frayed at the edge

Memory lane : 7

Every year, for our first three years, we were given a certificate if we gained over a certain average percentage in the two lots of class exams.  I can still remember swatting for later exams on a Sunday afternoon, listening to the late John Peel on the new Radio One, on my tranny (transistor radio, not, as it now means, transvestite!) ...... he introduced me to the wonderful songs of Leonard Cohen.  This is my first certificate, signed by all my teachers.  I can recall some of them quite clearly, others I can't picture at all

Memory lane : 6

Now we move on to my time at the Academy, and start with some of my school reports.  Being a hard working child, I always got the "HS" category (highly satisfactory) from all my teachers ...... except the Geography teacher (who was later my Modern Studies and then my Russian teacher!).  He insisted on only giving "S" grades for the first term, no matter how hard we had worked!  (you can click on the photo to enlarge it if you want to see the details)

A shady spot!

 

The grape vine over the terrace has grown at a great rate since we have been here, providing a shady spot to enjoy a glass of wine before dinner.

 

 

Memory lane : 5

I didn't have a bike as a child, but when I spent four weeks at a school camp at the end of my last year of primary school, I managed to pass my Cycling Proficiency Test, and was awarded - yes, you've guessed, a certificate

 

these photos show me from just before starting school (top left), then clockwise through primary school, ending with my first year at the Academy.  The triangular badge on my lapel is my Cycling Proficiency badge, worn with great pride!

 

Healthy eating!

 

Does a delicious slice of apple cake count as one of my five-a-day??!!

Memory lane : 4

One year at primary school, I won a class prize and the nature prize.  I also came first in the Bible exam, but the teacher said it would be unfair for me to have three prizes, and gave the Bible prize to the girl who came second.  It upset me that after all my hard work swotting up for the exam I was deprived of the prize ........ and that teacher's name is still in my little black book of grudges*

 

*please don't take the remark about a book of grudges seriously ....... when I metioned it to jokingly to someone, she believed me and lectured me on not holding grudges and "letting go" (how many of you now have that annoying song from Frozen stuck in your head!)

Memory lane : 3

Some months after my first elocution exam, I stood up on the stage in front of the whole school to recite a poem, and was rewarded with this certificate (you may have noticed by now various spellings of both my names - the correct version is Anne MacKenzie!)

 

the poem was about a corbie (a crow) sitting in a tree telling me that if I climbed up I would fall ..... I am not going to attempt to reproduce the Scots version that I recited!