Human Lifestyle

When I did the Saturday show at Hebden Bridge Fringe, on 11 July 2009, Doug Lyon filmed me and interviewed me and this is the result, posted to YouTube yesterday. I am extremely happy with the result. Thank you Doug, and Jan Taylor the organiser.

So, I found this during the computer session I had just after lunch. I had two meetings in town in the morning, then a visit to Sainsbury's and Barnitts AND the Anti Gravity shop. On the way back home I popped in to Freshways to pick up compostables. Later in the afternoon I visited Country Fresh.

Gill spent quite a lot of the day cooking a large cake for the fifth birthday party tomorrow of York Rotters. She has been asked to do it in a compost heap shape, similar to one she did before.

This generated quite a bit of washing up and work in the kitchen... and we had a very domestic day. I made a nutloaf for tea which got compliments from the whole family, which was nice. I'm glad my children like my cooking and that they are not too fussy.

The other good thing today is that the wasp nest activity has declined drastically... I think I have won! I'll give it another few days of no activity before I remove the glass dome off the original nest entrance. I think the copious watering with a squirt of biodegradable detergent in the watering can and in the sloppy compost I dropped onto any hole-digging activity must have worked. Oh, and the poking down into the cavity with a bamboo and filling the hole with the water/compost/washing up liquid mix...

Slept well at Mark and Jennifer's but got up quite early as the boys had been up since daybreak... excitement I suppose. Both Mark and Jennifer had a busy day ahead, Jennifer to collect their cat from an orthopaedic veterinary hospital and the other to go to a meeting connected with work, probably a Green Party meeting knowing Mark.

I wanted to get into town at a reasonable time to do balloons in the central square, and Gill went out with all the boys to see their treehouse, and wasn't back by the time I was ready to go, so I left and walked down into town... but five minutes out I realised I had forgotten my bag of devilsticks and diabolos etc (duh!) so I trudged back up the hill and got this extra bag.

I set up right in the central part of the town, a pedestrianised square surrounded by shops and cafes, and blew up 3 balloons and stuck them in one of my bags, sticking up, and got on with some 'practice' devilsticking, which of course attracted attention. When plenty of people had started watching, I did a free first balloon animal for one of the most attentive and engaging children, after which lots more came forward and the next hour was busy with giving away balloon animals, which was exactly what I wanted as my part of the public part of the Hebden Festival.

I got enough donations to pay for my lunch and tea, so bought a pastie and little quiche for immediate consumption and a folded spinach pizza called a calzone for my tea later, wherever that was. At just after half twelve I packed up and wobbled off to the Central Street School where I'd done my show last night and was due to do my Fun Physics Show today followed by a free-play workshop. By 1pm I was ready to start but not many people had turned up but ten minutes later I had quite a good crowd.

The show went like a dream... warm-up acts from the audience first, then the 'obligatory mathematical bit' where I lob a single juggling ball up and ask if they spotted the mathematics, and soon get them to understand the parabolic curve and all say the word 'parabola' together, then devilsticks which is a good way to include friction, fulcrum, pendulums and frequency (you have to see the show to see how these are connected!). Following this is balancing, starting with a stick balanced on my nose and then peacock feathers balanced on volunteers hands, and this leads to a explanation of air resistance and friction again. Derek the naughty diabolo did his usual tricks and misbehaviour but explained gyroscopes much better than I ever could, and then we just had fun with the unicycles at the end. I do enjoy myself such a lot!

There was a chap doing some filming for the Fringe and he interviewed me outside before the workshop started, and by 2.30 the workshop's participants had arrived and I did a catching and throwing game followed by a quick run through of all the quick tips connected to the skills I teach. Then on to the free-play workshop which was pretty easy for me, although still had to keep my eyes out for stuff not going well and people getting stuck. Another full-on hour, finishing at 3.45.

Jan then paid me, and I was pleased with the fee, as it hadn't been fixed beforehand as it partly depended on the numbers of audience/participants, and as these had been quite low, I wasn't expecting as much as I got.

A walk though the park where there was another bit of the festival going on, and to the station where at four thirty something the Blackpool train came and I continued my journey to Warrington. I got to Preston and changed to the Euston train, and was soon at Bank Quay where a nice Warringtonian taxi driver took me to the hotel where I was spending the night. As I got into the hotel the rain started so I decided not to go for a walk and explore the local area, and I had my calzone and some fruit and dozed. But later, I got up and watched an excellent film on Virgin 1, which was on the hotel's Freeview package, called 'Inside I'm Dancing' which I loved. I would say it is easily in my top-ten favourite films.

I went to sleep very soon after this.

Pretty hectic morning as lots to do and not enough time to do it, but did manage to get down to the station in time. So the morning included a fair amount of paperwork, a trip to Country Fresh, taking the sacks of shredded tree collected last night down the garden from the front where they were making things look more untidy than usual. Also went to the shop for Gill, to get pasties for tea (she will eat with the boys on the train) and assorted medications. Had quite a bit of ringing to do, and email confirmations of work.

But by 2pm I was just about ready to go to the station with all my Fiddlesticks stuff and other things for 3 overnight stays, one in Hebden Bridge, one in Warrington and one in Sheffield. A busy weekend ahead.

Good chats on the train with a nice 'just retired' lady who's husband has a terminal illness and she wanted to talk... She got off in Halifax and very soon I was in Hebden. Jan, my handler from the Hebden Fringe met me and took me to the venue where I was performing, a school just off the main road. I had about 45 minutes to get ready, so I actually had a good 20 minutes reading a recent NewScientist (I'm still a month behind!) about Gravity, the mysterious force...

At 5.30 most of the audience had assembled, under a dozen adults and the same number of children, so quite a small 'intimate' event. As usual, we started with a couple of warm up acts from the audience, and then straight into my routine. At least 3 of the lads were already into circus tricks, and afterwards I found out they attend a circus school in Rochdale I think. So they knew what things were called and what they did, and were keen to come out and do stuff... excellent, and for me it was a perfect gig.

I finished on the dot of 6.30 but some of the people wanted to play so I let a 10 minute workshop take place before packing up and walking the 5 minutes to Mark and Jennifer's house. This is a 5 story 18th century terrace... amazing! Lovely to see friends whom I'd got to know in York and their two boys, one the same age as our eldest and a little one quite a bit younger. Their 17 year-old daughter is on the verge of leaving home and doesn't spend much time there.

Jennifer was just serving up a rice and beans meal, and halfway through this Gill and the boys rolled up, having had tea on the train as planned. Very soon Jennifer and Gill went out to see an actress called Linda Marlowe perform some of Carol Ann Duffy's poetry, from 'The World's Wife'. I did a little Fiddlesticks show for the boys and a neighbour Mark invited round, with her little boy. That produced riotous laughter and wonderment.

Then Mark and I left the older boys playing and went on a short walk over the other side of the valley and up to a place where there's an amazing view. Their youngest came with us and it was fun walking with him, carrying him sometimes, swinging him and having him on my shoulders. He's so small and it brought back memories of when ours were little.... lovely!

Got back in at almost exactly the same time as Gill and Jennifer who'd enjoyed the performance.