WTF?

I will start by saying that this blip of my storage jars, rendered infra-red, has nothing whatsoever to do with my day. Thing is, I went out mid-morning, and forgot to take my camera with me! Oops. My basic phone is so basic that it doesn't have a camera on it. I have thought of getting another one, for occasions such as this.

It's half-term in Gloucestershire, but Bomble the cat decided I needed waking from 6am onwards. Meh. Because I was on holiday, I was able to listen to Woman's Hour on the radio, which today was about absent fathers. I did email them, but my comments were not read out. More meh. Interesting, anyway.

After a quick haircut, I caught the bus to Cheltenham, where I managed to chat to an old friend, Jan, from my aromatherapy course days. She works in a shop on the prom that sells beautiful things. Naturally, I had to buy some...

Next, I headed off to the Cheltenham Everyman Theatre to meet another Jan, my colleague, to see a new stage adaptation of Brave New World. We got an upgrade to the upper circle, so had very good seats in this fine old auditorium, designed by Frank Matcham in the 1890s. The production itself was both gripping and visual, with great use of graphics and dance-like movement. True to Aldous Huxley's 1932 futuristic novel, but chillingly reminiscent of the world of today. Dystopian doesn't begin to describe the genetically engineered society created, in which feelings apart from faux-happiness have no place. Less desirable thoughts and feelings are kept at bay by the widespread use of a drug named Soma, which creates a feeling of out-of-it bliss and heightened sexual arousal.

I'd arranged to meet blipper FrankS and his wife Anne after the show (they like visiting Cheltenham so had booked in for the play, too). We went to Nero's and caught up on the fifteen or so months since we'd last met. Seems like yesterday! Nero's was far too cold, though, so they went off to find somewhere to eat. and I went round WHSmith's, casing the joint for new jigsaws and book titles. Coming out at around 6pm, I was struck by the number of homeless young men bedding down on the pavement for the night.