Friday onwards..

Friday was a lovely shared morning that I got totally lost in. It was only after our beautiful Maltese lunch on Fulham Palace road that I suddenly panicked and realised the clock was ticking and I still had to find another person or persons to tell their story on Saturday & Sunday.  So after a tip off I crossed over to the pub opposite the Maltese café.

Unfortunately I called Aurthur a couple of times and got no reply.  Reverend Rat however has confirmed, if not hazily, that he is still on for Monday.

So in my quest for a new story teller I introduced myself to the pub landlady Josie, a lovely boisterous lady who I thought would immediately say yes, but turned round and said no, but added that there was a person there that I should talk to instead and she called for a girl named Maria.

Maria appeared and at first was very embarrassed, she also said she had nothing to say or tell.  Josie however completely disagreed declaring, that she (Maria) doesn't think she's interesting but she is.

And Josie was right.  Maria has a wonderful story of arriving in London 10 years ago to study Drama at college.   She started working at the pub 10 years ago to fund her way through college and has stayed ever since.  A couple of years ago she went on holiday to Rome and was so inspired by all she had seen she began to study Classics at Open University and is currently learning Italian. She also works one day a week at the British Museum, a place she visited in her first week of arriving in London.  She has agreed to tell her story on Sunday.

I then rushed back to the Star Café Grill to find the manager Eser had left for the day, he leaves early on Fridays - clocking ticking I went back to Riverside - I spoke to Jane who told me there was a possibility that I could speak to one of the projectionist of the Riverside cinema and thankfully I could!

Mark the projectionist allowed me to speak to me in his domain and in doing so fulfilled a personal dream for me, I've always wanted to know what it was like to be up there in that box.  Mark was a wonderful character, passionate about his job and about film.  At the age of six they showed Charlottes Web on film at school and he was hooked.  He said if he met his six year old self he would say that he may not have made the money he wanted to or married the girl he liked at school but he ended up doing the job of his dreams.

That unfortunately is all I have time to write this morning.  Yesterday was an incredible day, and now I'm going to get ready to prepare myself for another....