Brighton Life

Pizza Girl in a Eurostar Saveloy Party Adventure

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A cut-out-and-keep Gossip and Grumble No 32

My Saveloy Party was probably, definitely, the event of the summer. Way beyond just A-list celebs, we had the whole alphabet there.

It started, like all good parties, spontaneously, without planning and pretty unexpectedly. My long-term ‘house guest’ Biggins and I were travelling by Eurostar, returning from a book signing tour in Brussels (we had managed to sign thousands before being politely escorted from the store, but that’s a story for another day.) We decided to come back by train so that we could both do some work on the journey. It was genuine research for a future Whistler wine column feature and absolutely not as if we were just having a lark on expenses. OK, admittedly we may have been a tad ‘exuberant’ but who wouldn’t be when doing a 32 brand Belgian Super Lager tasting ?

To be perfectly honest, we couldn’t have been that loud because only one person complained “Excuse me!” bugled a voice from the other end of the carriage. We looked around from whence the admonishment had been launched and, joy of joys, who should it be? My great buddy Dr Cazzer, or Loukey, as Biggins calls her. Caroline Lucas enviro supremo and all round Green party goer.

How we all laughed. “You are a Drama Green,” Biggins bellowed. “And you’re a Saga Queen” Cazzer retorted ‘ageistly’ in reply. At that exact moment, with the timing of a Giselle and the poise of cartographer, a new voice joined our game.

“If you ask me, you’re all SAGA LOUTS”. The whole carriage erupted in happiness, expressed by laughing. The arch humorist, a row back, stood up and bowed ceremoniously to thunderous applause. Joy of joys, it was my hirsute soul mate and bestest chum ever in all the world and everywhere else, Lord Melvyn Bragg. “Braggers!” Biggins bellowed in recognition of a fellow A-lister. How we laughed. Our now expanded four person ‘research’ team guzzled our way onto Ashford International, then changed onto the Coaster Express to Brighton that stops at all stations, and for some reason at Eastbourne twice. Cazzer was in fine form with her stories of derring-do and her various protest arrests. She can tell a story better than any politician I know. What is she like? They don’t call it the Green PARTY for nothing. With our boisterous boozing banter, our fellow passengers probably thought we were destined for St Leonards, not the bourgeois Brechtian Byzantine of Brighton. They should count themselves lucky that the Hirsute lad (Melly) had fallen asleep mid-paragraph, whilst telling a story about Brasier and Antcliffe’s new article, Evolutionary relationships within the Avalonian Ediacara biota for the Journal of the Geological Society. To be honest, I was probably the only one who understood what he was on about. I should do, I’ve been writing his questions to his guests for his Radio 4 programmes for years.

Our ‘research laboratory’ slowly pulled into St Leonards-on-Sea. I know everyone in St Leonards, especially since half of Hackney and half of Brighton have moved down there. The train doors unfolded like curtains on a stage to reveal Mr St Leonards himself, Mr Saturday Night, the vamper camper, Mr Graham Norton. “Well Hellllllloo Brighton train” he exalted to all and sundry. Naughty Norton immediately spotted me, then our quadrangle. Biggins and Norton greeted each other with a Stanislavski physicality, a probing, frisk assessment of a scrummage, itself worthy of an Ivor Novello or at least an Eminemmy award. Saggy Braggy had woken up and proceeded to decline a passed glug of Belgian Strawberry Champagne ‘As Favoured by Monks’. Instead, he opted to share Cazzer’s ‘Wheat Grass Milk Shake’. Thank God Melvyn had put his dental plate back in, although it would have been better if it had been the right way up. Melly had us in stitches with his stories, first about the notice he’d seen in a Dials shop saying ‘Only two MPs in the store at a time please’ and then the story of when he had stolen Sally Taylor’s saveloy. It takes the simplest thing, but that is the moment when together, as if one, in unison, we jointly all cried out “Let’s have a Saveloy Party!” Call it symbiosis or just mad, but we all had the same idea at once, spooky or what?

Our train eventually ‘steamed’ into Brighton station. Cazz and Graham collected the bottles and cans, each loading up a full trolley and continuing in search of the recycling bins. Cazzer has an upcoming election to be the West Hill rep at Parliament and the first Green MP in the British world, so naturally she was concerned to not just leave detritus as the security camera footage might be sold on to Dials-based Ricochet TV. We all have our public image to protect from scandal after all. The rest of us, queued at Sing Li’s Chippy in Guildford Road. We each ordered several of the red-skinned pig brained beauties. I ordered cods roe in batter for Casser knowing she is vegan. Slowly, or to be exact, virtually in a sound byte our creative cluster was causing tongues to wag. The inevitable enthusiastic throng of onlookers began to gather and onlook.

By the time the eco-warriors had joined us we were being i-photoed, blogged, and tubed-abused by the excited and enthralled ensemble of West Hilliers. In moments we had probably emptied both the Grand Central, The Trafalgar and The Yeoman. So many fans caused difficulty leaving Sing Li’s. Our captors cleverly became our rescuers as one by one we were ‘mosh pitted’ on high above their heads. With frisk assessing hands they carried us aloft upward and onward thither this way and that to Kenny Livingstone’s house. (I have had his keys for years and feed his budgies every Thursday. The regular ‘soirees’ there are my little secret.) We were certainly the flashiest mob in town, quite a sight, each 6ft off the ground, jostled a-top a seething swarm of buzzing people, all with our saveloys in hand. Then, to top it all we were ceremoniously joined by a team of 35 critical mass naked bike riders. At their helm, a triumphant waving Vinod from Buckingham Road’s Bright News. What a sight we were. Only in Brighton, B Right On! Yes, we all knew this was going to be the West Hill event of the summer so far and, dearest Whistlers, it was, believe me it certainly was….

Pizza Girl

Health Matters

Chemical Nasties

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Sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) is reported to be the most frequent of eye irritants in shampoos. It is a cleansing and foaming agent used in a range of personal care and household products. SLS can damage the protective outer layer of the skin and has been shown through research to penetrate the skin to depth of 5-6mm (1/4 inch) causing skin irritation with deeper transference occurring via the bodily systems. SLS is commonly used in laboratory testing on humans and animals to induce skin irritation so that the healing or modifying properties of other substances can be measured.

Skin is also sometimes irritated by SLS in tests to increase the penetration of other substances. Using SLS via cosmetics and personal hygiene products could potentially allow other toxicants to penetrate the skin more easily. Toothpastes often contain SLS in order to clean the teeth and mouth more efficiently, even though the substance has been reported to irritate mucous membranes in sensitive individuals. In the US, children’s foaming bath products carry a health warning alerting parents to this.
Formaldehyde
Formaldehyde is used as a preservative in nail polishes, soaps and other cosmetic products. It is also found in household products such as furniture polish. It is a suspected carcinogen and common skin and eye irritant. The international agency for research on cancer (IARC) says there is evidence that formaldehyde causes a form of throat cancer in humans. Although the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not object to the use of formaldehyde in cosmetics, providing certain restrictions are adhered to, finished products containing it in the EU must be labelled with the warning, ‘Contains Formaldehyde’ if the concentration exceeds 0.05 per cent. It is one chemical you are well advised to avoid given its potential to cause allergies and irritation. Seek alternatives wherever possible.

Health Matters

Easylink

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If you find it difficult to get to the shops or know someone who could do with some help getting there, the Easylink shopping bus service is a door-to-door minibus service that picks shoppers up from outside their homes, takes them to a local supermarket or city centre shopping street and then returns them home when they have finished their shopping.

The service runs on Mondays to Fridays and is specially designed to meet the needs of older people and people with mobility difficulties. All the buses are wheelchair accessible. The drivers are willing to help passengers to their seats and make sure they are comfortable before driving off. Easylink buses run in all parts of Brighton and Hove, from Saltdean to Portslade and from Patcham to the Seafront. Shopping centres served include the Holmbush Centre in Shoreham, Sainsbury’s and the Co-op in Hove, ASDA at Hollingbury and the shops at Churchill Square, London Road and Brighton Marina, as well as out of town centres, such as Worthing, Eastbourne and Paradise Park, Newhaven.

Details of all the journeys that run are on the Community Transport leaflet and website www.bhct.co.uk and pre-bookings can be made on 01273 677559. The fares are reasonable, £3.50 return for most local journeys and a little more for the out of town trips. Much cheaper than a taxi and good value for the personal help that some passengers need. Supported by the B&H City Council.

The Arts

Brunswick Westward U3A

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Shared learning for pleasure, for people no longer in full-time employment
U3A stands for University of the Third Age: people who, with their youth and working life behind them, have the leisure to expand their understanding and who come together to share and pursue learning in all its forms, not for qualifications but for pleasure.

There are now more than 670 local U3As all over the country, self-managed, lifelong learning cooperatives, run entirely by volunteers. Brunswick Westward U3A is one of them, set up in 2001 originally to cover West Hove, Portslade, Hangleton and Knoll, but now, in practice, welcoming members from all over Brighton and Hove.

Members share learning and leisure experiences in a wide range of special interest groups: Drawing with Crayons, Gardens, Patchwork, French (intermediate/advanced), Spanish (elementary), Play Reading, Theatre and Film Groups, Reading Fiction, Exploring Poetry, Family History Support, Local History, History Discussion, Walks, Meditation and Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now.

We’d like to start other groups as interest arises. Groups are interactive, with members contributing from their own interests and experience. Some groups have a leader with special knowledge or skills but in many cases it’s a co-ordinator who’s just responsible for organisation. Groups meet weekly, fortnightly or monthly, usually in members’ houses; but we hire a hall for get-togethers such as our Spring Celebration.
As well as the special interest groups we have regular illustrated talks by knowledgeable speakers, and members can attend the popular regional Study Days held monthly on Saturdays at various venues across Sussex.

Details of these are in our Brunswick Westward Newsletter and members also get a regular U3A magazine from head office. Membership is £16 a year. If you are interested in joining you would be most welcome to have tea with existing members and group co-ordinators at our open Introductory Meeting, to be held at 2pm on 11 September 2009 in the Ralli Hall, Denmark Villas, near Hove Station.

Further details from our Secretary, Dee Bartaby, tel 747565 or de@bartaby.co.uk. If you’d like to join now contact our Membership Secretary, Pat Sawyer, tel. 551425 or sawyep_7@yahoo.co.uk.

Anyone wanting information about other U3As in the Brighton area should visit www.sura.org.uk.

The Arts

Shakespeare 2012

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ShakespeareThe Brighton & Sussex Branch of the Actors’ Union Equity recently welcomed actor, Ian Flintoff, to their regular monthly meeting where he brought members up-to-date with the plans for a national celebration of Shakespeare, planned before the Olympic bid was won, and now set to co-incide with the 2012 Olympics. Members were inspired by Ian’s boundless enthusiasm for his subject. Clearly, he’s a man who cares deeply about creating something extraordinary, something that could change the way the public thinks about theatre, but he’s also determined to do it in a way that means it is not just a vehicle for a few stars and some high profile companies. It would be relatively easy to focus on a few big theatres and some big stars, but Ian wants to do it the hard way – in schools and local communities – all over the nation.

“I am very excited by this project,” said Johnny Worthy, the branch’s chair. Ian Flintoff seems to have spoken to half the nation about this project already. Ask him a question about what he wants to achieve and he’ll reel you off a list of interested parties, chance encounters and potential targets. And it is not just the great and the good – although he can casually pull from his briefcase letters of support from Prince Charles or 10 Downing Street – the things that get him really excited are the anecdotes about working in schools or persuading a group of young Muslim girls to perform Gertrude’s speech from Hamlet or blagging his way into a Council office to try and persuade arts officers in Preston that their town’s (perhaps tenuous) link with the Bard means they have a duty to get involved in Shakespeare 2012.

The plan was to have the first ever historic Shakespeare celebration – a stand-alone event which was then called Shakespeare 2010. They sent the suggestion to Tony Blair, the then Prime Minister, at Number 10. The response was positive and the idea was passed on to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport who discussed it and liked it very much. Linking it to the Olympic bid seemed like a good idea. The official bid document submitted by London included a pledge that there would be an international Shakespeare festival as part of the Olympics. There has been support in Parliament, including an Early Day Motion put forward by Susan Kramer MP:

“…this House applauds and supports continuing plans within the arts community first put forward by Equity to instigate a nationwide Great British Shakespeare Event to coincide with the Olympics in 2012; acknowledges the proud tradition of the Olympic Games in ancient Athens to combine sport with the great dramas of Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus; recognises the unprecedented cultural opportunity of reviving and honouring that tradition in Britain across all ages, faiths, cultures and social groups by celebrating the works of the man widely acknowledged to be our greatest playwright; recognises the tremendous boost this would give not only to the arts community but also to tourism; and calls on the Government to support, encourage and promote grass-roots plans to take forward this celebration.”

Consequently, the Royal Shakespeare Company is in the early stages of planning their ‘World Shakespeare Festival’ which will encompass London, Stratford and Newcastle and there are plans for the Globe to hold events. Ian’s ambitions for Shakespeare 2012 include a grassroots network that is spread across the whole country. “What we’d like to happen is the first really big national jamboree of Shakespeare, something that’s such fun that it takes that feeling of elitism and the idea that it’s just a school subject away from the plays,” Ian said. “We’d like to think that Equity will play a prominent role – we’ve got so many members and a big network across the country – in tapping into local theatres and trying to persuade them to do, say, three professional plays – a comedy, a tragedy and a history – in 2012. We must talk to councils and local arts and educations officers and bring Shakespeare to cities, towns and villages.”

Shakespeare by John-Paul Flintoff
Shakespeare by John-Paul Flintoff

He is asking Equity branches and regional committees to establish Shakespeare 2012 networks – bringing together all those interested in promoting the event – and to appoint ‘Shakespeare 2012 Champions’ who will promote the campaign to local theatres, local authorities, schools and the press and act as a link with other efforts around the country. Equity has set up a coordinating committee to develop that national grid of volunteers.

“If at the end of the year we had a network of Shakespeare Champions – the idea is that we have someone in Warrington, Leicester, Bodmin – an Equity member who is really keen on this idea who can talk to the theatres and the schools and the press – a network across the UK and Champions in every part of the country, then of course we’ll be looking for the support of the profession’s best known faces and approaching industry for money, but first we need to build the foundation. When we’ve proved we can organise right across the country and we have enthusiastic networks in towns and cities, then we can start talking about the endorsement of stars and business and getting the money.

“With sufficient imagination and sufficient courage we could give people back the sense of intensity that only comes from live performance,” Ian said. “To make people, especially young people, feel that Shakespeare and all good drama isn’t for other people, it’s for everyone, I think that would be a legacy to go on for a century. We won’t have built a lot of new theatres but we might catch the imagination of the public and bring them back to theatres and show them how good it can be. I think that’s worth chasing. It would be a precedent – if we can do it with Shakespeare it would be easier for others to follow our lead.”

If you would like to join Brighton Shakespeare 2012 Champions, Sylvia Alexander-Vine and Robert Cohen and have ideas about what your school, community or local organisation can contribute, email Sylvia at whwhistler@aol.com or bobbycoco@gmail.com.

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