Juggling in the dark

Lately I have been studying intensely for a math exam. These study periods really stress me out and in break times between the calculating I have practiced some juggling tricks. In my apartment I have a gigantic sofa that works perfect as a juggling sofa to save the neighbors underneath me from getting crazy from the drops of balls on the floor.

I have been doing my five balls flash, some four ball colums tricks, juggling with arms crossed and finally gotten my head around the Boston mess!

It is becoming darker here in Luleå and I have been looking at different options considering LED or glow juggling balls. I remember my friend ha some nice LED juggling balls that was filled with small silicon pieces, which made them feel almost like beanbags. From my experience of poi and staff LED equipment I think it is a lot of variety in the market, and LED thins then to be stiff or heavy because of the electronics inside.

For me, it is important that they are rechargeable or have rechargeable batteries and that they have a relatively low price.

Here are some of the options I have been looking at after a quick search on the Internet:

Juggling Glow ball Renegade Juggling
Seems like thay are almoste the same as the ones from Oddballs but it is possible to choose a programmable version, and it is tempting but expensive since they want 9 extra dollars for that feature.

Led Glow Ball Single Color Oddballs
Seem quite good and reasonably priced.

Glow Ball K 8 iBall Renegade Juggling
Extremely cool that they are controllably by the remote and can go in all colors. But the price of 75 dollars each or about 500 SEK each is way too much for me.

Various balls from Lightupandjuggle
Impressive variety of different kind of juggling balls.

Lighted Juggling Balls from Dubé
They seem very straight forward but it is very difficult to say how hard or soft the juggling balls are.

Is there any other good LED juggling equpiment on the market that I have missed? Please let me know!

Juggling passing at the party after the final show at Greentop

Strangely I juggle more now because it forces my brain to take a break from studying. At least for me, it is impossible to think about other things while juggling.

Circus update

It has been a while since I last wrote on the blog, so here is an update of what has happened in terms of circus lately.

Since I came back from Greentop this spring, I spent a lot of time writing evaluations of the course and studying for a reexam. During the summer I went back to my previous summer work, and on my spare time I did some poi spinning and took up unicycling again.

The best circus thing during this summer was the visit to the Medieval Week at Visby at the Gotland Island. It is like a medieval themed city festival, and during that week I saw more street and fire shows than I did in total the last five years. It was so inspirational to see them all, and see their different styles.

We also spent a lot of time doing fire at the beach, talking to other people who also liked the flow arts.

As a circus artist I think we spend more time developing and practicing our own material than watching others, as opposed to other art forms where relatively more time are spent at looking at others work. In Luleå where I live at the moment, the scene for circus is very small so it is not very accessible to get to see it. I actually think the student jester group which I am a part of stands for a lot of the circus activity in Luleå.

This Wendsday we tried to do some fire outside the students night club, as it was the first day of the introduction period for the new students and therefore a lot of people waiting outside the club. But after just an hour we couldn't stand the rainstorm so we had to give up.

English and Swedish grocery stores comparision

Now when I am not on the circus course I can already feel that I need to eat considerably less food. Still, I need to eat something and the other day I was thinking about some differences between English and Swedish grocery stores.

Diary products

Sweden has a lot of diary and many kinds of yoghurt and "fil", and they are almost all packed in 1 liter packages. In Sweden, different kinds of Tetra Paks are used for milk and there are no plastic containers at all for milk. For both "fil", yoghurt and milk there are different options of fat percentage.

In England there are many kinds of yoghurt and they are all very sweet, and packed in potions. I have only found one type that is called "pouring yogurt" that resembled a little bit to the Swedish ones except that it was very sweet. There are also so many "0% fat" yoghurts which are unusual in Sweden. But the English ones are so much sweeter and almost always has some kind of fruit taste.

Another thing I noticed was that there are so many kinds of sweetened types of milk and different kind of "milkshake" type drinks in England. There are "chocolate bar milk" like Mars milk and many other. In England there was also possible to buy smaller packages of milk. In Sweden it is possible to buy 3 dl but not always, and then you have to buy 1 liter.

Deodorants and toothpaste

In England it seems to be common with those spray deodorants that looks like small hairspray bottles. This type exists in Sweden but in general I think the roll on versions are the most common ones, but here in England it seems to be the opposite.

When I bought toothpaste i saw that all the toothpaste tubes were packed in paper boxes, which they never are  in Sweden. In this case, it think it is a waste because you will just throw the box away directly anyway, and its the plastic tube that protects the toothpaste anyway?

Fresh vegetables

About the same, but the prices are generally lower in England. They also have a lot more pre-packed vegetables than in Sweden.

Biscuits and cereals

Oh so many biscuits and crisps and things there are in England! And so many cereals! The variety are so much bigger in England.

Alcohol

In Sweden, alcohol is sold by the state monopoly Systembolaget, so every time I go abroad it just feels unusual for me to see a whole line full of wine in a normal grocery store. Small convenience stores seems to sell a lot of alcohol considering how much of the shop it takes up.

Packing

Swedish grocery stores will not give away their plastic bags for free, but will charge about 1-2 SEK (~10-20 pence) each. They are made of stronger plastic than the English ones though. In Sweden you can always choose between paper bags and plastic bags, and the paper bags are bigger than the American ones you see in movies and they have hand grips.

At least among Swedish students this makes people avoid plastic bags if they can fit there things in their bags or they will bring other fabric bags so they don't have to pay for the plastic ones, and it is also environmental friendly.

In England, plastic bags are included in the prize, and they are smaller and weaker than the Swedish ones. Often in English food stores they will actually also ask you if they can help you packing, or not ask and help you anyway which is nice of them.

In England there was a long conveyor belt in front of the cashier where I could fit all my things. The I walked to the other side and packed each product directly after it had been scanned. I would pack all my things and then pay.

In Sweden, there are two conveyor belts; one in front and one behind the cashier, and sometimes it is not possible to fit it all at the same time. The after the product has been scanned, it continues to another conveyor belt on the other side. I prefer the English version, since sometimes the conveyor belt after the cashier is to strong and will damage fragile things like fruits or things packed in paper. In Sweden you pay before you start packing your products, and the conveyor belt on the other side of the cashier can usually split in two halves so that two customers can pack at the same time.

Shopping carts and baskets
In England, the shopping carts I have seen are quite shallow and will not fit as much as the Swedish ones, which seem gigantic in comparison. In some English grocery there are metallic shopping baskets, but I have never seen that in Sweden where there are only the plastic ones.

Self check outs
In England, it is very common with the self checkout stations, where you place your basket one one side and pack your things on the other side. The packing works like a scale where you need to put your things after you have scanned them. No special sign up or member club card is needed to use the self check outs.

In Sweden there are not common at all with self check outs, but some store will offer you to bring around a scanning machine so you can scan and pack directly when you take the product from the shelf. To do this you always have to sign up in advance to the stores member club and cannot be used if you are not a member.

Show what you have learned in England!

I have now been back in Luleå for two weeks, but I am already back into normal life. I spent most of the time unpacking and moving back into my room, but also studying for a math exam I did yesterday.

Today it is almost 15 degrees outside and it has started to feel like spring and summer here too. Just this two weeks I have been here I have noticed that the "boom" for plants and trees just have started, even though it is still piles of snow and ice left in shadow areas in the forest.

I also tried to do some handstands the other day, and I could now feel that I have become a little better since I last did it. I really want to learn free handstands, so every morning at Greentop I would arrive early to get about 15 minuets a day to do handstands against the wall. When I had the chance I practiced to do a free handstand and then crash down on a mat. I think it is the environment around here that makes me realize what I have learned, since skills and changes develop slowly.

All my friends seems curious about what I actually did at Greentop, and I usually say that I was playing around for 3 months which is quite true. I really enjoyed all the time I spent in England. Also many people want me to show them something that I have learned and that is really difficult. i don't know their expectations and I don't know if whatever I show them will be corresponding to their expectations.

Today I have been practicing some more five ball flashes, and it is my goal this summer to be able to do 20 throws in a five ball cascade. At the moment my all time record is 7, so I have quite a long way to go to get to 20.

The final show of the course on Greentops homepage

There is still a lot to write about an dpictures to show from the final graduation show!
Until I have written a nice entry covering it all, there is an article from Greentops homepage that can be read here.

The quote that "It seemed more like a professional show than a student showcase" made me really proud of all of us.

I still miss going to Greentop every day, but on Tuesday I was back at the poi spinning club here. It was nice to see everyone again, and we tried out some exercises and games I learned at Greentop.

I will eventually write more about the final show and the way there.

Back in Sweden

I have had a lot to do this last week of the circus course, which was fun but sad as I knew that soon there would be no Greentop every day anymore.

My family came to watch the final show, and then we looked around Sheffield and spent some time with my landlady and lodger.

After that, I had one more week in England until our flight left from London, so we went through Stratford-upon-Aven, Warwick and Oxford before we reached Heathrow to fly back to Sweden.

Now I am in Tyresö outside Stockholm and then we will fly back to Luleå late in the night tonight.

Soon there will be a boom of final show pictures and pictures from England.

Happy Easter and World Circus Day!

Today it is Easter and we had a day of from rehearsals. It is now less than a week until the show! I feel much better from the cold now and look forward to next week. Today I spent some time in town trying to sort out the last pieces of my costumes, but I bet I will find something else that is missing during the week.

Since it is Easter I bought some chocolate Easter eggs that I have seen almost everywhere since I arrived in Sheffield. I got two different types: one with chocolate mousse and one with some sweet milky white thing inside. They were both good and very sweet!

I also found out that the World Circus Day is celebrated the third Saturday of April every year. I didn't do anything special to celebrate it, but I had some energy to do some more five ball practicing.

Happy Easter everyone!