Visiting My Old School

I'm rather stiff and tired after a long and busy day in London yesterday. It began at 7:30 when I went to the polling station to vote. In the end I decided to stick to voting for the people I know, which happen to be the Labour candidates, Michael Foster for MP and Jeremy Birch for Councillor. The trouble with a PR system it seems to me would be getting to know all the other candidates so that one could make a considered choice, rather than making a vote purely on the party line, not knowing what the individual candidates were like, never having met them.

The main reason for going to London was for the chance to look round the bulding that used to be St Olaves Grammar School which I attended from 1951 to 58. It proved to be somewhat dispiriting to see it in it's current condition. It is now owned by a property company, Berkley Homes, and there are plans to convert it into a hotel. The playground at the back has been dug up, the exit to that area having been bricked up, and a wing where the art classes were held has been demolished. All the rooms were empty of furniture and decorations, so it was really rather sad to see. The photo is of the assembly hall. The white spots are probably reflections of the flash from specks of dust in the air.

Some parties of boys from the new school in Orpington also came to see the building, but they seem to have had very little time to see anything, and I doubt if they learnt much from the experience. Some of the Old Olavians who were taking them round seemed to me to be spinning them tall tales, and reliving their childhood conflicts with the headmaster, Dr Carrington, rather than explaining anything of genuine historical interest.

There was to be a Commemoration Service in Southwark Cathedral from 2pm, but since it was such a lovely sunny day I couldn't face the dark interior of another building and instead took a trip on the river-bus down to Greenwich, which like to visit at least once a year. More on that perhaps in a separate diary entry.

Friends and "Friends"

I've been getting a lot of requests on Facebook for people to be Friends, although many of them I've never met. However I recognise many of their names, mostly from the chess and puzzle world, and some I've corresponded with in the past when I was producing my magazines like Chessics and Games and Puzzles Journal. Other names I don't recognise, but usually they are Friends of Friends. After some hesitation I've now decided to accept most of these requests. To keep things in order I've classified most of them as "Chessic Friends" to avoid getting them mixed up with Friends I've actually met from Hastings or Leicester.

Another Friend who has contacted me is an old school friend who was at St Olaves Grammar School in the 1950s. That is Russ Stanfield. He is the only person from that period that I have encountered. I joined the Old Olavians a few years ago and went to one of their reunions, held at the new school buildings in Orpington, but there was no-one there from the same time. They would all now be approaching 70, if they have survived.

I intended to go to Hastings Pier on Saturday to join the demonstration for the Council to do something about renovating it, but when I looked at the clock it was past twelve, and when I arrived there was no-one about. I did manage to go out in the evening to see the bonfire and fireworks display on the beach. It was rather noisy, and I'm not sure what it was celebrating, but it was colourful.