Cee’s Share your world Week 49

2016-12-07 | puppy1952

Here are my answers to Cee’s Share your world week 49

What do you value most in a friendship

That depends on who the friend is. Each person is valued in a different way. Some friends are new, some are old, some stay and some go but even those from the past have contributed something to my life and I value them still. I believe people come into our lives at different times for different reasons and if they move on, that’s okay – life happens, circumstances change and often when we meet up with that person again we pick right up from where we left off – that’s friendship.

I also tend not to expect anything – ask not what your friend can do for you but what you can do for your friend. Having said this all these are the things I do value in a friendship.

Having fun together – chatting, laughing, sharing
Common interests
Travelling companions in some
Unconditional love

Do you prefer eating the frosting of the cake or the cupcake first? Do you prefer a specific flavor?

I will make sure there is frosting left at the end to eat with the last of the cupcake. Chocolate is an absolute favourite.

Have you ever been in a submarine? If you haven’t, would you want to?

I have – but not when it went under the sea. No – I wouldn’t want to go on a submarine trip – but if the opportunity came up I probably would – just to say I had that particular adventure!

If 100 people your age were chosen at random, how many do you think you’d find leading a more satisfying life than yours?

I should imagine that there would be some who led very interesting lives but I’m not sure if I could compare their satisfaction to mine. I love my life, it has been full of events – both difficult and wonderful and I’m sure most people my age could say the same. I have just returned from a college reunion where we ranged in age from 61 to 96 and everyone had a story.

Optional Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

The college I attended closed its doors at the end of 1975. The buildings were sold to Rhodes University and so it still stands although somewhat altered. I went to a reunion there last weekend and once again felt enormously grateful that I had the ato attend when it was the best teachers’ training college in the country.

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GTC Old Girls from the 1970s Me seated on left of second row from front

I am also grateful for the many happy years in our Cape Town home which we finally helped our children vacate last week. We cleared an enormous amount of junk, sold and donated some treasures and kept several boxes of “should we chuck or shouldn’t we” Next week I look forward to sorting those last treasure/junk boxes and deciding what to chuck and what will be useful in my Struisbaai home.

My forlorn family on Moving Day

Share your World #28

2016-07-12 | puppy1952

Here are my answers to this week’s Share your World questions.

What is your earliest memory?

I am always intrigued by what sticks in my mind and what doesn’t. I forget what I did yesterday but my memories from before I was four are still there! In my earliest memory I am three years old. Big Brother is already at school. He is six. I am holding Mommy’s hand and she is pushing Little Sister in her push chair. She is one. We are meeting Big Brother who is walking home from school. I have no idea why this memory sticks – nothing significant happens but I remember my brother looking very pleased with himself while I feel a tad jealous that I am not big enough to be at this important place called school. Other memories from this time in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg are vivid. Sitting on the pavement with our nanny Siena – she chatted to other nannies while we played with their young charges. The gold mine dump near our house, the
“bumpy” road we took as a shortcut to the main road that took us to wherever we were going, our enormous garden with its very long driveway and extremely tall trees – my first bird call memory is of the turtle doves calling at sunset. We left this house to live in Cape Town when I was five. I returned with my brother when we were in our thirties. He had not been there since he was 8 but he found the house without a hiccup. I couldn’t believe how the garden, trees and driveway had shrunk over the years!

I do remember one significant thing – I am standing in the dark street with my father (and mom and siblings) He is pointing to a moving star in the Sky- “That’s Sputnik,” – he said, “One day they’ll put a man into space!” That would have been in October 1957 and I was not yet five years old.

What was the last photo you took with your phone?

I don’t often take photos with my phone but if I see something interesting on my walk I like to show my hubby a proof shot. The last one was of a pair of rock kestrels but they’re too blurred to show here. Instead I will post one of harbour. I can never resist photographing it.

Struisbaai on a still, winter’s day.

Have you ever danced in the rain?

I can’t believe I haven’t because I have danced in the oddest places at inappropriate times but I don’t remember any dancing in the rain incidents.

What is the longest you have gone without sleep?

More than 24 hours. It was the last day of college. I was in a residence called Lincoln at Grahamstown Training College. We came from all over the country and had been together for three years. Now we were dispersing to different parts of the country and didn’t know when or if we would ever see each other again. We stayed up all night to get the very last of each other. The next day there was a final chapel service and we sang, “God be with you till we meet again” Well, the refrain, “till we meet at Jesus Feet” set me off and I couldn’t stop crying. A fellow student gave me a lift from Grahamstown to Port Elizabeth where I boarded a plane to Cape Town and I cried all the way in the car and on the plane. Of course, it was the lack of sleep the amplified all this emotion. I had just calmed down before deplaning and was ready to meet my father with a smile – but as soon as I saw him – I burst into tears again! However, it didn’t take long for me to get over it and enjoy the next phase of my life!

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

I am grateful that the cupboards are complete, the workshop is painted, the bunk room is tidy, the burglar alarm is installed and all that is left is for the burglar bars to be fitted.

I am looking forward to my grandson and three of his friends arriving tomorrow for a five-day visit. We used to bring the boys and their friends for holidays to Struisbaai when they were kids – now they’re old enough to drive themselves here!

#NABLOPOMO 14 – Grahamstown Training College

2015-11-14 | puppy1952

NABLOMOPO

I was not exactly a high achiever at school but I knew that when I left I wanted to have something more than just a job – I wanted a career! I had my subject choices all mapped out for my Standard 9 and 10 years – English Afrikaans Accountancy Biology Typing and History. But then shock – horrow – they dropped Accountancy from the curriculum forcing me to choose Geography or Latin instead. Well my sense of direction is seriously faulty and I couldn’t have cared less about weather patterns,climate or the topography of the land so Geography was an absolutely no-no. I might have enjoyed Latin but I hadn’t taken it in the previous standards and so it was too late now! My parents investigated a number of other schools ‘up the line’ but none came up with better options and so they suggested I try for a commercial matric. That meant I would learn shorthand, typing, accounting and commerce in addition to my two languages. “After all,’ they said, “you will probably want to do a secretarial course after matric and this way you can go straight from school into a lucrative job. If you work hard and hone your skills you can command your salary and go anywhere in the world with you qualifications.” I’d already learned to type and I enjoyed Accountancy so perhaps they had a point. So off I went to Gardens Commercial School for the next two years. And I don’t regret it for one second. I became an expert typist, took down some rapid shorthand, aced my accountancy and ended up with a first class matric. BUT – I did not want to become a secretary. The call had come – to be a teacher!

In order to do apply I had to have a recommendation from my principal. “I want to apply to Cape Town Teacher’s Training College’ I said. He gave me a glowing testimonial but did not hold out much hope that I would be accepted – “They don’t take girls with a commercial matric,” he said – “Why don’t you consider becoming a commercial teacher instead – you’d handle the course brilliantly!” But I was adamant – “I don’t want to teach high school – I want to teach the little ones!”

He was right of course – CTTC refused me. Undaunted I decided to apply to Grahamstown and surprise, surprise they accepted me without hesitation! And as it turned out – this college was actually the best one in the country!

A handful of other Cape Town girls including my close friend, Ann – a year ahead of me – had to take the train at the beginning and end of each term. We would leave at 7 pm in the evening, change at De Aar where we usually met up with the Kimberly girls the next afternoon and then spend another night on the train arriving at 7 am the following morning. And we loved it – the fun and comeraderie made it all the more exciting.

College was great as everybody boarded in the four houses – Lincoln, Bangor, Canterbury and Winchester. There was great competition among the houses and a wonderful spirit of belonging. We were extremely well trained and instilled with an ethic that we have all maintained into old age.

Our founder, Mother Cecile, came to South Africa from England and started an orphanage and a school then a training school for pupil/teacher and finally in 1904 Grahamstown Training College was established to train teachers. Mother Cecile worked tirelessly and set a good example for all who followed. She died in her early forties.

Although the college closed in 1975, The Cape Town branch of the GTC Old Girls’ Guild celebrate Founder’s Day with a church service at Brook Chapel, Bishop’s School. We are a breed apart – and we range in age from 60 to 90+ Thanks to Bishop Christopher Gregorowski for conducting the service today and reminding us of the great work that Mother Cecile did for Education in The Eastern Cape in the early days.

After the service we enjoyed and wonderful tea and catch-up in the Staffroom – many thanks to Terry Wilke for once again allowing us to use the facilities at Bishops.

Old Girls arriving at Brook Chapel

On the left – a lecturer from 1952 and a student from the sixties

A good weekend after a busy week

2012-11-18 | puppy1952

The past week at school was a busy one. The intermediate phase wrote their assessment papers and all the staff, including the foundation phase gathered in the hall to assist with the marking. There was a great spirit of camaraderie,laughter at the exam howlers and of course we got lunch. I have never before taught at a school that fed the staff so regularly – I was told that they did this because you couldn’t complain if your mouth was full:-) When all the marking was done and dusted between 4 and 5 each afternoon – the foundation phase still had their regular marking to do and of course we didn’t complain!

On Friday, there were no assessments, and it was lovely to have a one o’clock closing time with no marking. I stayed at school to finish off my week’s marking and then treated myself to a visit to the hairdresser, as I could not longer hide the grey, and my true age was beginning to show. It was bliss – Johann must have gone to an excellent hairdressing school where they learn how to say the right things to their clients. I don’t care how extravagant his prices are – I will pay as long as keeps telling me how gorgeous I am. He lies with such sincerity and his head massage is the best in the world.

It’s a long time since I was a student at the best college ever founded – sadly it closed down in 1975 – but it’s graduates still live on and there is a GTC Old Girls’ Guild in many cities and towns all over the world. The Cape Town branch meets each November to commemorate our founder, Mother Cecil. We invite a priest who knew Grahamstown Training College or whose wife is an Old Girl and have the same Founder’s Service as we did each year when were students. We sing the two college hymns and play a recording of a college choir from 50 years ago sing the Te Deum. And the nostalgia is amazing. Afterwards we have a scrumptious tea and catch up with old friends. This we did this past Saturday afternoon and once again I am so grateful that I had the privilege of attending this amazing college with an incredible tradition which instilled in me the passion for teaching that I have to this day.

I have many passions but gardening is not one of them. However, in suburbia you do from time to time have to pay attention to that part of your home. I am lucky in that I have a good friend who loves to be in the garden and in return for fish and computer lessons helps me to sort mine out from time to time. This morning we had a date at 9:00 a.m. and I decided that the time had come for my two teen-aged grandsons to get interested in the joys of garden work. Josh was already up and a bit shocked when I asked him to come and help. Jay’s muscular body had to be coaxed out of bed and into manual labour. In the end they both complied with good grace and were an enormous help as there was lots of digging, pulling and chopping to be done. After a couple of hours the transformation was rewarding in itself. Margy and I then took them off to the nursery to buy a few new plants and we allowed them to choose one each which they loved and would not be persuaded to change their minds about. We then indulged in scones, jam and cream, coffees for Margy and me and fizzy drinks for the lads.

Back home they joyfully planted the new flowers and shrubs and were proud of the results. They promised that in future they would help more regularly with the gardening. Oh and Grandpa? He made a brief appearance – said ‘what the heck are you doing?’ – saw that everything was under control and left us to it!