A return...

...to my old school, which despite many changes is in its essence so much the school I knew...

The beautiful Queen Anne mansion, approached across the frosty playing-fields. Did we really appreciate being in such a lovely setting? Actually, I think we did...and that's partly why I carried away many good memories...

The girls today wear a much nicer uniform - sort of tartan-pattern skirts, worn rather long. I am sure they all moan about them, but they look much nicer than we did in our brown mini-skirts.

The school is vast now, well over 1,000 pupils. Huge new science labs etc. Lots of hi-tech equipment. Vast new hall where the old dining-room used to be.  The  new hall is named after the foundress of the Order that established the school, and there is a statue of her outside...we didn't hear much about her in our day, but she's now much honoured as her role in history is increasingly recognised...

Spoke about St John Paul. The girls knew about the Cold War, USSR cruel domination of Eastern Europe etc  but the name Soldarity didn't mean much to them....it felt strange talking about the adventures of those days, taking  books and materials into Poland for Solidarity activists etc...it doesn't really seem so long ago but of course to them it is as remote as WWII was to us, or even more so...

On to London by train....committee meeting to review the Catholic Women Praying Together event and to plan for 2020...