Howdi diddly people!
 
If I'm a little on the happy side forgive me. I'm skipping this shit hole of a country for somewhere much nicer for a few weeks. la la la la la....
 
Yep, its holiday time, and I'm off to Ecuador. Though its winter there at the moment, and mosquito's and hardly any vegetarian dishes.
 
Bugger,
 
At least I'll lose some weight. WOOHOO!
 
This may also prove to be my last ever post. Yes, its true, and yes, its sad, but cry not dear children. Save your tears for when you next watch Bambi.
 
I may die.
 
A world without Stu. Its hard to contemplate a world without Stu, and I for one would be devastated if I weren't dead already.
"What you on about you dick?" I hear you cry (Nope, we're actually asleep. YOu bored us already stu you idiot)
 
I have had no shots. So I could die of (in no particular order) Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Hepatitis...all of them!  dengue fever, rabies, and scummy local diseases from the locals... bloody foreigners!!! (joking. I love everyone.....)
 
I know, I know, I should have got them done, but I ran out of time, ran out of money, the dog ate my homework, its society's fault. So I'm sorry to those people who have nagged me (Caire and Jayne) I'm sure you'll get over me pretty quick. By the time EastEnders is on, you won't even remember who I am....
 
Having said that, Claire will be very pissed off if I have spent nothing and come back with nothing wrong, while she has spent £200 to have nothing wrong with her.. heh heh heh.
 
So I'm off to pack, I hear the jungle calling, so if I survive, see you all when I get back....
 
So long
 
Stu
 
 

- posted by pearly @ 12:11 PM

 
A bitter sweet morning....
 
Had a blinding day tesyerday, but the combination of no food all day, beer, wine, and an indian did not bode well from the start and I ended up emptying the contents of my stomach somewhere in Woolwich.
 
Nice.
 
Yesterday was a bit of a sad day. My friend Matt is leaving London forever to live in squalour somewhere in Dubai. So we went and had a cultured afternoon at the Globe Theatre to see some Shakespeare.
 
I'd never been to the globe (shamefully) and was absolutely knocked out by the place. Its a stunningly beautiful building, and tickets are only a fiver to watch in "the pit."
 
The pit is all standing, and back in Shakespeares day, it was where the paupers, the commoners, the chavs of their day would stand to watch the performance. Though back then, the people with money in the seats would bring vegetables to throw at the paupers, and would piss on them and spit, and generally assert their class over those who had no money.
 
Bargain!
 
We saw Measure For Measure, a play which I'd never seen, and in my opinion, one of Shakespeares better plays. The quality of the production was top notch. None of this setting the play in a modern context making it relevent to todays audiences, just straight up Shakespeare the way it should be, and the way it was performed bck in the day. No lights, no mics, hardly any props, no scenery.
 
Fantastic!
 
I have never felt so involved at a theatre production (well, none that I haven't been in!) and the rain just added to the event. And only five pounds, you can't go wrong. FIVE POUNDS?! its crazy.
 
Now, if they can afford to that at the globe, which recieves no funding, why can't West End shows do the same? Its an absolute rip off. Producers have been greedy for too long, and would rather play to houses that are only 20% full than discount prices.
 
Sure they offer two for one tickets in the press and stuff, but it doesn't go far enough. West End theatre is shamelessly expecting the punter to fork out up to £50 a ticket on a saturday night. For a family of four, that's £200. There is something distinctly wrong with this. And all the while, producers reiterate the point that Theatre is not elitist.
 
Well excuse me.
 
Why not have one night a week, a monday maybe, when theatres are traditionally quiet, when you can pay what you can, whether thats £5 or £20, to see a show? It makes sense, yet the powers that be in the west end constantly say that its not viable. Why?
 
That's what makes me so angry with the proffession. I used to defend the theatre, but now find it hard to sympathise when shows are closing, and take the side of people who knock the West End.
 
Yes its a commercial field, and the producers are there to make money, but they have to see that in order to attract a new younger audience, the theatre goers of the next twenty years, they have to make some concessions. And almost everything you find in the west end now is shit anyway, catering for tourists. Give me the Globe anyday.
 


- posted by pearly @ 12:45 PM

 
Why is everyone in this country so hung up about class?

Whenever you read somewhere in interviews, in biography's, or just talking to people, they are proud to be "Working class" as if it is some kind of medal given to them. This is fine. Of course you should be proud of your roots, your history, but having just moved back to where I am from, in a very working class area, where on every street you see neglect, poverty and a lack of any sense of social inclusion, it makes me wander why people aspire to be working class.

I lived here for the first eighteen years of my life, and to be honest, I never really realised how horrible this place is. I used to be proud of who I was, where I was from, because I believed that being "working class" made me somekind of moral underdog. The working class lad made good, that kind of thing. And I honestly believed it.That every penny I had (or not as the case may be) I honestly earned.
In honesty, I don't really care for money, I'd be perfectly happy if I had just enough to get by, which at the moment, I don't.

I used to love my area, I used to think that I'd never leave. But then I did, experienced the nicer places, and have come back. And I hate it. I hate the fact that poverty has ruined my home, and that everyoene here has been affected by it. The lack of oppurtunity, the lack of money for regeneration. the lack of anything remotely good looking (has to be underlying motive!!) and it makes me feel as though I have somehow betrayed my roots, that I'm some kind of snob. I don't think I am, I think I'm as working class as the next person here, though briefly, I got given the oppurtunity to follow my dream with the help of my dads redundency money, and yeah, while I was at my drama college, I felt like a right snob, and it was a horrible feeling.

I am feeling the same again, five years on. But you only hear the people that have got out of the working class hell carping on about how proud they are of their roots. Its becayse they now have the money, and good luck to them, but they seem to view their past with rose tinted glasses.

"yeah, we alked five miles to school, had a bath only once a week, and were so poor we had to eat dog food from a slipper. Ahhh, they were great days."

Fuck that. I want enough to see me by, a nice house in the country, a nice car. I'm coming out of the class closet, and I don't care anymore. I'm stuck in a town where the highlight of peoples week is the thursday night run to the off license to get the weeks special brew in. I don't want to live like that. I want out.

I'm working class. And hate it.
- posted by pearly @ 5:08 AM