Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

My fiancee thinks I am bonkers for always talking about and to old friends from CH - she doesn't understand why I care so much about what happens to the school now or why I often go to school based events such as the Retreat, scout camp fires etc...

Does anyone else get this?

Not in my case....

My Mrs. always makes a telling comparison between my experiences and her own 'education'.

She has been to a good few events at C.H., and has met some of my old teachers etc.

Also, she has met quite a few of my contemporaries from C.H. and thinks they are all 'very nice' (she was, of course, very very drunk when she said that!).

My best man was a guy with whom I've been friends since we found ourselves in Barnes A as 3rd. form squits in 1972.

He now has a daughter at C.H., so the connection continues.

I don't think people really understand the connection you always have to the school and Old Blues. Although I don't find myself taking about the school very much!

My brother went to KES Witley, and they don't seem to have the same 'bond' thing going. So does seem quite unique to CH.

..... to a certain extent, yes ! Though 'Er Indoors is very supportive.

When youngest daughter came down to pick me up from CH after Col B re-union, I showed Grandson and Grand-Daughter round the central school.

Amber took one look inside the dining hall, and almost shouted,

"WOW ! HOGWARTS !"

yeah, not sure if I'm qualified to comment on this topic, still being a current Blue, but I know the reaction. It took ages for my girlfriend (not at CH) to get that the reason I might talk about, or refer to CH, was not because I have some undying affection for education, but that CH just, becomes part of you - its a way of life - i mean, I'm definitely going to keep coming back after I leave...

Also, when people like her visit the school, they just don't understand why we do marching, etc...
Often gets you thinking about the issue yourself...


any answers to that

"WOW ! HOGWARTS !"

couldn't have had any of the food out at the time then ...

Mark1 wrote:that CH just, becomes part of you - its a way of life -


any answers to that

think you've answered your own question

nope, the marching question, I mean

blanket reply of 'tradition'?

marching made more sense when I was at CH, as it got everyone into Dining Hall for lunch, but I gather now half the school marches into and straight out of Dining Hall having already eaten?


consolidate house unity, strengthen sense of purpose/community, enable you to march in time to music ... yes, I'm struggling with the reasons!!!

eloisec wrote:"WOW ! HOGWARTS !"

couldn't have had any of the food out at the time then ...

hmmm, current opinions differ, but at the moment I would have to correct this to refer to the quantities of food - while the food has got better, the portions just seem to get smaller and smaller...

... no banquet of Hogwarts...

consolidate house unity, strengthen sense of purpose/community, enable you to march in time to music ...

Try justifying those reasons to a non-Blue

surely there's nothing wrong with a sense of community?

I take your point, but I do remember wondering why we did a lot of things when a Blue, whereas now with a decade gone I feel a bit less antagonistic towards the traditions. case of rose-tinted glasses perhaps, but also a view gained once outside the goldfish bowl of boarding life. CH has many faults and weird ways, but then so does most of life out of CH

I think it's because it is such a tight knit community and my girlfriend did not experience that when she was at school!

My wife tolerates me talking fondly about CH but she does seem to draw the line when one of my best ex CH friends comes to stay and we start to sing "unum contentum solite . . . ." after a couple of bottles of wine.

But how many lines can you get through before you grind to a halt ......? While one is more likely to sing the Votum in a direct ratio to the number of bottles consumed on these occasions, one does find that the first verse seems to repeat endlessly if one overdoes the alcohol a little.

I also find that, with every passing decade, another line or so seems to drop off the end - tho' for some reason, I always remember "caeruliaequi vestis". (I don't think I've spelled that quite right - my little latin - a scrape at 'O' level under Hazelhurst - is just another small thing that is dropping off the end as the years roll by.) However, even these two words can suffer from endless repetion in lieu of the rest of the school song!