Day One- Creative COCO Challenge

I always knew that the first day of this mad endeavour was going to be interesting. How would people react to a clown just going about their daily life? You may be amazed to hear, as I was, THEY DON'T REACT

LITERALLY

Maybe it's because they have really good manors and were told not to stare?
Maybe they think if they get eye contact they will have to be lifelong friends?
Or maybe in this over stimulated world a clown walking around just isn't sensational enough? Who knows?

There was one group of people who didn't let me down THE OLD LADIES. They are spectacular at starting a conversation with there wide open faces, crinkly eyes and one liners " you've got something on your face dear!" Or "no one told me it was fancy dress" All eager to hear the whys, hows and what possessed me and all rip roaringly enthusiastic about raising cash for such a worthy cause as REFUGE.

The day started very hastily with my trip to the local BBC Radio Station which you can read about in my previous post and once the make up and costume was on it was very much a day of acclimatising myself. Sometimes I forgot and scratched my face, or walked towards a full length mirror and really surprised myself, sometimes I was obscenely embarrassed - talking to people ( just general buying a sandwich- nothing too difficult)

By the time the afternoon came round I had had to touch up my make up three times, which is a lot of looking at your face if you are not used to it. Ordinarily, I don't wear a lot of make up, it requires effort that some days is beyond me. But all this reapplying got me thinking, I blame the lipstick! That's right you heard me. Lipstick is no longer such a fashion item and seen as though lipstick is the first to wear off with all the eating, drinking and generally face planting people we all must spend less time looking in the mirror. Gone are the days when you have the rigmarole of painstakingly making up the black for the eyes, rouge and lipstick and no one really needs I whole load of thick powder to keep your face on all day. Well all of a sudden I DO. It has not escaped me the similarities of this dilemma with the constant checking and rechecking of a domestic abuse victim to keep covering up. Keep repainting the face, the mask, more than just every morning, whenever the foundations are shaken.

The performance of The Vagina Monologues that I went to last night was really poignant for me to arrive on the first day of my challenge. The show was brilliantly done and it took you from tears to cackling laughter with every twist of a new speaker. The stories depicted by the actors were very moving and the cause of 'One Billion Rising' which was celebrated throughout was very much the release that everyone in the room needed at the end. When at the end people were asked ,if they would like to, come up to the centre of the space and light a candle and ,if they felt brave, tell the room why they were Rising. Some people rose to say "enough is enough" some to state "we are stronger together" and some "for their daughters and granddaughters" .Violence against women has been in the media so much lately and the horrific accounts are enough to want you to never let you children out the door. I suppose that is why this week I'll go to bed every night as a clown because although the whole subject of violence and suffering is too big to shield my kids from at least I can show them there are people trying to make things better.

So the day ended, exhausted, vulnerable and emotional.

SAME AGAIN TOMORROW!
GO ON THEN