Camera-shy Tamsin
Some of you might remember Patience Beauchamp; she recently left Denham Hall Young Ladies College to attend university to study law. I should mention she had been my best friend for ages and ages and is still on my friend's list. I’ve got four now; that’s Facebook friends because I also have added the new girl. I will tell her about it later when she gets settled in.
Elspeth, that’s Elspeth MacDonald and Phaedra, also put her on their friend's list as soon as she arrived as they are also struggling with friend’s numbers. By the way, we once had a pet Angora rabbit named Phaedra. When she was called she pretended she did not recognize her name.
Patience had been invited back on a number of occasions to talk to the girls about life after Denham Hall. Her leaving college left a bed spare in Boadicea dormitory which was allocated to a new girl.
By the way the new girl is Zanthe. When she arrived I knew this would trigger a comment by Tamsin. She said mothers who give their children names like Zanthe should be ‘up on criminal charges’. She did not say what charges they might be; child abuse perhaps?
I repeat they are Tamsin’s words, not mine. I thought that opinion was a bit over the top; mind you that is only one of Tamsin’s opinions which are many and varied.
I was reminded of the time when young Dakota Pugsley of the lower fourth first arrived at college, Tamsin’s first comment was “It could have been worse, a lot worse. Her mum could have named her Massachusetts Pugsley”. Very true I suppose.
No, apart from her name, Zanthe is a lovely girl. Tamsin said her father worked for many years in the circus as an aerialist or tightrope walker and between jobs drove his very own cement truck before he got a job in Treasury on a salary which allowed her parents to send her to Denham Hall.
I must ask Zanthe to confirm this as Tamsin sometimes handles the truth rather sparingly. Normally boarders entered the college or move to the boarding section from the junior ranks on reaching ages 11 to 12.
I suspect Miss Pringle, our English teacher, realized the college resources would be tested to the limit when on asking Zanthe her age she replied ‘I am firteen and two mumfs, Miss’.
It was after college Friday afternoon, I asked Zanthe if she would like to join me and Tamsin shopping. She decided to lay around the dorm.
Woolies in Rickmansworth and Watford had closed down so we were shopping at the Watford Marks and Sparks. I lost Tamsin for a while until I found her studying the herbal essences, ethical nutrients, and skin moisturizers.
Peeping over her shoulder I inquired “Looking for something to help you smell nice, Tamsin?”
She replied “There is no need to be sarcastic Bridgette. No, I am looking for a ‘You Are Here’ thingy. It might tell me where the batteries are hidden”.
Wearing makeup at the college was discouraged. Hang on I tell a lie it was forbidden. Anyways, the vivid red of Señorita Lipstick would stand out like the red at the traffic lights so alternatively, herbal essences would have been a wise move, batteries even safer.
I love shopping as does Tamsin, so much so she said when she leaves college she would like to take it up professionally. Sounds more realistic than becoming a tug boat captain or joining the SAS. Having bought her batteries we walked up to the High Street to McDonald's, that’s near Tesco’s; you know opposite GAP for those of you that are unfamiliar with Watford High Street.
We sat by the window and said little. We were hypnotized by the exotic ever-changing vista of Watford High Street. Tamsin sat with her egg mcmuffin, me with my happy meal and both with our two slushies. This momentary weakness was going to cost me about 2 hours in the gym, or more.
After speaking to Phaedra on my Iphone, mother rang to say the good news is the castle manageress lady informed her the castle tuckshop is now fully staffed for the rest of the season, which is just as well with the ‘Best of the West’ festival in full swing at Inveraray Castle.
That’s a relief, and more good news is that father will be home for a least a month. I wish he would fully retire, if only for mother’s sake and the chance of some relief from the amateur physic woman Mrs Dalrymple.
Some more gossip. The Carter-Browns told mother Reynard the fox has disgraced himself and is now kept muzzled after he reverted to type and bit one of their gardeners. He is yet to bite one of the Japanese tourists in the tuckshop who love petting him. Enough of the castle gossip, I will be going home next weekend with Tamsin and Phaedra so no doubt I will be brought up to date.
This morning Mr Crisis, the science teacher, as you all know comes from Zeta Reticuli 1 in the constellation of Reticulum, hang on ‘praps it was Epsilon Boötis, not that it matters, it is not important. The story circulating among the girls is that he is on a sabbatical.
He explained time-travel to us. He explained looking through a telescope one looks into the past. One cannot look it into or travel into the future as it has not happened. Makes sense I suppose.
He said to travel to Zeta Reticuli for instance, which is 39 light-years away at our level of technology and travelling at the same speed of the Voyager Spacecraft, would take about 680,000 years as we understand time. He said his people travel by inter-dimensional means and skip universes……whatever that means.
It is deliberate, the girls purposely ask these sort of questions during lessons to upset his train of thought as they find it more interesting than discussing magnets and things.
It did not matter. I heard fish and chips was on the menu this evening.
This evening after tea some of us are going to the Rickmansworth Folk Club in the high street.
I remember one Christmas Rhonda, who has not got the best voice in college by a long way and is not even in the choir, got up on stage to sing and someone kept blowing strawberries or was it raspberries at her. Perhaps he was blowing his nose. Anyways the person was ejected so you can imagine how off-putting that would be.
I believe it is going to rain this weekend. Well it is in Rickmansworth so I am going to attempt to do nothing.
