"You asked me once, what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world. ”
— O'Brien in George Orwell’s 1984
On the benches
Anyone who has spent any time in Room 101 will know that there are benches right outside its windows, so that when the windows are open we can all clearly hear the conversations of people sat on the benches. The people on the benches don’t realise that there is an open window right next to them so often have quite personal conversations without realising people are listening. Predictably, I’ve been writing these conversations down for years. I like to think they are little slices of Bradford life, so here goes with the first one. These are all 100% word for word true, no exaggeration, no lies:-
Today two young Bradford lads:
1: "Yeah, I fell really hard, I fell like this, right on a brick, it really hurt. X (name unclear) was laughing and you know sometimes when someone’s laughing, well, I just went into murder mode, you know when you go into murder mode, like a switch.......I recon he's took some beatings anyway."
2: "Yeah, he's took some beatings. "
Ambient noise drowns the voices...
2. "What you do when you work out? You do upper body work? I work on my legs but never do no upper body work. What you think.... it matter?"
1. Nah, I like to work on my upper body, but your legs are more important. If you got your legs nice that's more important. If you got good legs then whatever happens in a fight, you'll still be standing."
2: "Yeah"
On the benches
Anyone who has spent any time in Room 101 will know that there are benches right outside its windows, so that when the windows are open we can all clearly hear the conversations of people sat on the benches. The people on the benches don’t realise that there is an open window right next to them so often have quite personal conversations without realising people are listening:-
One boy and two girls talking:
Boy:- “Why’d you do that?”
Girl – “What”
B – “You know what you did”
G – “What?
B – “Well what did you do? It was a perfectly ordinary conversation and what did you go and do?
G – Nothing
B- In a totally normal conversation what did you have to go and do?
G – “I don’t know
B – “You do know, what did you do?
G – “I don’t know
B - “”What did you do?
long pause
G – “I did some dance moves”
All Laugh
