Christmas at Denham Hall
Candice was always inclined to exaggerate. Nevertheless, it must be a terrible thing. She has had them removed now in time for Christmas, that’s Candice. It is Blodwyn and Myfanwy Evans who are about to have them put in…after Christmas.
I wonder why parents put their children through unnecessary torture such as installing stuff in their daughter’s mouths. It’s beyond me. Anyways it appears it was Blodwyn and Myfanwy’s turn to be fitted with one of these hideous contraptions and Myfanwy was asking Candice how long she was required to wear them.
Candice replied “all day”.
Anyway as I wrote earlier the twins were fortunate in that the braces were not going to be installed in their mouths until after the Christmas break.
Tamsin could not help herself suggesting “perhaps it’s a Christmas present from your parents.”
I remember the time Phaedra, that’s Phaedra Gascoigne, turned up at the Rickmansworth folk club one evening wearing earrings. Makeup was strictly forbidden at Denham Hall College, that included eye makeup but especially earrings and lipstick.
It was definitely a call out in front of the students at morning assembly if one was caught wearing earrings. We need not have been concerned. Phaedra was wearing clip-on earrings. Even so, although it was not a hanging offence, wearing lipstick would have been. There was a possibility of bumping into one of the teachers on the way back to college. I don’t think Nurse Mayo would have told on us if she saw us but she would have been asked us to remove them.
I remember when I first arrived at Denham Hall and Tamsin painted delicate looking earrings on my ear lobes with oil paints in really bright colours and I was called out in the playground by Miss Frenzi and told that real OR pretend earrings are not allowed at Denham College. It took quite a while to get the paint off as you can imagine.
It was Friday the 21st of December, the start of the 4 week Christmas break-up and a Christmas party for the boarders had been arranged in the huge dining hall. Most of the boarders will return home for Christmas. I knew at least 3 of the older girls who were about to leave college at end of the Christmas term.
Miss Sefton and Miss Pringle were present for the party but were to return home for the holidays. You may remember Miss Pringle’s mother died quite recently but she does have a sister living at home who owns a really big dog. The girls had clubbed together and bought a present for Miss Sefton, a 2020 Diary and for Miss Pringle a really expensive purse, an alert student noted her old one was falling to bits. The purchases were left up to one of the canteen ladies.
It was Friday lunchtime and as the girls made their way to the dining hall. They found it had been decorated with huge Chinese lanterns and colored Christmas tinsel and stuff. Briggs had sourced a tree from somewhere. Plates, glasses, and cups were laid out on the tables like in a restaurant with the addition of Christmas crackers. The kitchen staff had done us proud. Nurse Mayo from the infirmary had been seconded to take charge to keep order while Miss Sefton and Miss Pringle were relieved of all their college duties for the rest of the day.
There were two tables set for a total of 40 boarders, each with extra places set at each end of the table for Miss Sefton and Miss Pringle and places set at the second table for Briggs and Nurse Mayo. By the way, I don’t know for sure if Briggs has a Christian name. There was six kitchen staff on duty. It was not self-service this evening but waitress-service…….er by the kitchen staff.
In front of all the students was placed a very expensive, real leather-bound notebook with a colored crest of Denham Halls Founder George II. I guess the thinking was a diary would be out of date the following year but this was an expensive keepsake to remind the girls of their time at Denham Hall. Considering the fees our parents were charged the price was of no consequence.
Mother would have been hard-pressed to get the kitchen staff to serve up a Christmas dinner as we enjoyed that evening. Both Miss Sefton and Miss Pringle at the end of the meal stood up and gave a lovely end of year speech. It was a farewell also aimed at the students that were leaving the college wishing them every success in their future endeavors.
Tamsin was her usual noisy, excitable self, aided and abetted by Rebecca, Candice minus her teeth braces, and Phaedra, that’s Phaedra Gascoigne. The teachers were to have a similar break-up party in the teacher's common room tomorrow evening. I should make mention that my parents had invited Mr Crisis to join our family over Christmas. Father is mesmerized by his tales of other worlds. They have a lot in common, not that father is an interstellar traveller that is.
All my friends would be going home for the festive season although I will be seeing a lot of Tamsin as she only lives a half-hour away at Loch Awe.
It was Christmas day. I was up early to investigate the packages under the tree. Father had bought me a bicycle as a Christmas present which I thought was rather odd. It was sitting under the tree. I appreciate it would have been difficult to disguise. It may have been a subtle hint to me that he thought I might be putting on a bit of weight; I know Tamsin is. Mother’s present was much more practical. Gentle readers when I opened my present I was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful watch.
I bought a book for father entitled ‘The Far Side’. It might give him some insight of life on other planets when talking with Mr Crisis. Perhaps I should have thumbed through it first as it could have been a treatise on life after death. Anyway if it is a book on life after death it will be a present for mother.
The Carter-Browns came round in the evening and they had bought me a thing called a Fitbit whatever that is. I suspect it had also something to do with exercise. Someone else obviously thinks I am putting on weight. I wish people would be more open about it.
I was not surprised to see Mrs Dalrymple arrive soon after the Carter-Browns. She was mother’s best friend who had been invited round for drinks and a social evening. I like Mrs Dalrymple; she is all beads, mythical symbols, and incense burners and things. The world needs eccentric people like her.
An evening had been set aside just after Christmas for the castle’s maintenance people like the gardener Mr Flowers and his wife Betty. You might remember Mr Flowers had joined the local Wassailing club in the village which Tamsin noted would have been the only one in Scotland, had it not been closed down by the police because of continued noise complaints. Then there was the loyal family retainer Beecham, his wife and their son Raymond.
Tamsin was arriving on Boxing day and was to spend a few days with us….maybe even longer. I bought Tamsin’s father, Mr Lacey, a new Clarinet reed…… for his Clarinet. It is difficult to know what to buy people for Christmas.
I cannot contain myself:
Whoopy doo!!! ……4 WEEKS HOLIDAY
