The Leeds (and Final) Juggling Convention

Saturday morning we set off bright and early to Leeds for the last juggling convention of the year, and certainly my last juggling convention for who-knows-how-long. Leeds isn’t _that_ far away so it was only about an hour and a half of driving before we reached our destination. We were one of the first people to arrive and had a chance to set down our stuff and get sorted out before the juggling fun began. The majority of the day I spent in the large hall which just had jugglers standing around and juggling. There were two other smaller halls but I didn’t go in them hardly at all, one had workshops most of the day and the other was devoted to unicycling. So I sat for a bit and juggled balls a bit but didn’t get very far as I kept getting “interrupted” (I didn’t mind) by different people coming to sit and chat with me, including Leigh, Tom (a guy I met at Bristol), Mini, Miark, and a couple other random people. After that I tried again to ball juggle but was again distracted because Patrick had decided that we were going to pass clubs. Always the kidder, Patrick knows I can barely juggle clubs, much less pass them, the conversation went something like this:

Patrick: Hey Hope, you ready to pass some clubs?
Hope: Patrick, you know I don’t know how to do that.
Patrick: Sure you do…
Hope: No really, I can barely juggle them as it is…
Patrick: Well that’s all right, why don’t you show me what you can do and I’ll see if I can give you any tips or anything.

So I grudgingly left my seat and spent what must have been 30-45 minutes juggling with Patrick standing opposite me just watching. Every time I dropped them he would pick them back up again and put them in my hands and occasionally say encouraging things or give little tips (“try swinging your arms this way,” “try holding them this way and see what you think”) after that I carried on on my own while he went off to pass clubs with other people. I’m always embarrassed to juggle because I’m just _so_ bad and I feel silly with all these experienced jugglers watching me, but once I got out there it was so crowded that it didn’t feel like everyone was looking at me, although I’m sure they probably were…

After that Patrick and Miark and I went to get some lunch, we walked downtown a ways before finding a little cafe to sit down and chat and eat. After that we walked back and I got my camera and Miark walked me down closer to the town center to see the best sights of Leeds, including the Corn Exchange (a huge, round multi-level hall with shops everywhere), the town hall (an impressively massive building with huge stone steps and two worn but regal lions that seemed to be standing guard.

We saw a few more architecturally-stunning buildings before wandering back. After that I sat and juggled a bit more until not-so-tall Paul (who is a juggler from Billingham club that I see all the time but I’ve never really talked to) came and sat and said hi to me. We had a wonderful time sitting and chatting and then we gathered everyone up (Miark, Roger, Leigh, Patrick, not-so-tall Paul, Maddy (a Durham juggler) and myself) and went on an expedition to find some food. We settled on an Indian restaurant and were not disappointed with our choice. The service was quite nice and we all had great fun chatting with the waiter (who forgave me my Indian pronunciation because he liked my American accent) and telling stories and laughing and joking and folding napkins. After that we walked a little ways to where the show was going to be held and got seats and waited for the show to begin. We decided we didn’t like the show as much as Durham, most of the acts were comparable, and there were a few quite nice ones including Sean’s (he’s the diaboloist I sat and talked with at Bristol, remember?) which had him in suit and hat doing a quite elegant diabolo routine that was set to a fun techno-remix of Singin’ in the Rain. I also had a nice chance to sit and catch up with Mini, who I had not gotten to talk to for several days. After that it was all goodbyes and sentiments before setting off home, tired and ready for a good night’s sleep.

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Speaking of people liking my accent…

One aspect of work you haven’t heard of deals with the delivery drivers. Every day we see the Parcelforce (which takes big packages like unicycles), Royal Mail (which takes letters and small packages), and DHL drivers, so you get to know their names and recognize their faces. So it is fun because they know our names and say hi to us and stuff. But anyways, everyone in the office is always making fun of me because I love getting packages (and signing for them) and so whenever I hear a delivery truck outside I pop up and look through the window to see who it is and whether it is coming to us or not. My favorites are the UPS drivers (who we see less often but are always super friendly), the Geologistics drivers (who we see equally less often but I get to talk to on the phone now and again and are equally lovely), and the Parceline driver which comes almost daily now. He likes to come 5 minutes early and watch us run back and forth frantically between the warehouses. He told Joyce that this is one of his favorite stops because he thought my accent was cute and he likes the way I say my name. I don’t have to say it anymore, however, because he remembers it every week when he drops off the juggling stuff and so all I have to do is say hello and sign for it.

Another new friend I have is David, who is the manager/customer representative person for Normans, who we order our office/shipping supplies from now. We have just started with them so he has popped by about once a week the last couple of weeks to check if everything is fine. The first week he talked to me a lot about what I was doing and my asking my plans. When he found out I was planning to go to London he told me to go to Camden market and even sat down and drew me directions on how to get there. He was wonderful and friendly and I enjoy talking to him when he comes around.