Daisy Dibbs Awakening
Don’t blame me for the title it was not my idea, it’s that Gascoigne again.
Denham Hall appeared so empty without Miss Pringle walking the corridors. No-one was quite sure how long she has been with Denham Hall. Tamsin commented at least Miss Pringle won’t miss the school choir’s festival being held at the Albert Hall.
Denham Hall College Choir had been invited again this year. We had some top singers with Rhonda, that’s Rhonda Appleton and the Evans twins, Blodwyn and Myfanwy. I hope having their braces fitted hasn’t affected their musical pitch.
That day had now arrived. I would not really rate myself and Tamsin as choristers but rather as ‘also sang’.
The day was just a blur. The Albert Hall was packed. Soon it was the turn of the twenty-two Denham Hall girls to assemble on the stage, not with apprehension but with collective confidence.
Our choral offering was the stirring “Cym Rhondda” or “Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah” as it is more commonly known, once the singers had arranged themselves Pastor Dickie nodded a cue to the organist. It was the cue for the organist to play a prolonged first note. I suppose to give us some clue what key we were in. The building appeared to shake.
We had sung this psalm so often we did not need a conductor, other than to start us off, like all together, and rely on us to be close to one another at the end, like finish more or less together. Of course you all know the words, so you can sing along………..
Guide me O thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land,
I am weak but thou are mighty,
Hold me with thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven feed me till I want no more…………..etc., etc.
During the choruses the organ sound would swell to a crescendo making the very walls vibrate. This very traditional Welsh psalm must have brought tears to the eyes of the Welsh twins, Blodwyn and Myfanwy Evans. They even knew the words in Welsh and that in itself is really an unbelievable feat. Even Pastor Dickie our conductor at one point paused in his conducting hypnotized by the girls’ voices……hello I thought, we are on automatic.
This was not a competition but a festival of song. No prizes were presented but musical reputations of the schools and colleges were hopefully enhanced or maintained. A photographer from the Watford Observer was in attendance and a photo taken of the college choir which appeared on the front page of the Watford Observer and a couple of weeks later a group photograph was given to each member of the choir.
I will show the photo to Nathan, leader of the folk group The Sheriff’s Men. That will take the wind out of his sails.
Miss Frenzi told us to keep the noise down as we vacated the classroom the next Friday and reminded us to check we had our homework for the weekend. I wondered what we are going to do with the rest of our lives, well the weekend anyway.
I knew I had re-joined the real world when the following day Tamsin, after seeing a movie called ‘They Came from the Beyond’ which is on at the Cineworld, Watford, told us she had been seeing flying saucers ‘all over the place’.
“For my gentle readers and/or those persons unfamiliar with Watford, Cineworld is near the Charter Place Shopping Centre which I might add benefits from parking facilities for disabled persons and young mothers…parking spaces. Fact is you can actually walk from the cinema to the Côte D’azure Cafe which is Miss Pringle’s favourite little restaurant that I told you about earlier where Briggs sighted her with her new man”
Now where was I? Anyways Tamsin after seeing this sci-fi movie had taken a sudden interest in flying saucers and stuff, even street lights and airplanes in the night sky were fair game and were ‘from the other side’.
Tamsin said there was a person who wrote a book about aliens being disguised as giant owls who visit planet Earth carrying out experiments. My thinking here is if Daisy Dibbs from the college kitchen is just showing the first signs of pregnancy she is not necessarily pregnant with an alien Owl implant. Does that make any sense?
This was Phaedra’s cue, that’s Phaedra Gascoigne going off at half-cock again asking Tamsin questions like ‘So are these real owls or are they just aliens wearing owl costumes?’ and ‘was Daisy’s pregnancy just a common old garden alien implant? Like, was it a real alien with evil intent that impregnated Daisy Dibbs or was it an owl’, because either way it should call for an investigation. Hang on. I am losing the plot here.
For the record I would like to state here and now I am not for one moment hinting, accusing or even vaguely suggesting our Daisy is having a close and intimate relationship with an owl and it is more than likely it could well be just a normal run of the mill pregnancy. You know what I mean”
It was getting complicated, even for me.
Phaedra fielded more questions which she said were pertinent like ‘how did they get a conversation going in the first place, like with the owls?’
I was terrified that young Naomi, that’s Naomi Brideau who is new to the college, might ask Phaedra if she would be so kind as to explain, but in a little more detail if she would, the meaning of words that were new to young Naomi; words which I know Phaedra is quite capable of discussing ……at length and in some depth too, like consummation and that.
I wish it ended there but it didn’t. I heard Tamsin telling Tiffany that her neighbour played the Clavicle. I told Tiffany a clavicle is a bone in the shoulder and people sometimes break their clavicle but they don’t play with it even if it is broken, she means a Clavichord…….. I despair.
Sometimes I think Tamsin is Mrs Dalrymple’s love child born out of wedlock despite Mrs Dalrymple being a widow and never having had children. I had heard enough. I was leaving.
To put to bed all this alien and flying saucer stuff I suggested to Tamsin she spoke to Mr Crisis our science teacher. Miss Sefton employed Mr Crisis when Miss Cribb left to get married. Mr Crisis had ‘flown in’ from Epsilon Boötis that is, on a sabbatical so I presume Miss Sefton took him on having solid proof of his impressive credentials proving he indeed had a keen grasp of science, so he could better explain alien implants and stuff to Tamsin.
I did not want to be anywhere near Tamsin when she questions Mr Crisis.
I will be going home this weekend so will Tamsin, so Mr and Mrs Lacey are in for an interesting conversation and if Tamsin threatens to come round to Inveraray Castle it will be a ‘flying Saucer’ free evening I can assure you.
Anyways I think I will end this daily account of life at Denham Hall for a while as it could be misconstrued as being somewhat distasteful and I also do not want to distract mother from the world we live in….any more than she is already being distracted.
Below is more research I have made that could throw further light on Daisy’s pregnancy.
http://www.theoriesofatlantis.com/features/2017/6/6/the-owls-are-not-what-they-seem
Bridgette Campbell
