Body And Soul

We were meant to get the campervan for body and soul. It was gonna be great. Free access-all-area tickets in as performers, free campervan pass, some serious partying, and a warm bed to sleep in. Also meant we could spend our Monday scavenging beers and fill up the campervan with said beers for our going away party. It didn’t happen though. Insurance didn’t come through in time. Oh well.

So I set off around 10 a.m with Brian, one of the other fire performers in the troupe. We picked up Dara and Lewy, another performer, and all squashed into his tiny yet loveable exhaust-broken car. Fuck it. At least we had a way up - could have been much much worse.

We arrived without much incident apart from struggling to find an ATM along the way, or a shop that would give more than 50 euro cashback on laser. Things get strange when you leave the city. This was my first body and soul. Of course, our tents were coming up much later in the day in another car due to the lack of space in Brian’s, so Dara and I didn’t really have much to do for the first while. We fucked around and drank a beer while the others pitched their tents in the performers’ campsite. This would have been a perfect time to reserve a lovely spot in the main campsite where we intended to live (we prefer being where the party is...though we should really give the performers campsite a try sometime), but we had nothing to...plant, as it were.

Eventually it was time for a run-through of our fire show. We met some of the performers who weren’t with us at Electric Picnic last year and worked out some of the transitions. It looked pretty cool all-in-all. We didn’t actually do a burn though - fuel was pretty low compared to last year. A few hours and many phonecalls and messing about later, it turned out we didn’t have any performances that night. We would instead be performing Saturday and Sunday night, with a few walkabouts individually during the days. This was a bit shitty, as it was already 7p.m, and meant we wouldn’t get a full day/night off. But hey, you can’t complain with a free ticket in hand. So we went off to the main campsite and found Colum, who’d just arrived and pitched with his sister. We found a good spot nearby and sat ourselves down with a few beers; hoping to reserve a big enough area with our bags/bodies to fit all of our friends in. This somehow worked, and though there was much rain and discomfort and me wishing to the gods that Finbar would magically show up with our camper, we eventually got pitched and were ready to party.

It’s amazing how much time festivals seem to take. I’m having trouble remembering details of the Friday night already, and it’s only Tuesday. Or maybe that’s just all the drugs. Oh drugs. Disclaimer: I'm joking, there weren't actually any drugs. Only messing. There were loads. We spent Friday night raving around the woods. It got pretty messy, but I have various recollections of Colum and I making a wish to the wishing tree that we’d have a good time (which was most certainly granted), followed by bowing to the wishing tree appropriately, and all of us on the swing-ride - you know, the one where it spins around and you’re all on swings? Old school ride. Amazing when you’re absolutely messed up though. One of the happiest moments of my life. See pic.

Dara got a little too hammered and went home early. This wouldn’t be worth mentioning, only for that he got up again a few hours later and rejoined the party. Impressive. We spent the rest of the night talking shite in one of Shrinky’s friends’ tents. Went to bed well after dawn, but it’s hard to pinpoint times on these things.

The next day was spent completely sober, which doesn’t tend to lead to very good writing. I was performing that night. Dara and I went down to meet some of the others for a gentleman-gypsy walkabout; Dara and I being the gypsy jugglers. It was lots of fun actually, people really liked it. Lots of photos, lots of applause. Much better overall than doing fire juggling for festivals - fire juggling is great but always too dark at festivals, which leads to substandard juggling if you do anything difficult. And means staying completely sober for safety etc. Walkabout you could easily do pretty tipsy. But I digress.

Spent the afternoon/evening mostly on my own. Watching various shows, exploring the festival. It was good, though not as exciting as other’s experiences I’m sure. Our show went really well that night. Huge crowd and they seemed to really like it. It was too dark for fire juggling really, but feck it, we tried. Here’s a pic:

Afterwards I met up with my friends. Who were in very strange moods. Colum was absolutely wasted, whereas the others had completely sobered up. Everyone except Colum resigned to going to bed for the night. Which I was pretty disappointed at. I guess we’re getting older, but I really thought my group would go the 3 nights, you know? I’m also a little concerned as to what would have happened to Colum had I not agreed to go party - would they have left him? It’s not like they could have dragged him to bed or anything...hmm..

So I quickly tried to catch up with Colum and we went off into the forest. I was in the mood for a dance, but Colum was too far gone, so much of the first hour was spent with me raving away while he sat down. Such is the way of festivals though - that’s completely fine. Eventually Sonny appeared out of nowhere, which was kinda cool given that we’d been walking around shouting his name only a few minutes before that. I mean it’s a small festival, but not that small. Soon Colum decided he needed to go home, so with the help of Sonny and I’s shoulders we delivered him to his tent. Off we went for a dance. The main music finished shortly after unfortunately, and Sonny was pretty tired, so the night didn’t last too long. I stayed until the very last song in the strange afterparty that was the waffle tent - packed full of party animals who just didn’t want to sleep. It was well after dawn again when I stumbled home.

The next day after a shaky start I decided it’d be okay to drink a little, given that I wouldn’t be performing until after midnight. So I took off with a big mixed bottle of vodka and fizzy orange, which after some arguing I managed to blag my way through the security guards using my performer wristband (there’s no way to the performers’ campsite from the main one without going through the main area). Shared most of it with the others in an attempt to not get too drunk. Which led to Peter getting hammered and telling us all how much he loves us. It was quite nice, actually. Lovely guy. After a while I ended up with Sonny, and we adventured around the place drinking our way through the festival areas and meeting lots of fun people. Then we spent a few hours talking shite with his friends in a big tent in the campsite. Sounds simple, but definitely one of the highlights of the festival for me. A good party doesn’t always have to mean a rave covered in sweat and lasers. I decided I should stop drinking and sober up though, so I went back to my campsite to change.

The timing worked out quite well, and a few hours, much water and a hotdog later I was at our designated spot with equipment, fully sober and waiting for the rest of the troupe. The show didn’t go as well as the previous night overall, but our bit was about the same, which to me means better - there was even less light on this night. I really like the show though - hopefully they’ll manage to keep lots of the performers on for Electric Picnic. This time we had 3 acrobalancers, who really changed the dynamic and were pretty damn impressive.

Afterwards I met my group again and we all agreed we’d hit it hard tonight. It was quite similar to the first night. We went on the carousel this time. I never knew how much fun going on amusements in the middle of the night is until this festival. Here’s us having fun.

We also went rolling down the hills at dawn. I’m not sure what time we got home at, but it was definitely well well after dawn this time. Which I guess was good in the sense that we didn’t have a campervan. I’m not sure at what point the next day I would have been fit to drive home. That is to say, there would certainly not have been such a point.

I got a lift home with Fiona, and spent the entire day and night in bed, with a short break for a pizza and a movie.

You were amazing, Body and Soul. I will come again.

France and LED Lights

Hello! Here's a big blog about France and LED lights.

Brendan and I met at the airport. It was a sunny day. It had been sunny for several days in fact. Leaving Cert week. So odd that this country's most reliable week of sunshine is based around a state examination, yet so very accurate. After some faffing about finding a drink-counter app for our phones and eating Burger King, we entered the airport bar to begin our journey.

The trip looked like it was off to a good start. We got chatting to a Canadian girl on the aeroplane (during our second drink - a crappy little Heineken...we were flying Ryanair though, and needs-must), who was living in Ireland. She wasn't all that interesting..a bit strange actually. Possibly Christian. Or some other related condition. Seemed like a good sign though - only 30 minutes into our trip and we were talking to strangers.

Upon landing we parted ways and found a bus. While laughing at an absurd Hiphop/basketball event's poster, we heard English-speaking voices behind us doing the same. An American couple. We started talking and they seemed pretty cool. TJ and Sondy. Peeking into the future of this blog, they turned out to be really cool - see how drunk they got:

We planned to meet the guys for drinks later on and went to find our hostel. Strangest hostel ever. Worst too, but more strikingly was the strangeness. Only hostel in Nantes, so we had decided to stay there to have more fun with strangers etc. Wasn't much cheaper than the hotels or anything. Don't stay there. It took the woman a good 30 minutes to check us in, during which time she charged us for everything under the sun. The place felt like an abandoned swimming pool, with absolutely no guests - even though the hostel was pretty much full up apparently. We didn't want to judge too soon though, and went out for some proper French food. 

And wine.

We had a crepe for dinner. Then a crepe for dessert. So good. We went back to the hostel to get changed for our first night out. Upon entering our room at 9.30 p.m, still bright outside, we meet our room-mates for the night; 3 guys, each one of them in bed reading. I shit you not. Brendan said "hello", one of them replied with a quick "hello", and that was it. We got changed in silence. It was fucking freaky, man. I'm telling you. Christian or something. We decided we'd try and cancel our third day at the hostel and search for a hotel in the morning.

Arriving at the bar recommended on TripAdvisor, we were a little shocked to find a good few of the guys had blood on their faces. This seemed odd, but the bar still seemed rather safe and legit. Kids around the place, sort of a big tent, with picnic benches and whatnot inside. We bought a beer and waited to see if TJ and Sondy would see our Facebook message and come meet us. After a drink we were going to give up on them for the evening and start our own adventure when they showed up. Thank god, in fairness; it turns out it isn't tourist season in Nantes yet, and French people aren't very...approachable. There really wasn't any opportunity to try and talk to strangers. I'm not sure what would have happened had they never gotten the message. We hung around with them for the night, chatting and drinking wine. It was fun. We had to be up for our giant-mechanical-elephant ride at 9, so we resolved to try and switch to their hotel in the morning and went home at around 2am. 

A little fragile, but still excited for our elephant, we successfully cancelled our booking and left the hostel behind forever. I'm not sure if this photo is me being happy because of the hostel, or because I'd just been on a giant mechanical elephant:

It walks and everything. Pretty cool. YouTube it. 

After a pizza for breakfast (with an egg on it. Love France), we checked into the hotel. Hard to put in words how much better it was. So much better. Terrible word choice David. Why do you write a blog? You're not all that good at writing. And even if you were, you still shouldn't write it at 3 a.m coming home a little drunk. You should do that shit sober. Stupid David. 

We went to see a castle nearby. It was fun. I didn't Instagram it though. Only messing. I Instagramed it the next day. So I can't put it here yet. We saw an old French man shaving in the moate. So French. I loved it.

Figuring that Irish bars always have tourists inside, after some tasty duck confit we ventured down to one in the center of town. In fairness, it kind of worked. We got talking to some French people. They weren't all that interesting though, so after a few crappy Guinesses we went off to meet TJ and Sondy again. They were drinking wine at the elephant place (which is a huge open space with lots of strange attractions). Nice. We went to a club someone recommended on Couchsurfing. It had a cover charge to get in, but we'd heard they played the Pixies, so we went for it. After requesting the Pixies, they played Hey. It was a pretty amazing moment of the holiday, being hammered and dancing to Hey. No idea why it was so emotional really though. These things just kind of happen sometimes. The DJ didn't know who Passion Pit were, so I went to get some pints for everyone. 4 pints, how much could it cost, you ask? I know you didn't actually ask. Rhetorical question you see. 40 euro though. I mean come on, 40 euro? That's way too many euros. So we left.

We tried to take a shortcut across a train tracks which resulted in lots of falling and wrecking of clothes. Also just presumed the trains don't run at night. That was a bit silly. No deaths, though. Giving up and walking around to the bridge, we tried to find another bar. No luck at all though - some places were clearly open but weren't letting people in anymore (it was about 3am)....or at least not us, anyway. So we stumbled home.

On Sunday morning we decided to make it a day drinking day - we hadn't any touristy things left to do on our list. So we bought some wine and went back to the castle for a juggle all afternoon. It was nice. Not that warm though, while Ireland was like 26 degrees. Always happens, huh? The guys arrived an hour or two later with baguettes and cheese. So good.

 We balanced said baguettes on our noses, as we are jugglers.

We spent the evening getting progressively drunker. It was great. We sat by a fountain and talked to a good few passers by - an old French man even drew Sondy like one of his French girls.

Sondy then sketched me like one of her French girls, but it doesn't appear to be online. If you see this Sondy, please put said sketch online. Thank you. This blog is great fun.

We don't really know what happened at the end of the evening. Brendan and I both vaguely recall sitting outside Le Shaft (best bar name ever), and talking to people, but we can't remember any more detail than that. I think they were all older people, at some conference. I'm sure that sounded far more exciting at the time.

Home now, 3 weeks left before the big trip. Spent the day getting things sorted (or at least planning to get things sorted) in Das Van yesterday. We bought some sick LED lights for it.

They come with a remote to change colour. Amazing. See you again very soon, France. 

Busking: Days 1 And Two

After getting back from Leitrim I went to meet the wonderfully talent Pa Reidy, who had kindly agreed to come out busking with me for my first ever attempt. Pa's a seasoned busker - here he is busking:

After a shaky start we started making some money. And it was fun - drinking beers and swapping every few songs. We made 40 for 2 hours. Not as much as other buskers make but I thought it was grand! Went up to the Open Mic at the Western and played a few songs. Lovely evening actually. O'D was there too. He's very funny. You should check him out. It's strange having a comedian friend - you kind of expect to be made laugh all of the time....and in fairness, they usually deliver...

Today I went out on my own for the first time. Didn't make as much as last night but as we had to split it last night I actually came away with more overrall. Definitely more economical to busk on yer own if you're just playing covers etc. Seems to be more about the songs than anything - people give money when it's a song they love. Simple as that..

Tomorrow I'm going to have another go at busking on the guitar, but also try and get my synth ready to play on the street - I have a feeling I'll make more money with that. I'm not the best singer. I am the best at synth. I'm better than you at synth. 

Here's an elephant I'll be riding in Nantes this weekend. I booked my tickets yesterday. No joke.

Yeah you're jealous.

Unemployment and Street Parties

So what have I done since I finished up my job on Friday? Honestly, it feels like a month has passed. Unemployment is awesome.

As I'm in a slight rush, I'm going to use photos in this post.

Spent the weekend at the Galway Juggling Convention,

where we met some really cool people (including a hula-hooper from Cirque Du Soleil!), got drunk and had a beach party. I love juggling conventions...the only problem I have with them is the name. Come on guys - conventions? Dara and I did our new show:

The street party on Sunday night was epic - had a bbq at Emma's first:

Then Open Mic Last night with everyone's voices being absolutely torn to shreds from screaming on the street the night before. Today's beautiful though - went for a swim with the lovely Julie:

Now to drive to Leitrim, then hopefully out busking for the first time ever this evening! If you do hear me - I apologize.