Ramblings from my desk,

As per ghoti

My first day at school

I don't remember much about what I did once I got to school that very first day - what I remember was getting dressed - uniform consisted of blue blouses, a tie, a grey pinafore and a blue cardigan, IIRC, Mummy having a day off work to take me, and being ready *far* too early. I was really excited and ready to go, and it wasn't time - they had all the new children go in an hour later than normal that first day.

I do remember my last days at play school where the older kids got to pour out milk for the younger ones because we wouldn't get to do that at school. It was at play school/first couple of terms at primary school that I lost my Northern Irish accent - I'm told I had one. Nowadays you'd have absolutely no idea I ever did - except perhaps when I sing, which I try to avoid doing in public anyway.

I remember my first reading book - each page had the word 'look' printed on it, apart from the last page which said 'Look at this'. I seem to recall my teacher trying to teach us phonetics at the age of 4-5 - I definitely had to 'sound out' the words - there wasn't a great deal of help provided by the pictures. I don't ever remember not being able to read - from well before I went to school I could 'read' fairy tales - I'd memorised them all so well that I knew when Mummy or Nanny was trying to cheat me out of a bit of story by missing bits out!

I'm told there was a day when I fell asleep at my desk because I was ill and had to be sent home - I don't remember that, though I do remember another ocassion when the (male) headteacher looked at my tummy 'cos it was covered in a rash - that was Rubella, and I got sent home. Rubella wasn't really all that bad - despite the rash which looked a mess.

'Cos was one of my favourite words when I was little - Daddy'd say something, and I'd reply 'Cos?, and an answer, and then I'd say 'Cos again, and we'd go on for about then minutes.

Even remembering what I said about not remembering being unable to read, I do remember sitting in the hall trying to sing along to the words on the overhead projector and getting very lost. Talking about the hall - during the storms in 1987 the top of the roof came off, and there were a couple of days when not many people turned up. I ended up in a class which was a couple of classes combined - there were still only around 15 of us, I think, and we were taught by the deputy head.

We had an adventure playground, where we got to go after lunch. We had to line up and there'd be a chant going down the line 'Adventure playground', 'Adventure playground', and we'd be taken to it. It was beside the juniors' playground, and then there was a separate one for us infants the rest of the time.

Life

I've now got a practice LPC writing assessment to do before next week, which came out of Monday's letter drafting session. I rescheduled my driving lesson for Tuesday - I was pleasantly surprised that BSM phoned me on Monday morning before I got round to phoning them, I was also pleasantly suprised that I hadn't forgotten everything I knew - yeah, I was fairly harsh with the breaks, and my gear changing wasn't quite as smooth as it could be - but it was all ok. Driving in London wasn't so bad as I'd feared either - there were roads with parked cars on both sides, and other quite busy stretches, but it was fine. I can even just about do reversing round corners and parallel parking. Yesterday's professional conduct was as boring as I'd been anticipating, but I survived. Tonight comes going along to a Guide meeting near to my flat in London.

I've also got to sort out something for Monday - I'm supposed to be at a Queen's Guide meeting at the same time as an LPC lesson.

Ramblings from my desk,

As per ghoti

My first day at school

I don't remember much about what I did once I got to school that very first day - what I remember was getting dressed - uniform consisted of blue blouses, a tie, a grey pinafore and a blue cardigan, IIRC, Mummy having a day off work to take me, and being ready *far* too early. I was really excited and ready to go, and it wasn't time - they had all the new children go in an hour later than normal that first day.

I do remember my last days at play school where the older kids got to pour out milk for the younger ones because we wouldn't get to do that at school. It was at play school/first couple of terms at primary school that I lost my Northern Irish accent - I'm told I had one. Nowadays you'd have absolutely no idea I ever did - except perhaps when I sing, which I try to avoid doing in public anyway.

I remember my first reading book - each page had the word 'look' printed on it, apart from the last page which said 'Look at this'. I seem to recall my teacher trying to teach us phonetics at the age of 4-5 - I definitely had to 'sound out' the words - there wasn't a great deal of help provided by the pictures. I don't ever remember not being able to read - from well before I went to school I could 'read' fairy tales - I'd memorised them all so well that I knew when Mummy or Nanny was trying to cheat me out of a bit of story by missing bits out!

I'm told there was a day when I fell asleep at my desk because I was ill and had to be sent home - I don't remember that, though I do remember another ocassion when the (male) headteacher looked at my tummy 'cos it was covered in a rash - that was Rubella, and I got sent home. Rubella wasn't really all that bad - despite the rash which looked a mess.

'Cos was one of my favourite words when I was little - Daddy'd say something, and I'd reply 'Cos?, and an answer, and then I'd say 'Cos again, and we'd go on for about then minutes.

Even remembering what I said about not remembering being unable to read, I do remember sitting in the hall trying to sing along to the words on the overhead projector and getting very lost. Talking about the hall - during the storms in 1987 the top of the roof came off, and there were a couple of days when not many people turned up. I ended up in a class which was a couple of classes combined - there were still only around 15 of us, I think, and we were taught by the deputy head.

We had an adventure playground, where we got to go after lunch. We had to line up and there'd be a chant going down the line 'Adventure playground', 'Adventure playground', and we'd be taken to it. It was beside the juniors' playground, and then there was a separate one for us infants the rest of the time.

Life

I've now got a practice LPC writing assessment to do before next week, which came out of Monday's letter drafting session. I rescheduled my driving lesson for Tuesday - I was pleasantly surprised that BSM phoned me on Monday morning before I got round to phoning them, I was also pleasantly suprised that I hadn't forgotten everything I knew - yeah, I was fairly harsh with the breaks, and my gear changing wasn't quite as smooth as it could be - but it was all ok. Driving in London wasn't so bad as I'd feared either - there were roads with parked cars on both sides, and other quite busy stretches, but it was fine. I can even just about do reversing round corners and parallel parking. Yesterday's professional conduct was as boring as I'd been anticipating, but I survived. Tonight comes going along to a Guide meeting near to my flat in London.

I've also got to sort out something for Monday - I'm supposed to be at a Queen's Guide meeting at the same time as an LPC lesson.