My wife and I were gigging in a posh hotel in Somerset in return for lodging and dinner. We were told we could order anything we wanted. I was tempted to see how far we could push that. If we drank champagne all day and then slurred our way through our show, before ordering everything off the menu for dinner, then I wonder at what point they would have told us that we'd had enough. As it was I was too self-conscious to take the piss. We have a medium priced bottle of wine with our dinner and I only ordered one beer before the show.
I didn't really feel like I fitted in with the clientèle of the hotel, who were all smart and assured and looked like they belonged there. It was an utterly beautiful place, and sitting in the grounds in the sunshine in the afternoon was lovely, but I wouldn't like to get used to this kind of luxury.
Even though I was outside there was a man at a table some distance away talking in such a loud voice that I could hear everything he said and within five minutes he was talking about public school. I think I might have actually discovered a true stereotype here - it's not that all public school educated people act this way, but it seems that all the people who act in this way went to public school. And I am not one of these people with a chip on their shoulder about privately educated people. I don't think you should judge people by their background or where they're from and that includes people born into wealthy homes. That wasn't their choice and it's also unlikely that they chose their school either, so to criticise them for doing what their parents wanted them to do is pretty much as bad as making generalisations and judgements about people based on poverty or race. In some ways I feel sorry for the children of the excessively privileged. Having to struggle and getting knocks in your life make you a more complete person. To take wealth for granted as the natural order of things means you're not even really enjoying it properly anyway.
But so far, since I have started taking note of loud-voiced individuals in public areas they have 100% turned out to be public school people who have addressed the fact within the first five minutes of me overhearing them. I am keeping an open mind, but I think it's looking pretty likely I have spotted a proper thing. Not all ex-public school kids are loud-mouthed idiots. But all loud-mouthed idiots are ex-public school kids. This is Herring's Theory. It can only become a law through more observation.
It was fun to visit for the day, but I don't think I'd like to be in this kind of world all the time. Loud conversations about public school aside it was glorious to be in this environment on such a beautiful day. The gig was a lot of fun and dinner was delicious and the shower in our room was the greatest thing I have ever been in. But I fear (and am also glad) that I can never quite relax in a place like this. The day I feel comfortable about such a place and don't spend most of my time wondering what my builder Grandad, Don would make of it (and how red his face would be if he knew how much a pint of beer cost) will be a sad day, if it ever arrives.
Not as sad as the day when I hear a loud voiced person talking about their comprehensive school and how they bunked off from it all the time.
