I arrived in Hammersmith bright and early in the sunshine and decided to take a meandering stroll to The Riverside. I walked past a Launderette on Fulham Palace Road and on a whim, decided to go in. Having no laundry in hand, Awat the owner assumed I must be cold and told me I could sit down. He asked where I lived and I discovered he used to drink at the pub on my street in Muswell Hill. Awat told that theatricality runs in his family, sharing with me some personal stories about his family. I asked if I could return to chat with him later on and he agreed to meet me at 11am.

I met the Moving Stories at 10 for a lovely morning meeting and then I returned to the Launderette armed with some croissants from Emma. Awat made us some tea and insisted we both ate the croissants. He told me about growing up in Iraq and how he had to hide in the mountains to avoid military service. This was extremely dangerous and he would have been shot if he was caught.
He also worked as an Aids Worker, taking food to villages in Iraq in convoys. One day his convoy was delayed by 10 minutes and the convoy ahead of him was blown up.

He came to England illegally via Turkey and paid around 7 thousand pounds to do this. At this point, our conversation took an unexpected turn when he paused mid sentence to ask the age old question 'tell me, who does your eyebrows?' I told him that I did, clearly not competently and he told me that I did one well and the other one could do with tidying up. He also guessed that I had a younger sister and my age, I am not sure if this was related to the eyebrow comment or he is just a very good reader of people! The conversation then included Turkish baths, his son who is at University in London and was born here and how when he returned to Iraq, it did not feel like home anymore. He was a very interesting man and unfortunately said he will not be here on Saturday or Monday. I asked if I could bring a group to meet him on Sunday and he said probably, but I will need to call him first to check he is not too busy. I said I will visit him tomorrow. He said when I walked in the door he knew we would be friends, which was lovely.

I then crossed over the road and went into Sid's The Cobblers and met Owner Gary and Luke (who does not work there but was helping out today.) They told me how much the area had changed and how you used to be able to go out with your doors unlocked. Luke once saw a man assault his girlfriend so he went over and stopped it while nearby police filmed it, but did not get involved. Luke was then arrested when the couple alleged he had assaulted them and spent the night in a police cell. The next day the Judge threw the case out and told Luke he was a pillar of the community. Gary said he would not like to be involved in Moving Stories but his friend Bob might. However, Anna and I are going to go back tomorrow to try and change his mind.

I wandered along the River and stood and looked at the two plaques on the handrail of The Hammersmith Bridge, which might be a nice pause point. I then walked along the river, past the house where George Devine the first Artistic Director of the Royal Court lived and along to a lovely pub called The Dove. I ventured inside for a coffee but there were only a couple of very flustered staff and a large work group? there so I left.

I walked back to Kings Street and went into Cashino. There was a gentleman in a wheelchair who shook my hand and then wouldn't let go, which was slightly awkward. He also asked me what my favourite sport was and told me his was "making love.' Perhaps this might be a good place to go in pairs and maybe try to avoid this gentleman if he is there again.

I had a nice stroll around Hammersmith and looked at the view from the Lyric before returning to The Riverside to meet everyone. It was great to hear of everyone's experiences and it seems like we have hopefully already met some potential story partners.

On the way back to the station, I walked the same route I came this morning along Fulham Palace Road. There was a curtains and interior design shop that was closed this morning but was now open so I went in and met George the owner. He had some beautiful fabrics hanging from the ceiling and had painted the walls dark red after he was inspired by the Redwood he saw on a visit to Vancouver. I detected a slight northern accent and soon learned he was born in the same part of Newcastle as me! We had a brief chat about Newcastle (he still thinks of it as home, even though he has lived here for 30  years.) He has fitted curtains for many multi millionaires and famous people in London but said he will never tell who they are as he thinks this should be private. He did say he had fitted curtains for a very rich Australian gentleman, who was then paralysed in a skiing accident leading him to think you never know what will happen. I arranged to meet him tomorrow afternoon.

Before I left, George told me to visit Joseph across the road in Parparellu, a Cafe/ Patisserie. I went in and ordered a mozarella and tomato pastry and chatted to Joseph. He told me Parparellu is London's first Maltese cafe and all of the food was made on premises. He seemed busy so I asked if I could go back and chat to him, and he said he will be there on Thursday afternoon so I could return then.

I was so deep in thought on the way home about today that I actually missed my tube stop and went one stop too far. I am really looking forward to tomorrow and meeting some more people and learning their stories.