Sunday 10,17th August

We slid down the handrail of Liverpool Street Station and proceeded to walk blind in pairs around the station, sensitising our selves to the place with more than just our eyes. Trust in your guide, your self and your environment all seemed vital and challenged us all. Floor surfing a technique learned from watching a four year old in an airport. You take a run up and lie your body down letting it slide along the shiny station floor (also works well in shopping malls) As ever we were all surprised as even the most nervous beginner tried it and loved it. A surprising number of us rose to the challenge of going up the escalator by ignoring the steps completely and holding onto the handrail, Charlie stepped off the rail at the top cool as f***** as if he did it every day of the week.

In St Botolph’s church yard we sampled the mulberries that are just ripening and got in the bushes together to eat bananas and talk about joy in public spaces, what we do, what we’ve seen others do and what we would like to do to make connections with others and with places, keep ourselves entertained, restore our faith in humanity and make others laugh.

People said they like to say thanks to bus drivers, say hello to the person who is selling you something in a shop. Luke talked about carrying a surfboard onto buses and how the drivers and the passengers are so tolerant. We talked about the possibility of taking large objects on public transport just to see how people reacted.

Gethan described the pleasures of riding her bicycle with no hands and the feats of balance she can do on it. Tenyen took pictures from above us in the tree.

The bush we were squatting inside is next to a hoarding with the words ‘my hide away in the city’.

We ducked into a stairway and made for the edge of the city, walked through a long corridor with acoustics to play with. The animal game where in pairs one with eyes closed you have to attract and keep your partner following you by continually making your chosen animal noise, darting around to make it challenging enough.

Luke chalked out hopscotch on the ground, we figured out the rules and played it for a bit. Liz etched a title on the ground PLAY in bold letters. We admired the A4 page someone had stuck in the window of the offices that run along side. It has a picture of a tiger and the words please do not feed the animals.

At the foot of tower 42 we all seemed to succumb to the desire to lie down, when we stood up crime scene style chalk lines were left behind. The best city urban climb was uninterrupted this time and chalking added a touch of poetry. ‘the harder they come the harder they fall’ and simply ‘girl’ along side Sophie in yellow at the top of the trelliswork.
On Bishop’s gate a man having a fag break was drawn around and chuckled with us. Phoebe and I walked and talked – bananas are lovely to draw on in biro and with a banana in one hand and a biro in the other the result was ‘free banana’ left on the push button panel at the traffic lights, phoebe wrote ‘eat me’ on hers and left it on the panel as we reached the pavement on the other side. We puzzled over the locked up public/private garden and the lumpy panels in front of the CCTV cameras that prevent people getting close to the windows of some royal bank of Scotland offices. Fabio held up a sign on paper saying ‘I love cctv’ and was ticked off by a guard. We took some time to chill in between various people riffing on the railing balance, shoulder stand running and chalking sweet nothings. Emulating other’s walks and walking a little too close so that the walker has to acknowledge you craning to beam at him.

Can you make your self really ugly by pressing your mouth onto glass and blowing? Its tricky I haven’t perfected the suction part, can’t seem to get my whole mouth against the glass without gaps. Aldgate roundabout is a tiny bit prettier from street training – a tiny blue cornflower is one of the fruits of our guerrilla gardening with native wild flower seeds. We slid into the gap behind the advertising hoardings and left a mars bar for the rough sleepers, a man with dreads came in while we were in there and said there’s nothing to see in this shit hole. Later he was walking and eating the mars bar. A good idea to leave gifts as all good visitors do and best not to chalk as it seemed an invasion of private/public territory. Crossing petticoat lane market at the point where the music stall is – a chilled 70’s soul number took us and people grasped gently, to dance with eachother and passers by. At the end of the track a distributed round of applause sealed the pact and we kept on moving. Seconds later imo’s eye was glinting from the back of a van filled with coloured, textured, summer dresses and the stall holder was posing shamelessly for Pierre’s camera. Hidden in plain sight works well and if it fails a sacrifice to the street is always worthwhile, this time it worked and three bars of dark Swiss chocolate and some tropical mix were waiting for us behind an electricity box.

If the road is ours when the lights change at the pedestrian crossing what do we want to do with it? That space and time where ownership and use are conceded fleetingly. Leapfrog in yellow and then lying down – maybe that’s a move too far? As the red motor biker revved at imo lolling and blowing bubbles. Bouncy balls and high fives at the intersection of Brick lane. Johannes refined the art of engaging the unengagable as an American tourist melted into smiles. The man who sells Bombay mix gave us extra heat and the basketball court was transformed into a human pyramid and the chain link fence spelled out in bodies a C word. The farm had tea waiting for us and talk of boundaries, connections and techniques that are, that were and that will be.

Gethan Hand
naomi, johannes
clara
sam
david, christina
nadia
Pierre Decote
Garfield Taylor
Phoebe
Charlie Wells
Liz hepworth
Sophie Hope
Chris Townsend
Luke Kennedy
Lottie Child