Stupefy

There was this belief in my family about getting a good education. 

“….whatever happens, just make sure the kids received the best education the parents can afford”. 

So, I was sent to a public school in the UK. Public schools are in fact very expensive private schools.

The school buildings were so very Harry Potterish, tall turrets, dark gloomy halls, gay teachers in gowns, house colours, tweed jackets and no girls. What I meant by saying "no girls" was the school being single sex. Girls, there were plenty, the village lasses hoping to snare a rich public school kid. We didn't play Quidditch but rugby, cricket and fives. What is fives you may wonder. Instead of a racquet, players wear leather gloves to smack a ball against a wall.

We were twinned with another private all-girls school down the road. Whenever there were balls, girls from that school were invited. The girls were, hmmm.. snobbish (think Hermione). I’d rather sneak off down the village green for a quiet smoke than attempt to seduce them. 

Spent two celibate years there, lower sixth and upper sixth. Most of the kids sat the Oxbridge exams (for entrance into Oxford or Cambridge) but not I. I applied, got the required A-Level grades and entered a working class university in England’s north.