Bedsit Land

Signed the lease for my new place today. I have keys and everything...it's funny how last minute-ness can be exactly the thing you needed. So I have a bedsit, the only thing I have to share is the toilet (!). I think I can make the shabbieness of the place work for me, it's quiet big and I have a(n incongruous) fireplace and half a ceiling moulding.

Need to get a kettle, toaster and possibly a microwave...
Need to actually go and look at it again to get a clearer picture of what I can do with it.
It's just 6 months...but I need to find the essence of home

Goodnight,
Helen*

Ideal Woman and Home

Went shopping in Perth with my Mum and Dad. Spent a considerable time in Lakeland Plastics (my parents exclaiming loudly, 'Look at all these things you never knew you needed!').
This consumerism of home and all the things that families, or even just established adults are supposed to have to make their lives better...this is something I'm interested in, the things of home.

In Lakeland, they have a book by the Women's Institute all about Home and running a home...this is a valid area of research. Maybe I could contact a branch of the Women's institute and do some work with them?

Can I become an expert of home without actually having one?

I like things...I can't wait to have a house so I can keep my things in it. But is home just about things? Space, time, valuables, memories

*Idea: Is it enough to have a green front door. An emerald green glossed wooden front door with a brass letterbox and knocker in the space. Entrance possibilties. Reminds me of a snapshot of the Dutch surrealist women in the theatrical set at the NRLA last year. That was a comedy about things. Perhaps this is an idea that could workwell on film (live would be difficult because of capacity and sight lines)

*Idea: Think Matt's Into the New director's show. Space marked out like rooms in a house, Dogville style. Opportunity to have 2d/3d aesthetic. Kevin asked could I make the performance space my home and would I really want to. How contrived would it be to ask the audience to close their eyes while I describe the ideal/memory of a space?

Keep the customer satisfied

Home, where my thoughts escapin
Home, where my musics playin
Home, where my love lies waitin, silently for me.
And I wish I was homeward bound

Gee but it's great to be back home
Home is where I wana be
I've been on the road so long my friend

It's the same old story
Everywhere I go
I get slandered, libelled
I here words I never heard in the bible

And I'm so tired,
I'm oh so tired

Who knew two men from another time could pinpoint my feeling so well? And what is the point of making theatre if it can be written in words. What is my 3D aim? Where am I going with this? Thanks to Simon and Garfunkle, especially Simon, circa 1970.

So it's not the second anymore...

But Here is day 2's entry

Home Sweet Home
Home is where the heart is
God Bless this house

With the aid of ancient foolscap graph paper courtesy of my Dad (the archive/the spare oom) and my Ma's cross stitch books (family room) and prolific sewing kit (dresser/display sideboard in the living room), I plan, draw, redesign and begin sewing my Home Sweet Home sampler. It feels like a very homely thing to do and yet I have a sore back from sitting badly and peering over missed stitches. Nevertheless it's going well and there is pride in making just a little progress. It's good for problem solving mathmatics too.

Home/Dunfermline

Music: Daysleeper by R.E.M

Am going home today! Decided that I could not further my flat hunt and I want to have some time with my parents. They drove over from Dunfermline to pick me up. I'm going to tidy my room, evaluate my possesions, make the cross stitch and frame and phone Paddy and IKEA.

Can I make peace with Dunfermline

*Idea: Contact Ingrid about the IKEA idea, find out about home in Sweden, Webcam linkup? Some sort of examination of cross culture, Europeanness and homesickness.

Tata for now

When you live on borrowed time in someone else's space you have a renewed sense of responsibilty. I ate cereal in Natalie's bed today but I felt really guilty and I was very careful...would I have been so careful in my own bed? Since I have never had a place of my own, despite renting space for 5 years, is this why I haven't learned to take responsibility for myself?

Had an at home day today...very comfortable and lazy in preparation for having to work really hard tonite. Bring on the New Year I say, perhaps I will shake myself from this wierd day to day existence and make something happen this year.

It's not been a bad time, but it can be so much better!

Seasons greetings and fun times to all

Love Helen*