Ireland 2006, Day 5 to 10

Sunday the 9th of July, the EJC officially opens, but it only gradually takes off. Millstreet isn't the most accessible place in the world, and all day long jugglers seep in coming from the bus or train station. The terrain is pretty nice, lots of space and grass. Even the weather, although unpredictable and ever changing, is treating us good.

Two big tops (circus tents) are put up on the center spot of the terrain, but due to stormy weather a day earlier they aren't safe to enter. This more or less screws up the whole organisation, since shows have to be relocated to the bar or other places. The people who put up the tents are already somewhere else in the country setting up other tents, so it would take another three days before they would be available.

M and me went shopping for food, and while having dinner T and B showed up. As usual they refused to pay entrance and simply sneaked in, which would soon enough pose problems since they expect they can use my entrance pass whenever they please. Not.
Still the convention is treating us good. I'm practicing some contact and three ball juggling moves, in the evening we have a few beers, but not for long since beer costs more than oil in this part of the world. The bar closes around eleven and so there's a whole bunch of jugglers devoid of places to party. Quite unusual for an EJC.

Days blend into each other on this kind of festival, but some notable highlights for me include a great contact workshop by Drew from the Ministry of Manipulation on Tuesday, and some origami I learned, so now I can fold an elephant and an inflatable juggling ball.

On Wednesday I took a really enjoyable musicality workshop by the same guy. Basic stuff but still good to do. In the evening there were two Irish bands playing. The main act, Kila, was really superb.

On Thursday M left, so now it's just me and the two cheap guys B and T, who refuse to talk to me because one time I wouldn't let them use my entrance pass. Pretty childish if you ask me. Luckily there are plenty of lovely friendly people here, so I enjoy myself nevertheless.
And today it's Friday. The sun is shining just like yesterday, when I got a sunburn on my back and legs. Should've used that sun oil a bit earlier on... Oh well, let's hope it's a bit better when I have to carry my 15 kilo backpack towards the station.

I'll leave it to that, since there are plenty of people waiting to use the Internet.