Marty

Pull up a chair, Page. Albert's serving some excellent fayre this evening.

Yes, please!!!!!

Baby? Honey? 😮 Is there something going on between the pair of yous?

I certainly hope the music will be as good as the food....

Merci beaucoup, Monsieur!

I love the way you always start with the "Tonight I am serving..." bit, Albert! You make it sound as though you're running some high class restaurant. Could you serve mine with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, please?

Sorry! I didn't mean to kill all conversation in here with my serious sounding previous comment.

Hope you had a great time, Caz! Although I'm reading reports of an enormous amount of litter having been left on the beach afterwards. Without wanting to sound like a killjoy, it's a real shame that people just won't take their litter home with them, or dispose of it sensibly... Brighton Pride: Beach covered with laughing gas canisters And I'm aware that it's not just pride events where this can happen. Many big music festivals, such as Glastonbury, or The Electric Picnic which I expect to attend at the end of August in Ireland, finish up with just as much, if not more, rubbish left behind at the end of them.

I hope she's in reasonably good health, Albert... ❤️

My grandfather (my mother's father) always used to say he intended to live to a hundred. He said he was looking forward to the telegram from Queenie (Queen Elizabeth II) on his hundredth birthday. Sadly, that didn't become a self-fulfilling prophecy as he only manage to get to ninety-two. (Mum was the English side of my family. Dad was Irish.)

My mother only lived to be 82. But I reckon she could have died a good few years earlier, as she had struggled with health problems for a good while. I think what kept her going was the fact that, when she was still at school, a fortune teller had told her she would live to be 82. It became a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy for her, and she died just a few weeks after her 82nd birthday. ❤️

I've already said that the character of Lowry is based on someone I knew when I was still at school, but thanks for that insight into his character, @Talo Segura. Although he really just has a walk-on part in this particular scene in Danny's life, you've made me realise just how important a character he really is. This was meant to be his swan-song in this story, but maybe I will now resurrect him in years to come. I can't really see him having much of a role to play in Danny's life in the near future. After all, Danny is in Sheffield for the foreseeable future, and Lowry will be in Cambridge, around a hundred and fifty miles away. So it's unlikely the pair will see each other in the near future. But maybe down the line, in years to come, their paths could cross again...

It was actually quite nice. The rain was at least warm.

Right! Thanks for letting us know. At least I won't be worrying this time. Although I'm heading to England later this week. Gonna be staying at a sister's for about a week. Then a road trip to Germany. So maybe I won't be on as much, either.

Cool beans. I met up with a friend this afternoon in Sligo Town. Parked about 1/2 a mile from the meeting point (a coffee shop). Was a nice day when I arrived. Then the rain arrived. Had left the waterproofs in the car, so got drenched heading back to it. 😮 Still raining, but at least I'm home and changed into dry clothes now. And it was good to catch up with a friend I'd not seen for a little over a year.

Hey, Albert! Hope you're well. I was a bit worried when you didn't make an appearance yesterday.

Do you really need our permission? Just go for it, hun!

I hope you all have a great time!

No problems at all, Gary. And, living as I do in Ireland, I know a lot of Mary's as well

Cheers, Gay Man Well, I decided if you could drop the penultimate letter of my name, then I should do the same to yours. (And I wasn't in the least bit upset. You weren't the first to do that, and won't be the last )

I suspected it was probably something like that. Although you did have me frantically searching my story notes looking for this elusive Geoff character!

Yup. Yay you! No new writing for me today, but I did edit a 1750+ word chapter for someone else.

It's that time of night again, folks... G'nite all!

for taking the time to comment, @drpaladin! Lowry is loosely based on someone I went to school with. I don't know who this Geoff is that you mentioned, but suspect it was probably just a typo (or maybe an autocorrect?) for the Griff nickname that the boys use for Mr Griffiths. I'm not sure if the head or deputy would actually resort to calling the police, or even consider such an act. It's quite possible they think that they're so powerful (or important) that they can make anyone bend to their will. They've ruled the school with an iron fist for so long, I doubt it would even cross their minds that anyone could even consider challenging their authority... Maybe we'll find out as the day progresses...

Thanks for the comment, @Geron Kees. As far as entrenched formality and rigid uniformity is concerned, I think it's important to remember that this is set in a grammar school in England over fifty years ago. It really was a different time back then. And pupils could only enter grammar schools by passing an entrance exam (the Eleven-plus) - unless it was a private school (which, oddly enough in England is known as a Public School), in which case their parents could pay for them to attend, assuming they could afford it. One wrong step out of line by a pupil could result in them being expelled, and have to move to a secondary modern school (they were discussed in an earlier chapter's comments). Grammar schools in those days often considered themselves as being for the elite, considered themselves to be superior, and had a tendency to look down on the rest of society. As for Lowry, I'll repeat what I said in my reply to @Daddydavek's comment, and say that all should hopefully become clear in a future chapter (perhaps even the next one). And I'll do my best not to keep you waiting too long. The next few chapters are just about finished (just need a final polishing). But I don't want to rush them out, as that may leave readers waiting too long for me to flesh out the later chapters.