Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Jo wrote: I'd gone down into the school block basement during All Out with Helen Smith and someone else - possibly Helen Osborne, and he was on playground duty.

Now that was a place with a distinctive smell and atmosphere - whatever actually smelt compounded by the knowledge that it was out of bound, and what felt like a very creepy set of spaces and corners. All Out was quite barbaric really.... a whole hour outside whatever the temperature in nothing but aertex shirt, gymslip and pullover... all right if you were sporty, but chilly and boring for rabbits like me. However, if faced with freezing or netball I still know which I'd choose......

There were always pranks to play if not actively engaged in sports! Remember the rose beds by the tennis courts - the itching powder from the hips, which one could drop down the back of someone's shirt etc.

I never realized there was a basement in the school block. I should have - because of Sin City in the science block - but it never occurred to me. Amazing how the smallest things seemed so incredibly daring. We used to sneak into the science block and climb up and down the three floors on the outside of the staircase - nothing to prevent you hurtling 3 stories onto the marbled tile. Also remember sneaking in to the school block one Friday night and drawing things on the blackboards to liven up the following morning's prep. 2 of us were standing on the same chair - when the other girl jumped off. The chair tipped and caused me to fall, barking my shin severely. I knocked so much skin off - you could see bone very clearly on a 4 or 5" strip. We were terrified. It wouldn't stop bleeding and we were desperately trying to extricate ourselves from an out of bounds situation with the least amount of trouble. It is amusing to think that the fear of being "in trouble" FAR outweighed the distress of an injury. I remember having a swimming match against St Francis College Letchworth (they of the yellow swimsuits that went see-through when wet ) the following morning and the pain and smarting of swimming with a very bruised and raw shin. No way would I have given in and gone up t'inf!!

I forgot about the time the Nurse's little boy let all the rabbits out of their hutches and they all mated before we could get them gathered up. Mine ("Dylan") had 17 babies that Summer!! That was when the spiffy new hutches were 3 high, near the tennis court. They used to be roomier but much older and up near the back of the chapel, I think. Lynn - didn't you used to have a rabbit too?? I also had Charlotte the hamster in the biology lab

Yes I did - my rabbit (Harlequin) had 16 babies that year but it wasn't all Edward's fault - one time Kate Donovan let my rabbit out together with Cuddles because she felt he was lonely and frustrated!
Never will I forget my mother's face when I told her this.

Who had the crazy rabbit called Oliver(?) who attacked everything in sight. I think he may have come to an untimeley end.

Oliver was also my rabbit - he was one of Harlequin's many sons. He actually chased people and bit them. My father took him home one time because he was so impossible and he lived to a ripe old age - he never stopped biting though if he got a chance.

I had forgotten you owned him but I do remember him biting!

So does everyone who got chased across the playing fields I expect.

I never did anyhthing bad at school...

I can see your halo from here!

I can't - I'm simply gobsmacked!

chaosriddenyears wrote:I can't - I'm simply gobsmacked!

Plum Senior reads and contributes to this forum so he really can't say anything else!

Yes, it can be inhibiting sharing the forum with relatives! I can't remember anything awful that I did at Hertford without getting caught - I was for ever getting punished even for things that I either didn't do or didn't actually know/regard as wrong. However there are a number of incidents I could mention about my daughter Maria - don't worry, Maria, I won't - if you have chosen not to, who am I to give the game away!! I shall expect cream cakes next time I am in Finland!!

englishangel wrote:It must have been in Lower IV (aged 12/13) when we put a stink bomb in a cupboard in the Form room. .

We had a young chemistry teacher straight out of Uni after Fettes (which he made sure we never forgot) - ? Potts

One day we put Nitrogen Iodide on the floor before he came in the room. This stuff is "safe" explosive but highly unstable - a footstep even nearby can make it go off like a firecracker leaving a stain. He was not amused!

It was a few months later and he was out of the classroom when we absolutely soaked three boys with water - the room was a mess! Of course he was furious but eventually agreed to send them to the infirmary because they had been covered in 30N (ie as strong as you can get) sodium hydroxide. They were OK, their shirts were destroyed and despite the fact that the causative explosion was an accident, he never let us out of his sight again.

One day he decided to give a couple of us detention for some minor crime forgotten in the mists of time - we were grecians at the time! Unfortunately for him he couldn't give a trades monitor (me) a detention at the time he wanted to so everyone got let off.

Mid A 15 wrote:

chaosriddenyears wrote:I can't - I'm simply gobsmacked!

Plum Senior reads and contributes to this forum so he really can't say anything else!

Well, I never got caught if I did anything wrong... no school punishments!