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Norman Court 1

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When you are in yours 60s, nearly in your 70s, then the only thing you look forward to is the past. You start thinking about your life and wondering why it turned out the way it did. Well, I started with Lord Wandsworth College, aka the London Water Closet, then I wrote a few posts about Oxford, La Sainte Union teacher training college, Perrott Hill and then WHS, Windlesham House School. Now it is time to write about Northaw, aka Norman Court Preparatory School. For well over a century, the British preparatory schools stood in a distinctive world of their own – shaping generations of pupils, demanding discipline, and ‘preparing’ them for their public schools. Many prep schools flourished, others faded, and a few, like Northaw (later Norman Court), lived several lives across different names and settings. Norman Court finally lapsed into extinction in 2012. Like most prep schools, Norman Court had the familiar rituals of boarding prep schools – their rural locations and the beautif...
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Take Another Walk

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Yes, Lucky is still with us, in case you were wondering. We have grown rather fond of this sweet little doggie, but Irena and I have decided that we must do what is best for her. We are still worried about friction between Tina and Lucky and it is clear that Tina is not really happy about the new canine arrival. Lucky will be coming with us to VT and then we will be handing her over to Fiona, who will arrange her transport to her new owners in the UK. The other day we went for one of our favourite walks, along the river. It is just down the hill from us, before you come to the village of Maryan. On the way back to the car, a sheepdog appeared, followed by some sheep and a shepherd. Well, fortunately Lucky and Tina were both on the lead, so there was no unpleasantness.  
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Wood

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Yes, you need rather a lot of wood if you are going to be using a woodburner to keep your house warm during the winter months. Well, we are going to cheat a bit and we will go to our apartment in Veliko Tarnovo when the weather gets really cold, but we will still use a fair bit of wood in November and then some more in March. Tina seems to be quite interested in what has been going on in the woodshed. It took me a long time to cut up all of the old wooden fence and most of that firewood is good for starting the fire, as it is painted with oil, but otherwise it is not much good. I was therefore very interested to see a large tree that had been blown down in a storm. The tree had been lying there for a year or two. The bad news is that it was about half a kilometre from our house and that is quite a long way when you are pushing a wheelbarrow full of logs. The chainsaw worked really well, like a hot knife going through butter. Using a chainsaw is not so easy, but I am beginning to ge...
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Lucky

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Lucky is a very sweet and affectionate little doggie. She first appeared in Daveri a couple of months ago and she was living in our neighbours' garden. (These were the neighbours who live across the road from us, not Mariana and Vincent.) For a while, we thought that the neighbours had adopted her, but then they were away for a week or more. Nobody seemed to be feeding Lucky, so we started giving her food. Then Irena noticed that Lucky was in heat, probably for the first time, so we moved her into our garden. Lucky is adorable and loves sitting on your lap. She follows you round the kitchen, so you have to be careful that you do not tread on her or get tripped up.  The bad news is that Tina is not happy about Lucky's arrival. Two female dogs sometimes have issues with each other. Another problem is that soon we will be leaving our country house in Daveri and moving back to Veliko Tarnovo for the winter. Two dogs in one small apartment would be a bit difficult.   
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Not Mulling It Over

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What an appalling faux pas ! One has to conclude that our new Archbishop of Canterbury certainly did not mull it over carefully when deciding to give the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation to a Pakistani Imam. Then some awkward person pointed out that Imam Ashrafi has suggested that Osama Bin Laden should have been honoured as a “Sword of Allah”, in response to Salman Rushdie’s knighthood. So what did this bimbo bishop do? She has withdrawn this award, a sort of clerical Hokey Cokey. Yes, it seems to me that Archbishop Mullally really has not thought this one through at all. For a start, this award is supposed to be for “reconciliation and interfaith cooperation”, so why give this award to any Pakistani imam? If there is so much reconciliation and interfaith cooperation going on in Pakistan, then why are Christians in that country still living in fear? Sometimes it is Muslim mob violence, with the Pakistani police standing by doing little or nothing, an...
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Probably the Last Gardening Bore of 2026

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As I think I mentioned in my last Gardening Bore, the melons have been very good this year. Some of them have been a bit small, but they are absolutely delicious and of course they are also 100% organic, with none of the dreadful chemicals that many growers seem to use. However, the most amazing success has been the tomatoes. I cannot take most of the credit for them, as Irena was the one who planted them and then took care of them, although I did do my bit too, putting in the wooden stakes to support the mature plants and watering them every other day. The cucumbers have also been excellent and prolific this year. They are delicious and wonderfully crunchy. Once or twice we have not watered them quite as often as we should have done, so a few of the cucumbers were a bit bitter. Plums are a very Bulgarian thing. They are everywhere in the countryside, but for some reason we still decided to grow some of our own. I am so glad that we did! Irena's homemade plum jam is super yummy wit...
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"Don't retire abroad!"

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I have just been watching this inaccurate, misleading and dishonest YouTube video and it made me absolutely furious! What a load of utter garbage! Yes, you might want to retire in the Algarve or in the South of France, but most sensible people will want to avoid such ridiculously expensive places. (Why not retire in Monaco or Switzerland, if you are an utter idiot and you have money to burn?) I know lots of Brits who have retired to Bulgaria, but of course Bulgaria is not even mentioned in this silly video.  What does "poverty" really mean? About 25% of all pensioners in the UK are supposed to live "below the poverty line". Well, yes, you can always believe the government's statistics, if you want to. I would say that "poverty" is worrying all the time about money, so that you never really enjoy your life. Even if you do have a holiday or buy a new pair of shoes, you are always wondering if you will be able to afford to do things like that next year. I...
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