Bournemouth. Not that I’ll get to see it. I’m in the Premier Inn in East Cliff, which is one of the Premier Inns that HATE you. “No sir, we can’t seat you for dinner without a booking,” they said to me half an hour before I watched them say “Wait one moment I’ll just check with the chef… yes we can fit you in!” to someone else who was in a suit. I called the staff out on it. They told me they were all new today and apologised like people who have been forced to. I didn’t get dinner. I’m inclined to agree with Aesop’s fox that dinner would have been shite here anyway. Still I would have liked the chance to make that call myself. Now I’m looking on Deliveroo and it all looks atrocious. So I’m gonna just go to sleep and rely on breakfast.
Dayjobberising once more, running a bunch of workshops about sustainable energy, yada yada yada. I’m excellent at it by now but…
This morning found me at The National Theatre Costume Hire. They have a vast trove of wonderful costume to rent, presided over by lots of lovely people and one total arsehole. I wandered around, found some interesting things, remembered what a total douchebag one of their members of staff was, and phoned the client telling them I could maybe help save them some money next time by renting them some of the stuff I now have in my flat. Nobody needs to rent costume from someone like that. The stuff I found was perfectly decent, of course, and has been around and around. I don’t really object to the high prices, they’re the National, they have great stuff that we’ve all paid for once. I’ll pay for it again, as they are not doing Angels rates. They just have one person working there who makes it their business to put your back up. Last time it was my own money, and I just… decided not to because of that person. This time it’s not my money and there are lots of us. We will go there, put up with that twit, and end up with half decent costume. I’ll provide most of my own just out of spite. Here’s what I found:
They want over £130 for it plus VAT though and if only I had access to decent long boots and a red cape I could do the whole shebang out of my dressing up box, slightly different era but not a job that cares:
You see too much of my flat in that photo.. Still, fuck it, I’m not hiding. And I’m still plumbing the depths of my dressing up box. But it is fantastic. I need a walk in dressing room. I crave a walk in dressing room. My day to day life would be so much more glamorous with one, and it would serve my work. Fucking Ponce.
I’ll finish this workshop, drive home, throw some gorgeous clothes into my car dahling and then drive to Bankside loaded up with the bling and go be fabulous at rehearsal. My weird life. Hungry. Goodnight.
AlBarclay 
I get at the East Cliff it feels like you are miles put of town, but B’mouth centre is really only a short step away – next time try La Piccola Italia at the Lansdowne (which is that side of town, affordable and reliable). Further on the new Odeon complex just up from the Pier has virtually every chain you can think of and I get being by the sea isn’t a novelty for you, but there’s always Harry Ramsdens. If you find yourself in that neck of the woods with Lou, afternoon tea at Langtry Manor is a sugar rush beyond compare. In fairness generally the food there is top notch, but it probably isn’t in most people’s day to day budget (or maybe I’m just a tight git).
Clive
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lol damn I was in such a rush I missed it all!! Next time… I love a good Italian too.
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Just on the odfchance you can help with this, I just got a message on my phone from Bourne Academy saying they’re gonna chuck my hoodie out if I don’t get it tomorrow before the end of term. Current plan is for Lou and I to drive there early and grab it as we are free and we like the hoodie. But if you’re not working and fancy grabbing it you might save us a trip. (Although chances are we will have set off before you get this, in which case maybe we should get a coffee!) A
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Apologies for the long delay in replying to cut a long story short, your message arrived during one of my flaky periods and I wasn’t really looking at the internet much in general and WordPress even less (my own blog went missing for a couple of months, but the world can do without me wittering about fishing for a month or two).
Oddly I do know the Bourne Academy as until this year’s round of GCSE/A levels I invigilated there, but have switched to a school within cycling range. I know most of the admin team and it seems very out of character for them to be this knobheady. I’d like to think it was a one off lapse at the end of a long academic year.
I’ve tried bigging up the merits of B’mouth to you before, but the area around Bourne is harder to sell. If you do find yourself there again (which I guess is unlikel in the circumstances) y the ‘Smugglers Church’ is worth a look and then there’s … no, that’s it.
Clive
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