Meridian – Five Miles Out

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery

I hate being ignorant, or rather not knowing about things. It is certainly impossible to know about everything, but I am thinking about how you can be frozen out of whole conversations or discussions because you just know nothing. This was hardest at school – at middle school I had no idea who any filmContinue reading “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery”

You’re a Pageant

Changing schools is traumatic and under the three-tier system (primary, middle and upper) you have to do it once more than in the two tier system (or two times extra when you move like I did). Meridian Upper School, in Royston, is actually right next door to Greneway Middle School – the boundary between theContinue reading “You’re a Pageant”

There’s Anger In My Heart

In Royston a lot of the same people were involved in the church (St Johns for the record) and the drama group. One family was the Lynch’s. Gill and Bernard plus their three daughters – Felicity, Stephanie and Rachel (plenty of people wondered why Rachel was not named Melanie to fit the pattern). Undoubtedly theContinue reading “There’s Anger In My Heart”

Celebrate the great escape

I do think year 10 (or fourth form as it was in the 1980s) is the biggest shock in the education system. Things get more structured at different stages but now it is exam study. Parents and teachers tell you how important these exams are. In the 1980s they were both more important, as youContinue reading “Celebrate the great escape”

This is not a situation for a nervous boy

The first of many mentions for Clive Hook. At the end of the fourth form (year 10) Clive had been put in charge of music for House assemblies (Scott, Rutherford, Kennedy and Churchill – so no over representation of white men there). For some reason I was in Scott when most of my friends wereContinue reading “This is not a situation for a nervous boy”

They say she did it with grace

I have never been to Ireland, so my perspective is that of an outsider, but it appears to have come a long way since the 1990s. By all accounts at the start of the decade it was still stuck in the 1950s and was a quasi-theocracy. Since then it has accelerated through the twentieth centuryContinue reading “They say she did it with grace”

A Powerful Feeling

I am crap at football. Even to call me average would mean that you have to describe Mike as Messi-like (sadly not really true). I do not have much ability at any sport but I tried to make up for it by thinking about what was going on and trying hard. I once won aContinue reading “A Powerful Feeling”