"A beer and some convo"
I think the mere fact that this fillum title exists is proof that the world is more entertaining than lots of people think:
The end of the weird week.
It was odd having someone stay for a week. Been a while since I’ve shared my house with anyone for so long but Sarah had to get back to work.
Turns out she would be working in Wisbech this week. Wisbech happens to be about 30 mins short of my brother’s place and I’ve not seen them for a few months.
So I thought it’d make a good plan to visit and drop her off on either direction.
A day or so earlier I’d had an email off Spike saying “Can you please bring your unicycle and your juggling balls?”
I don’t have a unicycle but you’d be amazed at the number of folk who think I do have one.
I thought I could do better so not only did I borrow a uni (ta Clurb) and take my juggling balls. I also took a professional circus performer with me. Oh and a gym ball.
Got to their house whilst they were eating. I think Sarah being there was a bit of a shock. And my brother struggled to understand her at first too.
But we sat and played with the kids when they’d finished their dinner and then we went into the garden to play with balls and the uni and that.
And a lovely afternoon it was. A tad windy praps but sunny and the kids loved the toys. The gym ball was the big hit for the second day in a row.
So after a couple of hours of playing with Spike and Woody and getting to spend some time with Lola we had to leave to get Sarah home.
“Home” is an interesting term for Sarah as she’s never been to Wisbech before and we didn’t have a map.
After driving around a bit and asking a couple of folk we were well and truly lost.
Next person we asked gave us a huge long list of where to go.
“To the end of this road. Turn left. To the mini roundabout – turn right. Go to the end and turn left. Pass one set of lights then turn left at this shop. Then right at the lights and then the road is either 3rd or 4th on the right”
or somesuch.
And she was bang on.
So Sarah’s back where she belongs. I’m home and quiet and there’s no-one to play Double Dash with.
Sigh.
Coo. It seems that your average punter rather enjoyed Lestival. Hurrah.
It also seems that we were about 10 people away from breaking even.
Ooh so close!
Anyway I can finally get to the show.
I got to it as everyone was already sitting ready for it. This was ‘cos I’d just zoomed home to get the cable for the vid camera. So I started with a heart rate greatly increased and a worry for Pete and Jay that it all went well.
Jay started proceedings and we got on with the stars of the show.
Ady Pole was first up. I think it’s fitting that Leicester had a local lad as the first act of the first Leicester show. I have no clue if that was what was the thought process was but whatever, I approve. And Ady did very well. He wasn’t doing rings, he wasn’t using U2 as backing music – marvellous. He was really good. Lots of zippy ball stuff, mainly 3 but up to 5 and pretty clean too. And well choreographed. A good start.
Luke Hallgarten was up next. He’s the BYJOTY Lestival winner. His BYJOTY routine was downbeat about an alcoholic clown. This one was a downbeat homeless person. Nice to see a thought out character but a real downer. I’m not sure that counts as criticism as I’m sure that’s the feeling he was after imparting to his audience. But far too much angst for one so young.
Sarah B up next with an upbeat rings routine. How odd is this? Ady doing balls and Sarah doing rings? Strange. Chippy music and solid skills. She is also much more confident on stage, striding around like she should be there rather than looking terrified. Magic. Also notable for Ady helping out and managing a knee slide.
Tom Derrick followed with his tennis routine. The middle bit changed somewhat. Previously he’s “changed ends” and now he’s moved to a “rain delay”. Was very good and he ran it cleaner than I’ve seen it before. No negatives here.
Rachel Black finished with a rocky hula act. Rocky as in the music not as in shaky skills. A good choice of act I reckon. As good as I remembered from Chocfest.
Then came the intermission. I managed to have a few chats with a variety of folk who all seemed to be enjoying themselves.
I also discovered yesterday that the weird bloke who kept tripping over the video power cable had shifted the camera a little so the first half is slightly off to the side. Jay came and showed me how to zoom too so the second half is probably better filmed (not that I’ve had a chance to look at it yet).
Raffle – quick but still too slow.
Jay started up the second half with a trick he claimed not to have done for 12 years or so. It was alright. The start went well but the balance of 9 cigarboxes on a spoon struggled. Maybe a touch long but he did it in the end. And on with the show..
Apex Acro were on. I like these ladies. Muscly and lithe – perfect combo for a physio like me. There was one bit where I thought the flyer would brain herself on the lights but emerged unscathed.
The lights were a concern for me for the whole show. The ceiling wasn’t very high and a rack of lights hung from it. High patterns would be out and stuff like trapeze is just not going to happen. Limiting and the most annoying bit re the venue for me. Mind you the lights must have been quite good as so few of the acts had shockers.
John Booth was another BYJOTY entrant. The only diabolo act in the show. Frankly we wouldn’t have needed another one. He was simply brilliant. Ludicrous zippy tricks, and totally dropless. Most impressed. So was Jay – it led him to come up with quite a condescending “I’ve seen him before but never dropless” comment.
Martin’s SJC routine followed. 3 balls and twangy music. I think 1 drop and 1 fumble. I loved this routine when I first saw it; I still love it.
Matt Pang was the headliner. Doing hat stuff and cigar balances and the like. He was having a bit of an off day. A shame but either way I don’t think he should have headlined. A nice routine and nice music but I think it needed a more intimate setting. Something like a table magician doing his thing rather than a theatre act. And such a shame re drops – seems he hit everything perfectly in the tech run. Ah well you win some.
And then that was it. All over. A very good show. One or two poor gags – notably the Sarah and mats stuff. Didn’t help that it all happened at the wrong time but there wouldn’t be too many people who would have got it anyway. And poor timing. In jokes just don’t work on stage. And heckles. Hmm. Rule 1 of heckling – make them snappy. Rule 2 of heckling – make them witty.
Cheers to Pete for organising and Jay for doing it.
See you next year?
Is quite late. And Lestival has now happened.
Interesting being on the helping out side of things for a change.
Pete and Jay did pretty much all the organising. My bit consisted of doing an odd workshop and running to the shop at one point and working in the kiosk and videoing the show and helping with stuff like clearing up and that.
Started slightly late in the morning but we still got there at 9.30 for an 11 am start.
There were actually some punters waiting in the car park before 10 though. Mightily impressed there.
I started off staffing the kiosk and figuring out how to make coffee and selling sarnies and the like. Too many crisps were bought as well as too much fruit but the Indian savouries seemed to go down well.
And money seemed to come in for all this stuff.
I think Jay can be happy, the kiosk seemed to work. Young Olive was a boon too and was well up for serving all morning. A tad drippy with her tea and coffee but most of it stayed in the mugs.
At about 2 me and Clurb went to do our 7 club workshop. Not many people there (a problem with the day in general to be fair) and most weren’t already 7 club passers. So we started with 6 club stuff before working up to 7 in 1, 2, 3 and 4 counts. Then added in some transition stuff and one group we tried teaching back to back with 6. Hard going considering the amount of practice we’d had this morning (none). But people seemed to get some stuff out of it.
By now it was 3. D and R still hadn’t shown which was mighty impressive since they were supposed to be getting there at 10ish. P not happy – fair enough if you ask me.
At 3 the games were on, I missed them as usual. This time I was getting ready for my gymball workshop. This was up in the underused gym. About 7 or so were there including Tom and Mamph and DB. And fun was had watching people fail at all sorts in comical ways. I enjoyed it but by the end of it my throat was starting to give me grief.
Between 5 and 8 I spent my time doing a bit of nothing and going to the shop for chips and Coke.
Watching some stress too.
Show at 8. Realised I’d left the power cable for the vid cam at home. So there followed a mad dash home to get it. Arrived back in the nick of time. Still not too familar with the camera though so the first half of the show is not zoomed in properly. Some weird bloke kept trying to trip over my cable as well during the show and him and the lady with him wouldn’t bleedin sit still. Annoying.
Watching a show put together by Pete and with Jay compering was interesting. Mainly for a slight feeling of worry and concern that it all went well.
No real problems that I saw beyond the most obvious which was lack of numbers.
The place today felt really empty. We had huge amounts of space and the low numbers meant that people had acres of room. We had a decent few over 100 people, the space wouldn’t have been full with 200.
So during the show, at least where I was, the energy didn’t feel too high. I was told by Mike A that where he was was fine for energy. Perhaps it was the combination of a bit of concern and worry as well as feeling a bit like I wasn’t at a convention (too much doing stuff you see).
Anyway the show was good. But it’s late so I’m not going to review it now. No duff acts as far as I’m concerned though.
Some lovely people through the day. Met a guy from Scunny. He seemed doubtful when I said I was from there until I told him the name of the road where my folks live. Lardy was awfy lovely and brought me some German audio books. Got hugs off Mamph and Fak. Nice chats with a variety of folk including some of the Loughborough lot, Abbi and Graham (who won my Jay G DVD) and more. Met a nice family from B’ham who were at their first convention.
After show was basic clear-up stuff. Not fun or exciting but necessary. And home to sleep. But buzzing a bit so I thought I’d do this first. Night.
Have fun.
It seems there’s a bit of a “storm” “over” some minister’s comments on his blog.
Daily Fail getting steamed up particularly. Their headline this morning “Stop being so miserable”. They missed the word “bloody” out of the actual quote. Presumably this is to spare their delicate readers the trauma of a minor swear word.
The point of his piece was that people in the UK should “stop being so bloody miserable”. And this seems to have riled people.
There is a queue of people waiting to stick the boot in about 50% increase in fuel costs, food inflation, global warming, draconian law and order laws, ID cards, immigrants, speed cameras and any one of a dozen or 2 other issues. “How dare he!?!?!?”
The minister in question was on Radio 5 last night defending his comments.
Seems people think he said that people shouldn’t be miserable. Not actually what he said at all of course but then you’d not expect the mail to report anything accurately. I tend to side with Stephen Fry when he says if he’s unsure of what to think he’ll consult the Mail and then he knows the correct opinion is the exact opposite of their view. Works for me.
In fact the minister told the nation that he’d had a phonecall from the editors basically telling him they were going to “stitch him up” in today’s paper.
What he means, as is surely obvious to anyone who actually can read, is that he was saying that we’re materially richer, we have more freedom of movement, more holidays, nicer cars, nicer stuff generally, better health, longer lives in better health, access to a wider range of entertainments and freedoms that previous generations couldn’t have dreamt of.
He’s right of course. Completely and utterly correct.
I’m no fan of the government and am looking forward to seeing them kicked out. Sadly I’d not greatly prefer the tories and it’ll be them doing the kicking out. Still that should mean no more stupid ID card scheme – although I’ll not count those chickens before I’ve seen them hatch.
But not liking someone doesn’t mean that they can’t be right.
Yes stuff has got more expensive and the world political situation is a bit shit, some people are struggling and pointless wars are being fought. But we do have nicer things and that.
Yet again I disagree with the Mail. As all sensible folk should.
And don’t forget that misery is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you expect to be miserable then you will be.
So why don’t you all “stop being so bloody miserable”?
Have fun.
Well what a morning!
Cycled to work today. First time since some time last week. Very nice.
Now there’s a bit in Watermead Park where the path goes over a swampy bit. So they’ve put a wooden path down, raised a bit from the damp ground. It’s a little bit rickety so moves a touch at times when you cycle over some of the boards.
Anyway I rode along that bit, neatly swerved past a man walking there and zoomed on.
Then a sodding fly landed in my eye. Bang on.
Now imagine cycling a thin-ish path, trying to go one handed whilst the other hand is flailing up to the eye to try and get the still buzzing thing out.
Arse over tit I went as the bike went off the side of the path. Lovely.
I now have a sore wrist and ankle. Luckily the ground was actually soft so no proper damage done and the bike’s fine.
But that wasn’t enough for the world today.
I got back on my bike just as the bloke I passed walked by me. The gears had been shoved up a bit higher so I put my feet down to pedal and nothing much happened as I didn’t put enough force down to make the high geared wheel go round. The pedal was also damp after being dunked in the swamp so my foot slipped as I tried to put more force through it.
I fell in again.
Lovely.
Bloke smirked at me.
Sigh.
What else can go wrong today I wonder?
Well this is an odd week.
My boiler has been making odd noises recently. I left it over the weekend ‘cos I forgot to phone the gas co. On Monday I phoned them to say it was making these odd noises but that it still worked. About an hour after that it packed up totally. Well timed then.
Also on Monday I picked up a certain Biskup from Leics station. She’s here ’til Lestival for a bit of R&R from the circus.
Lots of laundry done. Well not “lots” ‘cos she’s not got “lots”. And showers. She’s loving the hot shower.
Monday was juggly night and got there with Sarah only to find another itinerant there. Young Roseh had showed up from Edinburgh to entertain us. Nice.
Back to work today and I’d forgotten there was a student arriving. Nice lad who showed up on time. He had to sit out a couple of sessions with patients because they didn’t want another man looking at them. Poor thing. That never happened to me when I was a stude. Seems people are more skittish than they were in my day.
Pub for our final pre-Lestival social with the regulars and Sarah and Roseh this evening. Nyom.
On Friday we’ve R showing up again, as well as DB and S. Curry for all then!
And finally the Lestival thing happens on Saturday.
Sunday looks like a trip to visit the brother and family so it should be a nicely hectic weekend.
Looking forward to it.
Slightly late but I’ve got a guest now. She’s happily (well not too happily) ensconsed in Super Monkey Ball at the mo.
We did a trial run for our EJC trip this weekend. We drove up to the WJD event in Ambleside. It’s a decent way and the car was going to be quite full on the way and more full on the way back.
After work we headed out and made it there pretty late. Luckily it being summer n’all there was ample light to pitch tents. There were 2 other tents there. And no-one about.
Seems Mini was in his natural element; IE in the pub. The pub wasn’t far off closing time but we did have time for the landlady to majorly insult Clurb. I mean proper insult too.
Hehe Clurb’s a man.
The night was awfy cold. Really cold. Yet again my mattress seemed to suck heat away from me rather than retain it. Luckily I don’t think cold will be an issue at Karlsruhe.
People were more likely to turn up on the afternoon on the Friday so we all went for a jaunt to the local waterfall. Nice scenery as you’d expect. Nice pub trip too.
Some more folk had arrived by the time we were back so we had a laze with Lynne and others. Oh and then a new Bungay couple, Abbie and Graham showed up. It was almost like being back at BBU. Only without a tent to juggle in.
Later me, Clurb and Lynne felt that, as we were in the Lakes, we wanted to see a lake. So off we wandered.
Found no lake despite walking miles. Actually we ended up in Hawkshead but had to get a taxi back as we were too late for buses and the ferry to Windermere was actually another 4 miles away not actually in Hawkshead as we thought. Was a nice walk despite there being no evidence of lakes.
Friday evening was a blur of activity. Well it was in the restaurant we chose. We’d seen it earlier and thought we’d give their local specials a try.
We got in, they sat us down with menus. They took our drinks and food order at the same time. Wandered away and brought our drinks. Wandered away again and brought our food. So quickly it was amazing. And it wasn’t reheated stuff it was good, proper food. Nyom.
After our 30mins in the place we were off. A strange dining experience. Whatever happend to chilling and chatting? Grand food tho’.
DB and S were there by now and had headed into a pub for S to watch Holland vs France. We joined them at around half time. We didn’t know exactly which pub tho so we had to check a couple out to see where they were. Whilst doing this we did discover that at least one local could read.
S seemed, shall we say, reasonably pleased with the 4-1 thrashing that Holland dished out.
And so to bed. (after a stay up with more of the newer arrivals).
Saturday and Sunday were apparently supposed to have shoddy weather but apart from a brief shower on Saturday the weather held up very well.
We did actually find the lake on Saturday. Didn’t take long to get there either. Sigh.
Finally did some juggling after badgering Clurb. Wind is great fun for messing passing patterns up. But we did discover that triple singles sort of work as there’s time to move and catch.
Saturday night was a BBQ and lots of sitting around an huge fire talking to folk. York lot seemed lovely. At one point we were joined by 3 teen lads from Lancaster uni who weren’t jugglers but did want to join us for drinks and a chat. Well they wanted to chat up the 3 young ladies from York. I don’t think they would have had much success anyway but their efforts were pretty poor.
“So which tent is yours then?” etc…
Apparently they had to be escorted away very late in the morning. But not before they’d got far too drunk and given us entertainment before falling asleep on each others shoulders.
Seeing one lad get up, turn round and then stagger backwards almost into a large fire sobered a good few of us up. Then he staggered off and spent some time next to a car. Looked back at us then decided not to piss against the tyre. After relieving himself he stood at the car again for an age, swaying alarmingly. Then he just wandered off. We thought it best if we rescued him and kept him with his mates. We care too much us jugglers.
Sunday was a strike down day. Tents down and packed. Then the fun bit. We needed to get Mini’s PA system to Leicester and it’s reasonably huge. So the car was packed one way and then another. Finally we managed it. I’ve never seen my car so laden. The rear suspension was groaning. Luckily there wouldn’t be too many speed bumps on the way home.
After goodbyes I drove us down the M6 and then P took over. We’ve decided that he’ll do the UK driving for EJC and I’ll do the continental bits. And home to unpack and sleep.
A grand weekend and we now know that the space in the car should be sufficient.
And breathe a minor sigh of relief.
Now we just have to hope that the car holds out that long.
Have fun.
A little different this weekend.
I had a coupl’o guests. Rebecca and Matt were round for the weekend.
Luckily there was actually something to do in Leicester this weekend.
The riverside festival was happening again. I was there last year with my parents. It’s where my ma got to handle an owl and a man was there wot made coracles too.
The guests arrived late on Friday so that evening was just a case of “here’s your bed, see you in the morning”.
Saturday was the main festival day for us. Wandered down there in the early afternoon to see some boats and that. Leicester just doesn’t get any more thrilling.
Actually there were a couple of more diverting things.
The owls were back and available to be handled. The coracle man was back too but this time he was actually on the water rather than in a tent on the park. Seems reasonable.
In the performance area there was a small band of cyclists. Actually a couple of mad BMX-ers, a trials rider and a parkour blokey. They were actually remarkably good. Only problem was that they were in Leicester. Home of the apathetic hordes.
The MC tried his best to get some applauds but after 5 minutes I was annoyed by him despite him being right. They did deserve better. Haranging the crowd might work for some but as Rebecca said “If I clap all the time then how will they know I’m actually impressed?” (or some such).
So that was them and then we met a circussy group doing a workshop. Jay had turned up too and handed over some Lestival flyers to them.
And so to the pub. Swan and Rushes visit number one.
And then in the evening to a nice restaurant with decent food and good service. I felt the waiter was a little hamstrung by his rules and would have been better if he’d just cut loose and enjoyed himself more. Nice place. Oddest thing was the sheer number of show-off awards and newspaper reviews that were stuck up around the place. They even had awards stuck up in the loo.
Sunday was slow to start but such a nice day that I couldn’t keep us inside.
We walked a mile or so to a basic chain pub thing for lunch. Crap food but ah well.
Then a longish walk to P&C’s place. They’ve been DIYing it up somewhat, sorting their kitchen out. The walk was lovely and R&M finally got to see P&C’s house.
Once there we discovered that P had maimed himself yet again. He blames me for his woes but I don’t believe I was the one wielding the jigsaw.
After they’d cleaned up a tad we walked through the festival again, (P went to A&E) and we arrived to find that it had finished. Ah well. To the Swan again then.
Pete showed up later after they’d dug some DIY debris out from under his eyelid and Jay was there too so a good crowd to enjoy an variety of beer.
And that was that. A busy and warm weekend.
Pics are here.
Have fun.