The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

monnagran

Silver-oldie, that's why I started my School for Children Who Didn't Like School.

burtha, you'll never know what a relief it is to read your last post. How sensible to look at renting a house in the short term. When you are dealing with all the problems you have you cant also be coping with a cold run down home as well. If you and your children are warm and comfortable life will be so much better and let's hope that the new solicitor is more proactive on your behalf. You need someone on your side who will actually fight for you.
If you can, please keep us posted. As I said before, we are hurting with you and for you.

My goodness we have all met our fair share of ' characters' during our school years. One of my favourites was Miss Bromby who taught maths at our grammar school. A tough northern lady, she travelled on an ancient ''sit-up-and-beg' bicycle and dressed in an ill assortment of handkitted garments that seemed to have been designed for someone else. She started her lessons some yards away from our open classroom door. We could hear her talking as she progressed along the corridor, through the door and swept across the classroom to throw open the windows, no matter how cold the weather. As we cringed and shivered in the icy blasts she berated us as weak, feeble Southerners. Her disgust when we were all sent home from school early one day as the blizzards raged, the buses stopped running, and visibility was down to single figures, was wonderful to behold. She was last seen pedalling furiously through the snow drifts wearing a cloak and a bright yellow sou'wester.

They broke the mould...........

camelot1001

Good decision burtha, hope all goes well.

I liked primary school, even batty old Miss MacIlwraith who must have been about 105 when she taught me! She would quite often be spotted looking in the bushes for something, heaven alone knows what. Sadly I didn't enjoy secondary school quite so much, one of the biggest in London and I think I felt a bit lost.

Anyway, college was good although I don't think I dressed in quite the way the lecturer thought I should, I did a secretarial course and had a sort of bananarama look going on, all boiler suits and big hair!

candygirl

My theory is that you have to be a bit eccentric to be a teacher.Who else would actually choose , to be holed up with kids for 39 weeks of the year? :rotfl:

fuddle

Sorry to butt in the teachy talk but I'm after a bit of advice.

I use to add lentils to mince and gravy a few years back. They thickened it nice without losing the gravy so to speak.

Now I would like to tweak my shepherds pie filling to reduce the amount of lamb mince - my 'gravy' is half a stockcube, splash of Worcestershire sauce and tablespoon tomato puree. I'm trying to reduce the meat content in a canny way as the family already struggle with the change in lack of salt in the mashed potato topping. Am I likely to get away with less meat and more lentils?

pollyanna_26

Lamb and lentils make a good shepherds pie . Do your husband and the girls like sweet potato mash? That makes a good topping and has more flavour than normal mash with no or little salt . In time their taste buds will adapt just ignore the dark looks until that happens .


polly x

monnagran

fuds, I pad my mince out with grated veg, onions, carrots, celery, parsnips for instance. It also has a tin of tomatoes and various herbs and spices that ma y disguise the lack of salt.

Candy, you may just have hit the nail on the head. If often wondered what was wrong with me and I quite fancy " eccentric," its more flattering than some of the things I've been called.

pollyanna_26

camelot my eldest daughter born in 71 took to the Bananarama look avidly most striking on a natural redhead was the bubblegum pink cross between dungarees and a jumpsuit , she also had a weakness for all things wham . I've some hilarious pictures of her in her 1st year at uni she would pay a fortune to possess as now she denies everything .


Monna I add all sorts in with the mince either with or without lentils . I don't like mushrooms or parsnips but other veg of all kinds goes well . I often think it's like the soup we make from odds and ends .


Your Miss Bromby from the North awoke some of the memories from way back . I think I may have blocked the memory of the windows being opened wide whatever the weather while we turned blue and our teeth chattered .


I was wondering earlier exactly how tall those Victorian sashes were and how high the walls they were set in above seated height . It was arctic in there. Did she ever use the term "Nesh" that's a Northern word but I 've known people in other areas use it but not in the south . It was very common in the 50s . If I dithered about going to fill the coal scuttle in the snow my Mum would tell me not be so nesh ( weak , wimpy call it what you will .


Worst memory is the Liberty bodice which was very much of it's time . I suppose I should have been glad as it was warm and a cosy extra layer in the winter but I hated it . It felt very restrictive and between all the buttons being fastened and the flannelette rags yanked out of my ringlets each day Mum and I were worn out before the day began . I was told at one of the mills it was named for a mill but was told other tales too . It wasn't very liberating !


polly x

candygirl

monnagran wrote: »

fuds, I pad my mince out with grated veg, onions, carrots, celery, parsnips for instance. It also has a tin of tomatoes and various herbs and spices that ma y disguise the lack of salt.

Candy, you may just have hit the nail on the head. If often wondered what was wrong with me and I quite fancy " eccentric," its more flattering than some of the things I've been called.

Exactly hun, I'm happy with the eccentric tag, given the alternative, zzzzz:D

silvasava

Monna - eccentric??? Surely not a suitable description for our beloved witty, pithy and wise Grande Dame - unique maybe or individual but not eccentric

monnagran

Oooh, Polly, Liberty bodices! Contraptions of the devil. Between its thick unyielding structure, horrid little rubbery buttons and, horror of horrors, the detachable suspenders to almost keep up the ghastly isle stockings, you ended up feeling like a badly trussed chicken.
Those of you too young to have suffered, give eternal thanks.

Silvasava, mmmmm! You would be astonished if you met me. I am the quietest, greyest, most dull and conventional person on this planet. At least that's how I see myself. Everything else is a total misapprehension.