PC640a Buxton Fringe Festival
YHA Tricks
Youth Hostels can be good, but they have 2 main problems :
1. They keep closing down the best hostels. There are no longer hostels left in most of the country.
2. Their incessant upgrading to move into the B&B market therefore increasing their prices up to B&B levels & beyond. So today I realised these days we don't have the pay cover price for things like train tix etc. so I checked on YHA promotions
- hotukdeals.com shows YHA often give away memberships
- The YHA own promotion page, but not always great their "upto 50% outer London hostels this August" offer turns out to be 50% off the 2011 prices in the already very expensive Oxford & Cambridge hostels providing you BOOK in JUNE !

- BUY SCOTS INSTEAD OF YHA ... And aye you ken that Scottish membership is much cheaper than English
but Scots hostels not cheap £10/yr to £100 for life Long Distance walkers association
- has a discussion about YHA closures

- LDWA useful hostel finder tool

- £10 Tesco points converts to £30 of holiday vouchers, but seems you can't just get a voucher & use it for 1 night cos tricky conditions like 3 nights minimum, no bank holidays etc,

Consumer life trap of UK
Family need £37K/yr single people need to earn £16,400 a year "A new survey says" ...dinga ling, that line is the biggest indicator of a BS news story ..that's £45/day 1. it doesn't actually cost most people anything like that and 2. If this country was sane in it's property market & eco-taxes it would cost a fraction of that - technology actually means that putting a living structure on vacant ground & paying for transport should be cheaper than ever (see cheap flights) It's eco-taxes & twisted property market values that make life in the UK seem expensive. In a functioning market £4K year is definitely possible - They say £45/day - So check into a Tunisian beach hotel, keep £3... & £37/day less than they say

BEWARE CERTAINTY : I just found the famous quote I had lost

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts". - Bertrand Russell

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman

- a forum where free Climate Change discussion is allowed

- BBC FOOC ALARMIST report about Chernoblyl "Ooh fires will release strontium" well 1. 28yr half life, so half decayed 2. it's radiation doesn't penetrate skin

- Fallacy that the modern world is more dangerous. BBC man just said that child road deaths have fallen by 90% since the 1950's.

Lyme lymes Disease

Bullseye rash means Lyme disease - a serious disease you get from infected ticks , but curable if you get anti-biotics within the first 30 day stage.
- Your dog can get a vaccination, but anti-vax panic caused the human kind to be withdrawn. NHS

- other symptoms of tiredness & headaches etc
- So wear NO SHORTS in forest or meadows
...... and that will help protect against Weil's disease the super serious jaundice causing disease you get from rats piss. (only 33 UK cases per year)

Volunteering at Buxton Fringe

OK I have a plan Friday go to Buxton Fringe Festival for a week - I like helping at festivals, but frankly most bands are uninspiring - I find some theatre/drama magical, but you have to see 20 shows to find those 1 or 2 magical ones. Fringe Festivals have lots of shows. So free tickets ? Aha if I help out at Fringe Festivals I can get some free tickets. After Buxton I'll go do some festivals in Europe .. doing some research now. - So I decided to go over to Buxton on Friday & volunteer on the fringe festival until the end on Sunday the week after.

- Sat : we set up the carnival float, but it broke down while I was at the library so I spent 4 hours tracking down my jacket.
- The 3 players doing the Shakespeare Jukebox were excellent.. hard to believe they are not professionals ... but then you realise it's polished cos each 3 minute skit had been donr1000 times ...& by starting with Shakespeare as a writer it's way above student writer.
- I was running around collecting audience surveys.

- died 20 years ago ...no one seems to improve on the old Radio 4 comedy shows so I didn't see any comrdy shows.
Dwane Reads with running up to people with his paper mache loud hailer & getting them to bingo pick a poem from his book was great showmanship.

- Short film show - as ever film students continue to make films in a film student way : caring much more about the camera angle than the story... the railway documentary was OK.

- well impressed with Amazon : 30% off cover price & free 24 hour delivery so my Baltic guidebook arrived here at the campsite.

- mostly I was unwilling to spend money on theatre when someone gave me free tickets & I went I wasn't over impressed as I have seen some stunningly well crafted dramas before.

In : End to End : a travelogue of the 3 actresses road trip from Land's End to John O Groats by multiple transports they used some good live audience techniques..Like : weaving the audience members own comments in & handing out pillows during "imagine home" scene... and ending by handing out "plant a seed postcard" Their message of "things happen & you meet people" is blindingly obvious to me so I can't say it taught me anything

I hitched to Bakewell on the Wednesday & walked halfway back along ther railway turned sign at real ale pub hOppy Hour

Another sign- "Witches parking only
..all others will be toad"

Buxton Finished

- The magic of theatre : Travelling to a foreign land can bring amazement enlightenment & teaches us about ourselves aswell as the warmth of sunshine. Similarly good theatre can take to a differential place & time bring us the same enlightenment & warmth. So just step into the theatre without the hassle of the big trip.

So we just wrapped up the Buxton festival.. I hitched to Stockport to get the bus to Amsterdam

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