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No country for old women: Old Ladies - at Finborough Theatre

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The day after seeing The Old Ladies at the Finborough Theatre , I was describing the play to someone in great detail: about three old ladies who lived in a rickety house in southern England in 1935. Based on Hugh Walpole’s novel and adapted by Rodney Ackland, it is the sort of story with enough believability, humour and mild thriller to stick in your mind. Perhaps it is the lure of this dark, forboding tale of a life without money, to be alone and to be old, that makes you feel attracted to this poverty porn. But then again, given the state of the world, the cost of living, an ageing population, or just the fact that it’s a dog-eat-dog world, it might as well be an every little old lady-for-herself, too. It’s a well-acted and staged piece that moves at a brisk pace, so there isn’t much time to think about it too much. And in the intimate (or should that be claustrophobic?) space of the Finborough, there’s nowhere to avert your eyes. Even if you wanted to.  The scene is a grim Cathe...
Friday Email banter

I get into work and find this email in my inbox today...

From: Manager
Sent: 03 June 2005 09:24
To: Paul
Subject: RE: Outrageous outbreak of individuality
Importance: High

Paul

I was shocked and stunned to see that you are using Verdana instead of Arial for your email font. I had no idea you were such a maverick!

To which my response was...

From: Paul
Sent: 03 June 2005 10:46
Subject: RE: Outrageous outbreak of individuality... Just Verdana it...

Blame this outrageous outbreak on individuality on:
  1. Being a follower of Jakob Nielsen's readability / usability thing (putting into question just how individual I am I realise)
  2. Downright shocking personal preference for clean look of this san serif font
  3. Not being able to get enough of that generous inter-letter spacing, that aids on-screen legibility at the expense of efficiency in printed output
  4. As a temp of 16 months now becoming too much of a maverick
  5. All of the above...

Whether this is a career-challenging thing to put in writing to a senior manager is anybody's guess, but I figured after that email - and being informed that my Abercrombie and Fitch Pink Striped shirt was very flamboyant - I figured I could probably mix things up a little.

I also informed everyone that my pink striped shirt has got me very far for something I have only just brought. and I suggested everyone should purchase one - just like first class travel on the Eurostar. And besides, pink is the colour for summer. One cannot have enough of it in your wardrobe for the next few months...

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