Stewarding

I'm a steward(ess). It's both rewarding and tiring, this job. In spite of the lousy pay which is £5 per live show, I enjoy it all the same. I mean we get to watch shows that are priced at £18 or £25 for free, and all we have to do is check pople's tickets at the beginning of the show, and smile a lot, plus other random things like showing them to their seats and again, smile.

But it depends on what show you sign up for. I have promised myself not to sign up for any random gigs next time. First I don't like loud music, and second I hate it. Is there a third? Oh yes, it makes me hate myself for being there in the first place. And earplugs are not that much of a help, either. They just block a tiny fraction of the poisonous luodbanging notes to enter and damage your eardrums, but I'm yet to find out whether there are still intact and properly functioning. Visit to the NHS will tell me this but we shall see if I'm that keen to find out, or not.

This is the list of things I have stewarded for and seen and their verdicts:

Eric Bibb : Country Music, Hall. Positioned at Door 3. Not too loud, Not too packed, Mainly old people came and some weird people who happen to be around campus. Some familiar faces around campus too. They might not know me, but I see them a lot. (Does that say something about me?) Ehmm. Overall it was ok. Eardrums were not badly hurt by this one.

The Divine Comedy: Standing gigs, Hall. Positioned at Door 2 with two other stewards. Quite packed. terrible sound systems. Eardrums damaged beyond repair. The other girl (steward) was also new but was a real snob. Thanked God Jing was there at the same door. Sat the entire time. Crowd loved the performance but I wanted to be somewhere else. Kept telling myself it will all be over.

The Watership Down: Play for kids, lots of rabbits jumping around and screaming and laughing and haze. Positined at Door b which is relatively a quiet door. Just a few people went through this door. Quite liked it.

The Watership Down again: positioned at Door C this time, the door which one of the casts used to go in during the second half of the show. talked to him, he said Assalamualaikum Siti which surprised me a lot. he's the funny talking bird in the play and he said Syukran to me when I said he was a fantastic actor. Liked it a lot.

Kate Rusby: Folk song, sit-down concert, Hall. Positioned at door 4 with one nice new steward who knows about Malaysia and has some Malaysian friends. Hall is packed, sold out in fact. Sold in-trays Haagen Dazs icecreams, which is a lousy job which hopefully I wont have to do again in the future. I looked like a clown for the whole 15 minutes and prayed hard that no-one I know would be in the Arts Centre at that time. Managed to sell a few tubs before the headsteward realised I wasn't really for this thing and took it from me. Well it was time I went back to the door anyway.
Although the loud music again, damaged my ears, I quite liked it. That Kate is one talented musician and very very funny. The other musicians too, that bald guy who plays almost any instrument there is for the night. And Andy the other one who plays that-thing-I-forgot-the-name-of-the-instrument was also very funny, he was telling how to cook mushroom to perfection with the precise time when Kate asked her to while she was tuning her guitar. Very funny and the audience was obviously having a great time. verdict: Great performance, had a good time with rachel the other steward.

At the moment I still enjoy this job cause its always something different everytime. Will add more to the list as I work more shifts.