Complicated

I went to the National Self-Build and Renovation Centre (whose focus is environmentally sensitive building) just west of Swindon to try to find answers to some of my questions about what I need to do. It was useful but by the end of the day my brain was completely befuddled.

On the way back I ran hard for a bus which pulled away just as I got to the stop. Mean. It meant I missed my train and was back home just in time to grab a bite to eat and head out to meet friends who'd got returns for a promising sounding piece of theatre. We agreed in the pub afterwards that we were disappointed. Our time together was a lot better than the play.

Edit two days later: It was Brown Boys Swim, at The North Wall. Afterwards I looked up reviews and found that performances at the Edinburgh Fringe and elsewhere have been universally highly praised. Some of what I didn't like was personal taste: too much tedious moving around of the three components of the admirably simple set. But more was to do with the script trying to fit too many issues in and its unbelievable ending. Why such praise for this? Have I failed to see something? Was it an off night? Could it be that white critics feel unable to criticise Desi art? I've previously written to the Oxford Playhouse about its sycophancy over a dreadful play by a black theatre company. There is masses of excellent black and brown theatre. Double standards are not OK.

On my home at midnight I saw a couple warring then her walking off as he yelled after her. I followed her slowly and as I overtook I decided she was probably OK. At the same moment a pair of police officers appeared out of nowhere to check she was all right. I was impressed.

Edit: writing the previous edit made me wonder how the interaction with the police would have been had the young woman not been white.