Sauciness

Friday 09th October

Had my first work morning today. I was one of the team assigned to the kitchen so I had to go a whole day without seeing Henry, woe is me!! (sobs) It was kind of fun hanging out in the kitchen. That dishwasher’s enormous!! The other girls were quite lively and there was a nice atmosphere as we were cleaning. Apparently we get the same duty for two work mornings and then we get moved around. I’m hoping that means that next week, I’ll be on the other side of the kitchen, just for variety’s sake. Oh, when Graih (housekeeper) was giving us the run down on what cleaning supplies to use where, I finally found out what all the old newspapers are used for. Capernwray gets two newspapers everyday and they either go for recycling or on the pile in the cleaning room. They’re used for drying windows once they’ve been washed. They don’t leave any streak marks because the paper absorbs all the water and the only thing you have to watch out for is ink coming off on the frames. And it did work really well!

Naomi (from church) sent me a card on Tuesday which arrived today and put a great big Cheshire cat grin on my face. It’s now clipped into my diary along with the other fun things I’ve had in my pigeonhole. Just to cheer me up should I need it.

This evening we had the Capernwray Story: a history of Capernwray as told by Mark Thomas (MD), Major Ian Thomas (Founder), a very old & dead guy whose name I can’t remember but owned the hall in the 19th century, and his maid. Confused? Good. That was the point.

Mark started the story in 1066 with the Norman Conquest and various areas of land being given to French nobles, one of whom was the guy the Martons were descended from. When it got to the point where Capernwray was bought into the Marton estate, Mark took off his jumper (which generated quite the response from the crowd!), put on a half mask with top hat and a shirt front and jacket. Add the walking stick (which he held upside down), and the picture was hilariously complete! I think he was supposed to be John Marton. Then when he’d finished welcoming us to the hall, he went off because he had some business to attend to, then out came Sue dressed as the maid who’d been in the pantry with Butler Bill!! I think she must have forgotten she was at Bible School because she mentioned that quite a few times. Oh wait, she was at the hall as it was then, so it wasn’t a Bible school. That would explain why she gave us a vocal tour of the house as was.

Then Mark came back in dressed in Major Thomas’ uniform and told Sue off because it was 1946 and she was supposed to be dead! So she promptly ran off to find Butler Bill again. Anyway, then Mark took over and told the story of Capernwray being founded by Major Thomas – well, actually he started with how Major Thomas met Mrs. Thomas (before she was Mrs. Thomas, in case anyone was wondering/being finickety).

The talk ended with an old video that was filmed in the 60’s (I’m guessing this is where some of my readers will start insisting that isn’t old, but in terms of film, yes it is!). It was originally a silent film that was meant to be promotional material for the holidays. But one of the teachers who used to come to Capernwray did a voiceover that completely took the mickey out of it – and it was fairly cheesy in places anyway! The voiceover was recorded in the 90’s (I think) so we got both. Actually, it was so funny and everyone was laughing so much that I think we missed half of it! I wonder if we can persuade Mark to show us again . . . ?