From Me To U

Getting from me to to U entails a two hour train journey from Norwich to London, a ten minute walk from Liverpool Street Station to Fenchurch Station, forty minutes on the train to Basildon and finally a bus journey to the Felmore Shops. The train journey from Norwich is very pretty - big skies, amazing clouds, fields and water. And containers. I'm crazy for containers. I saw a fabulous line up of them, all colours, just before Colchester or Manningtree with names on like Skaersk and lovely logos but didn't have my camera ready. The walk in London is also gorgeous. A ten minute wander througgh the heart of The City of London, along streets with fabulous names such as Billiter Street and Camomile Street. Last time I made the journey I came out of Fenchurch Street and asked a lady how to get to Liverpool Street Station and she siad "just head for The Gherkin". As I was walking along this time, without use of an A-Z, I was remembering my route from last time and looking at street signs rather than buildings, I suddenly thought where's the Gherkin then? I looked across to my right and there it was, in all its glory, right across the road. It's quite a thing when you're standing right next to it. Weirdly, it seems to me, there is a bog standard Newsagents in its ground floor. Anyway, ten minute wander down streets with fabulous names like Billiter Street and Camomile Street - there's the Lloyds building, the Gherkin, all the old stuff, ancient pubs, narrow streets and tall tall buildings leading your eyes up to those Sex and The City style blue skies. Such a contrast to all the low-rise buildings in Basildon. But we're not there yet. Forty minutes on the train to Shoeburyness. I get off at Basildon, walk out of the station and around the corner, across the road into the parade of shops and bus stands. I've discovered that the bus I need is a number 5 to Pitsea Tesco's. It currently stops at Stand S. I was about seven minutes late in the end for the 3pm meeting, despite having left home at 11am.
The purpose of this particular journey was for my first meeting since being appointed a sthe artist for the Northlands Park Estate site of the Art U Need project. Itwas slightly less terrifying than the interview with only six faces around the table as opposed to the ten or twelve atthe interview, and by now I knew mostof them. Joanna Baxendale and Hannah Thomas from Commissions East, Tony Guyon from Interlock, Doreen Bolton from Interlock and the Residents Association, Paul Nagle from Basildon District Arts Association and Mike Harrington from Start - the retiring Chairman. He also runs the Basildon Art Group and is a trustee of the Basildon Arts Trust. Paul apparently lives opposite Northlands Park and has promised to show me around. I intend to come over a weekend 14/15 October with Chris , Marie-Claire and Darren of Arcadia, the collective who are going to be assisting on the project in various guises. From my point of view the meeting went well. No-one leapt up in horror atany of my suggestions. It was agreed I have a few too many ideas currently on the boil, but I will be honing it all down to a definable and manageable amount of things as I go along. I plan to spend the next few months running up to the Christmas Fayre planning so that by the time of teh fayre I should have a timetable of events to promote. The only visible thing thatmay happen before then is the installation of the container. It was agreed that the Northlands Park car park might be a good spot.