Last weekend we visited Coventry Peace House (http://covpeacehouse.org.uk/) on their monthly ‘Activity Weekend’. We were expecting to pitch in and help out with some work but got there late afternoon – car trouble – and ended up drinking tea and chatting co-ops for a couple of hours instead. The Peace House is run by some really lovely and proactive people, who were very welcoming. The house runs a shelter for refused refugees in part of the building, and a bike workshop in another, and is supported by volunteers helping out with food and manual labour.
It was set up by a group of activists in the early nineties, if I remember right, so has been around for a long time and still retains one of the original members. It seems like something of a hub of the community around that part of Coventry. I’d be surprised if we ended up doing anything quite that proactive as running a shelter, if we go down the community route it’s more likely to be providing various creative classes, but who knows...
I keep getting far too immersed in planning this house of the future and neglecting other work, but it’s just so exciting. In fact while we were at the Peace House we discussed how we might feel when the project was basically ‘finished’, if a housing co-op can ever be fully complete, and whether it would be an anti-climax. Remembering how the participants of ‘Grand Designs’ seemed so deflated when the lovely Kevin McCloud returned after a couple of years, I wondered if we would feel the same way. The fact that the house is an ongoing project convinces me that we’ll never reach that moment of completion, not in the sense that we’ll fail, but in the sense that upkeep will be continuous and, if we decide to live in the way that seems to be natural to us, the house will be so tied up in our way of life it will be constantly morphing.
I’m wondering what I’m going to do between university and getting anywhere with the house. Clearly I’m going to have to make money for the house somehow. There seem to be two main possibilities: getting a job linked to my degree, whether in publishing, journalism, arts council, the media etc. or getting a job like telesales, bar-work or retail. Ideally I’d live in Bristol but perhaps a short stint in London would make sense if I wanted to work in the media. Either way I’m pretty sure I’d want it to be short term before packing it in and training in a more hands-on profession like therapy perhaps... either way the future’s going to be fun.
Feeling pretty rough after Valentine’s Day night out - way too many lethal drinkies. Good stories though ha. All worth it. Norwich is full of shit bars and clubs but some legendary people, couldn’t live here for more than three years but have a definite soft spot for a bit of N-town.
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