Never going to Ipswich again!

[erastes]

Reginald D Hunter was a bit of (to quote Craig Revell-Hallward) a “disarster, darhling.” It was lovely to see Canaries Chick again, and we’ve agreed to start up going to the cinema again – once a month – but everything else – disaster! Her Sat Nav was a useless idiot and couldn’t find the car park it was programmed to do – we ended up driving through the pedestrian precinct(!) because the Sat Nav insisted. We found a carpark, parked and found we were on the wrong side of town for the theatre, so got a taxi. Then the theatre wasn’t open and there wasn’t anywhere to eat within striking distance, and when we were finally allowed in – a plastic bottle of coke, an orange juice and two packets of crisps (hardly the champagne bar I was expecting) was SEVEN POUNDS. The barmaid even had the gall to ask if we wanted glasses. I rather felt that for that price I’d expect someone to hold the glass up to my mouth while I sucked. Ipswich does not have much class, it seems. Also, the town is a dump, which is a crying shame as you can see medieval buildings which aren’t even being looked after.

And the show was a bit disappointing too – his warm up act, Steve Hughes, who I’d seen briefly before was very funny in a conspiracy theory ranty sort of way, but Reginald was not really how I expected. He started well, well soon got rather drunk – he was drinking vodka solidly for an hour, and then just seemed to lose the thread of what he was talking about, had more vodka, had a lot of silences, had more vodka – then started telling a rambling story about Sex in the City 2 which seemed entirely pointless. We had to leave before the end to make sure I got the train – but I don’t think we missed much.

A bit of a let down! But it was lovely to see CC – and it got me out of the house! It was bloody freezing though, and I’m very glad I got the train, I wouldn’t have wanted to drive around Ipswich in the dark. What a dump!

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Comments

[geishawhite.livejournal.com]

Er, no it isn't, thanks. What you've seen of it is a very small and very separate part. You could've called it that in 2005 when the Wright murders were happening, but you've certainly not seen the entire town. Some of that medieval architecture is extremely well looked after on a much smaller budget than the one Norwich possesses. It's much less affluent, with much less liberal sentiment but a lot of effort is going in to making it a nicer place to live and a nicer place generally. Ipswich's Ip-Art festival in the summer is amazing, the Christchurch Mansion is both well looked after and well loved, and the churches are a point of pride -- St Mary Le Tower is fabulous, with sung Matins every Sunday. The Waterfront developments have been extremely well done, and for a town suffering badly from the economic crisis, crime isn't going up as high as it could've done. Yes, the Wolsey Theatre is expensive (I presume you mean the New Wolsey) but it's hardly the town's fault -- it's not town run, after all. If you know the area or you can find your way about there are actually food places within distance, but I'll admit the layout of that particular spot is more difficult to find than most -- but as for "class" -- yes, it bloody well does have it, thanks. Publicly trashing a town based on a very small aspect of it that you've seen and largely to do with a show/theatre rather than the actual weight of it seems poor class in itself.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Jeez - is no one allowed to have an opinion any more?