The recent e-mail that started: "During my early years in physics I recall a physics teacher who habitually wore the sartorial grey dust coat (perhaps they all did). On one occasion he was demonstrating the principles of the hand operated lift pump when the pump outlet hose became entangled in the dreaded dust coat. Oblivious to this minor matter...." was from Rob Watts NOT Rod Wise. Apologies!! grovel... grovel... Terry Hopkins writes: "I went straight from School to Uni in Sydney and graduated in Vet Science and went into general practice in Australia - various parts. Went to the UK for a short period then came back to Australia. I was in practice again for a short time before joining Bayer for what I thought would be a temporary job. I have travelled a bit with Bayer and am currently head of R. and D. for the Animal Health Division of Bayer in Australia which includes international responsibilities. Married for 33 years. Memories from school days. I note with interest that few have mentioned their scholastic achievements but rather the atrocities that were committed. Perhaps that is what is remembered about school days. I also must admit to remembering almost exclusively the extracurricular activities rather than the education. 2E was at the bottom of the food chain. Business principles were taught instead of Latin which was offered to the higher social classes I was considered as having lost the plot because on coming to NSBHS I actually chose 2E with business principles. It seemed like a good idea at the time but the only thing I remember of business principles now is to always cross your cheques "not negotiable" and of course double entry book keeping. From the latter I remember that when you had a debit you had to find somewhere to put a credit. Unfortunately in life I have always had many more debits and very few credits to balance them so it hasn't really been a lot of help.To salvage something out of those many hours of work I have always religiously crossed and marked all cheques "not negotiable" so that at least I can point with great pride at something I learnt at school. I think I heard somewhere that learning should be fun but we took it to extremes in 2E French class with our teacher "Grunt". In hindsight I realise that kids can be very cruel and I hope we did not destroy Grunt with our behavior . At the time these were the lessons I looked forward to each week. In French , academically 2E was outstanding. By outstanding I really mean stood out. At the end of the first term I can remember Grunt standing dejectedly in front of the class and telling us that he had had a dressing down from the deputy head because our class had achieved the record ( still unbroken I suggest) of only covering 2 pages of French reader in the whole term. This was greeted with a resounding cheer from the whole class Grunt seemed to think that the cheer meant we thought that this was a great achievement and quickly explained that it was terrible and we had to concentrate in the rest of the year. We were of course congratulating ourselves on how little we had achieved. Our pace did not improve. I should add that this snails pace was only achieved by great innovation and mental gymnastics by almost everyone in the class to mispronounce, pretend to misunderstand very simple phrases or plead gross ignorance in translations. Grunt had infinite patience and never seemed to realise that he was being manipulated. While I learnt absolutely no French that year I did learn how to suppress laughter, how to turn hysterical laughter into a coughing fit when imminent herniation meant suppression was no longer an option. You would agree that these are valuable life skills so all was not wasted. Above this I learnt a level of hand , eye coordination far exceeding any modern day play station warrior. This elevated level of physical and mental prowess was needed to be able to participate in the process of passing 5 house bricks and 2, 5 foot ( they were feet in those days) lengths of timber around the class for 40 minutes without once being detected by Grunt. Under desk passes were for cowards or beginners, side passes for intermediates and overheads for professionals. I must have worn tight underpants that day or double herniation from suppressed laughter would have been the definite outcome. There are many more stories but I won't clog the airways with my particular memories. Good luck to all." And finally, one of our number is in fact in communication with Charles Troutman and is finding out if he wants to hear from us. Perhaps there's a chance for an apology yet.... regards, Ron