I had two gigs at the Frog and Bucket in Manchester tonight. The first was a sober version of my Edinburgh show and the second a late night 15 minutes (though I did about half an hour) off my face on booze. Both were very satisfactory, though luckily I have forgotten most of what I said at the late gig. I suspect some of it may have been a little contentious. As much of the audience was the same I had to do old stuff in the second gig and was slightly surprised about how stuff I haven't done for months managed to spring out of my mouth as if by magic and given the audience were aware of my inebriated state it didn't matter the couple of times when I went wrong. It was fun.
I was staying at the Travelodge next to the venue. It's a fairly basic hotel, though very convenient for the drunken stagger back from the club. The venue had booked me in, but when I got there this evening there was no record of the booking. Luckily there were rooms available, but I was at reception for a good ten minutes trying to sort out what had happened.
I noticed that the receptionist was wearing a badge with her name on it. Her name was Toyah - I imagine her mum became impregnated whilst "I Want to be Free" was on the radio.
Toyah was written in large letters in the centre of the badge, but beneath it in smaller letters was the word "Cancer". I wondered what this meant. Was her name really Toyah Cancer? I suppose it's possible, though that makes her sound like a punk from quite a poor band from 1976. So if not that then what? Does Travelodge put the star sign of each of its employees on their name badges? This would seem like a very odd thing to do, almost like imposing a religious philosophy on everyone who works there. What if you don't believe in astrology? Wouldn't it be pandering to people who think they can lump you into one of a dozen groups of types of people? Surely there must be some law against labeling people in this way?
Alternatively perhaps the Travelodge likes to list the first name of every employee on these badges and then beneath it list any disease that they are currently suffering from. This would seem a bit more intrusive and I hope it's not the case as Toyah was young and it would be a shame for her to be stricken down with such an awful condition and then be forced to wear a badge letting everyone know. At least, if this is the case, I could be sure that she didn't have herpes. So there are some advantages to the system. But if that's the case then the Travelodge organisation is akin to the Nazi regime. Surely it would be illegal to do this, even were it voluntary.
I was tempted to ask her why her badge said "cancer" on it, but was more concerned with getting a place to sleep sorted out so it slipped my mind. But in a way it's more fun not knowing. Did she just have na unusual surname, was she born in late June or early July or did she have a tragic illness? Or is there some other explanation I hadn't thought of. Possibly the Travelodge likes to put the latitude of birth of each of its employees on their name badge, usually this would be a number, but as this woman happened to be born 23° 26Ⲡ22Ⳡnorth of the Equator, right on the Tropic of Cancer, they have been able to use the word rather than the numbers. No, that doesn't seem too likely.
It's good to have mystery in one's life and I guess one of you may be able to answer this conundrum, but I am not sure I actually want that.
Mystery can be better than knowledge.
