I'm getting bored and he can tell, so he shifts the topic towards me. He tells
me he'd spotted me chatting to a girl earlier, a black girl, and asks what I
thought of her, if I liked her. I mimed affirmatively.
After I get away from the old racist failed actor, I go to see my Korean
colleague. He's just arrived in London and I want to see how he's handling the
party. We'd been invited as fresh meat for some of the older, gayer attendees.
We aren't aware of that.
The Hatton geezer (fuck off) reminds me of this old failed actor who I'd met at a party a few years ago, another man out of time and out of place. This actor had scored a minor role in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and never really let go of it, had gone on to build his whole identity around it. I can't really blame him.
There is a pretty persistent ambient hate in England, a lot of people say vile
shit about Muslims or immigrants or whatever, but in my experience most people
aren't actual white supremacists. They have a black friend who they get a beer
with. One of the good ones. Etc.