Hello all!!
Time flies when you are having fun. I thought I haven't blogged for only two weeks, but as I sat down and looked at my posts, I realised it has been a whole month. I have had a very busy month, spending time with people I like and seeing and learning new things.
Here are a few moments of my life in the last four weeks. Through pictures, of course:
I had some delicious chocolates; strawberry delicious.
Don't they look good? They taste even better.
I visited a few markets. One of them was off King's Road market. They always have amazing food. This time, I only took pictures. Here are some HUGE cookies, yummy doughnuts and colourful cakes:
I also got myself new yarn for a blanket I want to make. It is probably going to take me a whole year to get it done, but I don't mind. I embarked on a new project and that is important. I made a few false starts. It is always like that at the beginning. You try things ten times before you understand what you really want to make. These are the colours I am going to be using for now. I will be buying the next batch of yarn very soon. And need I say, I am very excited:
This book is one of my first Xmas presents this year. Cannot wait to read it. I usually go to the library just before Xmas and get lots of books to indulge in. This one is the first on my reading list:
And the last picture from the happy Red corner is my eye shadow. After using it almost on a daily basis, this is what it came to and how it looks now. I couldn't have fashioned it this way, even if I tried really hard:
A perfect heart. Don't you think that this is pretty amazing? I do :-)
I love happy accidents.
So, that is all for now. I have been smiling A LOT lately. Have you?
I'll leave you with this quote:
"Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful."
I hope you are happy and you are smiling wherever you are.
Red xx
Hello all!!
Lot's has been happening in the Red corner. I seem to be constantly on the go. However, I needed a break from working on Dreamland and this last week was spent having dinner with family and friends, shopping, reading. And for some reason I've been quite tired too. Every once in a while, I get a week when I am tired after I get back from work and need a good couple of hours to get back to me! And need to stay low for a dew days.
So, here is my week in pictures:
Xmas shopping has already started in London. You'd think there is no recession in this country by the amounts of people shopping. I only bought a few essentials from Uniqlo. And spent a while at a haberdashery department, but in the end, didn't buy anything (purely because the line at the check out was so long).
Apart from Xmas shopping in London, lots of other things are happening in London. One of them is The National Theatre's 50th birthday. When we went, the theatre was full, the foyer as well as the shop, and the three theatres. I took a few pictures of an exhibition in the foyer of the theatre, marking the anniversary.
First, the amazing Maggie Smith, a good few years before Downton Abbey:
Laurence Olivier playing Othello, when it was "accepted" to "black up" if you are a white man playing a black character (quite ridiculous and disgusting):
The ever wonderful Michael Gambon when he was young:
Me and Samuel Beckett (only time we will feature together, unfortunately. I am in the background, taking this picture):
And then, Ian Mckellen. He looks like Keith Richards, don't you think?
Next few weeks will be super busy too. I am resuming work on Welcome to Dreamland, (so, so much to do), meeting lots of friends, going to theatre, not to mention work. The problem is that I have started reading my favourite book and I have no idea how I will get to do all the things and not just stay put and read. The book in question is Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. I read it first time at university over ten years ago and till today, I have never read anything that good. I might do a post just on that book soon. So, after all these years, it is time to read it again. I was supposed to do lots of things at home today, (clean the house, life admin, things like that). I only managed changing bed sheets and doing laundry. In fact, I better finish this post too - I want to read a little before bed time.
What are you are up to these days? Are you busy, or taking it easy? And what book are you reading at the moment?
Have a lovely week everyone.
Red xx
Hello all!!
Remember a few weeks ago I wrote about Barbies I had hidden in my wardrobe? And then when I didn't know what to do with them, after falling in love with their atrocity in 15 minutes, I put them on my writing table. Well, I found a new place for them, and this time on my bookshelf in my sitting room.
Et voila! Ta daaaa! (as ever, click on the image to enlarge).
I know, you are saying how creative :-)
Well, I cannot see a better way to use them than this. They look so "pretty" on my shelf, don't you think?
And you ask yourself, but what did she do with the bodies?! Don't worry, they are staying where they are. For now. This is a work in progress and when inspiration hits again, part of the bodies will find their boxes too. Heads or no heads, they a Barbie symbol amounts to the same.
This little "creative" moment is my small feminist statement :-)
Hope you are all good. Have a lovely and creative week, whatever shape it might take.
Red xx
Hello all!!
As promised last week, today's post is going to be about a show I have been working for quite some time. The performance is called Welcome to Dreamland and it is about a young woman who flees her home country due to torture and rape and looks for safe haven in the UK.
After applying for asylum and subsequently after being rejected, she ends up on the street, with no money, no food and no help from anyone. New immigration laws in the UK are particularly harsh. People are rejected asylum on a very random basis, without the applications being checked and investigated properly. Once the person is rejected, they are free to appeal the Home Office decision. However, all the support is taken away. That creates a huge number of destitute rejected asylum seekers. They are left on the street, with no legal representation and only a £10 voucher that is given to them by the Red Cross. They are often detained (practically imprisoned) without a reason or notice, for months on end.
These people are invisible. You never see them on the street begging, as they do not want to do anything to get on the wrong side of the law. They refer to themselves as "shadow people". Not many people know about their treatment. It is inhuman and barbaric yet it is happening all over the western world.
I spent years on research; reading stories, meeting people, thinking up ideas and images for this piece and earlier this year I have been invited by The Platforma Conference to perform an excerpt from Welcome to Dreamland. The Conference was in Manchester and it had performers, refugees, immigrants, theatre and art makers from all over the world. I performed at the Manchester Museum and was really honoured to be a part of such great event. Although my director Anna and I are making a one hour long show to be staged at a theatre, this time we performed first 20 minutes of Dreamland in the reception of a Museum. We had about 50 people, some from the Conference and some passers by. It was wonderful and feedback could not have been better. An Arts Council woman (for my overseas readers, that is a government body that awards grants for art projects) loved the piece and wants to have a meeting with me to see how she can help. Usually, when you are staging something you have to beg Arts Council to come and see you. I was very, very lucky that she was there. Talk about right place, right time.
I also had a great response from other theatre makers and some art organisations too.
Here are a few pictures of the performance. The Museum is not ideal for what we want to do, so the pictures do not exactly tell our story. Nonetheless, here they are. I sectioned off performing space with glass ramekins which I later use to create a journey, a path for our character:
My woman's daily routine, washing herself and getting ready for work:
One day, she puts make up on and as a result she gets lashed and then later raped for speaking against the torture:
Next, she walks to the Home Office (where you apply for visas). The walk is strenuous and scary. We have our woman walk on glass to represent the danger and fragility:
My feet and the floor are covered in lipstick that looks like blood - result of her journey:
Amazingly, even though we of course didn't have theatre lights or good floor, all these things translated to the audience. I know that it will look more powerful in the right setting too.
So, the hard work begins now. Contacting all the people that I met in Manchester; networking to get us out there; raising money; applying to the Arts Council; meeting people to create new opportunities and of course finishing the show. We aim to premier the show early in the 2014 somewhere in London and then tour it. Berlin, for sure, but also other venues. I am sort of itching for Edinburgh again, but we'll see.
I met a woman who runs a women's theatre company Open Clasp in the north-east of England. She introduced herself as a political activist who wants to change the world one play at a time. I love that. I am on my way to join her, and I have not felt this alive in a very long time.
What makes you feel alive? What is the situation for the immigrants in your country? I'd love to hear it.
Thank you for visiting. I see in my stats that people from all over the world come and read my posts. I am very grateful for that. Thank you.
Red xx
Hello all!!!
This last month I have had very few days off. Work during the day, rehearsals in the evening. If it isn't rehearsals, it is seeing friends.
Weekends - the same. Rehearsals, friends, no time to do work around the house. And life admin just had to be done at midnight.
So, today was one of my first days off in a while. I seem to find it difficult to just sit and relax, so I embarked on a particularly big job - cleaning my bedroom, top to bottom. When I say, top to bottom, I really mean it. I moved my huge bed (which is no mean feat), cleaned everything underneath, hoovered every inch of my room and dusted every nook and cranny. I also sorted out my summer clothes into vacuum bags and took out winter wardrobe. I collected a huge bag of clothes for charity (that feels so good - now I can see exactly what I have). I am pretty good at doing it every season anyway, but this time I was more ruthless than usual. It feels so good. My room is so lovely and clean now and I feel very good about myself too.
And then, I finally threw away all the props and costumes from previous theatre performances I was in, in the past five years. Two bags full of stuff. I have no idea why I still kept it, but I did. I suppose I thought, I might need it again, just as I throw it away, so I have to keep it. Now, I don't care if I do, I'll go and source the new stuff if I need it.
And then, in the corner of my closet, I found these "beauties". I bought them for a performance three years ago, but in the end, decided not to use them. I actually forgot about them until today.
Here they are:
How creepy are they? Halloween creepy, but,... I now can't part with them. 15 minutes out of the bag, and I sort of fell for them. I have put them on my writing desk in my bedroom until I decide what to do with them. There is something satisfyingly disturbing about them, so for now, they are staying put.
This coming Friday, I am performing a one woman show at the Manchester Museum, called Welcome to Dreamland. The performance is about rejected asylum seekers in the UK, barely struggling to survive. It will be part of a big conference called Platforma, where immigrants as well as artists working on the subject will get together and exchange ideas. I cannot wait although I am pretty nervous as I am going on my own, without the support of my director (she has another show in London at the same time).
I'll do a post on the performance and the conference on my next day off, next Sunday. With lots of pictures and good stories, I am sure.
In the mean time, share with me this week's flowers on my coffee table:
So, have you been busy lately? And most importantly, have you changed the clothes in your wardrobe for the coming autumn/ winter season?
Have a lovely week everyone.
Red xx
Hello all!!
I've had a very good and productive week. Work during the day, rehearsals in the evening and weekend spent with friends, eating good food, watching bad telly and reading some seriously good books.
So currently I am:
enjoying this book:
It is a book by a leading Moroccan feminist writer, Fatima Mernissi. It is a memoir of her childhood growing up in a Harem in the 1940's. It is an easy read but it is filled with charming stories. It also recounts the struggle of women living in closed off quarters with no public life at all. It is one of those books that charm you into reading it for hours without noticing the time flying by.
Loving wearing this:
My aunt crocheted this collar for me this summer. She found a very old one that my grandmother did decades ago and as it was tattered she decide to save the pattern and make a new one. When I saw it, I was in love with it. In fact, I had a very similar one when I was a girl that my grandmother did for me. I remember wearing it with a colourful, flowery dress. These days, I wear this one with jumpers, shirts and dresses. It is very versatile and I can't get enough of it.
Liking:
Home made lemon cake.
My home made lemon cake. For a recipe, visit my post here http://boyebyredart.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/if-sky-gives-you-lemons-you-make.html
It was so moist and soft and delicious. The best thing was that I knew exactly what went into it. I had mine served with vanilla ice cream. It goes very well with coffee or tea.
I am also loving friends coming over with delicious take away and wine for a night in, reading at home under a warm blanket while it's raining outside and of course, I am loving the autumn colours.
What have you enjoyed in this past week? Have a fab week.
Red xx
Hello all!!
I have to admit, I photograph very well. In fact, I look better on pictures than I do in real life. :-)
Over the years, I have been lucky to have had people paint or draw pictures of me quite a few times. These days, children from my school feel compelled to draw a picture of me on a very regular basis. I love their impressions of me. They are always spot on. These are just a few. I have many, many more, but can't find them at the moment. This first one was done in a rush. Nonetheless, I love it (click on the image to see it better and to see the detail):
These next two are my favourite ones. They've been done last year when I had a bob haircut. I look slightly different now as I have a pixie haircut, but essentially, this is still me. I am smiling in all of them, so I am happy that that is how they see me.
Don't you think they are fabulous? I do. I'll probably keep them for the rest of my life.
The next one is a cartoon of me. Someone I got on very well with gave me this as a Xmas present. Until he gave it to me, I didn't know, how much he liked me. In fact, I didn't know he knew me as well as he did. But I guess, he watched from afar and commissioned someone to do his impression of me. All the details are there: I am standing on a stage, wearing my heels and my fairy skirt. There is even a Bosnian flag on my coat. The necklace I am wearing is exactly the same, and he even included a big flowery hat I had. In fact, down to the shirt, coat and the bag - he got me in one! This cartoon has a proud place on my bookshelf with all my theatre books and I think of this person very often:
And then, there is a puppet of me!!! I did a performance a few years ago where I played an older woman, wearing my mum's vintage coat. My scenes were off stage. Everything I did was transmitted on the video projection on stage while this little one was on stage the whole time, being me. At the end of the performance I come on stage and we two meet for the first time. We acknowledge each other and the play ends. At the end of the run, the girl who made me, gave me "myself" as a present. One of my favourite presents of all time. She has the same costume as I did in the play, but I can't find any pictures from the performance. She now sits at the top of my bookshelf, looking over everything I do and everything that happens in there. Here is how I look in the miniature:
And here is us together on the bus posing. As you can see from my smile, I am very, very happy:
I now need a painter to paint me. My life long wish was to be painted by Lucien Freud, but that is never going to happen now that he is no longer with us (as if that was going to happen anyway?!), so I have to look for someone else. In fact, I won't look, I'll wait until someone gets inspired and paints me. A girl can dream, right?
Have you got pictures/ puppets/ cartoons/ paintings of yourself done by other people? What kind of impression do you think you make on people on a daily basis?
Whatever you do, enjoy it and have a lovely week.
Red xx
Hello all!
How has your week been?
As I wrote in my last post, I was away in Wales, beautiful, green countryside.
It was great, it was green,... but I am really not a country girl. I am so out of my comfort zone when I don't see concrete, or inhale exhaust fumes :-)
I just could not relax. There might be a reason for it - together with three other adults, I had a responsibility for thirty-eight hyper active children. As you can imagine, it was not the most relaxing of the trips.
But, we did go on a 3 hour hike that I enjoyed and I took some photos of nature and greenery (got to find a silver lining in everything):
Lovely? I agree, but that's as far as I'll go.
I cannot tell you how happy I was when we drove into London. So happy!!!
So, I kind of celebrated the whole weekend. I had the best sleepovers (two nights in a row!!!), lots of wine and good chat and then a barbecue today (when you live in the UK you need one ray of sunshine for an excuse to set up a barbecue). I also spent hours shopping in charity shops and of course got myself my favourite flowers, carnations:
Living in London, you get tired of it; after six months you need to get out for at least a month. This time, I left for five days and could not wait to get back.
So, I am back home, enjoying the grayness (although, it seems to be sunny and warm here these days. Queer!!), the concrete, the big buildings, the houses that look like sardines,... I fell in love with London twenty two years ago and I keep falling in love with it, over and over again. Welcome home!!! London, you are tough, but you are bloody amazing, concrete and all!
I'll leave you with a quote that has been running around in my head for the last few days:
"You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway."
That's definitely how I felt for the last five days.
So, wherever you are, I hope you feel you are at home. I know I am.
Have a good week everyone. Enjoy everything you do!!!
Red xx
Hello all!!
How has your week been?
How did you spend your time in the past seven days? Productively? Lazying around? Spending time with friends and family? Most importantly, did you enjoy what you were doing?
I have, almost every single thing I did this week. Mainly, because I made a point to enjoy the moment, enjoy the things and people around me. A friend told me two people I know of (I don't know them personally) dying of cancer in the last week and that made me stop and think: all this could end so quickly, I better make sure I am giving it a good shot whilst I am here on Earth. I know, somewhat heavy, but I guess, that is life.
So, I made sure that every time I felt getting annoyed at something unimportant, to change the way I think, to stay positive and to think of things I can do and people I have in my life. That instantly made me feel better and made me feel grateful for what I have.
Then today, I met up with my favourite people for lunch at a fantastic Turkish restaurant in Stretham Hill. We had this older, most charming and delightful waiter from Cypress. As I walked into a restaurant, he came towards and gave me a hug. Who does that? Fabulous people, that's who. I saw a woman at a neighbouring table rolling her eyes and sort of judging the situation. I thought, you are missing out on a lot lady!! The cheerful waiter was the most charming man I have met in a long time. His laugh was infectious (he laughed A LOT) and he did his job with such satisfaction, it was really nice to be offered food by him. Then I thought, this man is happy, because he works on it; he wants to be happy, he is making sure that he is having a good time engaging with customers to make his own life happier and more enjoyable, not only ours. It turns out, he came to London to see a friend, and the friend asked him to work in his restaurant for three days. And he thought, why not? I like people like that. They make me smile. This particular man has taught me a good lesson as well as served really delicious food. I ate so much, I will never eat again :-)
But onto other things. I have been rehearsing a performance piece with a lovely director I have not worked with in a long while, but have luckily reconnected with again recently. About that very soon, when we have some pictures from our rehearsal process.
I have also been busy knitting and crocheting. I am one of those people that start doing at least three things at one time and then it takes me forever to finish them, because I switch from one piece to the other, until the crunch time comes and I have to start finishing things. So this week I have finished an iPad cover that I have been working on for months.
I am travelling tomorrow so I needed to have it for my journey. I am not sure if I totally like it. I feel that I should have used more colours. I'll come back to it and maybe add something else to it, not sure. What do you think?
Then I did a little Oyster card holder for a friend. For my overseas followers, Oyster card is a card you top up with money and then use it to travel with. Everyone in London who travels has it and most holders are grey or yellow with IKEA written on them. So, I make my own and I make them for friends. Just to brighten up the London travel a little bit (trust me it is a grey experience travelling on London transport). A friend I am travelling with tomorrow is not expecting it. It is a little surprise I hope she will appreciate. She has become a very good friend in the past 12 months and we often talk "life" stuff and feel very wise whilst having a good laugh too. We get on ridiculously well. She is going away on a big travel adventure in January, and I am going to miss her very much. So, here is a little surprise I made for her:
Of course, this little holder can be used for credit cards too. I have people ordering it for that particular use. It is versatile, just like me :-)
Some months ago, I wrote about making a baby's blanket. Well,... I am still making it. The good news is that I am almost done with it. I enjoyed doing it, but I have to admit, it was not easy. The pattern was easy, (the easiest one you could do), but I am not an experienced knitter, so I made lots of mistakes and had to rip what I did and start over again. I have about 3-4 hours left on it. Here how it looks at the moment; finishing stages:
Once I have finished this baby blanket, I am going to embark on a large one for me. I love blankets and I love projects. I am not a fan of watching TV without doing something at the same time. Who knows when I'll finish it?! It doesn't matter, I am excited about the project.
And before I go, here is a picture of my new jacket. Well, not exactly new. I bought it a few months ago. I saw it in Top Shop but it was expensive and I didn't want to give a £100 for it. However, I never forgot it. So, a few months ago I was walking around Brixton Market and saw this girl selling interesting stuff. What do you know, she was selling my favourite jacket, practically new, in amazing condition, for just £25. What's more, it was my size. Well, it goes without saying that I had to have it.
I am going to the country side tomorrow to a very sporty trip. I am a city girl through and through and I will not be made to wear unfashionable sporty things :-) I am wearing my skinny Diesel jeans and my new "gorilla" jacket :-) And I will do a trapeze and zip wire and abseiling and I will look fashionable even if it is not exactly comfortable :-)
As the duchess in Alice in Wonderland says: "And that's a fact."
I started this post thinking I will just show you the bags and the blanket I have made. But I ended up writing a whole story about cheerful waiters and gorilla jackets. Never mind, you can always stop reading if it gets boring.
I hope you have enjoyed spending time with me this week.
Whatever you do in the next seven days, make sure that you stop and appreciate at least one thing that you see or experience. I am going on a school journey with forty 10 year old kids and I cannot wait. I know it will be hard work and it is a big responsibility but I will make sure to let myself go and enjoy the excitement of others. We will all be doing things we are very scared of, and we will be emotional, but in my mind, that is the way to go.
Have a lovely, lovely, lovely week, wherever you are.
Red xx
Hello all!!
My week has been very busy and pretty fabulous. I got lots done (lots of life admin stuff too!!) and also enjoyed myself on the way. Some of my highlights - eating dinner with favourite friends, walking through London streets late in the evening in very warm weather, rehearsing and being on the same page with my director and striking a conversation with a random person on the bus. Pretty good going, I think.
On Monday I got a lovely present from a friend. It turns out not only do we share the love for reading, but we seem to be interested in similar subjects too. She recommend a book called 26a by Diana Evans and now I have a duty to recommend it to you too. It is written by an English/ Nigerian writer and the story is about two identical twin sisters. They are inseparable, but something happens when they are young girls and their lives change forever. The book is beautifully written and it has made me cry quite a few times. One of the sisters tells the other: "Life tastes better with you." It is probably one of my favourite quotes ever.
Well, on Monday this friend surprised me with another book, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (author of The Virgin Suicides).
I will only tell you this: it is a story of a person who was born a girl, but was actually a boy. If that doesn't grip you, I don't know what will. I am already hooked. The good thing is that the book is very long, so I have many enjoyable hours ahead of me. There is nothing more exciting than when someone recommends a good book. One of many life's pleasures, don't you think?
Now, to slightly more trivial things in my life. I have been very lucky to have received lots of nice presents this year. Some of my favourites are these beauties. Paraben and SLS free, very natural and they smell really nice. I strongly recommend both:
A fabulous necklace from someone who doesn't know me that well, but knows my style. Apparently when they saw it, they thought of me. They got me spot on with this:
And then when I came back from my holiday, I treated myself to something very cheap, but in my mind, priceless. I absolutely adore crockery. I can never have enough of it, and charity shops in London are full of these little cups. These are my latest finds:
The first cup is really tiny although it appears pretty big in this picture. It is quite old and clearly a part of a big set. They only had one and I just couldn't resist it. The other two are perfect for when I want a coffee but not too big. All in all, lovely things.
I hope you all had a good week too. What is the book on your coffee table at the moment? Have you bought yourself something nice lately?
And, and,... at the moment I am watching the last season of Dexter. Not really sure how I'm going to go through my life once it ends, but I suppose I'll manage somehow.
That's all for now, I am off for my date with that charming serial killer.
Have a happy week everyone.
Red xx
