General Chat

I saw this question in a magazine and one of the answers reminded me of something. I was normally reasonably obedient as a child and at Christmas and birthdays would not think of looking to find presents. One Christmas I stepped out of line and went on a present hunt. I found my present (in those days presents were not as extortionately expensive as now). My present was a lovely grownup leather shoulder bag I think I was about twelve. The lack of excitement opening the present and the feeling of disappointment at knowing what it was has always stayed with me.

I have been thinking about this all afternoon but the one thing I will always remember learning from our HE teacher is that no matter how much you want to, do not open the oven door when cooking a sponge until the 20 mins have passed, otherwise it will sink in the middle.
So many times when I have baked my victoria sponge I have wanted to open the oven door just a wee bit to see how its rising and yes its sunk!! So valuable lesson learnt whilst young.

When I was about 11, I stayed for xmas with my grandparents. We were despatched up the wooden hill at 9pm so we would be asleep when santa came. In previous years, I always woke on xmas day to find lots of parcels on my bed. I never knew how they got there until that year, I heard a noise and opened my eyes to see the back of grandads dressing gown going out the bedroom door.
I said to myself, "oh ,so it was grandad after all who delivered the presents."
The next years were never the same as I had discovered the secret although I never let on. Part of growing up I guess.
Sometimes, its best not to try and discover a secret as you will always feel deflated afterwards.

florence in the hebrides

Thank you Florence. Yes my Mum taught me re sponge in the oven.
And once the Christmas secret was out it was always a slight feeling of disappointment on Christmas eve.

So either we are the only ones to learn from our mistakes or everyone else are goody goodies who never did anything wrong :-D :-D

Definitely not angelic AnnG ;-). I probably didn’t always learn from my mistakes either.

I did learn a few times that it was better not to commit a serious misdemeanour because I would feel so guilty and worry so much about being found out that I was punishing myself. Better to own up and be done with it.

My brother and I looked for and found Easter eggs Mum had hidden and as a result we were given the empty boxes and told that is all we deserved, so 60 odd years later I simply cannot go looking for presents.

Oh Vera I do remember one day when about 9 years old taking a florin (two shilling coin) from the box by the phone (people paid if they made a call) and buying a toy telescope and telling my Mum I had found it. I remember the feeling after telling that lie now I thought something was going to punish me. Never did own up but never did it again. Strangely both our children tried the same trick and both were immediately sussed and punished. So maybe I did learn!!

I knew that apart from books, Mum kept our presents in a bedroom cupboard. Our books were kept in the bottom of her wardrobe - which is where I used to sit with the door ajar to read mine in the run-up to Christmas. My parents never knew - and I never told my siblings either although I think I may do so .... eventually.

I only did two years of domestic science at school and the first of those (and a month or so more in my case because I was hopeless at it) was spent making a cover-all apron. We had a new teacher in the second year, ar the end of which, she suggested that perhaps I'd be better off sticking to another subject and dropping DS. I agreed with her. She knew it was not my cup of tea.

Turn the clock forward thirty years and a move brought us around the corner from each other. We hit it off like a house on fire and often had coffee together (occasionally whisky in her case). I discovered that her Mum and my OH's aunt were best friends throughout their teens and beyond. I also found out that now she was on her own she rarely baked any more and she often bought cakes - ha ha, what a rebel! A fab teacher!

She was a joy to chat with, was a great storyteller and we had a lot of acquaintances in common. She brightened up many Friday evenings after work.

I suppose that, apart from that one year, you could say that she was the best teacher I never had. :-D

Easily the best lesson I have learned in 75+ years is: take nothing for granted and think for yourself.

Dad used to say, 'Use your noodles.' He was right. <3