An idiots guide to an idiot: Harrow etc

Abit out of date now as I haven't been blogging very regularly but a couple of months ago we went down to Harrow for Tara's school reunion. First we'd booked a tour of Harrow School, they do this once a term. Its a guided tour and all the better for that, our guide was very enthusiastic and informative. Got taken into the building that serves as a memorial to an old boy killed in World War One, Alex Fitch. His parents renovated the room on condition that his portrait was hung there and lit night and day, which it has been. The room itself is a composite of floorboards, walls etc from far and near. Some from a battleship of the Napoleonic era, fireplace from a stately home that was about to be demolished.
The Speech Room was very grand as was the chapel across the road. When this chapel was built the masters had to agree a design for the spire. All but one master, William Oxenham agreed and did he make a nuisance of himself by flatly refusing to agree and so blocking the spire being put in place. Comes the day, in 1865 that Oxenham shuffles off this mortal coil, and being a master of Harrow School (even women teachers are called masters here!) a memorial was erected to him. What better memorial could there be but to erect the spire on the chapel...…
The original school was just once room , called the Forth Form, this room is covered in graffiti where boys have carved their names, its also featured in feature films such as Harry Potter, Young Winston and many more besides. It was a very interesting tour and one you could probably do again. I guess a different guide would tell you their favourite titbits of the schools history.
The main purpose of the exercise was Tara's school reunion. We were staying at a cheap & cheerful hotel in South Harrow (bizarrely it was a converted office block, an office Tara had worked in!) not far from The White Horse where Tara & her chums were to meet. It's very different inside the pub today. Its all one big bar rather than a public and saloon as it was 30 plus years ago! Food was excellent! Very good venison pie for me & veggie burger for T. I stayed just so Tara wasn't sitting there on her own but as others arrived I left for The Castle alittle higher up the hill to meet an old friend, Robert. We had a fine evening of beer and chat & eventually (chucking out time!) went back to the White Horse where their gig was winding up. Tara had had a very good evening with all her old school chums, about 20 there I think. It had been a great success and they've already booked for next year.
Back to our cheap and cheerful hotel. Brekkers in the morning...….the hot plate was interesting consisting of: scrambled egg, boiled eggs, baked beans and that staple of a cooked breakfast, sweetcorn! Odd to say the least but there was plenty of other things and gluten free for T so it was all OK.