Wednesday, 30 August 2017

The New Normal

So I've been back a month now and, frankly, I'm quite enjoying pottering around Essex doing Essexy things. Keeping it local. I took the foot ferry from Brightlingsea to East Mersea. How Essex is that?

It's been weird seeing what's changed and what hasn't. I was aware of some of the big changes (Bond Street) but it's the smaller changes that have perhaps been more surprising. I mean Baroosh has gone, that is a surprise. What happened? It was perpetually busy and overpriced, surely that's the dream combination for a successful business.

What else? The UB is a gin and real ale bar. The Snip is flat. The Saharan restaurant is now a Turkish restauant and the Co-op is about to be a turkish restaurant - who knew there was that much demand for souvlaki? Oh and a new Co-op has popped up to feed the student market.

I have had a sneaky London sneak too. Had to get my culture on - drinking craft IPA at the Bottle Bureau wasn't quite culture enough. Went to the Sir John Soane Museum. I hadn't even heard of that. And yet it:
A. was quirky enough to be right up my boulevard.
B. Had a Marc Quinn exhibition on. And
C. Had The Rake's Progress hidden in a cupboard. That's a proper famous painting. Hidden. In an obscure museum. How does that happen?

I doubled down on culture with that Tin Roof play. Didn't get it. It seemed too long and nothing happened. All the powerful character bits were undermined as I just didn't care about the characters. M'eh.

Sunday, 6 August 2017

Sell Out

Number eight and it kinda feels like the sparkle has faded. That the magic has gone.

It wasn't the mud. It wasn't the rain on fancy dress day. It wasn't even the organised crime that led half the Slaves moshpit to have their phones stolen.

It was the toilets.

In previous years the toilets at Standon Calling have been straight-up good. This year you would have to qualify that as "good toilets for a festival" by which I mean the toilets weren't very good at all.

So, thanks for the memories, Standon, thanks for the memories.