I called it work and wandered round the heath. Nobody else is gonna employ me so I might as well play with friends for money. The last two years I’ve been able to run this evening Halloween ghost tour. Once it did go to the wire and the driver from set got me there just in time. It’s evening work. It can usually fit.
Shoe had a route in mind. It works but there’s a big old suburban walk in the middle. I’m gonna have to work hard to find suburban Highgate ghosts… But it’ll end up populated. “We do a different route every year,” says the company ethic. They get a lot of repeat custom. Great… Although I can see why many similar but lazy “experience” companies just hardtack one narrative and make people learn it. I’m good at tour guiding and improv so… I’m happy to pull people down these odd streets and go with whatever madness they bring. I love my Halloween walkies.
And I’m knackered again. I’m sleeping on my own sofa at the mo so my guest has a door they can close. It’s not ideal but thankfully the work I did selling fine leather sofas maybe two decades ago bears out. “Your sofas are more expensive than any others like them,” I was told, often. “Yes, but you get that back in time,” I would say. I sold a load of expensive sofas to people when I believed that they were just higher quality. It was only when I inadvertently discovered that exactly the same sofas were available for half the price elsewhere that I stopped giving a fuck. I’m not gonna rip you off. That feels bad. And if you know me well you will understand what might have been happening in my face when someone went “Oh but it’s a lot more money for me than if I go to DFS. Are you sure it’ll be a better investment for my sick grandson and his family?”. I KNEW that it was exactly the same sofa and my boss wanted double the price. I hate lying. Acting, for me, is about self-delusion. “If I was under that set of circumstances then…”
Everything sofa related finally died in me when a renowned film maker worked out I was an actor. “I used to be married to an actor,” he told me, and seemed interested in my shit. Sure he wanted a cheaper sofa, but he befriended me and gave me his business card. I still have it. “Call me if you ever want to make something,” he offered. But then my boss refused even the basic friends and family discount for the guy. Looking back, my boss was mostly eating his own face with coke at the time. No surprise when the mark-up was so much. I chose my sofa with knowledge of his shady business, when U was already happy to jump ship. He had too many Salvatore Corner Sofas in the warehouse and they weren’t selling but they were excellent. I knew he wanted them moved. And I had successfully flogged two at three times what I paid. I must be one of the only people in the world to have paid a reasonable price for one of these sofas, and the salesman in me is proud to say that it has paid itself in time. It’s a very very good and very comfy leather sofa. All is well.
AlBarclay 