One of the great things about living in a college town is there are regular open lectures by all sorts of visiting professors, to which members of the public can go - for free.
This afternoon I went to a talk on Shakespearean acting by a performer from the London Globe. It was fantastic. Not only was he a mine of information on the history and language of the times, he was also wonderfully entertaining. We were in fits of laughter - the Globe is now definitely on my list of places to visit when I take a trip to England.
I came out and had a dry throat, so thought I'd go to the Student Union for a cup of tea. Only a couple of years ago you could get a decent cup of coffee or tea for a dollar. Now - they've all gone upmarket and the barrista charges you nz2.80. I could live with that, but they also have these huge tempting slice of chocolate fudge, ginger crunch, and all manner of luscious muffins. So I wound up spending nz5.20. Agghh - that could have gone to my trip to England!
The groundlings in Shakespeare's day would never have stood for it - they'd be rioting and hurling nuts. Now all these wellmannered intellectual students study Shakespeare from texts and they don't realise how revolutionary he actually was! I was fascinated to hear the speaker from the Globe saying the hiphop artists are the true modern Shakespeares.