December 15th, 2007
Well, the attendance was down a little this Saturday at the gym, probably due in part to the crazy energy and busy schedules of most of us in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I counted 25 people before I left at 2 pm. The club has added some great new spinning plates that we ordered from Higgins Bros, and the teen-agers were trying them out with gleeful abandon. I was surprised, because we thought these easy-to-manipulate juggling props would appeal more to the younger crowd.
Needless to say, once the teens started trying the plates out, there was a general clamour by all the kids to give them a spin. Davin created the longest “stick” by connecting all the sticks together, but there was no way he could get a plate to sit on top, because the sticks simply wouldn’t stay erect… It looked more like a long fishing rod with a really big fish on the line!
Paul ran another two o’clock basic three-ball training session for three new jugglers, who spent a lot of time focussed on and sometimes chasing after their props, but for the most part there was a lot of laughter. It was good to see Marcus Hondro drop in, even without The Boy. He gifted Paul with some extraordinary juggling balls, which was much appreciated. A juggler can never have too many beautiful balls!
Calder worked on getting fancy with three clubs, trying reverse spins and back-passing, while Tobi focussed on his five-ball routine and multiplexing with five balls as well. After Davin kept some younger, energetic jugglers running after balls for a while following his experiments with the plates, he and his buddy Thayne worked on their dimwits juggling routine. Olivia and Mike practiced different throws and catches with their diablos before I had to run away to perform in a Christmas concert. Jasmine showed up just as I was leaving, and showed her aunt Gita her poi manipulation, while her dad Stu focussed on three-ball juggling.
We missed Kim and Roq and Emera and Tiera, but they are going to participate in a New Zealand juggling convention during their travels, so we hope to hear their report on that and a Christmas during the summer Down Under.
We hope the BICS gym will be open next Saturday: we are getting conflicting reports on whether the building will be locked up or not. So we will show up unless we hear catagorically that the gym is locked; knowing Paul, we will be there no matter what, just in case!
Best wishes to you all,
Karai
