Blockbuster.  No, not Blockbusters, the game show hosted by Bob Holness (I cannot help but add, as everyone does, the second man to play James Bond), but the video rental shop.  Today’s boys are unlikely to experience the excitement of browsing rows of videos before negotiating an agreeable title with friends, for there is only one Blockbuster left in the world, in Oregon, USA.  This is the Netflix age.  And yet there was a time, in 2008, when Blockbuster turned down the chance to buy Netflix, then a DVD mailing service, for (in retrospect) a bargain $50 million. Netflix is now worth $150 billion. 

Do you know (as I do, thanks to Google) what a referee’s whistle, an egg beater, and a Zorb¹ have in common?  What if I added the jet pack?  And the jet boat?  The disposable syringe?  If you’re stuck, I will mention the theory of how to split the atom.  The nerdiest readers – and I know who you are – are probably saying, though not with the same level of admiration, ‘and bungee jumping’.

In Dorm 3, one poster is of the two Chelsea goalkeepers, Arrizabalaga and Caballero.  Youngsters are still inspired by the style and grace of sporting heroes.  As a boy (and sometimes now!), I wanted to score cover drives with David Gower’s elegance and celebrate goals with the windmill action of Mick Channon.  The latter was achieved (on rare occasions).

One of the principles we instil in children is not to leave mess for others to clear up. It is one outplaying of treating others as we hope to be treated ourselves – the so-called golden rule found in every mainstream ethical and religious system. 

Yesterday at breakfast, with reference to the school’s service which would follow that morning, morning’s service, I said to my table that for me the only feast at all is Autumn's Harvest Festival.  After giving me the sort of smile a child gets from tolerant but mildly confused parents, the boys on my table moved the conversation on to how best to drive a tank up Snowdon. 

Friday 20 September 2019