I'm sitting on the stairs while my relatives (sister Sarah and cousin Ruth) talk to people on their phones. I'm tapping away. It's peaceful.Among the delights of today: a walk from Highgate over Hampstead Heath (looked at the pond - no swim - no time), to Belsize Park for a trundle down to Waterloo for our mask workshop.
I thanked the bus driver as we got off the bus at Highgate, on the way, and he smiled and nodded, looking genuinely surprised, but happy. It really, really pleased me. No big thing, when you think about it, but that little exchange really made my day.
Once almost at Waterloo, I realised I had forgotten the larger mirrors needed for mask work. Very grateful that Will, who trekked down from Newcastle with is case full of masks, had enough. Good stuff, good stuff.
However, before getting through to Will, we thought we'd better look for some. Boots = massive fail. £15 for a mirror as big as my fist. You know where you can put that, Boots. So on to Sainsbury's (no) and then a corner shop nearby.
I asked the gentleman for a mirror. First, he said no, then he went to have a look anyway. Then he came back and in broken English of indeterminate origin (as in, it was determinable, but not by me), he said 'is okay, you very nice, no mirror'. He said it about 13 times, smiling like he was smiling about 20% at me and 80% at his outrageous joke. Really made me laugh, and was very sweet.
Next shop: the man humoured me for a bit and then stuck his phone out for me to look at my own face in his camera. Ha ha. At the third shop, the man tried to sell us a Daily Mirror. Scariest encounter yet! It was all good. Steele arrived, laden with mirrors. Problem solved and no money spent.
To buy my seat at Pret for our pre-workshop prep session, I got a coffee. I lazily enquired after croissants, seeing an empty tray, and when they had none, i said 'just the coffee then thanks'. She made my coffee and took my money, and then said 'What would you like to try - it's on the house.' Cooooool! That's never happened before.
She recommended the pain aux raisins as her favourite, so I said yes please to one of those. In the past I'd have said no - not for diet reasons, of course, but just for the sake of... well, I'm not sure for the sake of what. Politeness? Not owing anyone? Now, I'm just saying yes, please, thank you. It was fab.
Good to see Will. He was on form. And off we go. I think my favourite part of most workshops is the warm-up - the bit where people play for the sake of playing in preparation for the main course. I like the lack of pressure that brings.
We did some fabulous games. The hopping 'Have you seen my cat?' was a good one. We laughed a lot in Eastenders and the YOU game and a couple of other circle games. I don't think we did enough failing games. It showed a little later.
The workshop was meaty, intense, and a little bit more challenging than the last one. It's partly because this work is quite intense, and you need a bit of downtime. Also, we had fewer developed masks to experiment with, and we were less prepared. Last time, we'd already run a workshop together two days before, and we'd tried out and adjusted a few things then. And Will was staying with me, so we'd got into a rhythm of playing that was more settled, I think.
All these things, and some challenges about how to do the mask work, contributed, as did the fact that keeping the energy up in a smaller group of people relatively new to each other is harder than in a larger group. Having said that, there were some genius moments, and some very lovely scenes. I don't think we managed to communicate the joy or purpose, if there is one, of the trance mask work.
And I learned masses, both about facilitation and about the work, the prep, the intention of such a workshop. Massively grateful for such a lot of learning taking place and still feeling that the workshop itself was successful, for most people.
I'm always grateful for people who will come along and experiment with work like this. And I'm fascinated, both by the content and feeling of such an event itself, and by the people. Grateful for Sarah there, all playful. Grateful for the chance to do some more of what I love.
Grateful to Danny at The Calder Bookshop for not charging us the deposit for cancelling Saturday, and for Sergio, who works there, for being warm and lovely. He does theatre in prisons, you know. He's a good South American egg and I really enjoyed talking to him last time.
And massively, massively grateful to Nicola Sokell, who has cooked up some State of Play logos in the colours I liked the sound of and has supplied them as jpegs so I can just them tomorrow. How nice is that? I'm delighted. Really, really am.
Oh, and yesterday's chat with Ruth, post-posting, filled me with warmth and love for her. Just talking gently and honestly, sitting outside in the hallway. I've missed that kind of chat with her over the last few days. There'll be time for more.
And, very simply, I'm grateful for a very smooth trip back from Waterloo - transport at it all the way, running like clockwork. AND finally, very thankful that despite my latent grump, I'm able to function and remain aware of the good things and people all around me, through the haze.
Doing stuff like this IS what I left my job for, and even as I sit and think out hard about where I'll get my next pay and how I will manage this rent conundrum, I am glad, every single second, that I made that move. So glad. Beec, I wish you even fatter blessings.
Ooooohhh, ooh, ooh, I thought I'd finished, but looking for a photo (one of my beloved steps in posting this blog) I found the picture of The Writer, which I never saw but knew about when it was there. What a great idea. A MASSIIIIIIVE table and chair in the park. So. Good.
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