On the 14th March, alot of us lot went on the London Trop to see An Inspector Calls (Playhouse Theatre). As i've said before the case with these types of trip is that the before and after eclipses the main attraction itself. When you place alot of juveniles in one place, there is plenty of amusement all around, even if the public isn't laughing. Kind of like one big in-joke, that those involved are loving, but one that offends everyone else.

The coach journey on the way was faily sedate, leg room was suspiciously acceptable and we were in a Soames (top quality coach company that drove us to Austria in 2001 for over 20 hours) so it was pretty good although not overwhelmingly entertaining. We spent most of our time eating and throwing sweets at Jameson. Now we weren't doing this just for the fun of it, else we would've just thrown them at eachother, but Jameson had been distanced by the group by El Cid and her wicked ways. There was also much chanting and cheering for the man himself though, even if he is being sucked dry (in a bad way) by his woman. (No Offense intended Mr Davey)

Once in London, i seem to recall it being wet.. or maybe i'm imagining it. Anyway we walked through the London streets, following two small female teachers who accurately resembled Indian washer-women and seemed to have absolutely no idea where they were going. Finally we made our way blindly to the theatre, and walked straight past it to McDonalds - inside we were cheering like the hungry madmen we were.

The only other thing I remember from our walk to the theatre around here was that a man walking the opposite way to us, went through our crowd (cupping his left hand), touching various arses (lad's only however). Jack was one of the victims and is still emotionally distressed, dribbling in a cage unable to get over what happened to him that night.

Anyway, Inside McDonalds, we sat downstairs and proceeded to eat many Burgers, as mentioned many times before. Taking full advantage of the 99p selection. When finishing we ended up standing around in the London streets outside the restuarant for about 15 minutes. Nick took this time to try and earn some extra money, by pretending to be a begger, but this didn't work, and so we moved on..

O'Deadry (or whatever) managed to stack on the way back to the theatre down a measly three steps, which provoked much mocking from everyone else. She can't complain though, being a complete bitch and all. Made it back to the Theatre and proceeded to almost start a riot outside the doors, for some reason a small selection of us - the beautiful people - were brought to the front and let in first. Later found out that us group would be up top, on the second of three levels, whereas everyone else would be at ground level to watch the performance.

So we were now in the Gentleman's Bar - me, robe, ryan, alan edkins and strange women. Joe 90 and his american father made an appearence and we laughed at them. The prices behind the bar were outrageous, and forget the age restriction, it would've cost us both kidneys and a liver to afford a shot of vodka in this bar so all remained painfully sober.

The best bit of the play itself was the explosions, and plates smashing.. however one sequence where a cup was thrown, but bounced instead of breaking, was quite unsatisfactory. SMS thought it was good, but wasn't impressed with the performances of Mrs Birling, Gerald and Mr Birling. However thought that Eric was rather well played, if not slightly too excitedly.

On the way back, the lads at the rear provided the entertainment with hooligan-type chanting taking the piss out of everyone and anyone - including themselves. We arrived home about midnight - tired - worthwhile - experienced.

For most this was an exciting trip to London, a one-off to the 'big city', the capital, but to me it was an emotion return to my home, my place of birth and i'll never forget it.

Article Written By Jay
j666.16814.k00@ntlworld.com