
You move from avoiding the overt stuff to seeing the covert stuff and feeling it from the inside and bringing it out.
This happens a lot with conceptual and cognitive growth. Some of it can be anticipated or pre-taught.
How does this tie in with compulsion? If you experience this compulsion as a force from the outside; a force to be fought [or to be flown from/to - similar to what Tamara has said about flying and how important it was to her as a teenager to have the possibility/option of flying even if it could not happen in reality] - you know what it is; what its name is; how it relates to other forces.
If it is something from the inside - it becomes very ... mysterious and inaccessible.
I am thinking at the moment about the animal-groom cycle [of which BEAUTY AND THE BEAST - a favourite musical and movie as a teenager - I remember the moment I discovered the Beaumont writer - and it became consciously and unconsciously part of my mythos] and the goose girl stories.
The goose girl mythos/fairytale is about autonomy and the animal-groom cycle is about intimacy and maturity.
The goose girl is very relatable to people who have enjoyed The Ugly Duckling [which I had always known was about Andersen himself and how he felt in the literary world and in the world outside his fairytales]. Sometimes she is a girl and sometimes she is a goose - and sometimes she has a job which involves geese or a similar following/imprinting bird.
Very often we are called geese in an affectionate or a mocking way. And I remember reading a book about a girl who
couldn't say boo to a goose
and if anyone said Boo in my world it was in a sporting context or it was a ghost uttering that syllable. Or even Karen Brewer who used to say that about things she did not like. The theatrical aspect did not come until later. As in "Yah; boo; hiss!" and that was definitely not a thing in daily life. If there was a lot of yah-ing and hissing - and don't geese hiss? And girls too; when they become angry?
One of the modern classics which influenced me a lot was a book called Annabel - Annabel on the cover had a duck following her and that was significant in the blurb. Lots of tie-ins to the goose girl and even to the animal-groom.
Yes - the groom is an animal in this trope. It signifies the animalistic nature of humanity and especially sexual[ised] humanity. And how you live with or overcome the repulsion and the disgust and the ickiness.
Ickiness was big with Madonna when she was a teenager - this came through a lot in the Morton biography which I read in 2003 - and she always wanted to be in control of herself. This was a way of coping with a dead mother when she was five; a father who she often contended with and brothers who did not understand her.
Madonna realised through her physical self and her academic accomplishments a measure of success - she had a driving ambition.
I was much more into Olivia Newton-John. A very sunny and entrepreneurial lady who did things for and with the environment - especially koalas and lots of other unique Australian fauna.
Discovering May Gibbs in a biographical context was big for me. This is a thing my grandmother took the time to share knowing it would help me for my future - a big gift where nature and nurture are concerned and the interactions in between. Complexly infinite and infinitely complex.
If I can think of something more concrete it would be that charity is not justice.
If you participate in Fair Trade or try to reform the supply chain you learn to see this so much more quickly. The ways that it was talked about in the 1990s made it very exceptional; a bit hippie.
Charity, of course, comes from the Latin from caring or love - caritas.
Charity is what happens when justice has failed or is about to fail. Because justice is blind there is a lot that goes on. Failure is built into the principle of justice - and if we didn't have failure we wouldn't need justice.
And justice seems to have nothing to do with success. Which I thought was wildly unfair.
There were people like Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey around - walking on coals and walking through air like in The boy who could fly and Pippi Longstocking. That was a great moment when Pippi walked on the wall with the sticky stuff and The Glue Man was an awesome character in his own right - unlike some of the other adults who were seen as unduly childish perspectives or "bad" characters like the Headmistress - who I came to respect.
The Head Girl was a little bit shrillish. I am not sure about this word. Libby West reclaimed it more or less. For me shrill and leadership and management don't go together. Maybe it's an aspect of not liking to be out of control - or to appear so. Moral soundness and empty vessels sounding deep!
Justice, done charitably or in a charitable way, has lost some of its sting.
I think too of principles. Pleasure and reality in particular.
Losing touch with either or both of those ... is probably a moral and occupational hazard if it is more than occassional.
And don't be so quick to judge your fellow teenagers as intellectually disabled or mentally distressed.
When I came to embrace the sense and sensibility inherent and developed/cultivated among youngsters and elders - I learnt to look back and forward with courage and not only be confined to a limiting present - or what I perceived to be a limiting present.
I came to develop fears of groups of teenagers on a basis similar to a father defending his vulnerable daughter - because I know what they do - and because I fear the unknown.
Another thing I wish I had known about when I was a teenager - or I had known the name and the words for the thing - the expectation-industrial complex.
I only came to it in my early 20s after some existential and existential-adjacent crises.
And another thing in the philosophical space [thanks Juliet Butler; Camille Paglia; Susan Faludi and all those late second-wave feminists coming into the third wave and into the fourth - I'll talk about Faludi later especially in terms of Rambo and Rocky and how they shaped Sylvester Stallone] would be
performativity
In that world I think about display rules and how they inform our emotional intelligence and our social performance.
There were lots of theories about social and emotional learning which made a lot of things explicit that needed to be explicit. And there were lots of disagreements and conflicts.
No relationship can survive without conflict - this is something I learnt from Rachel Simmons who studied relational aggression. If there is no conflict you may be holding back your values and your vulnerability.
Now there are a lot of reasons to engage and sustain conflict - and to do it directly and openly when you can risk/afford it. And there are a lot of reasons to disengage too.
And this is where Faludi and Stallone come in for today.
It all started when I was listening to Survivor's Ever since the world began.
My favourite lyric in that song would be: Just another part of the puzzle; just another part of the plan.
Planning and puzzling would be a big part of how I and others move in the world.
Inevitable that YouTube or Deezer or Soundcloud would give Eye of the tiger which makes me think of my theatrical life on and off stage. A particular adventurous character would be given that cue.
And then on an early morning this week the Rocky 4 and motivational soundtracks would be.
I had an unconscious Rocky interest in 1992. The whole Italian Stallion theme was relevant to my interests at the time - Ferraris and Fiats were my vroomables. Yes I know. I was a very high-octane person when it came to my energy and presentation.
To be very honest I was much more a fan of the sons than of the father. There is a great story about Sico the robot and Seargoh's relation with it which became part of the Rocky complex.
And then Susan Faludi opened up in Stiffed about the original author of the Rambo universe - David Morrell - and why a whole generation of American men may have been attracted to this story and the way it was told. And how it may have reflected on their attitudes to women and womanpower [as Germaine Greer popularised in THE FEMALE EUNUCH - which I only knew through Adrian Mole as a girl and young woman! Not the most satisfactory situation - and by the time I was aware of Greer there was THE CHANGE and she had written other important books on art and the art market and was teaching].
A lot of insight into the script/screenplay writing business and how these stories are shaped for this mediated audience. The 12-25 year olds who go to movies and are part of that top left hand quartile.
Remember too [and imagine if you don't know the book] that Stiffed is subtitled THE BETRAYAL OF THE MODERN MAN.
The MODERN man. Not the post-modern man. Not the pre- or trans-modern man.
The Finding Ninee administrator talked about raising awesome men and awesome people.
I think of the wonderful and humble Paul Potts and how he sang You Raise Me Up.
And that man's identity is shaped by betrayal; the anxiety of betrayal and the efforts to avoid it and abandonment.
Central to the journeys of Rocky and Rambo - which is what a lot of people had in the 1980s and into the 1990s where STIFFED begins - with the whole aerospace scene which was declining a lot in the USA [like the automobile industry in more recent times in Australia and really any subsidised bit - the recession made people very scared]. There was a camaderie, a comradeship, a humanity. It is also in books by the late Joe Bageant who had and has an outsize impact. The moment I picked up Deer hunting with Jesus was a seminal one; along with Rainbow Pie which is lots more autobiographical.
The very beginning of the 7th chapter of Stiffed talks about the Vietnam syndrome.
To say that Vietnam and its War shaped my own view of South-East Asia and middle-power responsibilities is to share a truth. Myanmar [Burma] was also big and Indonesia and Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea.
Reagan was an actor before he was President.
It was Clinton - and HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] which shaped my views about progressive politics and social liberalism in the USA / North American sociopolitical context. George Bush the Senior made barely a blip at all except for Iraq.
From a distance the world is blue and green
and if you're in Australia - or the Middle East - the world is yellow and brown and red. But they don't make saccharine songs about that, do they?
Thinking of Madeleine Albright and the big points she made about international co-operation. Along with Hana S [Polish Prime Minister in 1993ish - before Wlodimierz C and even Jerzy Buzek anyway - just as well I can spell the current Prime Minister of that country - Morawiecki - without yelling at my keyboard] - this was a Central European woman in the corners and corridors of power. Sweetly pretty and pious - and so much more of a model.
Oh: Marilyn Young called Vietnam WAR AS PERFORMANCE. Thought that was more linked to the first television war. The one on the Cable News Network.
And Fox wasn't even around until 1996! Nor Al-Jazeera! Yes - there was an era before 24-7 news cycles.
The media was relatively slow and patient - even though intelligent people got bored with magazines within three days of reading them - which was a problem when they were supposed to last a week or a month. And you passed them on like collector cards.
Books, too, were considered disposable and disposal. And that was before disposal was a legitimate stage in the information cycle.
When I read in the World Book that 1980s adolescents seemed generally more conformist [than the ones in the 1960s and 1970s? And what did this say about the 1990s ones? Not to mention the third millennium] I was good and shocked. Yes, there was a lot of very conservative and preppy stuff - especially around what I remembered of Reagan II. And it seemed more marketed and advertised and regulated than anything. More mass-y than messy.
So Be bold; make a mess and be messy - and know when you messed up?
And Vietnam helped lots of people understand trauma and stress and put that into a framework.
In as far as trauma has a reason - like "love always finds a reason" or at least a level [thanks Elsa and Glen!] - there is more to it than war and/or rape - which were the two standard narratives - very gendered ones.
In the Ramboverse one of the writers [D. Rabe] talked about his faith in coaches and people in authority which was this team state of mind. It often echoes in talk about Team [insert nation state here]. I note it is not teenagers leading this talk or even following it!
Even though team and group identity can be important in positive and pro-social behaviour and attitudes and values. Not the way daggy dads try to manage it - which seems to be the model of leadership and management these days. Dag is a thing which comes off a sheep and it is a holdover from the agricultural world.
Thinking too about the sociologist who talked about the four groups less likely to follow coronavirus advice/pandemic stuff:
Pleasure seekers
Self-centred [what I might have called terminally and chronically intolerant and inconsiderate - when this applied to Others - rightfully or otherwise
People without hope
and one more group
And I might have counted myself in the first two - had I not known health anxiety and community connection when it came to public health imperatives and demands.
Like local councils and head lice and vaccination/immunisation procedures.
So CREATURE IN THE MIRROR [and the imaginary audience is a big thing which I found out about in a Lifespan Development textbook which was published in the 1990s and I read in early 2006 from a church outreach] THE FANTASY CAVALRY TO THE RESCUE. 359-406 [Faludi 1999]
At the end Faludi says after her interview with Stallone I knew the odds were daunting. You only escape in the movies.
Escape to what? Escape from what? How and why and where and when? #sixservants #rudyardkipling #youllbeaman #if
The next chapter in Stiffed is about Waco [Texas]. To think last Sunday it was the anniversary of the McVeigh bombings. That is another 30 pages long.
Rescue and catharsis are big motivators. So are the desire and the need to make a difference - and to live honestly and with authenticity. Lionel Trilling was really good with and about that.
And if you don't over-interpret and over-determine what a couple of years can mean - or have meant for you - may the good; bad and the ugly be with you and of you! That is how Goodbye was originally meant in courtly love and other courtly circumstances of the type Hilary Mantel writes about in her Cromwell Trilogy.
And to you; to you; to you; Auf Wiedersehen; adieu; goodnight! [Sound of Music]
In response and respect to Blogging exposure's 27 March prompt about
Letter to your dream/destination [the link previous is the general Letterwriting prompt - thanks Emilia from My inner mish-mash and others for writing such good letters]
The quote goes on from That deep, dreamy, raw place where conviction and commitment meet:
Right now, that placeembraced the whole of me and disgraced me out of my inertia this morning. That place was crackling with energy, ready for a workout. When it got its workout, I would be so ready to take on the world and feel better about myself and other people.
And with that paragraph our dreamer/narrator transfers from the bedroom to the dining room.
That sequence happens to be one of the things I was proud of writing - and hopefully living - in the 2000s.
Yes, the early 2000s. January 2001 or February 2001 from the internal evidence [of perhaps the previous scene or two - if not a little earlier]. And there is some external evidence. I made a cover from a Nova picture about the beach with a man and a boy. That cover was dated 6 January 2001. And I wrote that date into the webpage's header.
Some of the things might be a little later like objects are created by people and the comment about a certain divergent thinker with Austrian roots who got into the Anglophone consciousness twenty years before the writing and a few years after he died.
Whether that thinker is in the Francophone consciousness... I will not go there today.
Now I obviously had an idea about where that piece was going. And where the narrator was going and where I-as-author was going. You know - a sense of destination.
What would constitute embracing and what would constitute disgracing and the whole workout that it would take and what it would be to be crackling with energy.
And there was a reference to a philosopher I had barely known in 1998 - Soren Kierkegaard - he's the one who talks about despair and dread and was one of the first Existentialists. I met him in Sophie's World which is by Jostein G.
Kierkegaard talked about these three stages - and most of the characters can skewer stage theory when they need or want to or when it just doesn't suit them. Pun nearly intended. There is a barbecue.
[and those gatherings of 5-10 people would not be allowed now! Not here in 2020! and not in the next six months either].
It answers the question: Do geopoliticians ever dream? Are you allowed to dream/am I allowed to dream now that I'm a geopolitician?
Before you say: Of course geopoliticans are allowed to dream!
That whole paragraph is about destinations - to which destiny is strongly tied together; choice - one of the characters says I want reality. I want equality. I want choice. [actually they said it the day before when they were trying to justify what they were doing and what they wanted for the future].
And tolerance - three of the middle sentences are directed to it. The ones about effort; achievement and commitment.
The Deep, Dreamy, Raw place - yes, all three of those qualities inform and shape each other - is a place which can be close to heaven or a fast track to hell.
I say often that dreams are funny things. Whether you dream them in the day or in the night ...
And when I think of that whole quote - beyond the one in the header - there is a lot of force there. And it is almost religious in its fervour. It was only meant to be humanist and philosophical. You know - taking on the world and feeling better about yourself and about other people? And what it took, again, to get there.
People who can be liars and xenophobes - and let's face it - purloin psychology to be a shadow of itself and to be a shadow of themselves.
It's about a world of people who are emotionally intelligent and morally expansive. #zonesofmoralconcern #emotionalintelligence #moralexpansiveness #caring #justice
People who care about their consciences and consciousness - both their own and those of others.
It's about a journey from charity to social justice.
It's about boys who raise crabs in the wild and put them into aquaria despite all the rejection - or at best limited acceptance - and make a way to initiate people into these mysteries in rockpools.
It's about honest discussions all the time. Discussions where de Bono and Piaget are mentioned like long-lost buddies or mates. de Bono is a very divergent thinker and uses mindsets and of course his Thinking Hats [our favourite thinking hat is the Yellow Hat closely followed by the Blue Hat - we find all the hats very waffo!]; Piaget thinks about moral development. #explainthislikeimnine #thelureofreward #thefearofpunishment #jeanpiaget #edwarddebono
And who stole whose thunder? That whole following your own impulses regardless of the demands of the environment. And wanting to know the bottoms and the depths of thinking.
And not wanting to miss out on Monty Python because of a "stupid prank" your brother played. Or on going to the market with a neighbour because one of your relatives-in-law is xenophobic or some other kind of -phobe/-misist.
Surely to feel is to behave and to behave is to feel - and that applies to people; animals; objects like glasses and trays and orange squeezers and knives and watches. If your watch becomes crotchety or tired I am not responsible. [because you forget to set him]. #centraleuropeantime #clockreading #clockwatching #ifyoubreakaglassyoushatteritsheart #baconandfriedeggsfortheeating
Where people can ask Is that photocopier a mechanical object or a technical object? and be heard out. [and then the whole Oh no! We're going in circles again!]
There is a bit of a Jungian moment about the anima and the animus and the imago - [...]Think about how the man in you would hate to be left out in the cold, or despised, or used.
And the song I was thinking of was sipping cocktails over breakfast in bed somewhere in Evita. Except in that house orange juice is had and made with squeezers. Three Valencia oranges, if you please! Is that not extravagance?
Also extravagant is the way that one of the characters jokes about the Black Plague. I would have to take up my younger self quite seriously about that one. I might write a letter to the Middle Ages or to some people in the Middle Ages or classes or groups of people - like knights and nuns and prioresses and the guy who works in Charlemagne's estate that Eileen Power wrote about back in the first third of the 20th century.
That same character enjoys lemon tea and cake.
I believe that cake was from a few days before because everyone who lives or stays in that house practises delayed gratification when it comes to sweets and cakes especially when that cake was made and enjoyed over a weekend.
When it comes to hard candies procured from picture theatres and laid on the table - all bets are off.
And I would say the apex of human development is quite a destination. Especially when you keep smiling and keep it in perspective. Like one of the other characters is able to do after he has been, as he expresses it, "cheated out of my mates for the past two days".
Even more so when you had to experience lies; deceits; tears; tantrums; fear and worries to get there/come here.
Young debaters and public speakers are taught to say:
It was an enormous privilege being here to speak to you
and
Thank you for the opportunity to be here.
It is very often a power move; an opening gambit. Some may be more or less effusive.
I remember what I would call David Helfgott's power texts: Be aware; be grateful; be positive; concentrate. If you ever have the opportunity to be at a David Helfgott publicity session you will hear these words hundreds upon hundreds of times. He says them to be grounding and calming as well as advice to young pianists; musicians and everyone else. These are the words he never heard when he was little and his career was only a private affair between his father; his siblings and him.
And Derek du Pre [the father of Hilary; Jacqueline; Piers] had a way of saying:
You decide what you're going to talk about; then you prepare to talk about it and then you talk about it and then you're done.
this is a freer paraphrase than I am really used to giving
It's in Hilary and Jackie - the biography by Hilary and Piers du Pre
and it's a shame because when you quote someone it's like giving the essence of them or telling their story or showing their soul or mind or heart. It's acknowledging their existence.
In debate, too, there is that whole resolved thing which is more in USA debates than in the whole Parliamentary - Government/Opposition - format.
If you learn one thing today from me: let it be this --
There is no royal road to language.
and that means that there are no shortcuts either.
Bridges; yes. Milestones; yes. Itineraries; yes.
In short - Romans and Gauls and Angles and Saxons and Jutes travelled the way we do.
Even now there is a little voice - the mindvoice - that says:
But is it meaningful?
That voice only grew over the years and the decades.
And did you know a mansio was a waystation or a house and especially a traveller's inn?
So many of those over the years!
People: this is not a road trip only.
It takes in ferry; train; walking; riding; air travel.
And on the way there are lots of trees and flowers and clouds.
Hello trees hello clouds hello sky - Fotherington-Thomas - Molesworth.
Two posts back I said I had three literary godfathers.
Some of you will recall: Sasek; Serialler; Archer.
One of those literary godfathers was Jeffrey Archer.
An entrepreneur who ran a newsagency and a bon vivant - whose sons I had travelled with at least once through rivers and through creeks - and his wife did the honours.
I will never forget the endpapers of Willy visits the square world which was written and published in the early 1980s.
And I will never forget the illustration and the first sentence - it has been there consciously and subconsciously since I have had memories and certainly since I have had ambitions.
[and others were ambitious for and with me too - a vital thing - like a space shuttle and a rocket and how it orbits].
Willy is the central character - a roman a clef of Archer's son. He has a companion who is a teddy bear/transition object/portal called Randolph.
What a fine clump of a bear.
And they are sitting in their room in Cambridge waiting for the adventure to begin.
Willy has also a spacesuit which someone gave him and he wants to go for a walk into it.
When Willy presses that button - there we enter into the complication.
You have a space suit button too - that once it is pressed it cannot be unpressed.
I am remembering about diagrams and other ways to show text in the blogging world especially when it comes to speechmaking. Someone might draw a football ground with positions and have figurines move.
Very often there is a poster.
We were taught different ways of creating and presenting.
I am thinking also of the child who lost a rabbit - a grey rabbit - Lapin Petit Gris it would be called.
The rabbit I have of that name did important tasks in diplomacy and they were helpful to me during Easter 1995 to date. This rabbit was sent adrift and it found a rock in a bamboo enclosure which is very good for centering and mindfulness.
September 1995 I wrote a short book - The Easter Bunny who was lost.
When I was a little girl; the Easter Bunny was but a concept to me.
It is bells and shoes I understood; and Pere Noel is austere and serious.
I did learn about St Nicholas of Myra and fifteen years ago [2004] I created the Giving Spirit. There is a spirit of giving; thus the spirit gives. And, yes, this is a tautology of a Rex Mossop order - which I learnt about from Alex Buzo the playwright.
When words stand in for concepts and do the work of concepts - are we richer or are we poorer as speakers?
[and how good was Esther Duflo and her Nobel award with Banerjee and Kremer? It's about anti-poverty and getting the children an education].
So back in the second half of the 1980s I was lying on a sheepskin/lambskin rug "when the generals were talking" and the books were put in front of me.
This leads to my second literary godfather - or the second I mention here.
Ian Seriallier - he made a picture book called The Bishop and the Devil.
This I needed to recall after some prompting.
The pages had such dense text and the pictures were lithographed like in the Middle Ages.
Simon Stern probably did them.
I do remember the blue cover and the sense the author was somehow very good and very famous.
It was not commercial like anything that Jeffrey Archer did - this man was the guardian of the English reserve and subtlety and nuance.
And when Seriallier writes about refugee and migrant experience he did it with research and with decency. Julia Hope shows us this in her paper.
Here is Dresden's Frauenkirche thank you creative commons
Here I'd like to say that the godparent who expects to be instantly rewarded and/or gratified has sometimes to wait a long time. They may be rewarded in ways that are unexpected or unusual.
Jacqueline du Pre's godfather and cello benefactor, for instance. We learn along her road to the cello - which is presented as if it were a lightning bolt.
In A Genius in the Family - and indeed in Easton's Jacqueline du Pre - where first I learnt her story [and finally got in 2003 from McLeod] in a women's magazine [September 1989] - we see the small steps to get to that point.
And the family were immersed and marinated in music.
Derek was into folk music. Iris Greep into rhythmic teaching.
And they had a first child who was a bright and kind little girl. She was born in 1942.
She would do anything to protect her little sister - this story is told from pages 29 to 32.
When first I read it in June 1999 - and again in January 2000 - it was a formidable and sentimental story. I don't know how well it was shown in the movie - though I did watch it first.
There is a very funny lesson I learnt in January 1997 about My fair lady - and about examination technique.
Do not write about the movie when the play is meant.
Be careful about form and function
And if you write about a movie; have courage and write about the movie!
Write about the criticisms too.
This of course applies to art and theatre.
It was another lesson I had learnt on a road trip to an ocean and a beach.
So I want to talk about the significance of a port city and the people you interact with and deal with on a regular or irregular basis.
So many English cities have port in them; and so much of the Internet has portals in it.
Very often in Toastmasters and in Youth Leadership - you are chastised for using filler words and filler sounds - examples include like and so and you know and sort of. The sort of words which buy time and processing speed and accuracy.
Today is my first year as a NitroTypist. For ten months I have been an officer for the Original Gangsters 24.
We were encouraged in active listening and Vocal Variety.
And these roundtable discussions - I will never now be able to imagine them without seeing Tadeusz Mazowiecki and his hard line or bright line on the past.
In rush hours as a student and a researcher.
One finds one's chair - I sit near to the lectern or sometimes near the judges' table. There are not very many of us - unlike last year and the year before.
It would be a Thursday and some Thursdays were in the library.
I did bunk out of a speech some time in October - probably the last week or the second last week.
16 November 1995 - two weeks before the end of the programme and the United Nations Observation of the Day of Tolerance - I give a Table Topic about daylight saving and my speech about books which are important in my life.
And it is possible - though extremely unlikely - I mention The Silver Sword though my American friends may know this book as Escape from Warsaw.
I do remember now that the big topic is My favourite book.
And I do remember that I wrote about Little Women.
In December 1995 I make another foray [and, yes, this is a Pan Tadeusz joke!] into the world of speechmaking. It is a collaborative one this time.
My first effort at a speech was not so good. I think of Lady Renegade and how brave her poem was in 2008. How she was so subtly able to sink the boot in and talk about six years of betrayal so well.
I made the revisions suggested and put in some of my own. And I had only to cover half of it.
There is a reason I leave the "Best memory" blank. Because it is an open question.
In December 1995, I try, also, to write a children's book version of a memoir.
The first attempt was very actualite; the second attempt was more sociological and cultural.
And, yes, it was capitalising on a market and an interest.
That whole writing and speaking for a general audience - an intelligent adult audience.
I could not trust their intelligence. I could not trust their adulthood. And I especially could not trust their auditing.
To enter into that contract of mistrust would be a significant setback.
So from 1996 to 2006 I was very careful about what speaking engagements I accepted and was into.
Where they were more like performance opportunities I accepted. In October/November 1998 - some 21 years ago now - I took on Courtney Chadwick's I wish I were an eagle and The Survivor from a book of international poems - Poems for a peaceful planet.
And I somehow had a reputation of getting out of all the oral presentations.
Today I want to talk about the intelligence of babies; toddlers; children; adolescents.
You will never get that intelligent adult audience you seek if you disrespect anyone at any stage of their development.
That disrespect may be unintentional - however I have found that it usually requires some intent and some agency.
It requires responsibility and shows a lack of sensitivity and empathy.
We can and do work through these lacks.
We do learn and teach through great deficits - often aching and gaping deficits.
We do forgive and pay debts - often enormous debts.
And we do this because we hope to win more than we lose; we give more than we take.
In fact there was a clever dick's words about Winners and Losers.
They did mark me a lot - the more so because the mark was delayed.
Sometimes I check myself because I was way out of line ...
And I noticed that Serallier died as I was being born as a writer [28 November 1994].
That first fiction book - Mixed-up Mademoiselle - came up in great part because of a wedding in the country. I wanted to write eight books and I finally wrote my dream book - Monsieur Carver's Yellow Girl - in November 2007 - well, at least 37,000 words on it.
Still waiting on that Chelsea Flower Show - and there was a good article about gardening in Provence.
These very well-arranged and organised and structured gardens.
Some three years before I professionalised there was an exercise about a girl called Kelly and falling into a garden such as you might do from a bungalow.
Seraillier lived and worked in West Sussex - Chichester in particular - his cottage was a flint cottage.
And if you are at the University of Reading you can look at his work.
Third literary godfather: Miroslav Sasek.
His great contribution to my literary development was This is London. It is part of a series called This is which is about different cities.
He mentioned things like the Chelsea Pensioners and the pubs and the mews and the pea-green fog and smog. [like The Owl and the Pussycat and their pea-green boat - oh Edward Lear!]
As well as buildings like the various museums and galleries.
He showed me a city in which it was possible to be in.
And you think that if this Czechoslovakian urbane knows the Anglosphere ...
Another of my favourite literary people is Miroslav - he lives in Only the heart by Au Chiem and Caswell - and he is the significant other of Linh who is a resilient young woman. Miroslav has his ways too.
Sasek made the most immediate impact - his book I did not really see as a story book. It had something of the "right" balance between text and illustration/image.
And there was a life beyond and before the Livingstones - someone had written in their address.
It was an urbane person; someone who lived in the city.
And then I realise that This is London is 60 years old.
It was a bit under 30 when it came to me.
Lots of the books have been republished in the last 10 years. For a new generation.
Around 2002-09 I discover Miroslav Sasek has a website.
This year I bought the Archer novel Nothing ventured which is all about a Harry Clifton character in the world of detective work and art forgeries - obviously a world which Archer knows very well in his other work and avocational interests.
Another of this avocational interests is cricket - and often in the October/November season there is a lot to write about in that you become exposed to the best writing.
Equestrian events do much the same whether they are commercial and competitive or recreational and skill-building.
While writing Educating Tadeusz I went into the dark room and found a book about riding. The things that people say up on high about us - I did pick up useful material for a short story from the perspective of a vision-impaired woman in France and in England.
That text hit some of the emotional beats and was very mannered.
Sasek took some really big road trips and helped the readers do so too.
In the olden days people used Thomas Cook and also Baedecker textbooks.
The pre-eminent travel writing of my generation and the one before has been Lonely Planet. I thank Tony and Margaret Wheeler every day - especially when I used Thorn Tree in early August 2000. That is the forum for travellers. I had my questions prepared about Central Europe - mostly the countries of the Visegrad Group - Slovakia; Hungary; Czech Republic and Poland - and I liked reading about the stans.
I had to use some trickery to get a phrase book - and then I did it twice. Different trickery - it helped that I had bought the first one openly in late August/early September 1995.
You know teachers and their gifts? I hope you are preparing for the Great Giving Season.
I will say only that it was an investment for the future.
Now the point about the road trip:
It brings out a lot of honesty and vulnerability [just remembered that Morton had his book called The year of vulnerability - he wrote a piece in the Saturday Paper about children becoming relinquished] in everyone - young and old alike.
There are some of us who would contend:
You are only as good as your worst day
and some writers are content - or positively revel - in putting their characters into "bad day" or "worst day" situations - and doing it quite frequently.
I have a deep ambivalence about being and becoming that sort of author.
Again - there are no short cuts for character development. Too many of one sort will unbalance a character. If you want to know more, especially about Mary Sue quizzes and how to make roleplays and collaborative writing opportunities like round-robins and chats, go to Springhole. I first discovered it in 2002 and then again in 2018 and I highly recommend it.
A travel book which inspired me was What Katy did next. I love the way Coolidge wrote about Paris and Rome and Naples. It was also a very real book especially Amy Norris and Rose Red and Neil Worthington.
And I had by now been able to count the Chalet Schoolbooks I had read on one hand.
[For the record: A Future Chalet School Girl; Joey goes to the Oberland; The school at the Chalet; Jo of the Chalet School and I swear up and down there was a later book].
There was also of course the Fabian Socialist Edith Nesbit or E. Nesbit.
I was to read in January 1996 Five children and it. Also Hodgson Burnett's A little princess; though not The sheep-pig which became a wonderful film called Babe. It is such a good film to see in the sunset.
It is even better to see on video - there were gifts too of Aladdin [which helped me through some athletics carnivals] and The Lion King [which was constantly being used for music talks - not by me - Celine Dion had now come into the mainstream and so by the last week of November 1995 - that was two speeches that week - one in class and one in public - I was to be the last.
And then there was a small lecture tradition and my speech was about "games you play" and there was another speech about a "far away country" - we students asked the speaking pupil questions. There were lots of open approaches and free-flowing work].
Louisa May Alcott's views of Germany in the 1860s and 1870s had come to me. Friederich Baehr is a legend.
So of course is Laurence / Laurie who is really Ladislas Wiesiewnewski. I had wondered if my student/autodidact Polish was able to stand it - and in July 1996 I finally hard my chance to look at a website about Louisa May Alcott.
Then one turns Ladislas into Wladyslaw [and remembers to put in the dark L's. In Polish they go above the letter - in English they seem to strike in the middle. Keep this in mind].
And Jean Little and His banner over me - and her two memoirs - one about when she was a small girl and one about her emerging as an author in Canada and also an activist and advocate.
I think of Gorrie and her sisters and brothers and the medical degree and the missionary life.
The memoir takes roughly fifteen years.
Someone else who wanted to live the missionary life is Peter Craig in The story girl and The golden road by L. M. Montgomery. I love the way he builds himself up and he makes this wonderful speech in the sermon contest. It makes me laugh; it makes me hoot; it makes me cry.
And the Emily series which I first encountered in 1993.
Emily of New Moon was new to me in the last quarter of 1995. And that book has been on many road trips.
The letters Emily writes to her Dad and her early life with him. The aunts Elizabeth and Laura and Cousin Jimmy.
We writers depend on account books and bills and anything which is scrap paper.
Public speakers have their tools too - like cue cards and speakers' notes.
The World Book Yearbooks help too. Especially the tables of continents and their leaders.
And Science Year Book - I believe I extolled their virtues to one Teaching Unicorn for her daughter and the rest of the family.
Here are The book of virtues and The history of the mind by Nicholas Humphrey who worked with Daniel Dennett - fine anthropologist and linguist and History and Philosophy man.
Also there are two volumes of Ken Maynard comic books which are based in public houses/hotels and racecourses and rural and regional settings. Dogs and rabbits are often the focalisers/facilitators of activities and adventures.
And they are very fine.
Thinking too of Helmut Kohl's cookbook. That was released in 1996 and I didn't learn of it until the early 2010s maybe?
Yesterday I was slightly mischievous [one speaks of a compliant response and occasionally even a mischievious response - this was my first explicit encounter with water familiarisation - or the first one for which there was a narrative report] in suggesting Europe was not a continent.
Today I am thinking of page 394 in the Readers Digest Association's How to write and speak better.
That reference is two columns at the end of a chapter about Your child's speech.
Don't worry; English language learners cop that particular bucket of crabs and sea lice too.
The distribution may be qualitatively and quantitatively different.
Remember what I said about "no royal road" and "no shortcuts"?
There are two ways, essentially, that parents will try to cheat fate and time.
The first one is what the RDA authors call coddling
and the second is marvelling.
The coddling model is the one where needs are anticipated so that there is never really a need for [formally defined] language.
The marvelling model is the one where a person tries to make a marvel out of a child.
Neither this nor any other strong divergence from normal language development...
There's a difference between having fun with the divergences and challenging and being challenged by and with them.
And only one in five speech divergences are caused by natural causes.
That means eighty percent are caused by the environment - humanity.
And that was the research in the mid-1970s.
We live in 2019 where the Human Genome Project has been.
Also there is Planet Word. Thank you Stephen Fry and his mates.
[there was a thing that Fry said 10 years ago that made me fry like a radish or a Babybel cheese - you know; white on the inside; red on the outside].
There are kids in that book who speak Klingon - delight my nerdy heart.
[Okay - that last bit was rhetorical!]
Anyway - that was so radical and radicool.
When I wrote Motivators of Stockton I was exploring man's inhumanity to man through the art of politics. Essentially exorcising the New Labour campaign. And there was this boy called Laszlo.
It seems to me that the Ms Frizzle wifi is on.
So I will leave you with an extract/excerpt and I wish you lots of watermelon radishes.
Another point about intrusive narrators.
C.S. Lewis taught me a lot of what I know about the practice - and it took George Eliot to un-teach me.
The first time I did it was in 1993 and I said "she does not come into the story much" about a woman called Mrs Balme. Mrs Balme was a kiap [someone who is a public servant in the dependent Papua and New Guinea], for whom the protagonist Miss Upchurch worked inside and outside the house.
Here is an excerpt about Holly McCutcheon; Caroline Peters [and I am so sorry I confused Caroline and Carolyn from Hoagie's Gifted- that latter lady runs the place!]; Miss Susanne Winter and Miss Eveline Pertilly. And Angelique Rodina Chatelaine, whose old aunt Marie-Therese makes a killing of an inheritance.
And we also meet Geraldine Caroline Eunice Harrison-Meadows. For a month the Guernsey Collegiate has had no head girl.
In chapter seven we meet Verity Rossiter and her mother Claudine Rossiter.
Then there is Mrs Forrestor-Davies - in the excerpt which begins here Mrs Hare [the woman Chatelaine and Pertilly have appointed Head] is doing her principal thing with Holly. And it seems to be a good introduction to who Eveline is and was.
A good thing about Mrs Hare is that she allows her daughters to read anything.
She could easily be Le Lievre - which is French for Hare.
Miss Chatelaine didn't and doesn't.
The eldest Peters girl I was never sure whether to write Shelly or Shirley.
Kate was always going to be Kate.
And the triplets were always Elinor; Catherine and Anne - named after various Queens - they appear in chapter eight.
Anne finds her special companion - Jannifer Jilliton. She and her baby daughter will become important later on.
Miss Winter is introduced as a servant girl - probably in the sense of servant leader or servant heart. Her connection is through Mr Peters; the father of three daughters - the youngest of whom, Caroline, is Holly's friend.
Les Femmes Savantes is based on Moliere. And Moliere was a very famous playwright in the Classical style - the unity of time; place; situation.
"We'll see what Miss Chatelaine and Mam'zelle say. Miss Chatelaine is reasonably tolerant, but Mam'zelle had a horror of people like you from way back. She was always bustling and never shy or withdrawn. She said what she wanted to say, as soon as she learnt to say it.", said Mrs Hare, who had found out this much about Mam'zelle from confidential talks.
Mam'zelle knew exactly what to do. She took Holly to a building she called Les Femmes Savantes which means the Special-Talent Girls in French. "I and Miss Chatelaine will keep you here and observe you, because we both of us think that you can never get with other girls. You have been alone too long.", said that wise lady.
She had wanted to call the building L'Institut pour l'Enfant Terribles but Miss Chatelaine called against it. "It is a silly name for a sensible place. It is supposed to make special talents acceptably special to the others!", she said. Mam'zelle didn't understand in the least. Miss Chatelaine replied, "You'll understand when Holly is the most popular girl in the school!"
They took her to the building. Inside there was a piano, a computer, some seeds, a typewriter, pencils, paper and two pretty flowered notebooks. There was a cut-off dormitory added to the main room where the girl slept. There was also a servant girl who tried to help the girl staying there as best as she could. She was very tolerant and knew special talents. She was a friend of Mr Peters, Caroline's father. "Good morning, Miss Holly. Mam'zelle tells me you are a bad girl-but such a good girl really!", said Miss Winter.
Miss Winter was two years younger than Mam'zelle. But she had had a higher education and was a genius. Mam'zelle envied her. She was a chatty girl and liked to speak and be spoken to. So she stood there and stamped her feet when Holly did not talk. "Mam'zelle tells me you are very shy. But she can't talk. You know what I mean, Holly dear. She just worked with her tutor and I was her best friend. I liked her-she was such a jolly girl when she learnt the language properly. But she talked with her eyes. You don't talk with anything and you are English! Mam'zelle would be ashamed of you!", she said. Holly replied, "I'll talk to you sometimes. I promise, promise, promise, Miss Winter."
"Golly, thought you didn't like me. But seems you do!", said Miss Winter. Holly kept quiet. "Well, you don't have to talk if you want to. There are people with brains who don't talk. Everyone knows that, even Mam'zelle, and she just attended school for one term when she was sixteen.", she replied. Miss Winter took all sorts of notes about Holly. But she knew the secret of discretion.
"If you don't mind, Miss Winter, could I see Caroline Peters, please.", said Holly. "Oh yes, do! But come to me. I'd like to meet her. I don't know her, but I know the other two-Kate and Shelly. I like them.", said Miss Winter.
So Holly went to see Caroline. Caroline was just getting into her pyjamas. "Holly?", she said. "Caroline! I came to apologise to you for being so silly. Come to Les Femmes Savantes for one day. I'm sure Miss Winter will let you. She's your father's friend and Mam'zelle's too.", replied Holly. "I shall come. I know you didn't really mean it.", said Caroline.
The two girls came to Les Femmes Savantes, friends once more. Holly always behaved herself, but always visited the old building with Caroline. Nobody lived in that building with Miss Winter, but she was not lonely. She came to visit the girls of both houses, but Holly and Caroline were her very special friends.
"I hear a new girl is coming.", said Miss Chatelaine to Mrs Hare. Both discussed things they never told Mam'zelle, though that young lady found them out at once. "Eveline, you shouldn't listen at doors.", said Miss Chatelaine once. But Mam'zelle did it, and Mrs Hare said she was a dreadful example for the girls.
The girls of Maison Polonaise were particularly interested. For this sixth-former would be living in Tante-Marie Therese Maison. Therefore this girl would be a rival. "Golly!", they all thought. Previously, they only had the Peters girls and they all liked them. This strange girl was hardly part of the "Foundation band" as they called themselves.
Just then, the girl came in. "Good morning, Eveline. Good morning, Angelique. Good morning Mr and Mrs Hare and Mr Peters.", she said. Miss Chatelaine was shocked. No-one except the teachers had ever called her Angelique! Never, ever, ever. "And good morning to you, Miss Geraldine Carole Eunice Harrison-Meadows.", said Mam'zelle. People called her Eveline all the time, so she was not shocked at all.
Geraldine found the room in the main building of the school devoted to the sixth form. There was no teacher as yet. But she would jolly well follow the curriculum on her own. She was sad that there were no girls her age, but she must try to get along with the ones the school did have. Pamela, Clarisse, Kate, Shelly and Holly were all a very nice lot she thought-better than the girls with whom she had attended school before.
The school had passed its first month. A very successful month it had been, and Geraldine would make it even more successful-that is, if she behaved herself. "A nice new school-a nice new way, that's what Eveline told me. She's a very nice woman for a teacher. So are Angelique and all the others!", she said.
Miss Winter tutored her in everything and found that she had an intelligent girl on her hands. She was kind and sociable too. In fact, she was almost the perfect schoolgirl-the well-conducted ambassador that every school needs until it finds its feet.
Then a teacher was found through Mrs Werry. Many of her friends had been teachers. This one had just come out of uni and was ten years older than Mam'zelle. "That woman has just spent her life in university.", said Mrs Werry to Mam'zelle. She knew for a fact that Mam'zelle had completed her Teacher's Degree in only two years and got honours in Psychology of Learning. (Mam'zelle had wanted to be a psychologist before she discovered teaching.) She had to smile when she found out that the new teacher had an Arts degree with honours in Slavic languages and literatures. When she had been finishing that, she took her teacher's course. She had been clever and well read. And now she was coming to the Collegiate! Mam'zelle smiled. She was going to recite her speech. It began, "It is a honour to have a teacher like Mrs Forrestor-Davies in our school." She was nervous. Then she saw a limousine. She just could not believe it! That grand lady coming in a limousine-and she just come out of uni! "Mrs Werry, could you explain the limousine?", she said. "Well, Mrs Forrestor-Davies is very rich and she's just teaching for the fun of it. When she heard she was to come here, she could not stop smiling. I think it's something to do with you and Miss Chatelaine. And oh, you'd better be careful with your English, Eveline.", replied Mrs Werry. "I'll be careful," promised Mam'zelle. She hadn't been told to be careful with her English in years! Mam'zelle was preparing her speech. All the students were waiting for Mrs Forrestor-Davies to make her appearance. And shock horror! she was just an ordinary lady. But Mam'zelle and the other teachers recovered their shock. "It is a very nice morning to be at the Collegiate, isn't it?" "Nice is not the only adjective in the English language, young lady! You could have used good, excellent, radical, awesome or any adjective like that!", said Mrs Forrestor-Davies. "I told you that you had to be careful with your English!", muttered Mrs Werry to Mam'zelle. Mam'zelle corrected herself. She wasn't going to be caught out by this lady! She didn't make her speech after all, as she was afraid it was ungrammatical and breaking all the rules of the English language. And she didn't want to do that. Mrs Forrestor-Davies noticed the Frenchwoman's silence. She said, "Read my famous book-A Thesis on the English Language and the Learning of It. It is good for girls like you, Miss Pertilly." Mam'zelle tried to regain her serenity. She had not been called Miss Pertilly as long as she could remember. "This lady is awful impertinent.", said Mam'zelle. Mrs Forrestor-Davies said, "So I'm impertinent, am I? My only problem is that I know exactly what the matter is. You sacrifice your Germanic for your Slavic. A lot of girls do it, though they never think about their English. Luckily my English was...is excellent before I started diving into Tolstoy in the original Russian." Mam'zelle thought that was a true rebuke and solemnly promised on her Dickens that she'd take more care of the English language in future. Miss Winter gave her the book she wanted. She studied it instead of teaching French that day. The girls were not at all pleased, especially Geraldine. She thought she was going to see Mam'zelle in action. She went to Maison Polonaise that night, disillusioned. She started crying all over her phrase book. (Shall I tell you what language she was learning?) Then she took ouot Thesis on the English Language. She took a quiz. Her English was a little better than the average speakers-all of them uni students of Cambridge and Oxford! At least that was what her results said. "Please," said Miss Chatelaine to Mam'zelle, "Mrs Forrestor-Davies did not really mean to pick on your English. She said to me that it was actually very good. It was even a par on the Queen's she said." "Tell her that I'm a Republican and I don't care about her English!", snapped Mam'zelle. Miss Chatelaine gave the message and the girls all slept very, very soundly. Mam'zelle fell asleep very quickly. Miss Chatelaine less so. Geraldine was in Maison Polonaise, sleeping in a strange bed-but she did not mind it one little tiny bit. Pamela, Clarisse, Holly and the Peters girls thought that the new sixth-form girl was very nice. But they wouldn't let her teacher know it...
"Eveline dear, You remember your old friend, Claudine Rossiter, at that public school? Well, she's an old married lady and has a daughter-Verity Rossiter. When she heard you were opening the Collegiate, she said, 'Miss Eveline always wanted to be a teacher. Now she's got what she wanted, she'll have my daughter." Well, she's coming! Golly, Miss Verity is about sixteen and she'll be in your fifth form. I understand you're not very well developed yet, but your girls get good marks! That is a good record and no mistake!
Miss Chatelaine tells me that you are very well and you got a teacher that picks on your English. I did not know it was so bad. You and me and my little brother Vladimir cause such suspicion and disappointment among the English teachers, but you became beyond how-do-you-say-its...
Well, it is time to close off. Claudine checks my letters every day.
Greta Paredeuski"
"Greta Paredeuski! Claudine Rossiter! I had no idea they were still around!", said Mam'zelle. She had known them both from her term in public school. Miss Chatelaine was surprised too, but she had begun the correspondence, thinking that Mam'zelle would find it quite beneath her. (She didn't.)
Geraldine had been two days at the school before Mrs Hare realised a housing mistake in regard to the said Geraldine. "Excuse me, Eveline, but did you put her in Maison Polonaise when she should be in Tante Marie-Therese Maison?", said Mrs Hare. Mam'zelle moved her and was pleased to find that Geraldine wasn't disoriented. She thought, "Thank heavens for that!"
Verity would be coming not long after from Munich in Germany. She was French though. You see, Verity and her mother had been taking a holiday to Germany for the last two years. Verity had been ill. She was getting better, though, so soon she would be coming to the Collegiate.
"Now, behave yourselves, girls! Somebody new is coming to the school!", said Mrs Hare. "Hey, you're not allowing new girls to settle down at this rate!", replied Mam'zelle. The teachers laughed. Mam'zelle thought, "Well, if it is the pace of the Collegiate and its first term! Golly, I usually like fast paces for heaven's sake."
She was thinking very hard of something when the bell rang. It told the girls that it was time for their lessons. "I think I shall just stay here.", said Pamela to Clarisse.
And so they saw the new girl and her mother. Mam'zelle was preoccupied with something or other and so did not see or hear. "Hey, Mrs Rossiter! How was Germany?", said Pamela with such an audacity that would have shocked Mam'zelle if she had heard it. "Just how do you know I've come back from Germany? Eveline, did you tell them?", said Mrs Rossiter. To the girls, "Pamela, Clarisse, this is Verity, my daughter." Mam'zelle woke up now and said, "How do you know their names?"
Mrs Rossiter retorted, "And how did they know I was in Germany? You didn't tell them, did you?" Mam'zelle said, "No, I did not." simply. Mrs Rossiter, "Now, Eveline, the time has come to talk of many things. As you know, I have trained as a teacher. An English teacher." "Ah yes, I remember now! You worked very hard with the Paredeuskis and now you intend to ask the Head if you can teach? Well, here is a place for you! The fifth form!", said Mam'zelle.
Mrs Rossiter went to Mrs Hare and they found they liked each other. As for Pamela and Clarisse, they thought Verity was, in the parlance of schoolgirls, "easy to get along with". Verity said, "You think it poss that I could be your friend?" Mam'zelle said, "You are just like your mother-she taught us to speak the language with gusto!" Verity replied, "When mother talked of you when I was a little girl, she used to wonder if your English had improved! Shall I tell her it has?"
After Verity and Mrs Rossiter had exchanged, Mam'zelle said, "I thank you kindly to lay of on my English!" Miss Winter came into the room. She said, "I new you when I was at your school and you at the Collegiate! I just can't believe that we're all meeting together this way." Mrs Rossiter was pleased to see her genius again. She had only been fourteen at the time and had already taken pre-Cavendish courses. Mrs Rossiter said, "So you are as clever as ever. I hear you take charge of Les Femmes Savantes which is a school in a school. Am I right, Eveline?" "Yes, that is right, Mrs Rossiter.", said Mam'zelle.
Then school started again with many disruptions. Verity was in form-room with her mother and the others had their fun. Mam'zelle studied her Dickens and her Thesis. Then she got a present that was delivered through Miss Chatelaine. It was a book called Language and Learning. But even perceptive Mam'zelle was not prepared to read what was inside. It was from Mrs Rossiter.
"To the French girl whose English has improved so much. You shall love reading about the Russian twins that remind you of Ivan the Terrible. How we used to giggle over his behaviour in school days! For E.P. from G.P. and C.R.", was what it said. "Thank you very much.", was all that Mam'zelle could say. And for once, just once, it was deemed acceptable by the hard task-master who made Eveline Pertilly what she was.
Verity didn't have any time to feel homesick for she was swept into the school's social life very quickly. As for her mother, she quite liked the other teachers except for Mrs Forrestor-Davies. And only she knew why, though Mam'zelle suspected a little bit...
Here is the part which concerns a road trip:
CHAPTER NINE London
Mam'zelle was now in Greater London. She asked a friend, "Do you know Mrs Williams? I want to see her about something." The man said, "Miss Pertilly! I am Mr Williams himself. I shall show you my wife."
Mrs Williams was sitting in a rocking chair, crying. "Oh, my girls, my girls! Poor Anne, poor Catherine! Elinor is all right, thank heavens.", she sobbed. As she got the letter she said, "That Eveline Pertilly! I'll jolly well tell her that I've been to Len-er, St Petersburg myself! She is the sillliest girl I've ever met!" "Here is Miss Pertilly, and she says she comes to apologise.", said the servant girl.
Mam'zelle said, "Well, I'd like to apologise for the Leningrad Affair. Mr Williams said you had been there yourself and hang me for writing such nonsense!" Mrs Williams replied, "All right, Miss Pertilly, I admit it.The girls are half-Russian because my first husband was in St Petersburg. I, er, divorced him when the girls were born and Mr Williams came into my life. And we've all been happy ever since."
We all probably have had a Leningrad Affair, but very few of us get forgiven for it. Mam'zelle was one of the lucky ones and she found a long-lasting friend who was interested in internationalities after all.
Mrs Williams came often to the school, giving "regards to dear Miss Pertilly". And she became a teacher of the petite-form which her girls were in. So Mam'zelle returned to the Channel Islands, wiser and wordlier, but Western Continental still.
CHAPTER TEN Return to Guernsey
It was almost the end of term. Christmas was just around the corner. "Only a week to the end of the term.", said Mam'zelle to Miss Chatelaine. "Haven't we been a successful school so far?", said Miss Chatelaine.
"But the important thing is that we keep successful and not lose our good reputation.", said Mam'zelle. "You certainly lost it that time you went to London to apologise. Mrs Williams thought you looked like a fright-and so did I.", said Miss Chatelaine in a tone that told Mam'zelle she didn't want any more excursions like that.
An excursion-of a different sort-hapened to the girls that day. They planned to explore the beach. Mam'zelle was much cheered by that. They explored a nice, ordinary beach and Mam'zelle and Mr Hare went canoeing. She was taught very well, but she always did learn quickly!
Then they wanted to go to Shelly Beach, but they got mixed up and Mam'zelle showed them a beach called Christopher Columbus Beach. That was her own name for it. The girls had fun playing on the rocks, hiding in rocky places, collecting shells and running on the sand. Mam'zelle, a child still, enjoyed it as much as anyone. "Well, she's only twenty, but a great responsibility. She'll sober up as time goes on." thought Miss Chatelaine. Well, you've got a hard job, Angelique!
Like another Angelique, she kept sedate. "My hard task is nearly done. Now I have a harder task ahead of me.", said she. The girls didn't mind at all! The teachers just laughed it off.
Mrs Williams never got any peace that week. She was constantly teased about Mam'zelle and what she had done. She said, "That French girl has loving-kindness and will go far, if she curbs her reciting tongue." Mam'zelle and the others just laughed.
And the end of the book when the young ladies leave after their Christmas meal [this is not a thing they get to have again]:
The last week, the girls were very, very busy. They packed personal possessions and wished each other Merry Christmas, little knowing what surprises would wait for them at the end.
Miss Chatelaine cooked up a Christmas feast. And the girls ate almost every bit of it. "Golly, how some of the girls have improved in just a very short time.", said Mam'zelle as she saw Holly shake hands and Catherine set the table for the teachers' feast.
Pamela set up the glasses for the toast. "Here's to the Guernsey Collegiate-the best school in the Channel Islands!", said she. They said goodbye to all their teachers and Mam'zelle who was still feeling badly over the end of the term. "You'll see us again in January. I wonder what surprises the new term will bring!", said all the girls.
Well, we don't know. But one thing is for certain-the girls are going to have a good holiday and memories of the first term in the Collegiate.
As the last girl left, Mam'zelle was doing some hard work, making the beds, polishing the floors (a thing she never did), scrubbing the chairs and making the boarding houses ready for the next wonderful term at the Collegiate.
Goodbye girls, I hope you enjoy the holidays. But I know you'll enjoy next term even more. And so do Mam'zelle and Miss Chatelaine. Their idea was a success-this book has seen to that! Au revoir for a little while.
That thing about Miss Winter liking to "speak and to be spoken to".
She appears quite a bit in Sarah at the Collegiate - the Sarah being a Japanese student - and not nearly so much in Rivals - she has her own reasons as you will see.
Eveline has met a man at the beach in the New Year. By the time of Rivals she has known him for about three or four months [the excerpt does mention 'early May' - a fairly big week with Liberation Day in the Channel Islands; Europe Day and V-E day]. She has also her own ambitions which sweep up the whole Collegiate in Guernsey and out - the Laurie in the extract is Laurie Sutterby-Butler who accompanies the School and so does a woman called Gretchen La Terre:
CHAPTER THREE Pounds, Poles and Papers
These three things kept figuring in Mam'zelle's life. The pounds she was trying to earn for the school's Continental trip, the Poles whose language she could not study now (she had grown tired of studying privately) and the papers that contained notes, compositions, tests and love-letters which she never grew tired of reading. They happened very quickly. First the girls were thinking up enterprising ways to raise money. And people donated very generously. Mam'zelle thanked them very much. "But the school will grow before we get the money!", she said. And she was right. Ten new girls came to the Collegiate-more than Mam'zelle could even try to remember. Five went into Polonaise and the other five went into Tante Marie-Therese. Mrs Hare put the names down. She told Mam'zelle, "Kathleen Petrie, Charlene Sutterby, Yolanda Rogers, Chantelle Harrison, Tessa James, Fran Van Der Winterburg, Cameronette Unterwalder, Jane Sutterby (Charlene's sister), Alice Griffin and Marie-Therese Rougley." Mam'zelle said, "What names some of them have!" Mrs Hare replied, "Do you notice that they came to the concert? I thought you'd remember some of the names!" Now to the Poles: Mam'zelle was pleasantly surprised when the Dean welcomed her back to the University. Another teacher had been found in Pan Wolski's place. And it was much calmer than before for the students concerned. (Pan Wolski had taught Intermediate Polish). The Dean smiled. She said, "Mam'zelle, there is no fault in Pani Groszy. She has that sunny temper which you'll like." So they learnt a lot more. She was studying the other languages as well. At the end of the term, she would have exams. It pleased the girls and tickled them that Mam'zelle had to take exams also. Hugh picked her up as usual. "Do you read my love letters?", he asked. "Constantly. Even more than I do my phrase books." replied Mam'zelle. "How's the new teacher, Evvy?", asked Hugh. "She is all right, I guess. She behaves herself, anyhow. But that is because the Dean told us to treat her like a Westerner-and that I shall do with vim!", said Mam'zelle. "What other parlances do you need for your degree?", asked Hugh. "Romanian, Magyar, Russian and Bulgarian." replied Mam'zelle, "I am an ambitious girl , am I not?" "Yes, you are, Evvy, and that's why I like you.", said Hugh. Hugh walked with Mam'zelle holding some of her books. Mam'zelle held his hand with a smile on her face. It was such a sunny May day. "May is my most favourite month of the year, especially the early part of it.", said Mam'zelle. "In that, as in so many things, I agree with you.", said Hugh. "Please, Hugh-I forgot to tell you, but we are travelling to the Continent next term! I am just so excited and it's a dream come true for me!" said Mam'zelle changing the subject entirely. "Well, what part of Europe are you and the girls travelling?", asked Hugh. "Germany and Poland mainly.", answered Mam'zelle. "Two contrasting lands. I remember when Laurie made her trip to the continent-she said they are so different!", said Hugh. Mam'zelle interrupted, "She is not alone in that." Finally, they went to the Collegiate where the girls were excited. 'This is Hugh, girls!", said Mam'zelle. "So this is Hugh Lewis whom we've heard so much about?", asked Felicity. "These are my Second Eleven, Hugh. They all came to the Collegiate this term.", giggled Mam'zelle. "Can you remember twenty-two names at once?", asked Hugh. "I have always been good with names.", smiled Mam'zelle. Mam'zelle introduced them, one by one, to Hugh. They all liked his ability to make a joke. They splitted their sides laughing. "Tell them how I met you.", whispered Hugh to Mam'zelle. Mam'zelle said, "Last term I went to the beach because Miss Chatelaine told me not to think of the Continent. And this boy saved me because I was thinking of Mrs Williams (I had just got into a Leningrad Affair then) and he said he was Joseph Stalin. I was not at all amused. He kept ringing up and saying he was Continental leaders . Well, after Lech Walesa, I just got fed up and told me his real name. He's been taking me out ever since." "And you're lovers just like that?" asked Fran. Mam'zelle gave her a stare that she would never forget. "Sorry.", said Fran. Her friends looked at her, as if they could not believe she had said such a thing. Hugh and Mam'zelle went to have a private talk in La Maison Grande and the girls went to their houses to play indoor games. "Well, Mam'zelle, do you want us to get engaged before or after you go to the Continent?" asked Hugh. Mam'zelle said, "Look, I don't really see that the man has to do the asking." Hugh said, "Think hard and you'll ignore that aspect of it." "I most certainly will." replied Mam'zelle. She had a good time in Maison Polonaise in her bed, trying to think about it. She certainly wanted to get engaged, for she had heard about rushing into marriage and thought it wasn't decent. But she just couldn't ignore the fact that Hugh had asked her so openly. She was shocked. And she could not sleep. The Frenchwoman tossed and turned thinking. Meanwhile, the girls in Tante Marie-Therese were having another pillow fight. Geraldine hadn't checked on them yet. Mam'zelle told Charlene to check on the Marie-Therese girls please! "Very well, I will.", she said. She felt safe, but she had not decided. "This is my whole life I'm sacrificing here.", she thought. No, she had better get to sleep. The girls were fast asleep, waiting for another day. "Good night.", she said to herself. Then she fell asleep. The next day was sunny. The flowers were growing, the birds were singing and Mam'zelle was smiling. "I am still deciding," she thought, "But the Collegiate comes first." The girls saw Mam'zelle and asked her what the matter was. She would not tell, especially to a blabber mouth like Felicity. Felicity had already blabbed about Mam'zelle's ambitions. She never asked, just found out. "If this goes on, I shall be the laughing stock of the school." thought Mam'zelle. Out loud she said, "Felicity Maynard, who are you passing notes to?" Felicity answered, "Fran Van Der Winterburg, Mam'zelle." Mam'zelle said, "Both of you in the corner-separate corners, of course. We shall get on with our lesson." SHe was interrupted by the two whispering. "They've obviously decided to be friends. But this is the wrong time." thought Mam'zelle. She chided both of them. Mam'zelle thought, "I hope Felicity isn't setting that German girl a bad example which she doesn't need." She once again chided them after they were having a great gossip session. "I go to blab all this to Mrs Hare. Perhaps she can help me to deal with it.", said Mam'zelle. The girls got on with their lesson. Mrs Hare was just in the corridor. "What's the matter, Eveline! It must be serious to get you in such a state! Are you all right?", asked Mrs Hare, who was always concerned about Mam'zelle. Mam'zelle explained, "Fran and Felicity are whispering in the corner. And I fear that Fran is impressionable as I was so long ago, Mrs Hare. I wish you would go into that classroom and tell them off. So Mrs Hare did. And Mam'zelle thought up some of her queer penaces. "Penaces are always, always needed for bad English girls.", said Mam'zelle. They had worked so well for her-one term, he poor hand was pinched twenty times. "Now I know better, but four years ago, the Paredeuskis and I did not always get on lovely." said Mam'zelle. She told Felicity and Fran to hold onto their tongues whenever they heard private information. "It's slippery!", complained Fran. "Then mind your so-tripping tongue.", replied Mam'zelle. "I had to do that when I was sixteen and pinch my hand too. You can see one of the bruises still-the first one." The other girls told about Mam'zelle's queer penaces. Mam'zelle had to smile at the effect. Felicity was much quieter and so was Fran. "Now I can have peace in French class and all the others. "Thank utter heaven!", said Clarisse.
CHAPTER FOUR Rivals
The Continental Competition, as Pamela called it, was heating up. Which house would earn the most money for their trip? At first, it seemed that the Polonaise girls would earn the most. But the Tante Marie-Therese girls soon caught up. It was to become a dirty rivalry. mam'zelle would not have this. "The trip is supposed to benefit you all." she would say and then say no more. "This trip is meant to be a competition." said Cameronette, the oldest in Marie-Therese Maison. Geraldine said, "You can't even keep your house in order!" So Charlene Sutterby was moved to Marie-Therse. And then, with her assistance, the girls started a car-wash. Many cars came to it and they raised #10. "A princely sum of money.", they thought. But the Maison Poloanise girls did one better. They had a dog wash. They held their noses but they got a lot of customers and raised #40.70. They really lorded it over their rivals, who were determined to get revenge over the Polonaise girls. And then Fran had a good idea! In Germany, she had been playing her fiddle in the streets to music lovers. "But I do not know if I can do this thing here.", she said sadly. The girls talked it over and Mrs Hare said they could have a busking band. "That means you stand in the streets and people drop money into a hat.", she said. The girls thrilled to this idea at once. They rehearsed and rehearsed, but the Maison Polanise girls had got Mrs Hare's permission, went to a department store and raised another #3. "How dare they, Mrs Hare!" said Clarisse. "Mother, how dare you give permission to these girls!" weeped Pamela. But they were slightly consoled when they went out the next day. They raised #14 and people promised more money which would be sent to the school. The Polonaise girls were not pleased. Mam'zelle said, "This is not one school but two houses." Felicity and Fran's friendship was soured because they lived in different houses. In fact, it was open war. None of the Polonaise girls would speak to the Marie-Therese girls. "This is terrible!", said the teachers. Caroline (Bless her heart) tried to patch things up, but when she didn't try to raise money, the other girls were not pleased! "I guess I just won't go to the Continent at all.", said Caroline. "Who would you stay with?", said Shelly. Caroline replied, "Miss Winter." For Miss Winter would not go to the Continent. She said anyone must be foolish to be taking the kind of trip Mam'zelle and the girls were talking. She said, "Once Eveline reaches the Polish border, all hell would break loose!" Mam'zelle assured her friend that it would not be so. The teachers were not pleased, especially not Mrs Rossiter and Mrs Forrestor-Davies. The latter had quite a lot to say, "Eveline Pertilly, this is not a stimulating rivalry that the school needs, it's a war that could break up the school! Imagine if this got into the papers? Nobody would want to go to the Collegiate at all! And how do you like that, Eveline?", she said. "I don't at all. That's why I'll stop it.", replied Mam'zelle. So the girls stopped raising money, but they got up to a grand total of #400. "That is #750, including Monsieur L'Alpuget's bequest." said Mam'zelle. "We can esaily go to the Continent on that." And all that happened in just a week! "How time will fly when you have fun." said Mam'zelle to the girls. "Yes!" cheered all of them together. "That's more like it", thought Mam'zelle.
Yes, road trips do have the potential to bring disparate people and ideals and things together.
One of the senior girls has her Abitur to do.
And neither Eveline nor Fran der Winterberg have packed.
Sixteen days to go until Brexit.
Again, I wish you watermelon radish rainbows wares and wars.
If you are wondering what a watermelon radish rainbow is:
And this picture is from the US Department of Agriculture:
CHAPTER TEN
Arrangements and Arguments
Mam'zelle had no time to gather her wits and apologise. If she had, she would have been forgiven. The conductor was seething angrily. "Come here, Fraulein!", he said, "Hold out your hand!"
Mam'zelle and Laurie did so. For Laurie had been in it too. And she had giggled at the shocking English. "Fraulein, stop looking at me as if I was the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler! I must assure you that I am not! And your train will come soon.", he said. "S-s-sorry," stammered Mam'zelle, "I know you're not him. And besides Adolf Hitler was just someone I learnt in History!"
"Golly! I accept your excuse.", said the conductor. Just then, a boy was running to the conductor. He was making signs to the boy. "And here he is for your Mrs Gilbert. I have explained about poor little Vladimir until these girls' ears have dropped off.", said the conductor. Everyone laughed. He could really make a joke and really keep everyone listening.
Then warningly to Mam'zelle. "But you must still apologise to my friend." Mam'zelle replied, "Herr, your friends are our enemies." The conductor said, "But, Fraulein, that was years ago. Next time, I see her, I expect a full apology. And that is what I can give on a telegraph service. Do you understand me, Fraulein?"
Mam'zelle said that she understood. "Now I must see to my train. I must not keep these people waiting. For they are as desperate as yourselves.", he said. Mam'zelle giggled. "Really! You should not giggle about so serious a thing!", said her friend, shaking his finger at her. He helped her in the train and Laurie too. Mrs Hare was holding Vladimir in her arms. "I thank you very much, Mrs Hare.", said Mam'zelle. "A pleasure to do anything for you, Mam'zelle, a pleasure.", she said.
"Careful!", said the conductor. "Exactly!", replied Mam'zelle. "Where in heaven's name is that apology?", said Mrs Hare and Laurie together. Mam'zelle gave something very quickly in Polish, German and finally English. "All these languages! Well, she will think you very, very tolerant.", said the conductor.
"Well, I really do try to be tolerant, in life and writing. It is unfortunate that I do not always succeed.", said Mam'zelle in reply. She said this on the train. And they were all sitting down, having lovely chats.
"Did you really enjoy your trip?", a German asked Mam'zelle. "Er, er, not particularly. There were some, er, bad bits, but, er, er, I enjoyed it so well. I am not doing er, er, it again, er, er, for at least another two years. I've had enough of er, er, er, the er, er, er, er, Continent to last me a er, er, long, long, LONG time. Thank er, er, er, you very, very much.", replied Mam'zelle. If Miss Chatelaine had been alive, she would have rebuked Mam'zelle for so many ers. But she was dead and the other teachers took her place. "Do learn to speak English as clearly as possible, or you will never set the example you want to set.", said Mrs Hare.
"All right then! It was just a fit of nerves.", said Mam'zelle. "Not Polenitis, I hope.", recited the girls. Paemla added, "And what do you mean by saying that Europe was awful?" Mam'zelle said, "Oh, you'll understand that when you're older. But there are some people in some countries that never understand anything."
Holly didn't want to attack her beloved Mam'zelle and neither did Anne. But they were both highly strung and their morals were just as high. Also, they were worried about what certain teachers might think.
"Really, Mam'zelle! If Mrs Gilbert heard you say that, she'd never speak to you again. And we really care what Mrs Werry and Mrs Gilbert think, if you don't.", they said. Mam'zelle apologised all over again. She honestly didn't know what was happening to her. Though she did not realise it, she was fighting a cold that she had caught over the border.
But she was well enough to get off the train and change stations at Dresden's Central Station from Frankfurt's. A six-year-old girl ran fast to her, but stopped at the tracks. "Sensible girl.", thought Mam'zelle. Out loud, she said, "Ingrid Fischer! You still remember me! I was the one that saved you that time." Ingrid said, "This is thank you-from all of us."
She was referring to a large present that was in her father's car. "Merci.", said Mam'zelle, forgetting her command of German and English for the moment. An older girl, about sixteen, was wearing the Collegiate uniform.
"My father said I could go to your school next term. Please, but he is very forgetful and when he heard of you, he forgot you. I thank you for saving my little sister. I love her next best to mein Vater and meine Mutter-and you.", said Alicia Fischer. "Well, we'd better take her also, for she is a real Collegiate girl now.", said Mam'zelle.
"Mam'zelle, one more fugitive and...", began Laurie. Mam'zelle interrupted, "She is not a fugitive. And I don't want you referring to my beneficiaries that way. Besides, what are you going to do to me, Laurie Sutterby-Butler?" She saw Catherine leaning over the window and panicked.
"Catherine Shepansky Williams! Come with me and sit down properly. It's all right-Alicia won't bite you.", said Mam'zelle. "If this school is as frantic and you as shallow as some of the girls say, then I won't have a lovely time. I want to, though.", said Alicia herself. Mam'zelle looked upset about being called shallow, but she was not, really. She just seemed that way because she lived for the moment.
And all this while little Vladimir was fast asleep, dreaming!
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Return to Guernsey and the Collegiate-and Mrs Gilbert
Mam'zelle looked at Catherine, Anne and Elinor and told Alicia to keep an eye on them. "Shucks! All right, then!", said Alicia. "Such shocking English!", said Mam'zelle to Alicia. "All right, I won't use any more of it, Eveline.", said Alicia herself.
"Mam'zelle to you!", rebuked Mrs Hare. All this was going on when the little Vladimir stirred and ran around the train. "That child is absolutely restless.", thought Mam'zelle, "Shocking that he doesn't know any more about decent behaviour than that."
So she put a most virtuous look on her face and caught Vladimir just in time. "Behave yourself! Do you understand me!", she said. He didn't understand at all, but Mam'zelle, by that time, had him quite safe in her arms. "Dieu merci! Thank heavens!", she said to the girls.
She put him in the care of Mrs Hare, who took the responsibility most gracefully. Then she could jolly well keep an eye on the stations and the girls, who seemed to get a whole new second wind about coming home. After all, the Continent was lovely, but home and their family just seemed to speak to them.
"Mam'zelle, are you sure you're all right?", said Pamela, who was very considerate when it came to poor Mam'zelle. "Yes, thank you, thanks to your level-headed mother. And tolerant you, of course.", said Mam'zelle with the old giggle. But that face had seen much better days. So had her tired eyes.
The next week-which just happened to be the last week of the term-they were in Guernsey. That week, Mam'zelle quite surprised the Gilberts-and so did Vladimir. "Hello, Mam'zelle, Susan's friend.", said Mr Gilbert. They were seeing each other for the very first tiem, for they had married in the holidays before this term.
"Susan, Robert-a little present from Poland!", she said, presenting a quite unsettled Vladimir. Mrs Gilbert gave her a look and Mr Gilbert said, "Have you broken any immigration laws lately?"
Mam'zelle shook her head, and went to see various parents who were picking up their girls for the end of the term. Tomorrow would be the very last day. Girls were handing in their Continetal assignments. Teachers were saying goodbye and wishing Mam'zelle and the Gilberts all the very best.
Then-the reunion of all reunions! "Hugh! Hugh! I cannot believe that it is you!", asid Mam'zelle. "Evvy! How are you? Did you get ill, crossing the Polish border? Did you have the most terrific time you ever had? Do you miss me? Do you still love me? Am I the flower of your heart?", replied Hugh. "Just give me a good minute to rest while I put the cases and trunks away in Maison de la Chatelaine for another term. Then I shall answer every question as far as in me lies, Hugh. And of course I shall always love you my- Hugh!", said Mam'zelle who really had been tired out. She did her tasks and thought many thoughts. "This Continental trip has been most excellent for me after all. I have learnt many lessons. And I have had such a time getting to know each and every girl. But best of all, the even better times are for me to enjoy-here on Guernsey for a long, long time to come.", said Mam'zelle, as she polished girls' shoes.
As the last girl went home and said goodbye, Mam'zelle said to Mrs Hare, "Golly, this has been an excellent first year for the Collegiate. Twenty-two girls, profits, companionship and all the things I love so well." Mrs Hare said, "There are at least eighteen more girls to come."
Mam'zelle was wondering about the girls. She wondered how they spent their holidays, so she gave them an assignment. They had to write letters telling how they had enjoyed the first year of the Collegiate and what they planned to do on the holidays. She got them on the last day. She really loved reading them, because she loved to know everything there was to know about the Collegiate and its girls.
