About Sunday with Me

Sunday with Me is an invitation for you to spend a Sunday (...with Me) in a place of your choosing for a little or a long while, so what we may do and where we may go can reflect upon and explore the ordinary creativities of leisure time - hobbies, sightseeing, going to your favourite haunts, visiting attractions, pubs, sporting events, and so on. If you have an idea, email neilsimonbowes@gmail.com to make a plan

Sunday 25 May 2008

Sunday with Tamara Ashley, Holy Island, Northumbria, 25.5.08

Just returned from a splendid Sunday with Tamara Ashley, on Holy Island (a tidal island), Northumbria, the site of Lindisfarne. Tamara is an artist with a background in Dance, who is primarily interested in improvisation and with performance in relation to landscape in rural environments. She has worked with Simone Kenyon as Brief Magnetics - they did the Pennine Way together in the Summer of 2006. I first met Tamara at Unknown Terra-tories, run by Simone Kenyon and Neil Callaghan as part of DIY4. I met her again when she came to see Rules and Regs at the Nuffield Theatre, on the 26th April.

We met at Haymarket bus station in Newcastle and journeyed for two hours to Beale, about 60 miles. At one point a car was pulling out and the driver, caught between one car pulling out and another oncoming, had to swerve to avoid them. I had a very clear thought, amidst a sort of surge in the guts, that I could be involved, but we were fine, very lucky.
On the bus we met a woman names Jean, perhaps 65 years old. We learned that it was five miles from Beale to Holy Island and there was no public transport. Jean was getting a lift from a friend who lived there, Ian, and she arranged for us to be driven onto the Island.
Tamara had an idea to try and map the distances traveled by people we met, so we asked about fifteen people and had an idea that a visual representation of these journeys would document our Sunday together: Provisionally:

Brian and Family (Heaton Mersey): 170 Miles

Mikey (Ice-cream seller, 7 days a week) (from Berwick): 10 Miles

Tony, Janet and Bertie the Dog (Kent): 324 Miles

Claire, David and Robert (Walsall): 256 Miles

Evaline (Poland): 1,500 Miles (2000 Kilometers)

Vicky (London) 300 Miles

Alan and Karami (Teeside): 80 Miles

Rebecca (Morpeth) Unknown distance

Megan (Ryton): 70 Miles

Steph (Consett): 80 or 90 Miles

Rebecca (Whitley Bay): Approximately 70 Miles

Clelia (Gosforth): 65 Miles

We walked and talked, sometimes about work, sometimes trivia, autobiography, or considering the virtues of mutual friends. We moved towards a great white pyramid structure which we learned was called Emmanuel Head, local lore warns of a 'False Emmanuel Head', a crop of rock which sailors do well to avoid.
Back in the village we bought local Mead, and met Jean again in a cafe, where we had Cream Teas, and talked, the three of us, about fate.
In a gift shop I found a set of CDs by a harpist called Hilary Rushmer, gentle Celtic-influenced music. My parents own a tape of hers with a great piece of music called 'Give Me Your Hand'. Tamara bought a CD. We were talking to Lisa who was working behind the counter, covering for her daughter. Tamara asked where she was from, she said: "Germany, that she arrived here in 1951, "a long time before you people were born", and she told us about moving to Lindisfarne, hearing these birds that sounded like bells, and listening to her, Tamara and I both got a welling emotional feeling, lumps in the throat, trembling a little bit... (tbc). More soon...

x

List of Sundays so far...

19.3.06: Lena, Gary, Neal, Gaby, Wladislawa, Sefton Park; Albert Dock; Tate Liverpool; their family home; 2.4.06: Paul and My Dad, my family home Hayfield, Derbyshire, to Edale; 9.4.06: Roshana, Train journey to Chester, for Curry; 24.4.06: Paul, too much beer and too much food, Cornerhouse, Manchester city centre, Jam St. Whalley Range; 30.4.06: Robin – looking for the meaning of ‘46’ (on Robin’s 46th birthday), on foot, by bus, or by car, through Manchester, various locations; Undated (April 06?): Alastair and Pauline: walking Bonnie (the dog) Corporation Park, Blackburn; 11.6.06. Documenting Nick cleaning Denmark Rd, Hulme, Manchester; 3.9.06.With Mariella: Hilbre tidal island, West Kirby, then home (Chester) to meet Werner; 10.9.06. With Yosuke: walk: round Chester city walls; 15.10.06. With Kate: Teignmouth and Newton Abbot, Devon, taking photos; 22.10.06: With Ian: Touring South Devon by car; 10.12.06. With Dad: West Gallery Singing, Royal Hotel, Dungworth, in Yorkshire (and in response to all these: 4.3.07 Performance Lecture, walking, various locations, Hayfield, Derbyshire); Undated (October 07), Circumnavigating Grindleford, with Claire.

Simon Bowes / Sunday with Me on Flickr

I am beginning to document past Sundays in Flickr.com, so now you can go to www.flickr.com/photos/simonbowes/sets for SWM photo-fun!

Thesis & Documentation

Sunday with Me was originally devised through my postgrad research, which informed a 73,000 word PhD thesis called Towards an Ethics of Voice as Hospitable Space, based at and funded by The University of Central Lancashire between 2003-08. There are some minor corrections outstanding but if you are interested in this curious and unwieldy document, sections of it are available on request (Or... just come on a Sunday).