My Blog

Happy New Hoopy Year

Sue — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:17:28 GMT

It's 3 months since I posted a blog entry here! Can't believe it's that long. In part I think it's because no one in the UK uses Tribe anymore and so it feels like dropping a pebble into a very deep hole. But it seems Facebook has taken over. Shame really, because it is much more general rather than hoop specific things that people post, probably because they have a variety of friends on there rather than just hoop friends. Caroleeena is doing a great job at keeping Tribe going with blogs and posts though. We owe her one. Who knows when we might all need to come back. These things oscillate with time. So it's 2010. It looks a very strange date to me still. But then I thought that after the turn of the century. We get used to it. All I can say is that it's a terribly big number. 20 years ago when I thought I'd never grow older, I could not imagine being this old or the date being this strange. Oh well, there you go. Another illusion shattered by time. But I've just been outside and hooped in the frost and feel good so what the heck do the numbers mean. Going to my parents later for a re-run of Christmas dinner. Mum likes to cook a turkey once a year and so as they come to us for the main Christmas meal we go back to them for New Year. It's all a bit much for her really now, but whilst she want's to do it she should carry on. I hope you all have a lovely first day of 2010. And that the year ahead is filled with positive challenges and rewards. Take care.

Another lovely night

Sue — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:57:37 GMT

For hooping. Calm, not cold and not too damp. Stars bright and yet a ring of mist around the moon. I had a lot of fun with a glow hoop I made the other weekend with some of my glow tape on it. It's surprisingly effective provided it is dark. It doesn't glow in low light. It needs dark. But it's fun. A sort of eerie green light. Super for Halloween. But that's a non-event around here so if it gets a spin that night it will just be me on my own again spooking myself! We got the keys to this cottage on Halloween 14 years ago this year. It was not an auspicious night for us. Howling wind and rain and we came over in the pitch black and found an empty, dirty and very tatty cottage with a water leak when we opened the door. Brilliant! I cried. But it all looked a lot better in the morning when the spooks had gone back to bed. I also used my psi hoop this evening of course. And I made a genius playlist on my Nano iPod of '80's and '90's pop. Super fun. I loved Frankie Goes to Hollywood and still think their tracks are good when I hear them. "Relax" was anything but with a hoop.

World Hoop Day Hoop

Sue — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:46:27 GMT

I was on my own, but I was out there from around 8.50pm until 9.30 and I just kept hooping. I used the Bombay Dub Orchestra to accompany me as their beats are super to hoop to. And the stars! The sky was dark above because the moon was behind a wood and low in the sky. I spent most of the time just hooping with my head craned back to look at them. As bright as my led hoop. And there was something up there. Too high for a plane and rather slow and meandering. But it kept flashing a white light every now and then. Way up in the sky. I was hoping to see a satellite but this was unusual. In all probability it was a plane. But it didn't look like the others that crossed my piece of sky during that time. Who knows. It was a beautiful and mysterious, still and chilly night. It was a joy to be out there. A new neighbour of ours has declared herself frightened of the dark. How sad not to be able to be out there and listen to the night. I wish you all peace on this, our special day. Post Script: My husband says it probably was a satellite, one that rotates as it flies and therefore the flash of light was it catching the sun on a fin as it turned. I think he's probably right as it wasn't like a plane at all. So I got my wish to see one tonight after all.

How Hooping Changed Me

Sue — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:11:13 GMT

It seems a little silly to say that something like a hulahoop could change a life. But in many ways it's absolutely true. A little bit of plastic pipe and a few rolls of tape. That was all it took. Oh, and YouTube of course! I was in my early 40's. We had gone through some really tough times with our software business. It nearly broke our spirits, but not quite. It was very difficult to cope with though and after it was over I was left depressed with nothing to look forward to. I was quite stiff and I'd always hated exercise so I wasn't very fit I don't suppose. Over the two and a bit years I've been hooping I've regained some confidence and I've certainly got a lot fitter. Sadly, I haven't transformed into a svelte version of my previous self, although I did shift the weight that came with the depression, but I feel so much better in all ways. I have gone from decorating people's houses for them (desperation to earn some money after the business debacle, despite being terrified of heights and having to work up ladders) to having a lovely little business that I enjoy and can do with both my feet on the floor. Sometimes I look at people here in the UK with their sparkly hoops and I think "I made that happen" and I feel good about it. Now keeping fit is not a task to be fitted into the week and usually a task that failed. It's a joy. I just love this photo. It really sums up the way hooping makes me feel. Can I hoop? Yes I can!

The English Summer Fete

Sue — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:20:13 GMT

I suspect that this is something totally English. I can't somehow see this anywhere else. A village gets everyone to contribute and to help and opens it's doors to visitors. Stalls sell home grown plants, home made jams and preserves, home made cakes and bric-a-brac. There is sometimes a brass band or a hurdy gurdy. A beer and Pims tent and the WI serve tea and cake in the village hall. There are games stalls for the kids and ice cream. Second hand books to browse and raffle prizes to buy tickets for. The only problem is our village is so small that it's all a little bit low key. And this year the heavens opened on us, several times. I was out there with hoops, soaked by the end. Hooping to the hurdy gurdy (very strange key and beats for hooping) and trying to get people to play with soggy hoops. i didn't get many takers. The tape peeled off some of my hoops. But I still had a good time. Not quite the perfect setting of the bare skin rain hooping of the UKHG, this rain meant business and was cold. And still people strolled round and tried to pretend the sun was out. Only in Britain I think.

Friends - I'm still here

Sue — Sun, 17 May 2009 23:20:03 GMT

It's been a while since I posted much here on Tribe. I hadn't really realised it until I tried just now to respond to a post over in the journal and ended up scrapping it. I check in regularly, but I don't feel I have anything positive to say so it's probably best to keep quiet. I start off and then ... Facebook is easier to keep going with because it's shallow and doesn't allow for discussion. Tribe requires engagement and I don't seem to have it. I am going through hard times with myself right now. It's all work and effort and yet seemingly physical and emotional downward spiral. I'm here. Just quiet. I hope this phase passes soon. Some sun would help but I don't think I'm in the right hemisphere for that. But quiet or not, I hope you all enjoy your hooping and the summer.

Hoop Sizes Change Themselves

Sue — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:42:41 GMT

I'm a bit puzzled. I was definitely using smaller hoops. All winter I played with 40" and 38" indoors. But all of a sudden, and seemingly activated by the Level 3 training, I'm only using bigger hoops. I want to hoop with a 20mm 42" all the time. Occasionally I'll pick up the 20mm 42". And only for trying to learn some of the new hand hoop moves from the course, will I pick up a smaller hoop. What has made this change? I don't understand it. I was happy with the 40", now I enjoy the bigger one. I'm even using my 20mm 44" for trying new things with. It bends into a slightly elliptical shape as I hoop and I like the feel of it. I don't think I did anything to make this happen. It just did.

Hmm... This isn't all going to fit...

Sue — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:50:09 GMT

... 10.45pm and I've still got lots of tape orders to prepare for the girls in hoop class over the next three days. And my preferred hoop to take with me to class is only half taped. And I have a glass of wine... Somehow I think I'm likely to end up under prepared. Had to support a friend this evening and it's knocked everything back by about 4 hours! What will be will be. Perhaps the tape orders will have to wait until Saturday. Must finish my hoop though. How can I be tape Queen of the UK and go to HoopGirl training with a half decorated hoop? :~)

Kind of Surreal, but very nice

Sue — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:43:22 GMT

Sunday a group of us met up in Nuneaton park and hooped for hours in the sun. It was lovely. Some had just finished HoopGirl Level 1 teacher training and were waiting to start Level 2 on Monday. The weather was perfect. Sunny, blue sky and yet with a freshness to it all. Christabel and Diana (who is assisting Christabel) came and joined us for a while and hooped too. We all had our t-shirts on and were exposing as much flesh as possible to the sun. But Christabel arrived in a thick coat, done right up and with a hat on and boots! For a Californian girl this is not warm. We sat and chatted for a bit and then we hooped for a bit and I took some photos. I struck me as I was editing them how surreal it was really. We all know so many USA hoopers, although we've not met many of them yet. We talk about them and about their moves and their videos. Christabel thought this funny because of course these people are her friends and so she's traveled half way around the world and then here we are talking about her friends! And then I looked at the pictures and realised that we are hooping in the park with Christabel! That's pretty amazing. That she's here with us and that we are playing together. 15 years ago this just would not be happening. We would not know about hooping in the UK. We would not know anyone who hooped. We would not know a teacher or have seen any videos or demos or anything. The Internet has given us all this. The world has shrunk in size and our connections increased and I have to say, I like it :~) So who is next to come and play in the UK I wonder?

Leamington Hoop Club

Sue — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:31:50 GMT

The second meeting. Considering the date was messed around and it's the start of Easter holidays for some schools etc I think we did well to have 4 of us hooping. For a while I thought it would be just me. But hey, even if it were I wouldn't mind. It's a great space. Have a look at the video. I love watching everyone's different style. Hope the London club has fun tomorrow. http://www.vimeo.com/4005454

Glow Stick Hoop

Sue — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:16:15 GMT

Gosh, it's a long time since I posted to the blog. I seem to have been ridiculously busy with little time for anything. But today I broke off from the computer long enough to enjoy some fresh air with the hoops. Boy was the air fresh! It was so warm the other week, but today was really cold. The sun was warm, but it had gone from my garden by the time I got out there. One of the disadvantages of living on the downward face of a hill. After a while I decided to have a bit of fun and make a glow stick hoop just to see what it would be like. I have a bit of tubing that I bought last year and so quickly assembled the connector in one end of the tube and then filed off the nubs on the other end of the connector for easy assembly. The cats were intrigued by the bracelet glow sticks as I threaded them together. Easy peasy, connect, snap, shake a bit and thread into the hoop. Join the connector and secure with a couple of wraps of gaffer tape. Play :~) They glow nicely. I should rough up the inside of the hoop a bit I think, but I didn't do that tonight. It was fine, but I think it would be too slippy unsanded if I wanted to do shoulder tricks, which I struggle with anyway being so sloping shouldered. I might also run a bit of spike tape around it. Not sure. It was fun to hoop with. Sort of looks like a rainbow as it spins round. I would certainly take one to a venue or camping trip rather than risk loosing my PSI hoop. Cheap and cheerful and worth the effort.

Happy New Year to Everyone

Sue — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 19:48:50 GMT

I don't know about you, but I find New Year a strange and rather sad occasion. I'm sure I'm not supposed to think that. To me the end of Christmas time and it's hoped for peace and relaxation, to be followed by the notion that the new year will be great and a new start and deserving of huge effort and rush all over again, is just sad. The year will be hard work; because they always are. The 'new start' syndrome tarnishes very quickly and leaves behind a sense of failure if you are not careful. As a result, I really dislike parties on new year's eve. All that mad frenzy of counting down the clock - and then what? More drinking. As you can see, I may well be a party pooper with this sort of attitude so for quite a few years now I've made sure we stay at home and see in the New Year quietly with just the two of us. We like it like that. This year however, I've sort of been tricked into going out. I tried so hard to avoid it, but people sometimes don't get it that we like to be quiet. We are both only children and we don't have the need for noise and company that people from larger families sometimes have. So, this year "thank you, but no" would not be taken as the answer and we have to go out to bring in the new year with some people in the village (who we like), but also with their family that we don't know! My idea of stress this one ;~) So, I'm about to go and get ready and I'm hoping that it goes OK. Party pooper I may be, but I don't begrudge others their fun and hopes and so I would like to wish a Happy New Year to all of you who are reading this and to hope that your own celebrations are just what you hoped for and that the new year brings with it health and happiness and lots of hooping. LONG LIVE HOOPERS!

Update on Ow, ow, ow!

Sue — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:03:40 GMT

Thank you to everyone who sent me good wishes for a speedy recovery from my bruises. I fell on Sunday and now it's Thursday and I'm just starting to feel like it's passing off. It really shook my skeleton up! Yesterday I had a session with my chiropractor and last night I felt looser and more organised again. I slept much better too. I can now lift my arm to use my hair dryer, so that's good and my neck is OK now. I have a most impressive bruise, spreading out now on my leg so that half of the front of my right leg is a bruise resembling a galaxy in shape and pattern! I still can't lie on it though, so not able to sleep on my favorite side. I couldn't let a hoop rotate on it either. But I generally feel much more normal today so I intend to try a hooping session later and I'm just in the process of organising a session in the village hall for Friday evening next week for anyone in the village with hoops (there are a few now) who want to come along and have a bit of a session with music and a few drinks and nibbles. So thanks again for the concern and recommendations. I have used arnica on the bruise throughout and it has helped a lot. I now also have some in tablet form. It's just so great to have hoopy friends. :~)

Ow, ow, ow! :~(

Sue — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:09:59 GMT

Don't think I'll be hooping much for a few days. All this dratted wet we have been having, today I was at a friends, we were pressing apples and drinking hot apple juice with sausages in rolls and having a nice time. I went to help gather some more apples and tried to go up two wooden steps to the lawn. My trainers obviously are not meant for slippery conditions and the wood was like ice with wet slime. Both my feet went straight out from under me, sideways, and I slammed down onto the steps hard on my front right hip and thigh. I jarred everything all over, strained muscles in my right shoulder so that I am having a job reaching out and lifting a cup of tea, covered myself in mud and now have a huge step shaped bruise forming on my leg. It's really painful. I've put Arnica on, but this is not going to bear pressure for several days. I bruise easily anyway. It all happened so fast. All I wanted to do was lie there thinking "what happened?" but had to get up and pretend I was fine. :~( Feeling sore.

UK Hoopers - We Need to Blog more!

Sue — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:18:37 GMT

It seems ages since we were all busy blogging away on here. Tribe seems to have stabilized a lot yet it's so very quite. I'm missing you all. What are you up to? Have you had any fun lately? Are you being organised and planning ahead for Christmas or will you be like me and leave it to the last minute? What hooping break-throughs or blocks have you been having? I'm working hard on Fancy Tapes, theatre and trying to keep some time for hooping. Mostly I fail on the hooping because I want to be outside in the fresh air but it's just that bit too fresh and soggy! So as I sit here in the middle of a stock-take of tape prior to unpacking a new shipment, what are you all doing?

Hooping has made me fitter than I thought

Sue — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:03:05 GMT

I used to ride a bike a lot for fun. Not serious carving up of the miles stuff or speed or anything, just riding, looking at the view and enjoying the sensation. At one time when I live in town I commuted to the office on a bike. But for some reason, in recent years, I stopped. My bikes moldered in the barn. Then I discovered the hoop and shed weight and knew that I'd toned up. A couple of weeks ago I dug one of my bikes out from under its cover and looked at it. Flat tires, dusty and dirty. I brushed it off and took it for a spin but not far. The gears were slipping, the saddle was always uncomfortable and hadn't improved with age! and the brakes squealed. I also had to keep stopping to re-inflate the tires. But I remembered how much I had enjoyed riding it and I was amazed at how fit my legs were for the pedaling. I would have expected to be really tired very fast and incapable of getting up the hills. But I wasn't. I took the bike into a local bike store and had it serviced and got it back yesterday with new inner tubes, new brakes, adjusted gears and a new saddle! I am so excited about the saddle. Any true cyclist would be horror struck, but it's wider than the old one, has lots of soft gel in it and even has springs!!! I've not had a bike saddle with springs since I was a teenager. So today I dusted off the rest of my equipment and gear and went for a nice long ride in the country and it was really enjoyable. My legs work! All those hours of hooping, without realising it, have strengthened my thigh muscles really well. I'd forgotten how easy it is to pass a tiny track, think "I wonder what's down there" and just go and have a look. You never do that in a car. I'm feeling invigorated, but a bit chilled so I think I'd better get more warmly dressed now. How nice it is to rediscover an old forgotten pleasure! Oh, and I've managed to do a shoulder duck out first on the right side, then round on the left in one go as it were. And I've repeated it several times, although never when my husband was watching. Have a good weekend everyone. Tribe seems to be well behaved as well. All good stuff.

Glorious Weekend

Sue — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:51:48 GMT

Well, we didn't expect it, and the weather reports didn't really predict it, but it's just been a most glorious weekend. Like early summer. But it's gone really cold this evening, unlike evenings in early summer. I didn't want to play out with my psi hoop, it was too cold and too dark. But I did get to play with it last night and Dave finally set too and took some pretty stunning photo's of my lovely hoop in action. I've uploaded them and changed my profile picture to honor his work, and because I love them. Apart from very brief skirmishes of housework in the mornings I've spent the two days outside and it's been lovely. I've actually made more hoops than I hooped myself, but I got some practice in too. I had a back-log of hoops to make for villagers and now some of that back-log has disappeared. The only thing missing was my chickens. I originally had 4, then after a while 2 died of natural causes, leaving me with 2. They carried on happily, but I lost one to illness a few weeks ago, and then this week I lost her friend and my last chicken. The coop is eerily silent for the first time in around 6 years. I keep looking over expecting to see them. I know they were only chickens, but I was very sad when I took the last one to the vet to be put to sleep (my farmer Grandmother would be turning in her grave thinking I took a chicken to the vet to be put to sleep!). They were pets and followed me around like dogs would. It doesn't make sense to get more before spring, so I must get used to the empty coup for a while. Still, can't be sad on a lovely weekend, so time to enjoy a G&T and remember all the funny things they did. And believe me, chickens can be very funny!

Small Steps for Mankind - Huge Leap for Me!

Sue — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:39:00 GMT

After trying like mad last year to no effect, and recently trying to learn to do something with twin hoops, tonight I suddenly had a breakthrough and I can now do a proper 3-beat weave with my poi!!!!!! You wouldn't believe how happy that made me :~) Can't do it with the hoops mind, but a start is a start. I can do a sort of 2-beat weave with the hoops now. Ah, glory days.

HoopGirl Level 2 - The Cool Down.....

Sue — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:34:26 GMT

OK. So we finished level 2 in Nuneaton on Tuesday evening. And for once I was more or less speechless! In fact, I'm still finding it hard to write about it. I loved level 2. It was the best bit for me. As a personal development course it was excellent. Whether you plan on teaching or not I think you should consider these programmes because they deliver so much in so many ways. Basically, just spending time in a room with Christabel and Candice, two very professional, intelligent and observant people is great therapy. Couple that with a hoop and a lot more people who love to hoop and you have nothing but success on a plate! I can safely say I felt it like a holiday from the usual stresses of life. Because I did level 1 and then 2 with only a day off between (and that was spent hooping with some of the girls anyway) I did actually feel I needed to switch on the Internet news one night just to make sure the world was still working. I honestly don't think we would have noticed if something major had happened. At the same time as learning we were of course being put through our paces in Christabel's classes. And for the first time in my life I enjoyed an exercise class. In fact I even enjoyed 3 in a row on the same day which gave me such an endorphin rush I couldn't believe it. I feel the lack yesterday and today. I'm back stuck at a desk or driving or something and I need to feel that unbridled energy again. Yet the grass needs cutting desperately and is wet, so not attractive to play in and I can't quite summon the enthusiasm for lone hooping again yet. I feel as if my hooping reached into a new level by doing this. I'm able to spin it faster and I've learned that blindfold hooping is incredible and can result in a completely different way of moving. My abs have showed up for the first time in decades and I'm sure it's down to the fast oscillating movement I discovered under the buff. I want to do more of it. But I'm afraid that if the neighbours see me going frenetically crazy in the garden with a blindfold on I'll be sectioned!!! The farmers over the road spend all day in and out of the drive of the farm and they get a full view of me practicing. I've actually become a bit more self-conscious again because I want to let myself go more. But the end result? Fantastic time. I got to meet wonderful women from around Europe and beyond and I got to hoop like mad. The possibilities of how to incorporate this into my work and my life are many and I'm pondering on them now. Would I do it again? Yes!

HoopGirl Teacher Training - Level 2 - Notes from someone stuck on the ceiling

Sue — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:53:53 GMT

I'm on a hooping holiday! I registered to attend HoopGirl Level 1 in January I think it was, and then shortly after I registered for Level 2 as well. At the time we had no idea that the tape import business was going anywhere and I expected to run classes as a result of the training. But since then the tape business has made a cracking start and we have both decided that we will give it a proper shot by concentrating our efforts on it. Since I was the one with less of a demanding schedule, this has become my employment, by job. But Dave is busy supporting it technically between his other commitments. This meant we decided I should not teach formally at this stage because it would be too distracting and time consuming trying to do both at once. One at a time. Who knows, I may teach later when the business is running smoothly. Maybe I'll not have the time. But I will be doing informal teaching just to make sure I end up with some people I can hoop with locally. This has changed my focus for the course. I am using it as a personal development and training programme, and boy does it live up to the challenge. Most people who are employed by a company or corporation get sent on boring 'team building' exercises. They should send them all to one of Christabel's master classes instead. Last year I don't think we had a holiday and this year we've only had 5 days, so this is both personal development and a holiday! Since I've got home tonight I've been working one way or another, but although it's 9.30pm I'm still on the ceiling from today. I enjoyed Level 1, and from the point of view of someone who is using the course as a personal development programme rather than an out and out teacher training, it was excellent. But today was AMAZING! I woke up feeling anxious because I just didn't think I'd be able to keep up with everyone as Christabel had said today was to include the bulk of 3 master classes and I'd never put my tricks skills level to the test before. I know I can do the basic tricks quite well these days, but this was going to be different. Plus I am prone to getting very hot and bothered and I was worried about that too. But then we started. First off we were treated to some blindfolded hooping aka Baxter and the HoopPath. It was so good to do! I didn't feel that I moved my feet, but I was constantly being towed out of danger and I ended up the wrong way round to where I thought I was at the end. But it was such a liberating thing to do. I was really whipping that hoop! I will be doing more of that. I have my own Buff now. Actually I have 2 I liked them so much. My hair is prone to looking like the Wild Man of the Bog after a bit of exercise and this thing totally controls it. I will live in them when hooping I think. That session set the tone for the day. Move after move, process after process. Not all of them have stuck in by any means, but I hope I have the basis to go back and learn them properly when the training is over. Now I understand some of the mesmeric HoopPath moves I've admired so long. I've had the most amazing buzz all day, and I can't really knock it off. If I could go hoop I would but it's raining. To say I'm on the ceiling is an understatement. Couldn't stop talking about it when I got in, poor Dave! He spent the day photographing the rest of the tapes we didn't have pictures for. So Fancy Tapes web site looks great, but it must have been a bit boring for him. On top of all this, I got to meet Diana Defries again today and to finally meet Sharna - my hooping hero. The woman who started me on this path of liberation and discovery. It was so good to see her in the flesh, but because of Tribe it wasn't like 'meeting' her. More like we had already met and just came into the same space again. The best thing about Tribe is the ability to really connect with people so that you can have this instant slotting into a friendship sort of thing when you meet. This has happened several times this week. Well, I must try to get off the ceiling and eat something. But I couldn't wait to post about the day. Can't wait for tomorrow. More when it's over.

Nuneaton Hooping Day - Great Fun!

Sue — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:19:46 GMT

It seems a long time since I had anything much to blog about. Not that I let that stop me very often. But I have enjoyed a hoop-rich weekend this week and I loved it. Here is a long (because I can't help myself and I do type fast!) account of it. I hope you enjoy the tale. First, on Friday night I joined Alan, John, Amanda and Sam at Nuneaton where we met (I'd not met Amanda and Sam before) and hooped together for about 1.5 hours (I was late, someone shut the A5!). It was a great session. The first I'd had on a firm wooden floor for a while and I really enjoyed it. Then on Saturday in the morning I went back to Nuneaton and Joined John and Alan again and met Gail and Rebecca for the first time to hoop in the town centre. The first thing I found was how nice all these new hoopers are! I mean I've messaged them on Tribe, read their posts, sold them tape and generally got on with them, but to meet in the flesh was so good. As Gail said at some point, it doesn't feel like we just met. Once we knew what we all looked like we just got on with it. Nuneaton was holding a celebratory event in the Park for the 101 birthday of the gift of the park to the town. We were in town in the morning to drum up interest in getting the public to the park in the afternoon. We had a nice, central area to hoop in and we were surrounded by people either watching, trying to pretend we weren't there and looking embarrassed at the same time, or people just going about their business and having a brief look as the passed. We had music and the sun shone after an early promise of rain. It was great fun. There was a moment when I thought to myself "if anyone had told me a year ago that I'd be doing this in public I'd have thought them mad". I was aware of the watchers and I didn't care one bit. At one point a woman clapped us! There was the usual melee of children trying it out, with one or two adults too. One little girl was so good at it and so keen she stayed until we packed up despite her Mum wanting to go much earlier. I have secretly taken her name and address and told her Mum I'll make and send her a hoop. She was a natural and she obviously liked it. We had a bite to eat then moved to the park. The idea had been that we could have a couple of hours just hooping together for fun and then a pre-planned hour in a fenced off area to invite the public in to try. But as soon, (and I mean as soon!) as we put our bags and hoops down kids descended and started to pick up the hoops. I realise now that all the talk about how entitled people feel to take others hoops is very real! Both sides of the Atlantic. I had taken 3 hoops, none of them glittery specials and I'm glad they weren't because I could not keep them from people. Part of the problem being that I think the numbers had taken John by surprise. I would say there were far more people having a go this year than last year, and so the hoops he took were just not enough. At times I ended up without any hoops! We instantly realised that we were going to find it hard not to loose hoops in the open space so we moved into the arena straight away and stayed there all afternoon apart from a short appearance by a dance school and we were mobbed for most of the day. We did manage to get up a corner together from time to time to swap moves which was great because I've picked up a few new things to practice. But we also had to stop children from bouncing on hoops, tugging them and generally hogging them. One girl had two on at one point and one of them was mine. Gail went over to get it back for me because that was one of the times I was hoopless and probably looking annoyed about it. She asked the girl if she could have it because she had two and there weren't enough to go round and the girl's reply was "that's my friend's hoop" (ie no you can't have it) to which Gail gave the priceless answer "actually it's MY friend's hoop and she'd like it back please". But all in all, despite the hard shower of rain mid afternoon when we all hid in a tent selling plants, we had a great day and managed to get a bit of sunburn despite applying cream. Again it was lovely to meet other hoopers for the first time, who included Ruth and Mel and Alan had his first poi lesson from Mel too. But the weather was very rough and windy and got worse. The same tent we had sheltered in later ended up inside out and in a tree! For the evening John had arranged for some of us to go to on to a fund-raising event for a local hospice called a "picnic in the park" with a brass band playing. We were to hoop in the interval and again get people to have a go. Claire prepared a feast for us all including Pimms and Lemonade and strawberries and cream with loads of sandwiches. But it was dark and very windy by then. Hardly had we got set up and it started to rain. We got the hoops under cover and battled on. But it rained harder and harder. The organisers came round and handed out plastic rain capes and we gathered umbrellas. Being British, we soldiered on. We know how to talk about the weather here, main topic of conversation sometimes, but we know how to pretend it's not there too. We abandoned the idea of hooping in the interval when it became so sodden that we would have slipped and let's face it, the evening was now an endurance challenge and no one would want us to elongate it for them. Plus, it was pouring with rain and we didn't fancy hooping, well Rebecca was still sounding keen, despite shivering like mad, but sense prevailed ;~) I don't think it was really a hoopy audience anyway. They were a bit elderly on the whole. Just to give you the full picture, the brass band were under an awning. But some of them were near the edge. As the time progressed they were given plastic capes to put on, then sheets for their legs. At one point I saw a musician stand up and tip his plastic chair forward to empty the gush of water collected on it! He was sitting in inches of flood. The glockenspiel went out of tune and I saw the girl playing it trying to dry it with her sleeve and hold her music on with the other hand. I won't even mention the amateur singers who were supposed to be part of the interval entertainment but who came on first because of the weather and despite no cover and no idea how to sing in the open air (if at all - sorry, but they were dreadful and no other word for them) battled through their repertoire relentlessly. Sitting huddled under a brolly in a plastic bag I was out of patience for such a performance. At the point when the picnic was eaten (in part anyway, but Claire thought we 5 were 10 so we hadn't made much of a dent) or was floating we decided to leave them to it and packed up and went home. But although we were wet and cold, it was all part of the typical British summer and didn't dampen the enjoyment of the rest of the day. The (fuzzy ancient camera phone) photo above shows Claire (fetching yellow plastic bag free coat), Gail trying to keep herself and the picnic dry and Rebecca, who did have a brolly, but not at that point. On the way out a man (presumably an organiser) said to Rebecca "I've been looking at your legs all night...), I'm sure he meant because it was so cold and wet and her legs were bare, but it could also have been that hers were possibly the youngest there and certainly the only ones on show! An unfortunate turn of phrase which I had to stop myself laughing out loud at. All in all, this hooping lark is a lot of fun and I'm very glad I found it one year ago.

Shoulder duck out - Stunned!

Sue — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:44:55 GMT

I just did it!!!!!!!!!! Unrepeatable, didn't breath, had no idea what to do next until it fell off, but I got my head out and the hoop rotated twice round my shoulder before it fell to the floor. I used my biggest 20mm hoop and miraculously it was in my second current! So now I know it is possible even with my sloping shoulders. That's cheered me up no end.

Busy Time Being a Nun!

Sue — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:56:40 GMT

Well, there probably won't be much hooping this week because of the play. We opened tonight with Once A Catholic in Leamington Spa. I'm doing the duel roll of stage managing the production whilst also being in it. Not easy and has caused me a few sleepless nights. As far as I know no one has ever tried to do it before at this theatre. But I'm head of stage management and couldn't find anyone to work on the show so ended up having to do it even though I was cast already. We had long since ceased to find it funny but happily the audience seemed to find lots to laugh at so that set us off to a good start. My husband took the photos for this production at the dress rehearsal on Sunday and captured me on the stage managers desk in my nun's costume with headphones on. I like this multi-tasking photo. I tried to take a hoop with me on Sunday because I wanted him to take a photo of a hooping nun, but we couldn't get one in the car owing to having the seats folded flat to transport a garden bench. Shame. I feel that would have been a funny photo.

A Really Good Hoop Session

Sue — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:25:48 GMT

Hardly time for anything with rehearsals coming to a head now for opening night next week. But I don't have to go to the theatre this evening. Instead I went up to the village hall and hooped for a bit. It was a good session all round, but I really got into speed hooping on the hips and thighs to Simple Minds and it was a wonderful feeling. To be at one with the music, the hoop and myself all at the same time. Trouble is I want to do it again now and the dinner is on, so I can't. :~( No new hooping photos. But here is a rather nice one of Jinny, my pretty red Burmese taken the other evening.

Good News

Sue — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:09:29 GMT

I haven't blogged for a while. But then I've been pretty busy. Hardly any time to do anything properly it seems. But I had some good news last week and I wanted to share it with you, just in case anyone else ever has the same problem and thinks it can't be fixed. My hair started to fall out in large quantities at some point in the autumn. I'm not really sure when, I just became aware that there was loads of it floating in the bath and blocking the plug. I have thick hair, so it didn't show, or not for a long time. But to me it's really obvious. I thought I was damaging it, so I stopped using hot tools on it, but no way could I contemplate not having it tinted because I'm more or less white haired and have been for years!! I'd look really old without hair colour. By Christmas I was very worried. I went to the doctor and they examined the scalp, yes it was thinning, no there was no reason. So they took a blood test. Results - fine. Nothing that could be done. This just happens sometimes. My hairdresser (a man) said "it's your age dear" a comment that's not true and so demeaning. And still it kept coming out. I mentioned it to a friend at the theatre the other week and she asked me if I'd seen a trichologist. I'd never heard of one. But I looked into it and they are hair specialists. So I found one and booked a consultation. She asked me to take my blood test results with me. And low, she sees that my iron reserves were very low. My daily iron in the blood was fine, but my reserves very low, way below anything capable of replacing my dying hair or stopping it dying back further. The cause, probably a huge amount of stress we had to deal with in the early summer. Evidently stress often makes hair fall out by depleting the iron reserves, but it takes a couple of months after the onset of the stress to start showing so it's easy to miss the trigger. Everything else was fine. I am growing some new hair, but not enough. My roots are weak. Answer, I need an iron supplement to boost my reserves to encourage new growth and stop the old shedding. 3 tablets a day is all it needs. It will take a couple of months to take show the effect, but I don't mind that. I'm just so relieved that I'm not going to have to go bald. If only the doctor had picked up on this I could have been well on the way to a full head of hair again. But they just saw that I wasn't anemic and so didn't go further. It's been like lifting a weight off my shoulders so I wanted to share it with you. Pic: a new hoop that I've called Blackberry Fizz! Pretty isn't it?