We then went for an early dinner at the RISC Cafe in the buildings owned and used by RISC, the Reading International Solidarity Centre. Back when J M WINOLJ used to live in Reading we used to go there quite a lot with her, and in those days the food was the sort of mostly vegetarian vaguely wholefoody stuff you would expect such a place to have, which was by no means bad, but it now has Ethiopian food which is one of the things that Oxford lacks.
At one of the back tables there were a bunch of Americans talking about music, the first thing I heard was discussion of delay pedals. They had obviously toured, maybe I would have recognised them if I were the sort of person who recognised musicians.
The third set of people to arrive apart from us and the musician was a couple of guys in, I guess, their 30s. The initial vibe I got was post-relationship break-up meet-up in bar. However, although I wasn't listening particularly since
t__m__i and I were making polite and witty conversation (*) it turned out it was some sort of post-band break-up meeting. The impression emerged that the main bitterness was between one of the guys and a 3rd member of the band not there, and that this has happened 2 1/2 years ago or thereabouts. 'I should have phoned you up as well as him that night'. 'Yes, you should have'. Then came the priceless line and I had to concentrate very hard on not bursting out laughing. 'We should have done that second gig'.
Ah, bless.
(*) actually reading copies of iWord and This Week magazines
