Tell no one

As any sensible people who follow me on Twitter will have gathered, I went to this month's Secret Cinema last night. I won't give away the film as that's against the rules, but I will say that the setting was seriously amazing - a vast old mental institution, us dressed in hospital gowns, robes and slippers, wearing plastic wristbands and eating canteen food. What was a little concerning was how quickly I started to love being a patient - and how rebellious I became. In the dark recesses of my mind, when I've been especially down, I've dreamed of being involved in an accident that meant I'd have to be in hospital for a few months. I didn't want to die, I didn't want to be in pain, I knew it was ridiculous, but the idea of being in an institution with no decisions to make did appeal to me when I was at my most anxious. Silly I know. But then my taster experience last night wasn't what I'd expected - I definitely enjoyed the lack of choices - but I also became extremely belligerent. I can TOTALLY see how the Stanford prison experiment went the way it did. All these actors were pretending to be nurses, police, and other patients, and it wasn't long before all of us were acting like total nutcases too. Me and Vikas had a big pillow-fight in one of the wards when a nurse came up to the metal cage bit that was separating us from the rest of the room, and told us off. Instead of agreeing, we both turned towards her and, giggling, started smashing our pillows into the iron bars, right by her face. The longer she remained stern and in character, the more we fought back. It was really quite extraordinary how quickly my urge to be naughty kicked in, and I was a little disturbed when my latent kleptomania surfaced, not discouraged by Vikas. Ultimately, I think I quite enjoyed wearing a robe and slippers for hours and being treated like an imbecile. It was a bit of a holiday and well worth £30. The film was excellent too, although I left before the nasty section started. And for those who are going in the remainder of this week: take warm clothes. No central heating in the institution - brought back memories of Lapland. Brrrrrrrrrrrr.