The absolutely best thing about my snow holiday was the people. I’d taken a bit of a risk – it was people I’d known for a year but only in the context of the aerial classes we go to at the weekend. AND all four of us were sharing one room, which means that if there any frustrations or irritations there would be no-where to go to escape.

But these people are AMAZING. Lovely to a new height of loveliness.

Things I like about them:

- they’re fun

- they’re thoughtful

- they all enjoy snowboarding

- they all understand the importance of being upside-down every now and again

- they’re into photography and have patience for people who instead of just drinking their cocktails, have to stop first and photograph their cocktails. So yes, now they have photos of me photographing cocktails. And I have photographs of them photographing each other photographing a pint of beer. Ah the symmetry, its beautiful.
- they’re friendly to everyone they meet

- they have a great sense of humour (my favourite image of them is a photo taken at the airport, 2 of them lying on the floor playing dead in front of a huge bear)

- ability to be light-hearted combined with ability to talk about deeper stuff

- non-judgemental and accepting

- willing to take risks and try new things

All my life I’ve wanted to be able to do a backflip.  Or any sort of flip – except a pancake-flip which although kind of cool is not the kind of cool I’m willing to work at.

I can do a cartwheel and a round-off mainly because they were things I could practise as a kid without much risk of landing on my head.  And now that I’m no longer a kid (apparently), I reckoned I’d missed my chance at ever being able to learn to do a backflip.

But no!  Its not too late!  In my trapeze class we have a harness which means we can practise flipping over backwards, and if we don’t quite make it, we will simply float around in mid-air (assuming that the person pulling the strings is concentrating that is…)

Yippee skippee, can’t wait to try it again next week!!

Have been working recently on a trapeze thing known as double skinners coming up onto the trapeze, then “falling” off backwards straight away into a foot hang. Double skinners is a bit fiddly if you don’t get your arms in the right place, and falling off a trapeze backwards is actually harder than it sounds. Somehow the human brain is designed to resist it.

Funny that.

I spent a lot of time sitting on that trapeze trying to will myself into falling backwards, then trying to trick myself into falling backwards. Finally, I found a way. Smile a manic smile and then go for it. Also, yelling “argh” as you go seems to help, although it may somehow detract from the elegance of the move…

Thursday:

working 9-5

Housegroup 7-9:30

Last-minute trapeze/rope practise 10pm – midnight. Oh yes, hanging upside down at midnight. Never done that before!

Friday

working 9-5

non-interview 6 – 7:30 (met a nice man who thinks I could do some contract work with him. Not sure about contracting, I like my cosy permanent job. But very flattered to be asked)

meal with good friend 8 – 10

preparing costume 11-12

sleeping: hardly at all. Life is too exciting!

Saturday

8:30 inspect costume. not impressed, further work to be done. need to ditch the craft glue in favour of needle and thread.

9:45 – 1:30 housegroup leaders training (including lunch, another Good Thing)

2pm turned down opportunity to audition for a crazy thing (ok, looks like I do have some limits, that’s probably a Good Thing!). Finished the costume, with fashion advice from AJ who is back from the land of Far Far Away.

5:30 dress rehearsal

7pm decorating hall with bunting

7:30 getting face painted

8pm PERFORMANCE! There were performances on silks, trapeze, rope, hoop and a grand finale of a doubles act on the trapeze. And it all went smoothly and nobody fell off. I wasn’t sure I was a natural performer, but I enjoyed it. Oh and the feeling of finally having got it over with was very good feeling too! And my friends turned up to watch which I was very pleased about.

Life is fun.