Home in my nicely painted clean London bedroom. Clean sheets are on. I’m gearing up for a long committed and peaceful sleep.
I came back here as I was worried about the fishies. I noticed last weekend that the filter is a bit slow so I cleaned it, but I’ve been worrying that it might pack up entirely. Due to the wonders of technology they are fed automatically every evening, but if their filter packs up completely then I’ll get home to lots of floating fishies and nobody wants that. So I’ve bought another filter. I’ll plug it into a different socket. Then I’ve got backup. And they’re fine still. The filter is labouring, but working better since I cleaned it up last weekend. They still have air – there’s just more algae than usual. I’ve still only lost one fish, which ain’t bad for a load of aging second hand fishies in a tank with old equipment. They’ll get a good clean and a hoover tomorrow and then I’ll work out where to put the second filter for them. It should be fine with two so long as it’s not too noisy…
Meanwhile downstairs in my car is the most exquisite black cape, and a bag full of distressed silk Victorian style nighties. You know that thing I do when I get a load of perhaps too much beautiful stuff and then take it all into my flat and gradually work through it with an eye to theatre? Yeah, well I’ve gone and done it again. This time it’s costumes. The cape and the nighties are just the front runners – I’ll get the bulk of it on Sunday and there’s tons. I’ll be processing it through my friends and through theatre makers I know – and keeping a fair amount back so I have a costume starting point for the little theatre company I’ve recently set up and registered, and which is waiting for a first project but it helps if I know I can make people look fabulous for free. I’ve got some glorious things. Also some pretty weird stuff, frankly. I’m excited to sort through it and work it out as I mostly did it in a hurry one morning before willows, but thankfully it was an informed hurry as I’d been studying the list for some time. Hats and shirts and trousers and capes and coats and jackets galore. It’ll definitely keep me occupied until Spielberg rings. One thing I hadn’t clocked is that the lovely pale wool cape I chose … There’s 24 of them. I’ll find homes for them though. I know that. I’ve got enough maker friends, and friends with companies or making corporate theatre or on the festival circuit or just with a dressing up box. This stuff all speaks. I once had a job as a barker, standing on a podium trying to get people to pay money to go into a sideshow. It was before I had my ringmaster coat, and the employer didn’t provide me with costume, so I just wore my own clothes. Day three, and the woman running the candyfloss took me aside. She said her dad was a ringmaster. There were a few of us doing the job in shifts and she told me nice things about my “gab”. But she said a costume would make all the difference. Of course she was right too. It really can make you ping. If I ever have to do that again, God forbid, I’ll be spoilt for choice regarding costumes. I’ll just have to be super organised about labelling and storage. Ha. We’ll see how that goes.
Bedtime now though. I’m still on recovery mode from the end of willows and then all the Wagner.
AlBarclay 