My journey thus far...

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.

Dear all,

I'm so inspired and uplifted by your work these past two days; such courage and sensitivity in your approach. Thank you. A few links for you:

Vivi Tellas - the Argentinian Director who inspired Moving Stories, and a clip of her show 'My Mother and my Aunt'. 

Adrian Howells, the Performance Artist who I really admire, speaking about his approach and philosophy: 

So excited about our next few days - rest well, and feel great about what you have achieved so far!

Emma x

8.45 David and Aliister at Mc Donald's: very different energy and dynamic: David very forceful over Aliister, bit of a challenge to be around.

Care Home: spoke with Manager again, not sure they have anyone, said they would ring me this afternoon. Didn't call.

Shop directly opposite Riverside: no go

Charring Cross Hospital: no go

Wetherspoons: very long and very interesting conversation with Alan who came to the UK from Barbados in 1962, was working as a Policeman in Barbados as a young man, when he saw an advert to come to the UK and work on the busses: the rest, as they say, is history. Had LOTS of very interesting stores and views on immigration and 'intellectual pigmies' otherwise know as politicians, with no accountability.  Not able to do the weekend as he is going to Skegness: may see him again tomorrow. Maybe for Monday?

Hammersmith Club: met with lots of people and did a bit of line dancing: met the remarkable Pamela. Pamela spoke of her troubled marriage, building a new life and the loss of her three children, two boys, and a girl. Has agreed to share her story on Saturday as she wanted to share her experience of how its possible to live on after such sadness. Has found love with Brian: said her children are at peace, and she line dances at the Hammersmith Club. Brian's son and partner recently had a baby, one of Pamela's joys!

Good to meet the team at Riverside and get the days updates

Exhausted!

Jeanette

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.

Spilling out of Riverside and on to the sunlit streets of Hammersmith I made a beeline for a sign that had caught my eye last week. On the corner of Fulham Palace Road and Chancellor's Road stands an estate agent's office called "Lawsons & Daughters". The sign had made me pause for a moment and reflect upon the fact that I do not believe I had ever seen anything other than "& Sons" before. As such, I wanted to uncover the story behind it.

The story is anticlimactic, I'm afraid. I spoke to the manager, who told me rather brusquely that "I haven't got any daughters, there's no daughters on the horizon and I only called it '& Daughters' as a marketing ploy since no one else did". 

Disappointing, to say the least. Nonetheless, I shall definitely aim to meander back past Lawsons & Daughters if only to take a pause and reflect on the rarity of such a sign.

Continuing down Fulham Palace Road I came to Den London, which is both a cafe and a florists and sits across the street from the Charing Cross Hospital. I went in and ordered a latte, enjoying the all too rare experience of sipping coffee immersed in the scent of fresh flowers. It is run by Raj and his wife, and while they were both lovely and friendly it soon became clear that the language barrier would prove too difficult to surmount for the purposes of our event. I was therefore  forced to bid them a fond farewell and continue rambling, leaving them a flyer in the slim hope they might choose to attend one of the events.

Pausing outside the hospital to gaze pensively at a pair of ambulance drivers indulging their nicotine habit, I walked back up towards Hammersmith before finding myself stood inside a small courier's speaking to Kyle, one of the business partners.

Kyle was lovely, telling me about how he had moved to the UK from Poland eight years ago with a master's degree in Computer Science. During his first summer here he had worked his friend's stall in Camden Town Market before they had both taken it to Glastonbury. Realising he could do this on his own he set up his own festival stall business, which did incredibly well over the next three summers. However, since it only really worked for three months out of the year, he also started a taxi service, working as the booker himself. That became so successful that it was bought by Addison Lee, at which point he began working in their IT & Systems department before leaving to start the current courier service with his business partner at the beginning of 2013. They have, so far anyway, been doing very well. He enjoyed talking to me and loved the idea of Stop-Look-Listen, but he is going on holiday with his girlfriend over the weekend and will not be back until Wednesday next.

Wishing Kyle and his business the best, I let my feet carry me to the shopping centre that engulfs the entrance to the District & Piccadilly section of Hammersmith station. It was in here that I met Tom, a young man running a flower stall not ten yards from the gatekeeping Oyster barriers.

Tom had worked the stall, which belongs to his Uncle, as a part-time job until he had qualified as a carpenter, at which point he had thrown himself in to that wholeheartedly. However, his experience working on construction sites and being yelled at by foreman for a measly paycheque inevitably left him yearning for the better pay and personable chat of the flower stall. Although his commute and eleven-hour working day are exhausting, he truly loves what he does and is saving up to buy the stall from his uncle, who also owns stalls in Acton, Ruislip and Chiswick.

While talking to Tom, we were approached by a woman in her sixties holding a container of porridge from Prêt à Manger, which she presented to Tom with a "There you go my darling, with the sweet stuff the way you like it". He took it gratefully while she took another container to the man running the sweet stall opposite. I raised a questioning eyebrow to Tom who smiled and said that she did this every day. Before I could ask him anything more, she came towards me and clasped my hands in hers, proclaiming "Your hands are freezing, darling! Let me get you some porridge!"

Touched and alarmed in equal measure, I was trapped by the fact that I truly cannot stand porridge in any of its forms and had therefore to decline, as politely as I could. As I watched, transfixed, as she vanished around the corner, I heard Tom tell me that she spent every day in Prêt; that she took care of him and the other stall owner.

Leaving Tom, who does not work on the weekends, I followed my mysterious porridge godmother, catching up with her, as promised, inside the Pret. She was sat across from an elderly gentleman, the two thoroughly engrossed in each other's conversation.

I went in to the shop and ordered another latte, ever-so-slowly adding and stirring sugar, watching out of the corner of my eye. She suddenly got up and walked over to the sugar counter, at which point I turned and opened my mouth to speak. She cut me off with "OH GOOD! A warm drink. You needed that, darling!" once more clasping my hand. Deftly avoiding spillage, I gave a brief explanation of what I was doing and told her how fascinating I found her. Her name is Ella and she agreed to meet me at noon tomorrow.

Stumbling back in to the sun, I wandered, somewhat dazed, up King Street. I went in to a store called Bushwhacker Whole Foods and chatted briefly to the attendant there. Although fascinating and a supporter of the project, he was obviously very shy and I did not wish to make him uncomfortable, so I continued on my way. 

Using Ravenscourt Park as the edge of my world, I turned back towards Riverside. Pausing briefly in St Paul's Centre, I was walking back down Hammersmith Bridge Road when something caught my eye. Something bright orange. Truly, gloriously, alarmingly bright orange.

I cautiously approached down Rutland Grove. A car - a CAR! What a car. Compact, clearly designed for speed and nothing but; a death trap in the wrong hands but nothing short of sensational in the right; the sort of pure racing car that a particular breed of slightly psychotic, adrenaline-fuelled child dreams of.

Whose car could this be? If only - if ONLY - the owner and driver of this angel would somehow make himself apparent, they would surely be a character and a half. As if by magic, a head suddenly emerged as I drew closer.

Hands covered in grease, sweating in the sunshine, treating his baby with the tenderness of any parent: this was Justin. He told me how he races when he can, showed me the engine, took me through the details of which parts were second hand, which he'd bought off ebay, which had been hand-crafted by one of his friends (an obviously gifted engineer).

Then he told me of his life. What a life. Originally from Australia, he came to Rome with his Italian girlfriend twenty-six years ago. She had then left him, at which point he made his way to the ski slopes of France, skiing for the next few months. When the season came to a close, he hitched a ride back to Paris with the ski instructor and crashed on his floor for three months before coming over to London. Seven years in television journalism, ten years with MTV, now a freelance producer happily married to his Dutch wife (who he met when he auditioned her as a presenter for MTV). His garage houses two motorbikes (beautiful things) and his stories are witty and enthralling.

I am meeting him tomorrow for a pint and I hope most sincerely he agrees to be a story-partner. If not, then at least I know tomorrow's drink will be a fascinating one.

8.45 Met with David (and Alister) coffee Mc Donald's. David gave me a beautiful etched flower on a flattened out coke can, with my name on it! Meeting again tomorrow at 9am: David definitely up for the project.

10am lovely to see the team at Riverside.

Into Hammersmith: Lee a no show and also John and Oscar a no show. No luck with the charity shops. Went to Polish Centre very interested in project but very quiet at the time, no one to talk to

Went to the Irish Centre met with Aibee from Malaysia who plays the tin whistle and the fiddle. Plays music from her childhood in Malaysia on the fiddle. Told me her life story: at the moment not keen on talking with group. Meeting her again tomorrow at Hammersmith Club: Irish Centre closing down: great place to frame something.

Called at the Care Home just around the corner from Riverside: spoke with the Manager, took a flyer and will see if they have anyone I can chat with: going back tomorrow.

Went around the back of the Apollo met the guy that has been the maintenance man there for the last 32! years. Invited me inside stood on the Apollo stage. Told me about the bus loads of tourist that come and look at the fire escape steps at the back of the building because they featured in A Hard Day's Night with the Beatles standing on them.

Found the grave stone of Joseph William Allen who turns out to be this remarkable painter: gravestone obscured by another stacked up leaning against St Paul's church in the car park. The graves were dug up to build the church extension: bones now stored in boxes in the church.

(Would really like these two points to stop and look on route.)

Back to Riverside to the Team and all their stories: home knackered!

Jeanette

Today's Adventures Nervous/Excited/VERY cold /sad

Well, the sun wash shining and I needed to walk off all those EAster Eggs! It was mentioned we could use this time if we wished, so I did!

My first port of call was The Cancer Research Shop, where I spent some time in the back room/sorting area. I met the very lovely Maria who told me a great deal about her life and the loss of her husband to cancer and lots and lots of other stuff, including how she met her current partner, who was too shy to speak to her in the Charity shop and kept brining things in from home to donate. He now also volunteers in the shop having spent a life time working in Wormwood Scrubs

Unfortunately she only volunteers Fridays and Mondays and try as I might, I couldn't entice her to be at the shop next Sat/Sun but she would be happy to do the Monday. This raises the question, are we up for different people on different days?

I have been told there are others to talk to in the shop and have arranged to go back tomorrow: but they have different volunteers on weekends/weekdays so the same issue will remain

David was my next chat. David sells the big issue outside Marks and Spencers and had an interesting life. Originally from Macedonia where his father was a watch maker, they moved  to LA, David worked as a painter /decorator on film sets: also an artist. Had an interesting Tom Cruise story He was interesting, vey politically minded and had a few strong and interesting views: it did make me wonder about how that would work in terns of getting into a disagreement?

Would like to discuss this tomorrow in our group please.

I have arranged to meet David again tomorrow at 8.45 (his idea not mine) so will see how its goes. I bought David and Allister his mate across the road a coffee. I had  a very brief chat with Allister, who was less able to be vocal. I of course bought  a big issue, but i'd have done that anyway

I also had a brief chat with the guy at  Great Scotts the cobblers in Hammersmith Tube/Bus Station, but I don't think that is a runner, for me anyway. Can touch upon tomorrow

I was then in the station waiting for my bus home, honest I was, when I met John and his dog Oscar: he had come to the bus station for a sit down. Sometimes he goes and sits in Charring Cross hospital because its warm, but he has to hide Oscar in his wheeled shopping trolly if he does that, because they aren't keen on him bringing the dog in. After spending some time with him, I missed my bus and then, taking the next one home cried. This is just a brief snapshot of John, who told me a lot more. I have arranged to meet him tomorrow at The British Heart foundation at about 11.15, where he does some volunteering. I will tell you more about John and Oscar tomorrow. I touched upon what we are doing and gave him a flyer, but we will have to see......

I have met some amazing people already, but I'm still not sure if they 'fit the bill,' so to speak. Welcome thoughts on this tomorrow

Very moved and very excited

Jeanette