UFO Info Week-End

His parents a dentist and a nurse who still live in his home-town of Wirral initially reacted with shock ‘But now

His parents, a dentist and a nurse who still live in his home-town of Wirral, initially reacted with shock ‘But now they just let me get on with it. They don’t really understand and they don’t really care.’ His two older sisters tend not to ask.Curious Plaything earns money as a go-go dancer in various guises on podiums and stages all over London. He once tottered from his four-inch platforms at the West End nightclub Heaven and Naomi Campbell-ed into the crowd He was admitted to casualty with a swollen ankle ‘Out of costume. They took one look at my DMs and skinhead, and didn’t ask how I did it. Just as well, really.’David is single and tends to hold back on his sartorial sojourns with new romances. ‘It’s not very macho is it? Anyway, I try to convince them it’s therapy.

Fashion therapy.’Where next for Miss Curious Plaything? ‘Tescos I want to go supermarket shopping as Bra Bra the Elephant Be afraid Be very afraid.’(Photograph omitted). Pub theatres, or theatre-pubs, depending on the type of person you are, often have a fish-nor-fowl quality because the mums of fringe actors don’t always necessarily look at home in the snug. They can also, of course, turn into complete riots if you get a gang of luvvies and their pals getting blasted post-performance. The Latchmere has a not-very-gay thespian bar upstairs so purusers of culture don’t have to be tainted by talk of football and the inhabitants of the huge downstairs can have a good laugh at their expense as they go up. The Latchmere, 503 Battersea Park Rd SW11 (071-223 3549).
(Photograph omitted)Tomorrow: The Holly Bush, Hampstead NW3.. Try DR Harris’ extremely effective Pick Me Up. In a small old-fashioned chemist, nestling quietly in the heart of London’s gentleman’s clubland, understanding staff will serve you a glass of this mixture over the counter mixed with a small Vitamin C tablet for extra measure.

The tonic, a blend of tinctures (alcoholic substances), was concocted back in 1850 and works on the old hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-you theory And it works. Clubbers who’ve been out all night have discovered this olde worlde brew; fugged-up party animals are a common sight staggering into this genteel little shop first thing in the morning. Alternatively, you can buy a bottle to quaff in the comfort of your own home. Dr Harris Pick Me Up costs pounds 5.10 for 100ml at DR Harris and Co Ltd, 29 St James St SW1 (071-930 3915) Mon-Fri 8.30am-6pm/Sat 9.30am-5pm.
(Photograph omitted).

Dear All

I write from the Inca Trail, where darkness has just come down like an axe over the 3,500m-high patch of grass we’re sleeping on for the night.
The guides have been trying to make a campfire, but the wood has been dampened either by rain or the freestyle urinating habits of passers-by. The tour group – destination Machupicchu – has assembled to fight over tents, which have been packed together to form a kind of canvas housing estate with sheer drops on three sides. Either our charms or our early arrival have secured Josh and I a good one that looks like an igloo, and the German couple, struggling at the rear, have been palmed off with the mouldy triangle that nobody wanted.The reason the Germans lagged behind was because they are both carrying very large rucksacks. We all have the same guidebook, and in it we are advised not to exploit local boys by paying them to carry our bags.

At the head of the trail local boys are fighting to carry our bags, then collapsing pantomime-style under them We selected Jorge to carry ours on account of his looks. Jorge, it turns out, is carrying at least four huge bags and is coining it. One unemployed porter bearing a resemblance to Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy actually followed the Germans all the way up the mountain, waiting for them to crack.Everyone idles while the guides cook, except the Germans, who remove slippers from their rucksacks and change into them Then they bring out a set of glass and steel condiments. Josh doesn’t say much, but then he hasn’t since that boy sat on his lap for 15 hours on a bus in the Bolivian jungle and emptied the contents of his stomach, bladder and bowels all over him.Sue, who is here with Harry, approaches me and says she’s heard I’ve written a book.’What kind of book is it?’ she says. I tell her it’s a novel.’Is it a fictional novel?’ she inquires. I tell her it is.Harry and Sue have an argumentative style of travelling, where Harry forges up the trail as fast as he can and then sits on a rock watching Sue toiling up below through a pair of binoculars.