So you might ask what did we do when we weren't with children,
studying or sewing. My first answer is 'sleeping'. It was a very
demanding course and there honestly wasn't a lot of free time (maybe it
was all the extra work I put on myself). Many of my fellow students
lived not too far away from the college and many of them were lucky
enough to have cars so they used to go home at the weekends. My home
was almost a 4 hour drive and I had no car so I spent most weekends at
college with the other Northerners and a couple of Scots (working on our
sewing).
In my second term I begged my grandmother to let me borrow my
Grandfathers car, an automatic Renault 5. My Grandfather had passed away a couple of years prior to
me starting college and the car had been sitting waiting for someone to
drive it, she finally agreed and I discovered a new found freedom!
The towns of Newbury and Marlborough were not too far away so we would often visit these towns on a weekend. Newbury was also the closest place for those much needed, never ending 'sewing supplies'.
 |
| Market day in Marlborough |
 |
| Newbury, Berkshire |
Sometimes we would take excursions to Oxford, Salisbury, and a couple of trips to Bath (where the college is currently
located). I had never really spent much time in the south of England (outside of London)
before so it was a lot of fun to visit these historic towns.
 |
| An aerial view of Oxford City Centre |
 |
| Oxford High Street |
 |
| Salisbury Market |
 | | | | | | | | | |
| Salisbury Cathedral | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
|
|
|
 |
| The Royal Crescent, Bath, Wiltshire |
 |
| A panoramic view of the Royal Crescent |
 |
| The Great Bath at the Roman Baths, in Bath |
 |
| 18th century Pulteney Bridge |
Within an hour or so driving distance we could hit 1 of 3 army barracks. The young officers would throw some of the best parties around and would always extend an invite to us Norland girls. So, many a Friday night we would all pack into our cars and spend an evening at the Officers Mess at one of these locations.
This was my first experience being on an Army base and what an eye opener it was! Signing in and out, making sure we had special car passes, someone always had to know someone and your name had to be at the gate, you also had to make sure you had your I.D. or else you had driven all that way for nothing because you weren't getting in! Very entertaining times.....and that's all I will say about THAT!
On occasion there were also invites sent out to us from Officers or Captains (I can't remember their ranking) to attend a special banquet dinner. They would need 12 or so (always a specific number) female dinning guests. I did attend a couple of these nerve racking events. A very formal dinner set at a long dinning table, the likes of what King Arthur may have had, where the men were dressed in uniform (as well as the wait staff) and the girls had to put on 'yer best frock'. I couldn't count the amount of courses that we had at one of these events I went to, but by the time the port was passed it was a little more of a relaxed atmosphere!
Our summer break was only 2 weeks long. While all my other friends from home were enjoying a lovely 3 months off University and Polytechnic I was trying to cram in a quick holiday to Greece with my Norland friends and then trying to get around visiting all the family and friends at home before I dashed back down to college. I do remember feeling a bit ripped off but as my father reminded me "You won't be getting weeks and weeks off work when you start a real job" .....straight back to reality!!! Thanks Dad!
No comments:
Post a Comment