Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

sorry only answered half the question, can see Kit's red pen on the page again.

Unfotunately I have no memory of Housey stew.

As for sciffage pie, it would be eaten dependant on how hungry you were. Like most growing boys that was, very hungry all the time. So I would eat it but try not to taste it.

englishangel wrote:

shoz wrote:Can anyone tell me what 'skiffage pie' is? How would you rate it, taste wise, also 'Housey stew', how was that?

That must have been where the school cat went.

oooooooooo miiiaaaooooow!!!

don't forget the ever present Qiz and Echo...

Qiz (or it's latin mate ) was for anyone want what I have?
Echo (meanin I in latin) meant I'll have it - although sometimes you got something you really didn't want...

When my son started at CH he and I would Q AND E at meals just to annoy his little sister - oh and his sometimes with us father...

amazing how you can totally annoy people just by saying two latin words!!!

Jude wrote:don't forget the ever present Qiz and Echo...

Qiz (or it's latin mate ) was for anyone want what I have?
Echo (meanin I in latin) meant I'll have it - although sometimes you got something you really didn't want...

When my son started at CH he and I would Q AND E at meals just to annoy his little sister - oh and his sometimes with us father...

amazing how you can totally annoy people just by saying two latin words!!!

Are you sure you don't mean ego?

Blimey my Latin is burioed very deep.

probably - am suffering with the flu - and labrinthitus - it's great - you feel drunk and dizzy just from moving your head.....

just ignore the crap I am coming out with for a few days - I just felt lonley so crept in here to play...........................

"Quis?" and "Ego!".........

'Quis' means 'who', and 'ego' means 'I'.........

Which reminds me, I'm supposed to be coming up with a new translation of bl*ody 'Votum' - I hope no-ones expecting it in verse! (or quickly....).

You could just re-issue the english words we used to use; title was "Scrotum" and the first line started something like:
I knew a man who never lied......"
Later encountered it as a rugby song, interestingly, with the same tune. Bizarre, or what?

"Scrotum" - yup, it certainly was!

The march version was 'Scrotum, arr, Crater-Head'.

Re. the rugby song - can you remember the words?

Given that the tune was composed especially for C.H., there may well have been some Old Blue involvment in the alternative version.

I would hope that a slightly subversive sense of humour stretches back through the years.

shoz wrote:Can anyone tell me what 'skiffage pie' is? How would you rate it, taste wise, also 'Housey stew', how was that?

Skiffage pie? Excellent - and plenty of it! I think the name put people off which meant 2nds and 3rds for me - hooray! Mince meat and veg with a lovely gooey fatty pastry on top! Yum yum.

Housey stew? Well that was OK too (tho everybody says it wasn't - I am just reading Norman Longmates' "The Shaping Season" about his time at CH. He says the food was atrocious, but then he seems to hate everything and everybody.) Admittedly the meat was of the cheaper variety with a fairly high proportion of gristle - but it was food! Us post war bluecoats sometimes cqame from homes where there had been precious little of that. Yes, Housey stew merited seconds as well.

There is a lengthy thread about food at Housie elsewhere on this forum.

DavebytheSea wrote:

shoz wrote:Can anyone tell me what 'skiffage pie' is? How would you rate it, taste wise, also 'Housey stew', how was that?

Skiffage pie? Excellent - and plenty of it! I think the name put people off which meant 2nds and 3rds for me - hooray! Mince meat and veg with a lovely gooey fatty pastry on top! Yum yum.

Housey stew? Admittedly the meat was of the cheaper variety with a fairly high proportion of gristle - but it was food! Us post war bluecoats sometimes cqame from homes where there had been precious little of that. Yes, Housey stew merited seconds as well.

Skiffage pie - not in my day (and I was there under rationing as well. I suspect that it went to the more senior pupils; squits starved

Housey stew: How come you got meat? Lucky so-'n-so. Ours was all gristle and few green/blackened spuds either.

I'm glad to see there was someone else who acknowledged that food was short - a number of people died from cooking rhubarb leaves like cabbage, grass took a bit of chewing. Your egg ration (1 a week?) was sometimes bad by the time you got it. IF you were lucky and came across illicit eggs (loike blackbirds, gulls etc) you put them in ising-glass and hoped! No wonder nobody got obese.

Dave, I'm with you on this one. I always used to like the less popular foods. As you say, for a hungry youth the extra grub was very welcome.

The notable exception was the porridge. That was truly awful stuff!

Richard Ruck wrote:Dave, I'm with you on this one. I always used to like the less popular foods. As you say, for a hungry youth the extra grub was very welcome.

The notable exception was the porridge. That was truly awful stuff!

Sorry to be the odd one out, I used to fill up on porridge and brown suger to stave off the days hunger pangs. There was never any competition for it, and you could always spit the lumps out.

AKAP wrote:

Richard Ruck wrote:Dave, I'm with you on this one. I always used to like the less popular foods. As you say, for a hungry youth the extra grub was very welcome.

The notable exception was the porridge. That was truly awful stuff!

Sorry to be the odd one out, I used to fill up on porridge and brown suger to stave off the days hunger pangs. There was never any competition for it, and you could always spit the lumps out.

A very wise thing to do, if you could stomach the stuff!

"Never any competition for it...." - you're right there.

Incredible, isn't it?

For decade after decade, the kitchens churned out this grey slop (or stodge) which hardly anybody ate.

You would think they might have got the message after the first five or six years.......

Well I tried - after all I bunked Latin - Quis is done as who (wants what I have here - which could be anything from extra spotted Dick to a slap on the face) and Ego - I -(as in I will have whatever it is you are offering.... very dubious as to that..)

Ergo - ha got you I know that!
Yes I am waiting for a proper translation of the Votum - put into context - but I don't mind if it doesn't ryhme

on 2nd brew of lemsip - I know I could just take 2 paracetamol and squirt pseudo-ephidrine up me nose - but - I'm using Trashco's own - which is incredibly cheap and has all the right ingredients (ie tastes foul but works..)

Jude wrote:Well I tried - after all I bunked Latin - Quis is done as who (wants what I have here - which could be anything from extra spotted Dick to a slap on the face) and Ego - I -(as in I will have whatever it is you are offering.... very dubious as to that..)

Ergo - ha got you I know that!
Yes I am waiting for a proper translation of the Votum - put into context - but I don't mind if it doesn't ryhme

on 2nd brew of lemsip - I know I could just take 2 paracetamol and squirt pseudo-ephidrine up me nose - but - I'm using Trashco's own - which is incredibly cheap and has all the right ingredients (ie tastes foul but works..)

Having a slurp of Plymouth Gin, myself.

On offer at Waitrose....