How do you feel today? 4

[Tonyblack]

Wild horses couldn't drag me to a class reunion.

[Dotsie]

Same here! Crys, if you don't want to go then don't. I didn't go to mine, a friend went and bascially it was the same as school but the class hunk was fat & bald. That was the only highlight.

All the friends I made at school I keep in touch with, there's a reason why I don't bother with the rest - I just don't care what they're up to!

[Haydee]

Thanks everyone thanks for the hugs

[HobbitFeets]

Mmmmm. How do I feel today? Had the day off today due to work reasons (can't talk about it due to confidentiality). So now the flats tidy all the ironing is done and now i'm sitting down having an Oolong tea......

I feel pretty pleased with myself really

[Catch-up]

I agree Crys. No point in going to all that trouble for something you're not interested in anyway.

[Toothy]

I don't know you well enough to suggest whether to go or not, Crys, but does your friend know how you feel? If she's a good friend, she'd understand and either guarantee she'll go or suggest you meet up another time. If she's keen to meet lots of the others, then the latter may work better for both of you. I'm sure she wouldn't want you to be uncomfortable.

I was invited to a weekend away reunion (25 years on) by a group from school whom I'd always regarded as very much NOT friends. I decided to go, because it meant I could see the plague village of Eyam while there, and I wanted (perversely) for them to see I'd done OK for myself. I discovered a lot about my misconceptions of how they'd viewed me at school. One was envious of the dad I had (hers had apparently been not the best, although I knew mine wasn't perfect!) and my big academic rival, who, I thought, had had no time for me, said her lasting memory was of me rescuing her in a language lesson (just 2 of us in the class) where the teacher (whose pet she always seemed to be) was being harsh. She'd been unable to translate something and the teacher only let up and allowed me to help when rival was in floods of tears. I then proceeded to translate for the rest of the lesson while she composed herself.

You just never know.

[Tonyblack]

Toothy, with your mention of Eyam, have you read 'Year of Wonders' by Geraldine Brooks? Worth a read - as are most of her books.

[Catch-up]

Interesting, a plague village. What did you get to see there? I was stunned to read a news article about a month ago of a young girl who'd been camping out west with her family and who'd gotten the plague!! Thankfully she was treated and she will be fine, but I had no idea it still existed. Then I read that about 10 people a year die of it in the U.S. Really?!!

[Tonyblack]

Yes, I heard about that as well - shocking!

Susanne, you might find this Wiki about Eyam interesting. And Geraldine Brooks's book is very good.

I love her book called "March" which tells the story of the absent father in Little Women.

[Catch-up]

Looks like a really interesting place to visit! The story of the Riley graves is heart braking. Burying 6 children and your husband in 8 days. The Anglo Saxon cross is beautiful. I wonder what the purpose of it's original location was.

[Toothy]

Toothy, with your mention of Eyam, have you read 'Year of Wonders' by Geraldine Brooks? Worth a read - as are most of her books.

Yes I have, Tony. In fact, it was because I'd read the book that I wanted to see the place. It's amazing to find so many of the locations and people referenced in the story were there for real. The church has a beautiful register of those who died and the vicar's wife's tomb is there - she refused to leave the village at the beginning when she could because she wanted to help others, but caught The Plague, too. In the book, Geraldine Brooks retains the real names of those she writes accurately about and adapts the names of those whose story she 'enhances'. Not everything in the book happened in Eyam itself, but the place inspired a fabulous story. I loved it (although wish she'd stopped before the Epilogue which doesn't work for me and detracted from what is otherwise a great read).

Catchup, Eyam's story is truly heroic. When The Plague came to the village in a bale of cloth ordered by a tailor (not realised at the time), the villagers decided to protect the neighbouring villages and keep it contained by effectively imprisoning themselves in the village. Those who didn't want to stay were allowed to leave first, but most stayed. Their neighbours, out of gratitude, provided them with provisions which were left at a particular place on the edge of the village. Goods were paid for by coins left in running water at the same place. (They didn't know how the disease was transmitted so some of the precautions were meaningless). Such a large number of villagers died as a result of staying put in this way - an amazing sacrifice for the general good. If only they'd known the cause of the disease was transmission by flea bite, so many could have survived. Very sad but very touching.

[Conforumist]

Wifey and I are a bit pooped today. We finished the front garden last night. It came out quite nice. I'll post a couple of pics on the 2012 pictures thread.

[HobbitFeets]

Wifey and I are a bit pooped today. We finished the front garden last night. It came out quite nice. I'll post a couple of pics on the 2012 pictures thread.

I feel good right now. Because I found someone else who says Wifey. My wife thinks its odd if I don't call her that

[Toothy]

Hubby calls me Wifey sometimes, too.

Feeling sad today as a number of former colleagues have just been telling me how appallingly the interim who's covering my old job has been treating my former team. It's not even a case of dealing firmly with the few who might warrant it. The behaviour described is completely out of order. If that person was a full time member of staff rather than a contractor, they'd be facing a number of HR cases brought by several staff. I still care about my former team even though I've left. If what I've heard is even half true, it's truly shocking. The new incumbent will have to start by offering some serious TLC.

[Joolz]

Eyam, Chatsworth and Crich tramway museum were staple school trips when I was little