Words from the real me

good day yesterday

CircusArtist — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:40:34 GMT

Today I bought a giant inflatable grey ball, the biggest I could find <pictured above in relation to my head> I think its my favorite ball of the collection so far. Yesterday I got my budget approved to make an hour long theatre show for inner ring. Its going to be called 'Bounce' and involve lots of awesome bouncing. I think i'm going to try to fly moon from Italy out here. Bounce @ Capilano College theatre, June 7th. One night only get your tickets asap. also, please come see my hoop routine at Thomas Arthurs show 'Airplay' at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre at the end of the month.

fingers on the keyboard

CircusArtist — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:49:24 GMT

I've decided to start blogging again, for two reasons: (1) I miss Dawn (she is away studying at Uvic) and not being part of the tribe community means i miss a lot of her blogging. (2) My work requires a lot of writing nowadays (writing show concepts, company description stuff for the website and newsletters, school newsletters, etc) and it would be good for me to get back into the habit of writing. Hopefully some of the people who used to read my blog are still out there. I'll try to post lots of neat circus related stuff, things I'm working on, etc etc.

oh my goodness...

CircusArtist — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:00:23 GMT

< ... > I got really quiet for a while there, eh? Back to the juggling, then. Thanks to jaine for her recent outburst of juggle-brain goo.

Office day, evening work...

CircusArtist — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 06:50:30 GMT

I am burying myself in work this evening; Idle hands are the devil's tools. 9-10pm - music editing. I finished the 2nd draft of the audio mix for the BMW corporate show on thursday. I'm happy with how it turned out; have a listen (its a 15 minute show set to funky organic breakbeat stuff) http://www.vancouvercircusschool.ca/music/bmw_final.mp3 10-11pm - run throught my 3 ball section (5:00-7:30) and all the group choreography. Contact the 3 other performers (chris murdoch, jake west, nigel wakita) and remind them of the rehearsal tommorow night. 11-12pm - Found some good photogallery software at the circus school office today. Used it to build a collection from Anomalies, the show i did with Jago. http://ministryofmanipulation.com/images/anomalies/index.html 12-1pm - prepare my lesson plan for the circus classes tommorow. I will keep working... until I am on top of my life, until i can feel a sense of pride in what i do, until 'something' just 'works',

Instinct video

CircusArtist — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:08:04 GMT

I just released a new video over on The Ministry of Manipulation; A short art-object-dynamic promo I call ''Instinct'' http://ministryofmanipulation.com/blog/ryan-instinct-contact-juggling-promo/ I haven't made a video in a while, so.. enjoy. Let me know what you think!

Check 'dis

CircusArtist — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 02:23:57 GMT

Fenfire be tinkin' I is da shite! http://www.fenfire.at/English/Manipulation_Workshop_Ryan_Mellors.htm here's a peak at some video from the student workshop in Vienna http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-7155093549534574114

I did juggle good

CircusArtist — Sun, 20 May 2007 18:47:18 GMT

mostly. Jago and me did our show at the CJC, it went pretty well. My time spent directing the spinner people at fenfire.at in Vienna was really successful, as was the day-long isolation workshop (not as boring as it may sound) The toulouse juggling convention show was a bit of a mishap for me which was a downer but otherwise i'm feeling good about the state of my juggling nowadays. Looking forwards to spending a few days back at the Hangar, and then getting home to my lovely apartment and even more lovely Dawn.

Working life

CircusArtist — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 03:18:16 GMT

I work during the day on the 19th floor of a 21 story office building in the heart of Vancouvers business district. This is the view. Certainly a change.. the view from my room in the Hangar looked down on aerialists, not traffic patterns and gridded intersections. I miss England... but Vancouver seems promising. I'm about to head off to a meeting with the Vancouver Circus School... www.vancouvercircusschool.ca I hope to be working with them a lot in the future. This weekend I'll be in Seattle performing at the Shorecrest Performing Arts Center. I feel very busy. oooh.. and there are some new video releases coming up on The Ministry of Manipulation.... thats the update, anyways. r

Happy Halloween

CircusArtist — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 19:56:48 GMT

Above is my pumpkin from this year... one of Banksy's rats www.banksy.co.uk All is good.. I've had some free time off work (can you tell?) and am finding myself in surprisingly good form with my juggling. Got a show coming up in Seatlle, and am starting to peak the interest of the vancouver circus school people.... who knows what will happen next? Hope all you out there are having fun.... r

4 week update.

CircusArtist — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 02:31:38 GMT

Ive been in Vancouver a month I've been working at UBC for 3 1/2 weeks of that month tonight I found a home. Finally.. the whirlwind that was the past 4 years can settle, and I can look forwards with a sense of clarity and peace. awsome.

Arrived.. humbled.

CircusArtist — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 02:08:51 GMT

so.. its been a month since getting back to Vancouver, and the process of settling in has gone rather smoothly. I picked up work right away (within a day of arriving) and have been doing the 9-5 routine since. Its certainly a big change from the last 4 years... my time is suddenly precious and every second Í'm not at the office (ok.. sometimes even WHEN I'm at the office) I find myself networking with other performers, editing together showreels, searching for living/rehearsal space and sorting out upcoming performances. Maddness.. but the alternative is just to become a normal punter with an obscenely developed juggling hobby. The above email came to me a few weeks back via contactjuggling.org and floored me. Jive is one of the only artists on In Isolation that I've never met, and is the one that I am inspired by. He is the ''proper'' artist amongst a cast of ''learnt on our own'' hippies.... he was trained at the Lido School in France and is currently working with Jerome Thomas,; you can find a link to his showreel here: http://ministryofmanipulation.com/blog/jive-patchwork-promo/ so.. my ego got a little boost there. yay me :) I've fallen out of touch with the Tribe community.. but i hope to reconnect. Thanks to all of you who are reading this blog.. and i hope you are enjoying the stuff coming out of the Ministry Blog. More from me soon, I hope... I'd like to get a few pics up from my little desk at the office. Take care, everybody Ryan

Leaving.

CircusArtist — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:02:08 GMT

A day of travelling and teaching; spent the afternoon on the train coming back from Manchester where I ran a juggling workshop. I'm leaving England; Returning to Vancouver on the 13th of September with the intent to settle, rebuild and create. The challenge of being an artist and leaving your community is intimidating, strange as well because I am returning to my own country, Canada, where I grew and learned to be who I am. It has been too long since I have known the Canadian ideology, now seems so foreign. I've been a circus artist in England for 4 years now; developing a community of artists who share the same passion for beauty and technique. I've created 3 good pieces of performance that I am proud of: Anomalies with Full Moon, my Cabaret short vignettes, and 'Transition' with Anna. So many memories of all the other experiments in performance (Hangar Fun live, the bamboo pole, Busking with Alex, Ed and Dawn, my 3 ball funk solo, the cube show with Silver; so many different characters (Ive been everything from an umpaluma and a giant bug to a rockstar and a mime) London is a wicked place to be in the circus. I'm gonna miss the Hangar.. my studio, my family and my home. two weeks left. r

The Ministry of Manipulation

CircusArtist — Fri, 12 May 2006 00:59:41 GMT

Hello. My name is Ryan Mellors I dont know how closely some of you have trolled through my blog info, but you might have noticed an image in the gallery called ''my schedule: on paper'' and on it, something about setting up a company for media and performance. Well, I did that. And its ready. You can have a look. www.ministryofmanipulation.com Its my new little home on the web; sort of a virtual version of the real life i live. I hope to move this blog there soon. Some fun videos on the site.. worth a look. My friend Will was (wierdly enough) in a Kaiser Cheifs music video called Modern Way. Jea9 has a lovely promo in there. Drew has some wierd stuff, and i've got a lot of my older videos. At the very least, watch Hangar Fun again. You love it, I know. Its special. The big news is that Drew is writing the new contact juggling books. I've read them and they are good. Much more complete than Ernests old-school manifesto... Drew is the right person to be doing this; he has seen the last 10 years of London contact come and go and he's actually pretty good at it! Oh.. and its not called contact juggling anymore. The term 'contact juggling' was a lie created by James Ernest to make everyone into a moschen clone and to give everyone bad posture. I'm not sure what its called anymore, but I'll let you know when drew decides. Oooh. And I'm stating a juggling night at the hangar on thursday. So if you are ever bored, just hop on a plane and get here for 7pm. I'll make you a cup of tea. See you then Cordially yours Ryan

Dear Jugglers...

CircusArtist — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 00:32:29 GMT

please stop being so boring. I know that YOU all think your tricks are cool... I know you find your endless variations on mills messes to be enthralling. I know you would happily dedicate months of your lives to repetitive practice if it meant that your siteswaps would be cleaner. But i just want to let you know.. the rest of us couldnt care less, really. Watching a juggler geek out with technical complexity is a lot like watching a computer geek install a mac-emulator onto his PC. Please dont forget to be human, and to involve US in your strange little world. Please dont forget that you started learning all these techniques for a reason (!) WE like YOU. We want to see you succeed. Please dont make us sit there and watch you endlessly drop, panic, lose your cool and drop again. Its painful. Personally, I'd much rather see you try something WAY beyond your ability and fail, because at least you'd be honest about the fact that you can't do it and then it wouldnt be a big deal to you when it doesnt work. And while you're at it, stop with the multicolored props. Pick one color and stick with it. I'm not 4 years old; i dont look at mismatched props and see a ''rainbow'' of color. I just see bad co-ordination. Yeah. basically, just be human, ok? Normal? Not ''wierd''... Thanks for listening Sincerely yours, Ryan Mellors <1:30am>

Dead rock stars

CircusArtist — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 10:21:11 GMT

<far too tired to write a normal blog... still adjusting to jetlag, but i'm getting back on track> <too much work to do today. It feels great, though...> this photo was taken last year.. just after the last gig of the season. the car broke down on the way home.. we took a cab the rest of the way into the city. I left London a few weeks later. returned to Canada and spent the winter there. A few days ago i was still in vancouver. Now. I made it home. r

Fairy Tale Circus

CircusArtist — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 23:20:50 GMT

http://www.britinfo.net/theatre/show1986783.htm Come see my show on April 21st-22nd in London <I get to have an accordian player! yay!> Its a cabaret that I'm hosting; should be more of a character performance than a juggling show...

Just an early-morning post-tea update.

CircusArtist — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 17:43:36 GMT

Hello people out there in internet-land. I'm having one of those morning where I am staring at my laptop and cant seem to build the motivation yet to get anything on my ''to-do'' list done. So i'm just gonna write here for a while.. and hope that people read it and then respond with all sorts of ''get some work done''/'<kick in the ass>' type responses. I am starting a new project with Drew.. a company in London which we hope will become the home for all types of manipulation/manipulators. My 5 year plan told me that this year I have to start a company, and so the Ministry of Manipulation is being set up. Its a commercial venture, while accommodating to the hippie (we have to build a community and innovate and create) sentimentality, its also going to sell stuff; Books, videos, me and my friends. Site design is taking a long time... stunted by the fact that Drew and I only seem to be able to dedicate around 5 hours a week to this right now. The budget for Full Moon/Beard's," In Isolation", has gotten too big. The initial budget, which seemed huge to me, has been quadrupled. I am now officially scared of this project. I dont know if there has ever been this much put into a juggling video before. I'm lucky that I get to be in it. I need to get myself back to England. I am currently torn between Canada and there. Both seem like good options... with equal benefits. I dont want to live in a studio anymore. I want to live in a quiet house in the country (I want my castle, dammit) by myself. I want to have visitors... and I want to take occasional trips into the city and feel that ''oh my god the city is crazy and how do people live like this?'' feeling. Allright.. for fear of turning this into a completely ramble-y post... Lets make this a big ''I ''want'' list: [1]- I want to make my section of In Isolation brilliant, and I want it to be DONE. [2]- I want to finish The Ministry of Manipulation and show everyone what we've made [3]- I want to make contact with an ex-girlfriend, Sydney, and tell her ''congrats'' on the engagement (its been 3 years since we spoke) [4]- I want to pay off my student loans [5]- I want to stop by my sisters restraunt downtown, and then go juggling tonight with Dawn [6]- I want to be back in the Hangar for one more summer, and then let it go and move on. I want to have a big emotional goodbye, to walk away and then feel like a new part of my life has opened up. [7]- I want another cup of tea [8]- I want to do the theater show in Budapest in October.. and I want to be prepared. [9]- I want to see Remy and say ''hey.. hows it going?" without screaming at her. I want to punch Owen really really hard in the face. I also want to not feel like I want to see Remy and punch Owen in the face. [10]- I want to continue to NOT SMOKE when I return to London (its been over 2 months) [11]- I want to go to New York this year. Allright then I've made progress on [7], while falling behind on [1] and [2] [5] is still possible... assuming i get something done with [1] and [2] in the next 4 hours

Re-united with my soul

CircusArtist — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 08:30:44 GMT

It had been bothing me lately.. in high school, my friends and I didn't take much of anything too seriously. In the quiet hallway at the back corner of the school (where we had aquired several lockers through '''bargaining''), we idled away our youth playing board games (from the games locker), making toast (from the food locker... we even had a hot-plate and made pancakes one morning!!!) and watching TV (media locker, ''Price is Right'' was our fave.. always on after first period so we would all skip our second class of the day) In our indestructible idealism, we played a game of trading souls. You know, ''I'll give you my soul for a slice of bread''.. "Hey, can i get a ride home with you? I'll give you my soul," that sort of thing; purely innocent. After we had built up a collection, the game changed to ''Hey.. can you get me a Twix bar from the vending machine? I'll give you... Rebecca's soul and half of Erics" So.. things got mixed up, we all left school without looking back, and that was 10 years ago. The problem is, recently it actually began to bother me. What if I had actually made a mistake? I'm not admitting to being a particularily religious person, but I have enountered things in my life which at least make me beleive that, as a 15 year old, I probably DIDN'T quite undertstand what I was doing. Did this mean I had to face the remainder of my life as a hollow shell, devoid of any spiritual truth or importance? It became important to sort out what happened and how i could fix the problem... but I had NO IDEA where my soul had gotten to. Until today. I'm visiting High School friends in Kelowna at the moment, and while making a cup of tea, I casually asked Brent, R : "Hey, do you remember in high school when we used to trade souls?" B : "Yeah," he responded, " I kept mine" R : "Oh," I said, trying to mask my jealousy. " Any idea who might have mine?" <pause> B : "Eric" My heart jumped. He sounded so certain. An hour later, Eric (who i havent spoken to in years) appears on MSN. Ryan: hey dude, this is important! Ryan: do you have my soul? remember how we were wheeling and dealing them in high school? did i give you mine? Eric: Yes you did Ryan: can i have it back? Eric: ... Eric: Its all yours. Ryan: hmm.... really? do i need to sign a paper or something? Eric: I relenquish any and all manner of possesion of your immortal soul Ryan: !!! Ryan: THANK YOU, ERIC! Eric: s'all yers Eric: no worries. Just didnt want god, (or becca for that matter) to have it at that point. Ryan: cheers. I owe you a beer Eric: fucking right And that was that. Its back now. Its been ages, too. I'm happy. And scared. What am i supposed to do with it, now that its back?!? <Image source: Roi James, "Meditation on Fragility" http://www.roijames.com/ >

Xmas in Canada

CircusArtist — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 14:42:53 GMT

I'm back in Canada, and all is good. That pretty much says it all, I think. I've seen old friends and reconnected with people I missed. I've sat and had dinner with my family. I played fetch with my dog ''Popcorn'', went to the mall, stood in the rain, caught a bus, and drank coffee. All the staple ''exciting offers' of suburban Vancouver life. Merry Christmas to my virtual community out there... Here is a CBC radio news broadcast from when Aluminium trees were first brought up to Canada from the US. http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-1010-5677-20/that_was_then/life_society/aluminum_trees Ryan

Video - Moving Circles in Squares

CircusArtist — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 03:03:01 GMT

This is what I do. All objects have their own natural dynamics. A ball will roll down a sloped surface. A hoop will settle flat on a floor. A block, however, doesnt ''want'' to do much, other than sit still. This is my solo 'block and ball' section from a show called "Anomalies", as performed in August at the 2005 Circus Space Cabaret in Crawley (UK) year. www.thatballguy.com/videos/RyanBlockBall.mov

Just one day...

CircusArtist — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 20:39:28 GMT

I woke up early... the sun was rising in Budapest and peered through the top-floor apartment window. My bag was already packed, so i crawled into the kitchen and made two cups of coffee; one for me, and the other cup I left in Anna's room (which she soon discovered upon waking). Warm goodbyes... she and I see each other so rarely, but we've been steadily working on this performance with hoops for years. This week has been good for us; we've structured 15 minutes of a new show and it has potential to be really beautiful. We made plans for another meeting in London in April, I said goodbye, grabbed my bags and left. Because I had lost my wallet (first day in Budapest... how is that for shit luck?!? Almost all my cash for the trip, and no access to money from my cards..) getting home was a bit of a challenge. The underground ride across Budapest and the bus to the airport weren't a problem, because (as I learnt from my week with Anna) the controllers rarely ever check for tickets. With my last few Hungarian ''florents'' i picked up a few sweet pastries at a bakery, and they made for a brilliant treat during my wait in the airport terminal. People waiting in the lounge stared at me. As did the people on the bus. Thats what happens when you walk around with a large metal hoop. The flight from Budapest to London (Luton) was gorgeous... the sun was shining on Europe as we flew over Germany and Belgium. The descent into Luton took us over multicolored patches of English countryside, and a group of tourists broke out in cheer when the plane finally set down (either in relief, or in appreciation of the scenery) Once in Luton, the real challenge remained of getting back to my home in Central london.. a 45 minute drive. I found a great coach company, offering mini-bus trips into the city for cheap, so I hopped on (a small bus.. only 4 other people and a great old driver who apparently liked UK garage and 80's pop) and was dropped off in Baker street (in front of Sherlock Holmes house!!!). I didn't feel like jumping on the tube right away, so instead went for a walk through the city down to Oxford Circus, slowly allowing myself to re-adjust to the urban chaos and constant rush. After a short underground trip across central London, I eventually hauled myself (hoop slung over one arm) and my suitcase through the doorway The fire was burning and the Hangar was warm. Alex and Charlotte were home, and soon Drew and Tina came back from the grocery store. Starving, I realized that i had arrived just in time for the weekly ritual of a group meal! We cooked more than enough food and invited some neighbors around. I told stories of budapest... amazing dance studios (we rehearsed in two.. one during the week and another on the weekend, small theaters (Gaelle's club manipulation piece, the physical theater show, and the circus cabaret), the national theater (a very ugly building from the outside where we saw a contemporary dance version of Romeo and Juliet which was brilliant) After dinner, somebody decided it would be a fun idea to play hide and seek. So we did. Let me tell you, hide and seek is a completely different game when being played by 10 circus artists in a big studio in the dark. _Nothing_ is off limits. At one point I saw something move on the roof, and looking up I could see a white blob amongst the beams. It took us several minutes of staring and saying ''is that him?'' before Alex eventually waved his arms. Damned aerialists.... Then we jumped out of the window on the 2nd floor office onto crash mats. After that got boring, we set up a ladder and jumped off the beams of the roof. Alex, Drew and I managed it, Juliet climbed up and got too scared to jump, and everyone else just sat, watched, and probably thought they could do it (but I doubt they could) Then I went to bed. That was my day, from beginning to end. Yay for circus.

Things that linger

CircusArtist — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 23:44:09 GMT

Earlier in the week, I was blessed to see a 'work in progress' juggling performance by Gaelle Bisellach. All manipulation, no throwing, and such intensity. With no stage setting and simple costumes, the performers gave themselves totally to the work, and in doing so gave the show as a gift to the audience. In contrast to this, tonight I went to a big, flashy cabaret-style theater show with fun music and beautiful costumes, and I've all but forgotten about it by now. Just before the end of the show, you could feel the actors letting go, losing their energy and getting ready to run offstage, change and head to the bar. Some things, like gifts given from the soul, linger... And then, while sitting at a cafe here in (snowy) Budapest, 'California Dreaming' by the Beach Boys came on the radio. " I'd be safe and warm If I was in L.A. California dreaming On such a winters day... " Other things, like lost love, are unescapable.

Bound for Budapest

CircusArtist — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 02:03:14 GMT

i've given up on balls; blocks are an interesting challenge, but hoops... thats where my heart lies. I am going to budapest on Tuesday to work with the lovely miss Anna Harazti (dancer and manipulation artist.) She has come to London many times over the last few years to visit my studio, and now its her time to play host. I'm excited.. never been to budapest. Anna and i have been obsessed by hoops since we met at the British Contact Juggling convention 3 years ago. The first time she came to London, we spent 2 days searching every corner of the city for hula-hoops that we could modify into mirrored circles. I remember the story of the day i finally found them.. in a pound shop in Camden. I spent the afternoon taping them up with reflective circus tape, and met Anna that night to see Cirque Eloize at the Barbican. I brought her back to my place after the show, and surprised her with two new hoops. We ran to the park... a summer night in London, and played in the moonlight. The next year we met up north.. walked through forests and fields to the Beard Juggling Factory to purchase new hoops and balls. We returned to London with shiny new equiptment and spent a week together developing new material. This is where the plan began to make a piece for performance at weddings... Her and I, hoops, and a narrative about love and discovery. Sadly, the plan never came together, we both moved onto other project in the winter, and I couldn't find funding. But we met again this year, spent another week together, and now I am heading out to her part of the world... its due time she plays host, and we've got unfinished work to do. Hoops, by the way, are brilliant. And I don't mean hula-hooping. I mean manipulation... Michael Moschens mid-80's ''Circles" routine.

The speed of the city

CircusArtist — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 14:41:34 GMT

In the past 3 days, I have been on: -a Half-hour van transport to the Bahrain airport -a two hour flight to Doha -a nine hour flight to London -a miserable two hour tube ride across london to my studio. -a four hour train trip up north -a long van journey in the middle of the night -a seven hour train/bus journey back to London -an hour and a half long walk home through the city at 5am Thats a lot of moving around. I think I'll stay in today. The second my foot hit the ground in England, I've barely had a moment to think. Rush home, sleep, rush to a gig in up north, rush back home for a quick stop-over and rush to a party called synergy last night. It kills me... But then there are moments like these... An empty circus studio, a warm fire and perfect silence. My next week is nicely chilled out. Editing in the Hangar, hosting a cabaret next weekend, then off to budapest. Stop by for a cup of tea, if you have time. r

Job Done!

CircusArtist — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 00:02:39 GMT

Well.. its 2:30 am.. our last performance officially finished at 11:30pm. Am currently rather drunk.. having sat around after returning to the apartment drinking scotch and celebrating the end of a hard months work. Bahrain has been fantastic... but i'm ready to go back to London. People here are all brilliantly friendly and helpful, yet I've spent enough time here and now I miss the crowded tubes and miserable weather of London. Call me strange.. but its home. Memories... yes.. there are plenty. My first night.. after finishing work... we were playing around with bouncing balls while waiting for the driver and a small girl came up to me and asked me something in a language i didn't understand. After a few attempts, i asked her older sister what she was asking. "She is asking if she can play with you" her sister responded. I rolled a ball to the little girl, she rolled it back. We played like this for 10 minutes or so.. and it was so sweet. I was doing crystals on stilts, and a small boy gestured to shake my hand. I brought my hand down to him, and instead of shaking it, he kissed it! His mother was surprised... I will miss our main security officer, Ali Jaffar, a middle aged man who had probably been working at the shopping center for at least a decade. He developed quite a rapport with us. He went to every lenght to make sure we were cared for, even picking up an extra shift (he had been working every day for the last 2 weeks... tonight was supposed to be his one night off) just to say goodbye. We made him a card. I'll miss Jaffa... our driver to the shopping center every night, was a typical Bahrainy teenager. He spoke in broken english and liked R&B. He drove like a maniac, and there are no seatbelts in Bahrain. We grew to like him, and bought him a CD as a thank-you present. I'll miss Scott, Penny, Emiliano and Raquel; all amazing performers. I feel blessed to have been able to spend a month with these people. I've learned a tonne about circus living, working with agents, publicity and marketing. I'll miss the beautiful sunshine. I'll miss chatting to Dawn almost every night. More than any of my other friends on MSN, she has been keeping me grounded and reminding me why i'm privaledged to be here. I'll miss Shakil, the owner of the shisha-pipe shop at the Sooke (the main market in Bahrain) He treated us as friends, not customers. On several occasions he actually shut down his shop to take us to various locations in the sook.. found cabs for us to get home, negotiated with tailors for Jago and I to make new costumes. He refused all tips, simply was happy to have helped us. I'll miss the faces of kids staring with disbelief at the crystal balls. Out of everything i did here, contact remains the strongest way of connecting to an audience and sharing something beautiful. Kids here just smile.. from ear to ear, caught up in the magic of it all. I'll miss working with Jago. We've crammed nearly 3 hours of rehearsal a day into our month here.. and it shows. The show has new life and, finally, the publicity and theoretical understanding that we needed to take it further. <sigh> Tommorow.. an early morning rehearsal to check that we are on track for our show in England on Thursday. Then a day at the resort club.. swimming in the pool and sittng in the sun. Dinner in town at night, then I pack up.. one last nights sleep, and its an early flight out on Wednesday morning and I arrive back at the Hangar in London on Wednesday night. I'm off to bed... G'night to everyone reading. Hope to see you all soon R