Oh, so much is happening...

Going back a month: I was in Ireland for the video shoot with the BBC. This was a pretty wild experience. The director and the crew were lovely people, very supportive and creative. It was great to see such a team in action. It took many days of rehearsal, preparing costumes, etc. On the final night they dressed us up as forest pixies, as they're using the footage to cut into their fall-lineup-promo commercials. It was the longest and most difficult makeup session I've experienced (two hours of having somebody poke you in the face!) but once I started taking pictures it was all worth it. If you want to see some short video clips, here are some sneak previews:
Nick with fire poi
Andy with green fire poi
Clare with fire fans

After the shoot Clare took Andy and I on a tour of Northern Ireland, and told us a lot about the history. I knew there had been violence, but I didn't realize that thousands of people had been killed since bloody sunday in 1972 (there has now been a cease fire since 1998, but there is still a little... tension). It was very eye opening.

After that I went to London for Gabe's birthday party and to visit Drew for a day. Gabe took me on a tour of London. It was the greatest city tour I've been on, and she's a fascinating person to talk to. After that, back to Germany for Fire and Motion, an amazing poi convention organized by Gerard. After that it was off to Sweden for the Nordic Poi Convention, another inspiring experience. Smaller than the German convention but enthusiastic, and Sweden is beautiful and everybody in sweden is good looking. The rumors are true.

...and now I'm back in London, at Drew's place (the guy who runs ministryofmanipulation.com), where I am once again spending lots of time working out all the details of everything... sprinked with good conversation and small outings on bicycles. It's a good thing people drag me away from my computer to show me around ;)

Tomorrow I got to Bristol for the Bristol Juggling Convention, the last convention of the summer, for me, I hope. After that I'm going back, yet again, to Germany, to teach several workshops, and then hopefully I'll get my incredibly exhausted butt to Thailand, or anywhere that I can get some sleep.

Fire and Motion and the NPC were both very inspiring. I was so sleep deprived by the end of July (plus some other factors) that I ended up getting really depressed for a couple weeks... which was too bad as it meant I had a hard time enjoying the BBC shoot, although I certainly appreciated it. After that I really didn't know if I was up for more poi conventions, but they were so well done and I met such inspiring people that it sorted me out a lot. Big thanks to everyone I had conversations with.