Hi all,
So here goes.
On my first day of exploring Hammersmith I was full of excitement and nerves. On leaving the theatre I saw a sign that said "Healing" so I followed it and ended up in the Tenant's Association Hall on the Peabody Estate. I went in and explained that I didn't want to be healed (I had no money and therefore couldn't pay the suggested £5) I just wanted to hear more about it. Dixon told me a little about how healing worked and I explained the project to him. He then told me he'd like to heal me for free as it would be a good first experience of Hammersmith, so I willingly hopped up on to the couch and was told much about the ideas behind healing. Dixon told me it was time to stop talking for the benefit of the healing, however by this point we'd struck up quite a dialogue, so neither of us were very successful at not talking to one another. He told me about how he'd got into healing in 1996, and how it was possible to heal yourself, and also protect yourself with the Protective Egg Breath (which he had successfully used previously against a disagreeable boss). He spoke with excitement about the 6 years he had spent doing amateur dramatics after having been in the army, and told me a story about his grandson's acting prowess. This so course is the massively abbreviated version as we spent about 40 minutes together and Dixon was a very interesting and kind spirited man who was very interested in the project. Unfortunately the healing only takes place there on a Tuesday, and Dixon lives in Fulham so would not be available for the project. He did however refer me to the chairman of their society.
I had a brief chat with Justin, who thankfully Sid also met, as although he seemed great I just didn't feel I could connect as deeply as I wished with him because we were talking about his beautiful car, so I had no idea what I was talking about!
I later met Jay in the entrance of the tube station, he was selling bags of make-up to passers by, and so stopped me/I was hanging about as I knew that I wanted to talk to someone with this type of job. I told him about what we are doing and he delivered his sales pitch to me....which was fascinating as he remembered such an incredible amount of facts and figures (it made me wondered if he had ever been into acting, as it seemed like a very well learnt and delivered script). However it transpired he had actually previously been working as a make-up artist, and had established his own promotions company to sell this make-up in the station in the hope of reaching his dream of having the ability to move to SW6. The dream of moving to Chelsea lead us to talk about where he was born in Coventry and his family history, which all was incredibly interesting but it was more the fact that he had bothered to research and remember how many postcodes there are in the UK and then work out how old he would be to have lived the same amount of days as there are UK postcodes that fascinated me. Jay told me that he would be willing to take part, although not be in the show, but after further explanation he was up for taking part.
I then had the joy of spending a long time in Sid's shop on the Fulham Palace Road, which has to be one of the friendliest places I've ever had the joy of visiting. The conversation here was long and meandering. I brought some shoe polish and in return was brought a cup of tea. Gary and Gary who I met here had a huge amount of knowledge about the area and other locals, and together were like some brilliant comedy double act. Gary (who doesn't work there, but was a visiting friend) told me that he couldn't take part....there were a strange, but interesting assortment of reasons - he'd never been to the theatre, was agrophobic, couldn't have middle class people coming to listen to him, and wasn't born in Hammersmith. Despite all this he actually seemed very open to the project, but it was my hope that Gary/Sid who owns the shop would be the one who would agree to take part. However he didn't say either way, but they did say I absolutely must meet Bob, who is 89 (yes 89) and in their minds perfect for Moving Stories.
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