Allegedly one of the most popular and attractive girls in our form at school had a thing going with an art teacher. She would've been about 15, he wasn't that long out of teacher training. They were supposed to have been seen at the Dome nightclub in Birmingham on a Saturday night (under 15's get in free night lol). I wouldn't post this on Friends Reunited though, too risky!

I had straight A's through sixth grade, but after that I discovered boys, music and sports and couldn't care less after that. The thing that used to drive my teachers crazy is that I would do no homework but would ace the tests. (All except for math...I tried and tried but just couldn't fathom it!) I did OKAY in school, but I wasn't stellar. Basically, I was bored because I understood more than most of the teachers.

Instead I did lots of sports. I played volleyball and basketball in junior high along with assistant coaching pee-wee soccer for my nephews (I was too old for the soccer leagues because they were just starting in our area and they only had them for the little kids) I did drill team (marching with pom-poms) and I also played baseball in the summer with the local boys. I was the only girl on the team.

In high school, I played volleyball and softball, did flag corp and marching band my senior year. I also helped coach and referree the junior high girls volleyball teams. (My oldest sister was the Phys Ed teacher and the head volleyball coach)

I even managed to go semi-pro as a beach volleyball player while in my early twenties. However, between back problems, extremely fair skin that burns too easily and not liking to sweat outside, I had to quit. Besides, I preferred playing indoor volleyball MUCh better. I hope once I manage to heal my back a bit more that I can go play recreationally. I really do miss it!

Thanks for the good luck. I did OK on my Gen Studies at AS in January - 100% on the first two papers. I was impressed, everyone else was pretty non-plussed. So I swalled the encyclopedia - as long as I didn't choke on it what did they care?

I hated games. We never did anything cool, only running around a track every lesson. I am very bad at running, so I just didn't. Stood there and said 'make me'. So needless to say my teacher didn't like me all that much...

I've been sailing in the past and love it. Unfortuneately I haven't got the tiem or the money any more...



--------------

There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

We didn't do General Studies at our sixth form, on the grounds that most universities don't seriously count it towards acceptance. A few of my friends sat the exam with no more than a couple of hours of lessons. Their teachers didn't think it was worth wasting time teaching anything, but it would be nice to have an extra A level in the bag.

I spent plenty of free periods playing cards, and also had driving lessons, organized throught the school at a discount. Depending on when the lesson was, I might be picked up and dropped off either at school or at home. Wednesday afternoons, we had to do sports. I spent my first term happily doing claywork with the first and second years until I got found out. In the second term I managed to avoid all but about 2 of the swimming lessons ( I can swim BTW) and finally put up with doing badminton in the summer, as it doesn't involve catching anything, and the shuttlecocks don't roll off into the distance, as tennis balls do. ( I never mastered the overarm tennis serve anyway - I tend to throw the ball backwards, rather than straight up)
In my last year, I discovered that ballroom dancing counted as a sport (?). I didn't have to get changed, there was music and a coffee break, and the room was conveniently close to my common room (Wymondham Collage is large). What's more, I love dancing ! Much more civilized than running, netball or hockey

Absolutely, and you're far less likely to get injured!



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Unless someone steps on your toes of course...



--------------

There's a hole in my creativity bucket and it's all leaked out.

The likelihood of getting injured dancing depends on what sort of dancing you do. Ballroom isn't particularly hazardous but a good ceildh, however.....

None of this polite "Take hold of your partner, cross the set, turn and cross back again" nonsense. More like "Seize your partner, gallop as far across the room as you can manage in 8 bars, avoiding all the other couples doing the same thing, end up in the middle of the set next to yours, turn and charge back again, then gasp for breath while the side couples do the same thing."

Ceildhs are such fun: flinging novices back and forth as you teach them to 'strip the willow'; seeing intelligent adults suddenly realize that they can't tell left from right any more; losing count during a circle dance and grabbing the nearest attractive male instead of whoever you were supposed to get; doing the Sicilian Batchelor Dance when the caller starts throwing out random instructions.

Music, beer, chaos, beer, grabbing hold of members of the opposite sex, beer, grabbing hold of members of the same sex, beer, confusion, beer. You get the idea...........

Folk dancing - the only contact sport set to music !

Ah, a good Kerry slide, now .... round the house and mind the dresser! (Can't dance to save me life).



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

re: "done a pink" -- Don't know if it counts, but I once walked out with my professor's housemate in university. I didn't find that out until the next Monday -- we were all chatting during class when the prof leans across my table and said "So, I hear you're dating my roommate!" with this grin on his face. I about died....

I played a few ceildhs in school but the closest I ever got to actual physical exercise was marching band. All of my instructors seemed to rate flexibility higher than stamina so each year I squeezed by with a few toe touches.

My claim to fame in school is that when I was 9 I so horrified the nun teaching religion class that she paused class, dragged me by the elbow before the priest, and demanded that I be exorcised then and there. (She was overruled, to my lasting disapointment; I've always wanted to see an exorcism.)

-f

I went to an expensive and extremely sporty school, we had PE of some sort every day. Also lots of outdoor education, getting wet in the Highlands and canoeing and sailing and suchlike. But as we were supposed to be young ladies, social dancing and country dancing too. To be a real success at school you had to be bright and sporty and full of the team spirit. I did okay on the first two, but have never seen the point of rushing round a wet field in pursuit of a ball. Or struggling to hit a tennis ball with the sun in your eyes. When I see a hard ball coming towards me, my instinct is to run as fast as I can away from it. Such turns of speed were noticed by the gym staff who always put me on the wing, failing to notice that I always went in the wrong direction.

Just been to my twenty year reunion and nobody has changed.

Feadog; Exorcised! Oh, I would have loved to have been exorcised! Just think of the teenage rebel street-cred points that would have earned me ....

MissPrint; that always struck me as a damn good reason not to go to school reunions. (My primary school class had a reunion a couple of years ago; only three people turned up, apparently. It was most embarrassing.)



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

Assorted comments _
Although we did General Studies at my school that was to fill in the time, and maybe teach us something useful (such as computing & statistics, or basic cookery), rather than for an exam.

I agree about badminton being preferable to tennis... Shuttlecocks are actually large/slow enough for me to have a chance of hitting them.

H'mm, haven't been to a good ceilidh for ages...

************************************************************

"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."



Post Edited (06-09-03 19:05)

In my experience badminton is far faster than tennis, as the court is smaller and the shuttlecocks actually travel faster than tennis balls (and are smaller - although they also slow down quicker). If badminton's easy you're playing it wrong. I was always good at the net, there's nothing more amusing than managing to turn your opponents' smash into a delicate drop shot - especially as you get a nice close view of their smile turn to a grimace as the penny (and the shuttlecock) drops.



Post Edited (06-09-03 19:36)

PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Well, they seemed a lot easier to hit than tennis balls were, anyway...
Maybe it was the smaller court simplifying their angle of approach.

************************************************************

"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

PSD: you probably played badminton more viciously than us girlies did ( I don't mean you ,Simon). We were more interested in getting through the PE lesson without getting injured or humiliated than in smashing the shuttlecock at one another. That little drop shot is a good one, isn't it :)

I had to wear a brace on my teeth through some years of high school. Funnily enough, one year, my dentist appointments were always first thing on Thursday morning - just when everyone else was 'enjoying' PE and RE.

When we were in 5th year we were allowed to choose what we did at PE, more or less. The best class I remember was when a few of us wanted to play basketball and another few netball, and we wouldn't compromise. So we ended up teams of 4 or so, my side playing basketball rules and them netball. We won, obviously. They looked terribly shocked when we hit the ball out of their hands.



:--

Do something pretty while you can...

Aaaah schooldaze....

I played rugby (union) and cricket for the school so I was always getting out of lessons for practice and matches. We were quite good at rugby, winning the Manchester Catholic Schools Cup one year and about half the team getting through to the final trial for the County Team (me included).
I went to the same school as our Jon and was similarly disinterested in RE and fail my O level along with woodwork, to which my French teacher commented 'Well you'll never be able to build your own cross then'

I always preferred badminton to tennis myself, but then I'm better at things requiring small motor control (cake decorating, sewing, pipetting) rather than large motor (most sports). So I was better at things like badminton and table tennis, where it's largely in the wrist.

Speaking of school PE and braces, I once managed, while having just rotated into the front row of a volleyball game, to reach for a ball above my head and hit myself in the mouth, cutting my knuckles on my braces. It did get me out of the rest of the game, at least.

I got through my college PE requirements by taking swimming, badminton, canoeing and ballroom dance. Mind you, I was at a women's college, so I had to lead half the time for the dancing. My partner and I cleverly got through the final by doing a tango to 'The Masochism Tango' by Tom Lehrer, correctly surmising that people would be too busy laughing at the words to realize how bad we were.

I always liked shuttlecocks and battledore.

I played hockey at school. One of those 'jolly hockey sticks hoorah!' sorts of things.

Magda: 'The Masochism Tango' - what an inspired choice ! I'm amazed you got away with it though - you surely can't have told them the title beforehand.
Tom Lehrer rules