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You can’t stop the boats: Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea @ParkTheatre

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Sorry We Didn’t Die At Sea by Italian playwright Emanuele Aldrovandi and translated by Marco Young, has made a topical return to London at the Park Theatre after playing earlier this summer at the Seven Dials Playhouse. In a week when leaders and leaders in waiting were talking about illegal immigration, it seemed like a topical choice . It also has one hell of an evocative title. The piece opens with Adriano Celantano’s Prisencolinensinainciusol , which sets the scene for what we are about to see. After all, a song about communication barriers seems perfect for a play about people trafficking and illegal immigration. One side doesn’t understand why they happen, and the other still comes regardless of the latest government announcement / slogan .  However, the twist here is that the crossing is undertaken the other way. People are fleeing Europe instead of escaping war or poverty in Africa or the Middle East. It’s set sometime in the not-too-distant future. There is a crisis causing p
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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