Saluting the ‘older’ generations

Ravenscourt Park 26/03/2017Happy Mothering Sunday on this wonderfully sunny spring day to all mothers, grannies and great grannies, young and old.

Remembering of course that soon as one becomes a parent, one automatically moves into the ranks of ‘the older generation’, however young one feels or might actually be in years.

After all, what does age matter? Old age is what others attribute to you, not necessarily at all how you feel inside. Continue reading Saluting the ‘older’ generations

Confessions…

Still thinking about our schooldays…

‘After all, we’re raising you as future leaders of our country’ our nuns used to tell us, more than somewhat threateningly, when they felt the need to justify some harsh but apparently entirely necessary ruling.

So much for training up the country’s leaders, more frequently Continue reading Confessions…

Excellent Women?

So dreadful has been the news recently that, since lying awake nearly all night on November 8th listening to the news as the horror unfolded, I have hidden happily away from current affairs as best I can, absorbed in another, safer, world of books.

Excellent WomenI have been reading – with great enjoyment – two very peaceful and charming books, as far removed from Trump (and even Brexit) as is remotely possible: ‘Excellent Women’ by Barbara Pym, and ‘Terms and Conditions’ by Ysenda Maxtone Graham. Continue reading Excellent Women?

SPUDS Reunited – Back to School (Again!)

Nearly a month has past since a group of old St Peter’s girls – and a few boys – met up near Oxford for a most enjoyable reunion. Several people have circulated photos of the event which I have included here in the St Peter’s gallery, and Rhona Walker (nee Coulson) has sent a wonderful CD with about 40 photos of our meeting.
Continue reading SPUDS Reunited – Back to School (Again!)

Keeping in Touch – Families and Old Girls

Old Girls first…

Contemporaries from St Peter's School Bulawayo
Contemporaries from St Peter’s School Bulawayo
My silence is not because I have had nothing to say, on the contrary so much has been happening since the reunion I have not had a moment to tell you about any of it. And when I have had a sneaky moment the Internet connection here in Wales has let me down. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?) Continue reading Keeping in Touch – Families and Old Girls

A Second Childhood – St Peter’s Revisited

You may well wonder I suddenly seem obsessed with my schooldays, and for the moment, I really am! Having left school, and Africa in one fell swoop at the age of 18 when my parents retired and went to settle in England taking their family with them it had never occurred to me to stay behind on my own. Continue reading A Second Childhood – St Peter’s Revisited

A Chequered Education

Photo of the hat, and Marion
Photo of the hat, and Marion
I went to six school during 14 years of schooling and no, I wasn’t expelled from any of them but until my sister and I went – as boarders – to our senior school run by Anglican nuns in Bulawayo, St Peter’s Diocesan School for Girls, we had to change schools whenever our father was transferred.

A creature of habit, law abiding and actually quite shy, I absolutely dreaded starting a new school and only began enjoying myself after a term or two when I started feeling more confident. I must admit that in my teenage years Continue reading A Chequered Education