Surroundings

Last days I finished a lot of projects, but still I have a lot to do.
In last week I shot my own film. The temperature outside that day was minus 10, but everything look beautiful, because was frozen. I'm editing it now- I think it will be a good summary of technical things which I have learned here.
I thought about this film from the very beginning. First I made pictures which could be inspiration for successive shoots, after that I started thinking about the script. It was really difficult - how to tell about my time here, my work experiences in arts, not in a boring way? I decided to use Ola, she was walking across the places, which are importan for me here.  All the time in my work helped me my "boss" from Junction 15 - Darren.
A lot of shoots were made in the surroundings, I didn't write about this - I work in really important and pretty part of Stoke - in Burslam. Unfortunately in my opinion it is also forgotten part of England. I want write something about this place where I worked, but also where I spent my free time.

Burslem
The title 'mother of the potteries' belongs to Burslem. It was a centre for pottery manufacture, you can still see bottle ovens here. Many buildings in use today date from the 18th and early 19th centuries. During my work experiences I was introduced  with the work of The Burslem Regeneration Company, which try improve situation of this place.


The School of Art
It's the place where my company has the office, but it's also a centre of local artistic life. Years ago students from the school played an important role in the local pottery industry, now it's a self - financing, not for profit arts community and creative industry development organisation.The company works with diverse community artists. Many companies have offices in this beautiful building. I had an opportunity to work with a lot of them. I also made a project with Tony Jones - we took a photographies of this place.

The Leopard Pub
I'm writing about this place, because I spent many of my evenings there. It's one of the most beautiful pub which I know, which hold a lot of hidden secrets. Hotel with tunnels is only one of them.

We had also first screening of the film about domestic violence, the official premiere will be during Stoke Your Fires. The festival of the moving image. There is the trailer of our film:

More information about film: DAMAGE FILM

o.o.

winter time

In the end of my placement (that is how I should start decribing this experiance...) I have a chance to participate one more time in the events I became familiar at the very beginning. As Ola O. has already wrote on 25th of Nevember we had the Heart of Engagement Cafe - this time especially for local volunteers. One week later there was similar workshop for smaller, but very keen to discuss group. Both meetings gave me the possibility to follow the process with higher awerness and better understanding. And I took part in more active way - I presented the feedback after the first exercise (people were discussing posed question with the others sitting by the same table, making notes on paper table clothes, writing the most important issues on post-it notes - and that is what I collected).

Previous short courses at the uni have finished, so it is a right time to strat something new.This week there was the first session of 'Making It Happen' - the course about community arts for community artists mostly. I have been observing what community arts is in practice (working in New Vic, meeting the community photographer, people from B-arts and Junction 15, attending Lound Mouth Women sessions...) for last nearly 3 months, but yesterday I learned about its history and roots, political and economical aspects of the develepment. I had also my '5 minutes': I presented what 'community arts' means or can mean in Poland and how it is connetcted with culture(al) animation. That was really exciting to show who is Jerzy Grotowski and qoutate Grzegorz Godlewski and Leszek Kolankiewicz in Stoke...

 

That was another possibility to prepare myself for the presentation we three have on 20th of December that is to sum up our achievements and experiances here. We discussed it during the meeting with our carers  in the end of November.

I also:

• took part in World AIDS Day organised by Borderlines in New Vic Theatre: I saw Borderline members (including Jula) dressed up as queens and ruuning karaoke competition (we were singing Queen's songs) and pub quiz (that is something we haven't already mentioned, but is very popular here) about HIV and AIDS supported by police officers;
• saw first official screening of the film about domestic violance - production of Junction 15;
• had a debut as an actress in Ola O.'s film about out staying in Stoke-on-Trent: we spent the whole freezing day outside documenting the most important venues in Burslam, Hanley, Stoke... Ola O. will introduce this production soon.

fot. o.o.

Entertainment (with Ola O.):

• Gladstone Potteries Museum: bottle-shaped huge kilns, interactive exhibition in the real factory, the history of toilets;

fot. o.o.

• 'Peter Pan' performance in New Vic Theatre (thanks to Sue): actors flying under the roof and above the audiance, very warm atmosphere, really good piece of art;
• 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows': not because of the personal choice, to be honest, but it turned out that watching Harry Potter's films in Enland is much more exciting: the same fireplaces, the same lining, the same wallpaper, streets, biuldings as all around...

fot. o.o.

Weather conditions:
10 days of real winter have just ended with real English rainy day yesterday. 2 cm of snow caused cancelled or delayd flights, trains and cultural events, closing some of the schools and coughing in the buses. No winter tires, no insulation in houses. But there was beautiful. Not further than one our from Stoke by train in London's direction.

o.

Yizkor tour

For three weeks we toured Staffordshire, taking our educational play, Yizkor around secondary schools. For anyone who thinks a life in the theatre is easy, they've never done a Borderlines tour. We met every morning before the sun had even risen, gathering round the urn for a quick caffeine fix. Then we'd pile into the tour car (project manager Kelly and Chris would take the white van) and the working day would begin.
On the back seat, it was breakfast time for actress Emma and myself - the smell of pre-made porridge and fruit out of tupperware pots filled the car. In the front, volunteer Brendan tried to navigate while the second actor, Kyle, drove - faltering slightly and stalling at almost every hill start, traffic light or cross road. The mission was to keep the right white van in sight and never deviate from the path set by Kelly.
When we arrived at the venue of the day, we would have very limited time to complete a full theatrical get-in. This meant our entire Eastern European shtetl had to be unloaded from the back of the van and installed into the performance space. We had to set up chairs for any number of audience members - 80 to 240 - and rig all the lighting and sound gear to make sure our production was up to New Vic standards.
There was sometimes time for a quick cup of tea before the audience began piling in and the actors needed to escape to get ready. I assigned myself the role of Emma's dresser, stylist and hair stylist, and would lead her to whatever hidden away corner of the staffroom we could find. Each day we fine tuned the dressing routine a little more and the ritual piling on of layers became smoother and faster with each show. I can now part knotty hair expertly with almost any tool at my disposal - forks, hangers or pencils - and have plaited standing, kneeling and even walking down the corridor.
Then the show would begin.
Yizkor was a play, set against the backdrop of the Holocaust, about two Jewish teenagers who lived side by side in a small town in Eastern Europe. The play tells the story of their teenage years and the struggles they face living in a Nazi occupied Europe through 1939 to 1943. It is a story of loss, strength, friendship and courage in a cruel and challenging time. The end of the play sees the older of the two friends hand his companion's baby brother over to a non-Jewish farmer's wife - that was my role each day.

Following the play, we would lead a series of workshops aimed at exploring the themes and issues raised. All interactive sessions, one activity was a simulation using buttons to represent people and asking the youngsters to choose a group to exterminate. Another session focussed on the importance of names and identity. One looked at inner strength and how to keep hold of this however hard times get. And my own workshop used a selection of games to look at trust and responsibility for others, linking this to Zegota (a Council to aid Jews during the Holocaust). We opened each workshop with a group discussion about stereotyping and tried to encourage the students to think about the relevance of this to their everyday lives and how it can become dangerous - as in the Holocaust.
After this full day's emotionally challenging work came the last physical workout of the day - our get-out. The packing up of the whole shtetl back into the van, ready for another day somewhere else in Staffordshire. Then the long journey back to the New Vic and sometimes a de-brief with the whole company. We had this choreographed like a dance by the mid-point of the tour, and we knew how to run it the most efficient way possible. But that doesn't mean it was always perfect. One day Kyle left his costume hanging in the staff toilets of a school and didn't realise it until we were setting off the next day. On another occasion, Kelly left the clean laundry at home and Kyle had to perform wearing my trousers and Emma was left in just a vest at the end of the show. Brendan over-slept one morning and had to be picked up, unshaven and bleary eyed, from the corner of his road. Chris contracted some mystery illness which took him off the tour for three days. And I managed to demolish the wooden cart which Kyle and Emma used to bring all their props on with. But, we got through all those obstacles and kept the smiles on our faces.

Although this was an educational tour, we had two special performances. One was at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, and the other was at the Jewish Community Centre in Leeds for the Holocaust Survivors' Association. It was a great priviledge to meet Wal - one half of the couple that inspired this play. A Holocaust survivor himself, it was amazing to see him again in the audience in Leeds. He is a truly inspirational man.

This was a very moving piece and we felt a great deal of responsibility in raising awareness about something as important as the Holocaust. The intensity of the tour meant it was essential for us to find ways of keeping our own spirits up and maintaining high levels of energy from start to finish. So we made sure we found the lighter moments in our days and took the time to enjoy Stoke and all it has to offer. One evening we took a trip to the Monkey Forest and danced and giggled our way around the Garden Centre and Christmas Market, picking up vintage CDs for nostalgic sing-alongs on the journeys that followed. Kyle and I were neighbours, which meant it was easy to spend time together and unwind and shake off the heaviness of the days.

2/3 of the way through

The majority is behind us, but still I'm doing new things.
Firstly I describe that what I should have described long time ago...

During my visit here I sit in in the lecture From Muybridge to Murch...a brief examination of technological advancements in film's history. It's an introduction to certain aspects in the study of film and its history.

I work regularly with The Cultural Sisters, who are the creative, visual and participatory arts organisation. I think their work I can compare with polish organisation - Laboratorium Edukacji Twórczej.
When I saw their studio it made an impression on me, thousands of arts material, they have everything!
Their mainly tool in their work is preparing costumes, but they also use different kinds of art.

In the Monday evening we have workshop with children, when we do many different thinks using art. More important for me is our Wednesday workshop about mental health (how take care of mental health). It's so interesting, because I have possibility to see how introduce children in the serious subject.

Get Talking

I also took part in the final of Get Talking, I was shooting and now the material is waiting to be edited.  Ola W. wrote more about this course.

What's more? The most important think in the last days for me was the exhibition "Small is beautiful".

On this exhibition  you can see my, Ola W. and Julianna's photography. It's only one of things which we made with Tony Jones. I wrote about his course in which I and Ola W. took part. First part was about exposure and other technician's things, the second was about composition. But I hope it's not the end of our cooperation, we have more common plans.

The World Cafe

It's another project in which I took part with Ola W. The World Cafe is a really simple tool which can be used by people wanting to involve others in conversation and dialogue. People are invited to an informal cafe for a drink and chat, they sitting in small groups around a table, but every 20-30 minutes people change places and  continue to discuss the issue.

o.o.

time's running

To start with the very current event: today there was a celebration of the final session of Speaking Up course. And that was the last session of the last course that I was taking part from the beginning of October (and now I am looking forward to the first sessions of 'Making it Happen' - another course run by CCU, dedicated for cummunity artists).
Last week I saw the presentations of Volunteering and Get Talking students and I had my own small presentation as a part of Getting Communities Involved course. That was a possibility to listen a bit more about braod volunteering experiances and The Big Talk's projects invented by members of My Health Matters. I have my little contribution to one of these projects: I spent one day in the local school (Bentilee), where two students are going to renovate the school garden. They were interviewing parents and school's staff looking for volunteers. We had also short lessons for each class. I was taking pictures.

The presentation about this project and the other about community consultations were also the possibility to work together with Ola O. Not for the first time, to be honest. Ola helps me recording interviewing Get Talking lecturers and the previous Get Talking student that want to share their experinces.  As the result I have a material with Penny and Kate from CCU, the REACH member, the local community developement worker, the outreach worker from The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery and all the leaders of My Health Matters.

Our (my, Ola's and Jula's) placements "cross each other" as the last paragraph shows. I try to support workshops for YPTC that Jula described in one of the posts. With Ola O., we took part in very special visit in Wightwick Manor (National Trust). It was organised as a part od Heritage2Health: "The project developed from an initiative into wellbeing and health that was partnered with WestFocus Health Network, the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, Kingston University and St George's University" as the website says... Staffordshire Univeristy is sharing the ideas and practise with mentioned institutions. We were in Walverhampton in very diverse group of lecturers, students, volunteers and people with learning disabilities. We were guided around the manor and than we had time to do some art activities like taking pictures and scatching. The results of my job are partly presented in School of Arts in Burslem, where there is the Photographers' Collective of North Staffordshire exhibition ("Small is beautiful") that invited us three to join.

I am getting more and more familiar with London, where I spent the next weekend, I visited also Liverpool - I do most of important places in 'Midlands' area...

o.

Lost and found

                Islands made by ESOL group participants during one of the workshops.

With the ESOL group we created imaginary islands with their's own rules, in order to explore new-Lost-Boys stories.   

For the last three weeks with YPTC we created stories around objects. We were taking about situations when we were lost or we lost something. From those two ideas we came to a point when we are telling stories from a perspective of precious things that we've lost.

Just as we can loose our treasured possessions, perhaps our possessions loose us. Maybe objects can also feel an absence of their proprietors...

On Friday October 29th we changed into witches, the undead, Frankenstein's monster and co. and we went to scare children in Bentilee Neighbourhood Centre

We had dark and eerie fun...

For three weeks Sue has been working with Emma and Kyle on Yizkor performance. They created a moving, touching, affecting peace of theatre. 
During this time I was reading about the holocaust, the porajmos,  Auschwitz, "Żegota" and it made me a bit depressed.
Over last week we started our tour, we visited 4 schools and met around 450 kids. During workshops we talked about the eight stages of genocide, rules for humanity, inner strength, trust and responsibility.




 
I went to London again. This time I visited friend in Dulston, and one in Brixton. I spent some time on a river bank and in the City. I met my auntie and my cousin. 


I went to see Life of Riley in which my flat mate took part.
We went with Olas to see contemporary dance in Regent Theatre. 

This week abound in various parties. We had Al's birthday, Bonfire, a party for volunteers, borderline's pseudo-karaoke and few after-parties.

The short review of the last days

How are looking my work experiences? I think I should explain now how they are arrange. Sometimes I spend the whole day on shooting or in the office but from time to time I spend it (or a few days) with another organizations  which work in community arts. I like that days very much, because in short time I can see how the another company works. It's not possible to describe each, but for example in the last time I was in...

Ingestre Hall. Residential Arts Centre.

What's this? It's a place where pupils from schools, which are not so far, are coming for one week to have some artistic experiences. Something like our "Zielona Szkoła", but in one place and with whole-day workshops. When children not are interesting in art, they can choose similar centres, where they can learn about environment, science, history, adventure... I think something similar should be in Poland. I spend three days in Ingestre Hall and I saw how young people (about 16) were interested in workshop, how hard they worked. Each week finishes with show on the last day.

I was there with Suzanne from my work, because she made there workshops for staff about how to make animations, how to use green screen. I learned how to do this things and I helped her, but also I watched drama and dance workshop. I was impressed how they prepared it, because the effect was excellent.

Urban Vision

It's an architecture and urban design centre. They promote high quality architecture and urban design in and around the North Staffordshire. I was really happy that I can spend a day with them, because I'm interested in urban's space.

I was with them in Liverpool, and we saw how to connect the new architecture with monuments, how shop's gallery should look, the possibilities of including green areas into urban's space.


Together with Ola W.:

Photographic workshop:

We took part in the photographic workshop, which was prepared by Tony Jones. We helped and watched on. I'm sure I will have possibility to write something more about it, because I'm planning to go on it one more time.

Tour of cultural venues in Stoke-on-Trent

Paul Bailey prepared for us the fantastic day. We was in two really important cultural places in Stoke-on-Trent. One of this is the Regent Theatre, where we saw backstage and the fly tower. We know now why a green room is called green, and how look like safety curtain. The second place was The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, where we was showed round. We had possibility to come back to the Regent Theatre one more time, because we got tickets for  the Rambert's Dance Company's show. It was amazing.

The great escape

English trains are really fast, comfortably, but also... expensive. Fortunately from time to time there is a very good offer in London Midlands  - you can take yourself off for just 10 pounds for a days's unlimited travel on this network. The offer is short - about one week, but often comes back. In this way I was with Ola in Birmingham and twice in London.

o.o.

courses

I spend a lot of time attending, supporting and listening about coures run by CCU: a group about 10-15, whole day session (workshop) a few times during a semester, folder with all the materials you need (handbook, workbook, handouts...), a team work as a method of teaching and learning...

Get Talking
The very basic course for CCU. Sometimes I get the impression that everything starts with the Get Talking module... As a part of my job I investigate it's roots interviewing members of CCU's staff. The very initial version of my conversation with Kate Gant:

Kate runs the special shorter Get Talking module for members of My Health Matters. During the course they learn the Participatory Appraisal methods (that are usually illustrated by colourful notes sticked to a board)  and work on their own projects. All of them are about community consultations and improving peoples' well-being in the local area. The results before the end of November.

Volunteering
Volunteering sector is more and more important - as the authors of the 'Big Society' idea convince. During the first session it turned out that the most experianced member of the grup has volunteered for about half a century whilst the least experianced (it was probably me...) 1/10 of this time... At the end of every course students have to give a presentation and a piece of 'reflective writing'.

Speaking Up
The very special course that helps people to... speak up. The good example for how a univeristy can be inclusive for poeple with different learning disabilities (using pictures, graphs, games, work in group, support from volunteers...). For the Wednesday 3rd of November I prepared questions about Stoke-on-Trent for "Who wants to be a millionaire" - Miniature of Stoke-on-Trent helped me a lot (done by Junction 15, with whom o.o. works).

Getting Communities Involved
This is the course that we all (o., o.o., and j.) can take part in and the one that I partcipate as a student only. General introduction (what is a community, why and how to involve people), case study, lecture about social exclusion (that was the first session), than: a bit of the political history of UK, workshop about a participation and afternoon with the community arts. And it was enought to see about a half of CCU's staff as the lecturers :)

I also sit in some lectures from Department of Drama, Performance &Treatre Arts that I really enjoy:
Theatre Production (a lot of new words in English that I do not know how to translate into Polish)
Reading Theatre - The Semiotics of Performance (sounds familiar, however it took me a while to realise that Checkhov The Cherry Orchard = Czechow Wiśniowy sad...)
From Anger to Politics: Post-war British Drama (thank Derrick Cameron for introducing myself...)


Weekends (with o.o.):
Birmingham: nobody on the streets + Pen Room Museum (in the old manufacture of nibs - you can do one by yourself; hidden place worth visiting)
London: forgotten during the last month spirit of metropolia; half a day in Tate Modern.

o.o.

Further economic education:
I spent one of the mornings with the economic developement officer from the City Council (thanks to Paul) talking about the economic department, the economic problems in the area of Stoke-on-Trent and having a tour around the city (I had thought that I know Stoke quite well just now, but I was wrong: Festival Park, commercial district, Keele Univeristy...)

o.

medley

Weekly workshops:

1. ESOL - the group of young immigrants from different countries (Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Poland, etc.) who are studying at Stoke-on-Trent College. We have workshops with them every Monday for an hour.

2. Strathcross- the group of adults with learning difficulties. 2hours workshop every Tuesday.
3. YPTC - (Young People Theatre Company) the group of young people from difficult backgrounds, with complicated life stories who where working with the Borderlines before.2 hours every Wednesday.
With all three groups we are working on a Lost Boys project connected to the Peter Pan performance in the theatre. We are playing various games trying to explore the idea of being lost (in many senses) and the story of Peter Pan and the ability of storytelling and improvisation.

Extra projects:
1. Yizkor - Project about Holocaust.
a) We had workshops in primary schools based on the Legend of Lódź Ghetto. We were working on drawings made for children from the Glezer factory.
b) we are preparing performances for high schools.
So for the last two weeks I was watching "Peter Pan" (1953 & 2003) "Hook", reading about Peter Pan's syndrome and about Lodz ghetto, the holocaust, Auschwitz, and the Jews. These two things got mixed up in my head in a very strange way.

Other things in a theatre:
1. I have seen The Game
2. Rehearsals for Peter Pan just began and I'm happy to have warm-ups every day with actors, I have even tried "silk" with them.

3. We had auditions for the Yizkor performance, and now rehearsals have begun.

4. For one week we had in Borderlines Aiden - a young boy, who came for his work experience. When you are 15 in the UK you have to go and work somewhere for a week or two- we should have the same thing in Poland.
5. We are preparing ourselves for a Halloween event.

Weekends:
1. I went to London.
2. I went to the Peak District with my landlady. We visited Eyam - a small village best known for being the "plague village" that chose to isolate itself when the plague was discovered there in August 1665, rather than let the infection spread. 

 





Bonus:
We taught Loud Mouth Women a Polish song.
And there are pictures from World In Our College on NULC website:

http://www.nulc.ac.uk/pages/school_leavers/life_at_nulc/the_world_in_our_college.aspx#m0

REACH, Quality Streets and a bit of economics

Both of the names in the title I mentioned in one of the previous posts. Now I can and I sholud write a bit more about these projects, because I am more and more familiar with them.

REACH is a very special project and a self-advocacy part of ASIST (Advocacy Services in Staffordshire, choose 'projects' on the website to find REACH). Generally speaking it 'supports poeple with learning disabilities in Stoke-on-Trent to speak up about their lives and the services they use to help them live the life they want'. One of the Mondays I took part in 10th anniverary of this project. I met than people that work in REACH, many of them are/were the REACH MPs (Member of Parliment - one of the abbreviation I have already learned). This parliment is one of the most immpressive parts of REACH: it was set up for poeple with learning disabilities, it's members are voted in by poeple they speak up for to the local Government MPs. During the meeting I could read also the last and challenging piece of work: a strategy about sevices delivered for poeple with learning disabilities for the next years.

It is reasonable to add that CCU delivers the course called 'Speaking Up' - that is one of the connections between REACH and the uni I found and I will be looking for during the next two months. And I am sure that REACH members will help me in my job :) .

Quality Streets is a name for the broad project that started last year. The main points of the project have been already fulfilled, but you can still observe new results. Everything happened in the University Quarter: students and local residents used participatory appraisal methods (very important phrase!) to change their place of living/learning (when you think about community here you never forget about conditions of living that impact it's capacities). Some thing happened as a part of after-project-results during my staying in Stoke. I took part in a walkabout in Hanley Park (that is very close to the uni and I pass it quite often) with a police officer and a council officer who is responsible for delivering services in this area. I was also on the meeting, where Quality Streets arose to be a part of a broaden local policy, involving City Council and local housing associations.

[Note: Quality Streets is not a Quality Street that you can find now on every shelf with Halloween sweets]

'Housing association' is one of the institutions/ideas that I found interesting from economic (my second faculty at Warsaw University) point of view. Have you ever heard about it? I had to ask my English friends (at last wikipedia can help as well...). Some other:

• social enterprise e.g. shops, travel agencies and other things called 'Co-operatives'
• the national trust 
• charity shops 

 ... for further reflection.

o.

Wake up at 5 a.m.

Shooting...each days started about 5 a.m. and finished about 6 p.m. On location we were waiting and maiking replays all the time. In fact, it is true about making movies, but making movie is also a joy when we shot a great moment, and an integration with very nice and interesting people. Movie we made is about a domestic violence and I hope it will be really emotional. The premiere will be on 24 of November during the International Day for the
Eliminations of Violence.
But in last days I took part not only in shooting. I haven't had time earlier to write about this:
I spent one day with another company called Inspired, which majors in documentary and promotional films. We made of course...a documentation, because documentation is that what for British people is really important. Everything must have good documentation. In first week I was really surprised when with Junction 15 we went  to primary school and made documentation of ...very small reception after renovation. With Inspired we were shooting recollections of hospital's staff, because this hospital will have a new building, and that old will be destroyed.

On Friday I had a day off, so I go at the University and took part in a lecture: From Muybridge to Murch: Film History and Technology – it was really interesting, I hope I can take part in it each week. Together with Ola W. we were on two courses what we will immediately describe.

Summing up: really many thinks went on the last days, but I had a moment to went to Manchester. Really fantastic city! After weeks in rather not big town, I needed  urban clamour. In Warsaw I’m a tourist guide and I’m appreciating how friendly is Manchester for tourists.  Entry to each museum, gallery is free. What is more on a tourist track are many signposts, so it is really difficult to lose one’s way.

o.o.

next week

We worked with Aspire
To help people aim higher
We swatted and toiled
And made our blood boil
But found us a play *
That made people’s day..
And then we all slept the weekend away...
Apart from Yula
Who was not through ya!
She went over to Wolves **
Answering her friends calls
Wound up with eyes, big black and tired
But an interest in England that is still well-fired
Now I’ve *** written her blog, in 2 minutes flat
So she can play KickBall ****, and that is that!!!!

* We prepared play on improvisations and stories about unemployed people. Two young people (Gareth and Elizabeth) were working with us and two volunteers (Sid and Mirka)

** Wolverhampton (through Birmingham). I visited my polish friend and her husband. Dorota prepared very tasty lunch, and we went for a walk to small "Łazienki" (Łazienki - old big park in Warsaw)

*** Chris L.

**** We added new leisure activity (zośka, but in a Chinese/ Vietnamese version)  

On Friday I went with my landlady and her friend for a performance to Regent Theatre in Hanley. We saw Calendar girls -  my flatmate act in this play.

And I'm now on a table with New Vic theatre staff pictures!

weekend

We do not have a weekend any longer, but we still have this lovely (yes, Jula, lets get used to this word) Monday. In fact we have something like "złota polska jesień" ('gold Polish autumn' in a direct translation) and I shuold write about it before it finishes.

I started last weekend with yoga classes and I have never heard so many times in such a short time that something is 'lovely' and 'well done' (and that is also why I do not really believe...). Than I went for a trip on the countryside. To be precise: I was (thanks to my host, who gave me a lift) in the Cheshire. I visited Little Moreton Hall - the icon of English Tudor domestic architecture. I continued my trip walking through the fields (not exactly fileds of gold - it is too late, but nearly) and the Cheshire Ring Canal Walk.

I could have sung (and I did) one of the songs I learned at Loud Mouth Women meetings (that we three anjoy every week):
I walk to the end of the road
And I look in both directions
As far as the I can see
I have a blue sky, sun shine
There's nobody here, but me
(something like this...)

How suprised I was today when it turned out that walking by the canals is becoming my favourite free-time activity... (It is something that no well-mannered and timid girl like me has ever done by the bank of Wisła / Vistula river) This time I walked by the canal in the center of Stoke-on-Trent (visiting also Hanley Cementary). I could not have stopped taking photos...

Do not I live in a lovely place?
o.