Diary Saturday 3rd October 2015

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After a few days of making not much activity stretch to a diary entry, today was finally an active, genuinely interesting one. I had a ticket for a burlesque show in the evening, so I set off to that, stopping off for food and a beer on route. The show itself was at Charlie’s Bar, on Harter Street in Manchester, a venue last used by The Slippery Belle burlesque a few years ago. It is a small venue, and the show was sold out, and marvellous. I met with lots of new and familiar faces. The bar has limited drinks choices, so I was drinking canned beers they poured into a plastic glass for me. I could have chosen very expensive wines as an alternative, though I wouldn’t have even had my budget allowed for it. In keeping with their posh ambiance, Charlie’s Bar had a very strange posh touch – a toilet commissionaire. A man was standing in the toilet entrance way most of the evening, and though he wasn’t dressed in a uniform, I assumed he was there for security measures. As I went to wash my hands he turned the tap on for me, and tried to draw my attention to posh soaps, but I settled for ordinary push button gunge. As I finished rinsing my hands he handed me a strip of paper towelling. I am rather used to doing all this for myself. This felt a bit like having someone cut my food up for me. I should have felt pampered but I found it a little odd and intrusive, especially outside a swank, expensive hotel facility. After the show I headed home, too tired to do much of anything. Arthur Chappell