Hilditz

The nuns at my old school are in trouble again. They want to sell land to build a Tescos. The townsfolk (according to national news) want a Sainsburys built on industrial land. The last time I recollect the nuns being in trouble was when the school shut. The Mother Superior made a statement to the press that in hindsight the school had been far too repressive and she regretted this. We were not allowed access to TV, radio or allowed to play music - we were allowed one phone call home on our mother's birthday although if you were lucky you could blag one a term. We were allowed to receive and send one letter a week and they read through our letters and if one didn't suit them they read it out to class to humiliate us.

From starting the school the nuns had me playing the piano in chapel and soon I was having to get up earlier than everyone else to play for mass at 7 and evensong later on. I was also the musical entertainment - any pop songs were sung to me and I could easily come up with an arrangment on one of the many old pianos scattered around the old school. I cannot remember why but for some reason as a punishment the nuns locked all the pianos and to retaliate I unpicked the locks with a hairgrip and played them a death march at midnight. The funny thing was they were not allowed to speak after 9 pm so they would signal their displeasure and I was locked in the laundry cupboard for the rest of the night!