Genealogy Chat

Thanks for that Elaine......I had quite forgotten about the original Q!! I hope Jane = Jeanne in Jersey as well as everywhere else?? ***Ducks because I didn't mention that before!*** Merry

Je peux confirmer que l'équivalent de 'Jane' en anglais est bien 'Jeanne' en français. Well, there was a lot of bragging going on, so I thought I'd add my twopenn'orth..... I know you've had the right answer given several times, but here's extra confirmation from an ex-pat who married a Frog (until I kissed him & got my handsome prince!) and has now been living in France for longer than I lived in England before marrying him - and my supposedly bilingual brats only speak to me in French!! But I was useless at Physics and I still don't understand why electricity doesn't run out of sockets like water from a tap if you don't turn them off. So I'm really happy over here where they don't have switches on the sockets! And I'm one of the 'sick note' brigade for sports (and still am); we had to do gym in grey granny knickers & the boys would come and stand with their noses pressed to the all-glass wall - the embarrassments of adolescence!

And how is the cookery progressing now? Merry

Oh dear, this is taking me back. I was yet another of the 'I hate gym and all forms of outdoor exercise' brigade. Is there a pattern developing here? Are all the gym-lovers, even decades on, out there pounding the pavements in readiness for the veterans marathon, or working on their childhood target of climbing all the monroes before they die? Those of us who are spending their later years (sorry Merry, and not-so-later years) glued to our computers, are we the ones who never liked getting our knees cold from the very start? (Oh lord, I remember those ghastly culottes!) Actually, whilst I absolutely hated hockey, rounders and netball (all girls school), one glorious summer we had a student gym teacher who had us playing cricket. For once in my life I was doing something which I actually understood - I had a older brother who took my education very seriously! Sadly, the student teacher only stayed one term. Bet she went on to a co-ed school where her talents were appreciated! Tina (very cosy at her computer, thank you)

Ooh Debby, I remember that......28 in the class and two teams of 13 needed for some ghastly outdoor sport.....The two people not included would be allowed to tidy the games cupboard. Oh that I could be one of those two not chosen...... I was always the last one in. Gggggrrrrr!! Merry

Those were the good old days...when history teachers made the exams easy so we all got 98% and when if you were off sick for 2 days you missed Belgium in 'A' Level Geog.

Ah the good old days! Sorry AE but I got 'U' in CSE Geography - same as Olde Crone - drew a margin, wrote my name at the top. The first question was about volcanoes - you had to draw one with all the layers etc - I drew a triangle with a circle on the top, some grass, the sun and some clouds! Good at music, drama, English & typewriting (got 96% in my mocks). Pleaded with my maths teacher to put me in for CSE instead of GCE but would have none of it and got a 'D'. Hated all the sciences. Only found history interesting because we did fashion and music (teacher used to bring Bob Dylan in) - can't believe that now! Absolutely hated games and would do anything to get out of it - I was usually one of the last to be chosen for the teams - how embarrassing. Debby

Old Crone, we seem to have a very similar CV!! I hated gym and games so much - Id pray for rain or for the gym to spring a leak (which it oft times did). We had this sinewy legged head gym mistress who would stroll around all the time in her culottes (which we also had to wear - well not hers, but you get the drift). Lets say she was very obviously what my mother would refer to as a 'collar and tie' job. If the snow was too deep to play hockey shed have us rolling about playing rugby - can you believe it? In summer I didnt mind tennis but cricket - hells bells, Id try to be reserve every time with my dear friend Chris. Wed stand, all padded up, with our backs to the general goings on just in case a reserve was called for - if forced wed be long silly legs or whatever the position was which meant the likelihood of a ball actually reaching you was beyond mathematic calculation.

So when we visited you at Christmas, was that blue stuff in the big saucepan rice pudding? Merry

Oh dear, Science was a compulsory subject at our school and I did just scrape through Physics O level cos I had a massive crush on the Physics Teacher. I lived to regret my massive failure at Chemistry though; many years later I became very interested in Genetics (its my other obsession, lol) and was reduced to begging my 14 year old daughter to teach me basic chemistry! I did well in English, both Lang and Lit. Geography - well, let us just say I cannot find my **** in the dark with both hands behind my back. Maths - I was declared criminally insane and reduced to doing Commercial Maths which was for thickies who were going to have to work in a shop or office for the rest of their lives. Some 30 years later, I went to college as a mature student and got an Accounting Technician qualification - sound of several Maths teachers turning in their graves! French German, OK - pretty good at translating FROM to English, pretty rubbish the other way. Latin - scraped through, again cos Im better at translating FROM. Music - loved it and did well. Gym and PE - I would do literally anything to get out of this, including faking an epileptic fit! A chum and I decided that Cross Country could be dealt with by hiding in the Barn at the start and then rejoining the group at the end as they came back. It worked for a while, then sadly the Games Teacher decided to change the route back without telling us. There we were, smoking away in the Barn and wondering why they were taking so long...oh dear, it was notes home to parents and Assembly Disgrace. Art - utterly, utterly useless, cannot draw a straight line with a ruler. This is odd, cos my Grandmother was a Professional Artist, my father and his brother were both Draughtsmen and my three daughters are all talented artists. Cookery and Domestic Science - I switched off mentally when I discovered that I would have to iron my future husband's shirts and that there was a particular way to do it. Rice Pudding, semi-cooked, taken home on the back of my bike in a basin, over which I fixed my school beret to stop the milk slopping out. Ever had navy blue rice pudding? Olde Crone

Olde Crone Chemistry Experiment: Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,-- For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Stand well back and ignite the touch paper........................ Merry

LOL Merry - what do you reckon she wrote on that chemistry paper? 'OLD CRONE WOZ IN DA HOUSE' or, and lets be honest, more likely; 'THE 1832 REFORM BILL ROOLS'

Oh Alter, I got unclassified in my Maths A Level!! I got an A for the mock, but in those far off days it was not ''done'' to question the examination board results!! (so I can pretend I WOULD have got an A if they had marked it properly!!!) Heather......Here are my efforts: English - mediocre Languages in general - disasterous! Maths - well I thought I was OK! Sciences - average Art - Brill! LOL Needlework - Better then the teacher Domestic Science - Like Tina, above! Music - liked singing but otherwise pretty rubbish! Geography.....failure History - LOVED IT! PE - Just call me ''sick note''! Merry

got a 'U' in A/O maths=Unclassified !!!! I had passed my maths o'level a year early,and did it thinking I would have free lessons the next year......NOT. Instead 6 of us had to go to the school library and wade through a maths text book after an initial 5 minutes teaching-ready to sit an A/O in maths..........I thought .....sod this........dont need it anyway..........so when it came to the exam paper.......I wrote little stories in those 3 hours to pass the time.........they could not have given me any marks at all..........UNCLASSIFIED..........beat that .......... : )))))

Oh you're all amatures.........I failed everything but English.........and I just scraped that! LOL

Oh true Merry. I was in a seminar for my voluntary job helping young 'diseffected' people get back on track and I believe the guy there said something like 17% is a pass now! I was rubbish at school except for English - which always seemed to amaze the mistresses - Im doing an old Crone here, but guess whose contributions were often read out, eh? And I would be commissioned to write playlets for the end of term. Sometimes the first draftings would be rejected due to my tendency to inject humour into the subject. (Including RI projects on the likes of Martin Luther). Im rubbish at French (writing it - but luckily you are worse so didnt notice) but Im ok at speaking it. German - ok at speaking it again History - good Geography - okish (the social side, not all the tundras and alluvial flood plains stuff) Biology - goodish Chemistry - I used to write our 'underground newsletter' in that lesson - sitting up the back and looking like I was making copious notes! (Thats when I wasnt making cool sulphuric acid holes in my science overall!) Latin - ok - but I got dumped into a lower grade class where they didnt bother teaching us it! Gym/Games - do anything to get out of it Art - useless - offered myself as a 'model' so that I still got a good grade but didnt take O level (and it does mean I can refer to my past 'modelling' career).

Well, since we are bragging about our failures, I failed Latin O-level. But they made me resit it - however this was on another examination board, and the unseen translation piece turned out to be a piece we had translated in class prior to the previous examination, on one of the rare occasions when I was actually paying attention. I could not translate it word for word in the exam, but I remembered the gist of the thing. So I am now the proud possesser of a Latin O-level. (Domestic science would have been far more use - I can still burn boiled eggs). Tina Oh, PS, I have a French A-level, believe it or not! I would go along with Jeanne. The French have a much smaller vocabulary than we do. (That's true, not an insult!)

According to Babies Name books my name means little Jane so therefore it would make sense that Jane is Jeanne.........wouldn't it!!!!!!!!!!!

Heather - 30% is probably an A these days??!!! mERRY

LOL You lot.......I can just see that Chemistry Paper........with ''An Olde Crone Holden'' written at the top............... Merry