Cooking Ham.

We've decamped onto Ham Common for the weekend in preparation for the big 400th birthday party on Sunday. The weather is on our side and the sun is making red necks of us all.

The project hasn't always been easy and there have been several moments of resistance from the company on the way through. It's inevitable that level 3 students should want an increasing degree of control over project management, but with up to twenty four visions jostling for space at our production meetings at times we've had to walk an incredibly narrow diplomatic tightrope to get here.

Now the work goes up another gear and everybody seems fully focused on getting things done. We've set up a creative site with six gazebos under the shade of the trees producing the final touches to the show puppets and the banner which we'll fly from the upper floors of the house. The Common is an amazing social space filled with life from dawn to dusk. Dog walkers, toddlers with their parents feeding the birds on the pond, sun bathers and book readers, joggers, family picnics, impromptu jumpers for goalposts football matches, a cricket practice and then later loads of teenagers in small flirtatious groups communicating to each other via biked messengers. Many of the visitors came over to see what we were up to and help us with the making. Many of the children rushed off to recruit friends. Slowly the momentum builds...

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