We mimed, like charades of old, our fist work.

Kally started with a demonstration of packing, but what was she packing? A hamper. Esther showed how she put on headphones, listened, then typed up and did some walking. Turned out she was working for the Foreign Broadcast unit, listening to French and Italian broadcasts, which she would summarise, take to the deciding person, and have what she recorded Spiked or Flashed. If flashed more information was needed, like when the Czech revolution hit, and everyone was running around. The Russian listeners were on 24 hours and Esther did an excellent imitation of Vatican radio. She sat between the Arab and Polish listeners, who each had their idiosyncrasies: the Arabs were volatile, and the Poles chain smokers.
Andrew’s first job was as a newspaper deliverer, to the well healed of Hampstead. Carrying heavy bags of newspapers, he had the misfortune of sometimes having the Library on his round, which had every newspaper delivered, and when the Sunday supplements arrived, they were an added load. The Daily Worker was the thinnest paper.
Pippa mimed opening post and then filing it, randomly it turns out, in front of an alcoholic boss who did not challenge her mis-filing.
Bertie did a splendid imitation of working on the London underground, being charged with hanging off a weight to bring the weight down. After that he was a hod carrier
Jo was a very elegant masseur – that was easy to guess.
Virginia’s first job was looking after a child mainly by feeding him/her smarties!
Rachel’s first job was as a picture restorer.

We broke into our groups to harvest more information about our working lives.

Here’s a moment in Pippa and Berties working life, when they worked together, combining Pippa’s theatre with Berti’s philosophy, teaching young people to be good at business, by using the classic tools of Ethos, Pathos and Logic, exemplified in these two books

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Kally, Jo Virginia and Rachel all wanted to be dancers!

Esther wanted to be a vet.
Andrew a cavalry officer with his own horse
Berti wanted to be marching soldier
Pippa wanted to be a romantic heroine, and to that end showed us a photograph which illustrated how this was never possible!

IMAGE

Jo, as well as a dancer, wanted to be an archeologist and detective – to find treasure and detect
Kally, as well as a dancer wanted to be a nurse
Rachel, as well as a dancer, wanted to be a nun

In your next life, what would you want to be?

(Virginia’s excellent suggestion)

Esther would like to an explorer and pioneer for conservation like David Attenburgh or Jane Goodall
Andrew would like to be an arctic explorer (who Esther would find, film and promote)
Bertie would like to be Professor of history
Pippa, a landscape gardener
Jo wanted to be dancer, traveling all over the world. Or a monk living on a mountain?
Kally wanted to fly – a bird or a pilot
Virginia wanted to be either a DNA interpreter or a researcher into Dyslexia.
Rachel wanted to be a farmer.

Kally and Jo fashioned some excellent drawings, here they are. We had a wealth of occupations between us all.