Jessie Casson

Two things have happened in the last week. Firstly the project ‘Outside the City’ has taken a little turn in its subject matter and the focus is now on winners of competitions. The competitions will range from sports to jam making and I am having a great time researching unusual competitions. Near Greymouth there is a coal shoveling competition that has a heat for women. They compete to see who can shift half a tonn of coal in the fastest time. (see website www.jessiecasson.com “Winners” for more details about the project)

Secondly, the wallpaper has been hung in the caravan and looks fantastic. It took Matt and myself a whole weekend to do the job. A ‘domestic’ broke out when we cut the first piece of wallpaper too small. Matt said he wasn’t going to do the job as it was a waste of time. The toys flew out of my cot and I made it clear that I needed wallpaper in my caravan. An hour later we had cut the second piece the correct size and glued it into place, the sun was shining, “Shine on you crazy diamond” playing and life felt good.

This week I photographed a lovely older couple, Alf and Rosetta, for an ‘At home’ shoot for Sunday Magazine. They are very much still in love, I think I would like to be like them when I reach 73. Every day at 4pm their neighbour, Joan, calls round for ‘happy hour’, which involves opening a bottle of wine and catching up on the gossip on the street. Their pace of life seems enviable in comparison to my own.

Alf and Rosetta have lived together in the same house for almost 60 years and Alf was born in this house. In one bedroom all the walls have been wallpapered in a beautiful 1970’s brown floral paper. When they gave me the tour of the house I marveled at it and mentioned the caravan. The next day when I popped round they had found a spare roll tucked away. I am so excited! I am now trying to find someone to wallpaper our caravan, a small but fiddly job. Matt reckons we need a pro, and as NZ House and Garden Magazine now want to feature our splendid home on wheels, I tend to agree. With only one roll to play with there is no room for mistakes.

Only 5 weeks to go until take off …

On 28th Oct we picked up our Pullman 15ft 1975 caravan and tentatively drove home. Our forthcoming trip suddenly felt very real, 101 days living like a snail. Much of the original interior is intact so we are buying into yellow, orange and browns for all utensils and materials. I have found some great original material for cushions and also some 70’s wallpaper. All we need is the brown dinner set.
We set off on a trial run last Saturday night traveling to Martins Bay (an hr north of Auckland). Our problems began with parking. We managed to finish with a view of the toilet bock while all the other caravans were parked the other way to gain full vantage of the sea. Matt almost jack knifed trying to turn round. We learnt from an old hand that full-blown domestics occur during parking of caravans. I just laughed hysterically which was of little help to Matt.

A beautiful day and evening ensued, with a BBQ, fine wine and a feeling that 14 weeks of this wouldn’t be at all bad. The morning was wet but the great thing about caravans as opposed to tents is that you don’t get wet. Hurray.

This morning, I photographed writer Emily Perkins, an inspiring lady.