Eton Diary (Part 3)

Nucleus Everything imported from Nucleus CMS

OK – I realise I’ve been slow at writing these up. To make it even more convoluted, I’ll blog about why separately

Wednesday morning at Eton, after the usual breakfast and ‘Thought for the Day’ stuff, began with double Physics. We did a lot on A-bombs \ H-bombs mainly as an excuse to watch cool videos of sheds being blown up in the US’s testing sites. Plus evidence for the Big Band kinda stuff. (The best bit of Physics came on Friday… so be patient!)

In double Philosophy I remember spending a lot of time arguing \ debating with Holly P. (The P stands for Primary Socialisation, now there’s an in-joke if ever I saw one.) The question – I have a body or I am a body? Answer [drum roll] – I am a body. Kinda. ‘You’ are an identity with a name created in concept only, but it’s pretty safe to say that if you blew the body up with one of the bombs we learnt about in Physics you can wave goodbye to you.
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Well that was exciting – I was sleeping late as usual after having breakfast. Everyone else had left the house for school or work, and then at about 1.15 I woke up to the sound of water running!

Checked the bathroom, nothing there, sound was coming from downstairs. Then went into the kitchen – where part of the ceiling had come off and water was running down.

Ceiling damage

Phoned mum, and then ended up phoning the fire brigade who are located really near us anyway. It wasn’t that serious but obviously since the water was still flowing, and the lights were very close, I wanted to be safe.

Another view

Firemen came (they could hear the water flowing in the background which was a nice touch, and I didn’t know they have your address all ready!) and turned off the water and the electricity. Not quite sure what triggered it because no one had had a shower that morning. Anyway, we put some towels down and then I went to a neighbour to have some nice coffee cake

Towels!

No one hurt, not much damage at all, insurance covers it. But it was an interesting afternoon though!

The aftermath of a tragedy always carries sick profiteers. Today comes London’s vultures in the shape of the BNP.

BNP campaign uses bus bomb photo

The British National Party has used a photograph of the bombed London bus for an election leaflet.

“Maybe now it’s time to start listening to the BNP,” says the slogan alongside the photo in a leaflet for a council by-election in Barking, east London.

Conservative David Davis continued the Conservative’s mature response to this disaster by slamming the tactic. “This tasteless and bigoted leaflet shows the depths to which the BNP have to sink.” A terror attack isn’t about party politics – unless you’re a cynical opportunist who thinks the first response should be calling for Blair and Bush’s resignation (a certain Mr. G) or a miserable little racist party trying to stir up hatred in the face of the thing they hate most – people coming together.

In memory of everyone who died – I hope this will open people’s eyes to the fascist nature of the BNP.

The Eton story continues on Tuesday with our first full packed day of lessons, activities, much eating and another great debate in the evening.

But first – I’m always a little disorientated for a few seconds in the morning, and realising that it’s 7.15, and I’m being woken up by a loud bell in a boys dormitory at one of Britain’s most famous private schools is, ur, enough to make me fall straight back to sleep in shock until the second “we really mean it this time” bell at 7.30.

Breakfast at 8, which all through the week served some delicious combination of eggs \ bacon \ sausages \ toast completed by a hot chocolate and, for the very tired amongst off, some strong coffee.

The first lesson was Physics, which I described later on in the daily newsletter which you’ll read below. Then it was an introduction to Philosophy, Socrates and his wacky fascinating ‘Cave Theory’ stating that you might as well not take notes in this lesson, because it’s all just a mere shadow of reality anyway. Thanks Socrates!
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OK, so I’m going to break down my “what happened at Eton” posts by day to avoid Eton-overload syndrome. For more details, photos and newsletters check out etoncollege.com and click on Summer Courses > Brent-Eton. (It’s a bit of a weird website so you can’t link to specific pages.)

Right then, on Monday (too early in the) morning we gathered at Brent’s Bridge Park Leisure Complex to get on a coach bound for Eton. Course Director George Fussy, who bears a remarkable resemblance to a certain US President, then presented us with a lovely black folder that screamed “Hello, we have money here!”
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