BJC8 Norwich (VERY LONG)
A fanciful Trip Report
(VERY LONG)


I know it was going to be an odd journey shortly after picking up Rob
Street from opposite the Odeon (not much showing this week). For those
who don't know (of) Rob he is big and hairy into siteswaps ands manic
passing with both hands. He refuses to pass 4 count unless its left
handed in a pattern with Haggis McD, Sean G and Mandy and everyone gets
to run around alot!

Anyhow such is Rob's passion for siteswaps and as he was navigating the
200 miles he decided that we were only allowed on roads which were a
valid siteswaps. Well ignoring the road we were on the route went down
the A1 so that's pretty good start ... hang on A = ten. Time for 1st
amendment to the rules, letters (A,B,M) are at the discretion of the
player but maybe used once in every 100 miles (starting to sound like
mornington crescent this one!) (luckiliy he didnt insists on making
alternate right and left turns!) Things looked good from the map A17 was
the first port of call. Well as luck would have it, or not, Rob fell
asleep and I missed the turning so that was the end of that game.

We arrived shortly after lunch with good directions to find an efficient
organised, registration and Ken and Will looking only slightly harangued
(soon to changed).  Bags of parking spaces in the school playgrounds and
a vast area of grass for camping and kite flying, boomerangs and various
other BIG activities.  Three Gyms were basketball size, well the size of
the court actually plus two tents (No Fit State and Croissant Neuf) and
all were sparsely populated. I met Alan Plotkin with his third arm and
discussed techie things for a while, he gave me a Portland Jug Fest
badge and I introduced him to snakeboarding - something he'd see alot of
over the next few days. I spoke to him at the end of the festival when
he'd had enough and was looking pleased to be camera less. He'd shot 18
hours of stuff and thought it'd be good.

A wander around the site and then off to the halls where I had booked a
room, cos Tarim says I have to have one!  The rooms were fairly standard
college design about 8 mins walk from bed to beer tent. Just far enough
to feel offsite and out of it :-(   People arriving all day long (and
night as well) and a chance meeting with lots of people carrying tents.
THe campsite looked dry and quiet.  Tim from Leeds arrived with 3 people
and a caravan all powered by a Ford Fiesta !  Amanda from York and I
helped put up his awing and I practised devilstick and 5 balls till it
got too dark and cold.  The Gyms were filling up by now and a few
familiar faces turned up.  Jerry from York/London was around as was
Mandy Tarim and other net heads. Cla[i]re was doing Brunos Nightmare on
3 count (more about that later) and Andy from London was chucking 5
clubs in the air for ages.

Colin Wright and Andrew (?) had a PC set up in registration showing off
JuggleKrazy and generally chatting about siteswaps and theory.  They
were selling copies of the program (no idea of success) but there seemed
alot of interest for this excellent package. Colin was later to show the
power of the program when Sean G demonstrated a 3 ball multiplex type
trick and Colin "programmed" JK to perform it in a few minutes. Watching
Mike Day learn and try 7531 was educational!

I volunteered to run some workshops on club passing tricks and the
schedule filled up rapidly.  It seemed like there was a workshop on
everything you wanted and Will said that loads of people were
volunteering so it was to be a goody.  All the workshop all weekend
seemed to be well attended even when it was pissing with rain on sat.
Haggis drew a huge crowd for his 5 ball workshop, as did Tarim, Mandy
and Ken for their both handed passing patterns  workshop.  What was
really noticeable, throughout all of the workshops I dropped in on, was
the amount of help on offer from experienced jugglers who were not
running the w/s. This meant that more than just one or two people got
individual tuition. Cla[i]re ran a ball spinning workshop, despite here
lack of voice (see below, or should that be bellow) in the sunshine
where I managed to knacker my right wrist, to give me a brace of
injuries -- just what I wanted. Ken and others ran a kickup workshop
culminating in Jules doing 3 club kickups, dangerous but a good laugh.

I missed the first few acts on the renegade stage where some youngsters
put us old wrinkles to shame. During that first evening PeeWee got up to
his usual tricks, plus some neat acrobatics with Pete from Skate Naked.
and a new star was born to renegade without appearing.  Cla[i]re
produced some of the funniest heckles in an accent that was to be much
imitated but seldom equalled for the rest of the convention. "is that
left handed or right handed" was to become a bit of an anthem. Bits I
remember were Andy P attempting a triple duocide after his request for
ambient music was rewarded with a nice little Latin number to perform
some freestyle diabolo to.  Rob Street pulled off is 4 balls with one on
head to 5 ball trick, he failed at 5 to 6 which he achieved in the gym
to the applause of Fergy, himself going for it in a big way with huge
yellow stage balls and tiny blue fergi bags. Loads more acts of dubious
quality followed and I'm sure there were some good ones that I have
forgotten.  Renegade shows were on in each tent for all three nights and
typically I missed the technical star when Michael Hessling (sp??)
performed some magic club stuff and the crowd went wild. John Stamp and
Michael did a nice routine which followed Johns 2 balls 1 hat bit.
Haggis and Charley were joined by Mica for some general fun with 5 balls
but undoubtedly the funniest act for me was Skate Naked who did their
street routine, acrobatics, setting fire to their heads and manicness
all round, Bloody brilliant.  Cla[i]re led the tent in a West Country
version of Old MacDonald Had A Farm, much jollity indeed.  Unfortunately
I missed Rob Street and Mandy doing 10 club ultimates but apparently it
nearly worked and was appreciated.

Whilst I'm waffling about shows there were 2 public shows. I went to the
first and liked it mucho. It was shortish and consisted of Le La Les
with their balance and musical mayhem, Venus (without flytrap) with
diabolo, John Stamps Masochistic Circus,  Jugglestruck's new routine,
technical and original brilliance from Jeremy and his ring routine and a
funny set from Full House from NYC. All the acts went well and were well
received though the show felt short. Standing in the cold waiting for
the buses wasn't so much fun.  The latter show was by all accounts
slightly better but who cares.

Now where was I... Ah sat morning I ran into Charley Dancey, recent
nethead and author and I asked him about force bouncing 5, which he
patiently explained and we played a while.  Spotlight were selling off
seconds of their silicones which meant lots of bouncing in the traders
hall, Ben Jennings showing 5 force to 5 lift without problems. No one I
found seemed to be able to do force/lift to toss, but I bet someone
there could. Sat afternoon was pissing down - just in time for the
parade and games. The games were delayed until back at the site and
Charley Dancey hosted them with humour and a notebook for the second
edition of the book! The winning 3 ball trick was a 3 ball mills mess
down with penguin type thaws and catches (I think by Jamie - nice 8
clubs singles!) and a younger kid whose trick I missed (twice!)

Food on site was, I believe completely meat free, a Vietnamese place did
excellent noodles, a Vegan shack was offering some other wonderful stuff
and the Silver Nutmeg Cafe offered whatever they had left by the time
you got to the front of the Q.  The beer tent had some nice beer at
premium prices and Bobs Bash seemed to be going all night as usual
selling slightly worse beer.

The Business Meeting was poorly attended and worrying to say the least,
Scotland is well under way but there is NO site for 1997. A very
tentative proposal was put forward by Suszi Oddball for Oxford but there
is nothing else in the offing and Suzi thought of it a few hours
earlier!  It was very unlike th Manchester one which was lively and
eventful.  Suggestions for re-organising it need to be considered.

On a more personal note I didn't have the best convention, I felt
apathetic all the time and didn't put enough into it to reap the
rewards. I met up with some old friends (hi Brian, Paul, Dave, Ken,Andy P,
Tarim, Mandy ...), passed with some excellent people (Simon) and made
some new friends Andy from Manchester, Cla[i]re and Mark who taught me
at least how to walk about in Brunos Nightmare (just got to get the
passes in there as well now). It was fun but it could have been so much
better had I tried to have a good time.

Well that's about it really, I've forgotten more than I've written,
luckily for you, journey back was uneventful, we gave Ian and Tiggy a
lift and saw loads of jugglers in the petrol station 100 miles from the
convention, and slept well in my own bed.

Rob.


PS some of this story is may not be wholly true!