Well, to begin my tale, the journey down to the second Bristol's Other Bristol was an experience in itself. I got the train into York with actually turned out to be a bus beacause the track were flooded or something. Anyway, after arriving in York I went to get my lift down to Bristol but I had to wait sometime in a pub where I bought and consumed some unexpectedly stong alcoholic beverage. I think this was instrumantal in the unconciousness I submitted myself to on the second leg of the journey. That and the fact I hadn't actually gotten any sleep for about, oh, hours. About 18 if I remember rightly.

I had a lift in a car for the York to Bristol part of the trip. Apart from a couple making out on the back seat it was uneventful but then, I was asleep for a bit of it. After a bad nights sleep in a dodgy flat I arrived at the Bristol Univercity Student Onion building to juggle. And for once I did. Not another drop of alcohol for the whole weekend. I know, strange isn't it? It must be because it was a southern convention rather then a northern one. There's a big difference you know.

A view of the hall.

death by juggling

The hall we were juggling in, in my opinion, wasn't the most pleasant of juggling environment. As it a live music venue all the walls were dark and the lighting wasn't that pleasant. This doesn't make for good photos either. Still, I threw my bag in a corner and cabbaged for a bit. Then I juggled for a bit. Then cabbaged a bit more.

After one bit of juggling there were some workshops anounced. I'm not normally one for attending workshops, not for any reason, it's just that I like to discover tricks myself rather then being taught them. Even so, when some guys wearing half a shirt each pulled out lots of long cardboard tubes, I went over to have a go.

tube passing

luke does 17

I left that workshop when they started throwing jupmers and coats at each other. The point? I'm not really sure. I ate some food and juggled a bit more. I managed to get 11 catches with 9 balls, which I was really impressed with, but then saw Ben Beever make 15 throws with 11 and catch all but one. Then almost flash 12 over and over. You can see various feats of juggling captured at bob2 on the movie select page.

The games reminded me slightly of typical chocfest games. Included were stredging and diablolo in a box. Plus all the old favorites. The theme was cardboard tubes, which made the unicycle gladiators a bit more interesting, and also they hard to think up a game involving the convention passes. This time the organisers had surpassed themselves in giving each of us a set of chopsticks. I know it's all a bit of fun, and some people display there convention passes in various prominant places on their body, be they chopsticks, stickers, cds, or whatever, but to be honest I normally just throw mine in my bag. Still, this worked out well for me when it came to the "chopsticks and beanbag relay race" because at least I hadn't lost mine. I blatantly cheated at that game as well, but when I realised I was winning I slowed down a bit to make it less obvious. Which meant I lost.

unicycle gladiators with added swords, or clubs, if you want to be technical

the last 3 of 5 ball endurance a group of 5 club jugglers

The games ended, I didn't win any. Not even the stredging. Still, I think I keep my Universal Stredging Champion title that I earned at BJC2k. I joined a load of people who were heading out to find food. We all agreed that we would find an Indian and gt curries but after walking for ages around the center of Bristol in looking for one in vain, we settled on a slightly uncheap steak house. I thought it was delicious though, and worth the money. I think that was the last £12 in my bank account as well. When the waiter asked us what a group of ten mildly exceptional people like ourselves were celebrating he was told the truth. An internet society of like minded people indulging in bizarre and dark sexual practices meeting for our monthly get together of Domination/submition festivities. And of course, as soon as we stepped back out the door we found an Indian about 3 doors down the street, just as I expected.

A bit about the show:

Over all, the acts on stage were really good. There was a wide variety of acts and I enjoyed all of them. Kayleigh and Liegh had an all new act. Instead of Kayleigh coming on, doing some tricks be herself, then Liegh comes on and they do some tricks together, what they did this time was Kayliegh came on stage, did some tricks by herself, then Liegh came on stage and they did some tricks together. I think the music was different too.

There were quite a few things that let the show down though, or made it not as good as it could have been. First off the stage is normally used for live bands so it is very high up with a crash barrier infront of it. This meant that the closest seats to the stage were still miles away, and from where I was nearer the back of the audience we I couldn't see much at all.

The lighting was terrible. A single floodlight that shone almost directly down onto the performers. It made theacts hard to see and also hard to photograph, hense the lack of pictures on this page. Also the compare, while I don't want to insult him, was crap. He only told one joke during his time on stage and someone heckled over the punchline. After the main show there was a bit of a renegade but for the first part of it I was learning how to pass 7 clubs, which is quite good for considering I'd only club passed about 3 or 4 times before that. When I did go to watch it they were running out of acts fast and offering old bjc tshirts as bribes to get acts. I did a bit of cardboard tube juggling (4) and oversized tennis ball juggling (5), was followed by Dave Barnes doing diabolo (2, no handsticks) and Ben Beever (10).

I gave my bribe to some sad soul who wanted a 4 years out of date juggling tshirt. I would rather a tshirt that I would actually wear. I only have on juggling tshirt and I won that in a raffle, but it is the york:99 one and I think it looks cool.

Very late at night we turned up at The Gas Works... I've no idea what this place was actually used for but to me it seemed suspiciously like a government sponsored juggling/cannabis hideout. Here I found out the bristol tradition of pleasuring each other with knobbly bits of wood.

It is much more innocent then it seems.

On Sunday me and a few other people went to a climbing wall and swung about a bit. I didn't realise just how much this would tire my arms out. When we arrived back at the Student Onion building to juggle again that evening I could hardly do 3 beanbags. I sat at one side of the hall and passed the time gazing at the opposite wall.

The journey home was exactly like the journey to bristol but simply in the opposite direction. The same couple making out on the back seat, the same service stations, the same bus back to Scarbugger. I slept a bit more though.

Overall: A good convention, nothing special though. That may be the reason I've not written this review for so long.

Personal Low Point: The embarrasingly long time it took me to flash 9 balls for the camera... grrr...

Personal High Point: I can't remember one. It could have been... um... the bacon butties on sunday morning. I know that sounds a bit negative towards the whole convention but it was a long time ago and that is my lasting good memory of it. You don't mind do you?