Weekend at Bath

As you may have read from Jamie's blog I went to Bath last weekend for what in no small terms can only be considered an epic weekend. It started with a brief trip on the tube, then a hop onto a train at Paddington to Bath Spa.

The first night we met up with Fiona and Mcgreal in the kitchen where we had a conversation on the awesomeness of the Command & Conquer series which went from the beginning of the Tiberium Saga to the Red Alert Saga and our disapproval for Generals Saga. This detailed the different units available for use and the plotlines behind them; culminating in the watching (on youtube) of what is undoubtedly a childhood memory we have never forgotten: the Hell March. This inevitably followed with further game theme tunes such as the well known and much loved Zelda theme.

The aim (initially) of this was to play Brawl (before we got slightly side tracked), this was basically a one sided game of me getting thrashed by Jamie at least 10 times (sadface) by many different Nintendo characters on his Wii.

The next day will forever be an undying memory especially as it had actually started 2 days before on thursday when I called Jamie asking what was happening and confirming train times. The conversation was similar to this:

Me: So, what are we doing this weekend?
Jamie: I hope you don't mind but I bought you a ticket to a Juggling Convention!
Me:Uhhm ok sounds fun (Let's say I didn't know what to expect)

Thus, we left for this big hall with a high ceiling (yes, a sports hall!), let ourselves in and were greeted with the early morning jugglers who had already arrived. I was amazed to see someone juggling 7 balls at once, clubs, spinning hoops, unicycling. As I had no skill in any of these domains I was initially quite lost, however, I thought: well might as well try something.

I turned to Jamie then and asked him to teach me to juggle 3 balls, as I had been trying to master if for a long time and not succeeding at all. After a brief 30minute lesson I actually understood the basics of how to do it (at long last) and headed off for a 3ball workshop with Sam 'Mario' from GV64. An hour later I was actually managing to do 4 throws in succession - no doubt that the people from GV are very friendly and helpful people (and juggling people in general).

Later that day there was a unicycle gladiator event of which Jamie took part. It was actually quite a vicious sport with people getting pushed off their unicycles and falling to the floor. Anyway it seemed that people quickly realised that Jamie had a lot of skill because after he was attacked by 2 people (without falling off) the onslaught happened again and again without a fall. However what really made it a laugh was the look on his face; one of fear as he desperately tried to pedal away faster from someone else who was equally good (and who won the event). Jamie's undoing came when he tried to turn a corner too quickly and the unicycle collapsed; throwing Jamie from the competition. This said I have to say this was a highly entertaining event to watch (oh and the occassional children who thought it was a clever idea to run in front of people whacking balls with clubs).

That night I saw the evening entertainment which was presented by an amusing compere (is that spelt correctly?). There were 6 acts varying from hoop spinning, clubs, dropped clubs, diablos and finally Charlie and Haggis (whom I knew nothing of until I saw them perform). Watching them made the £4 ticket look like a bargain as they juggled 7 clubs with a highly amusing speel (see Jamie's blog for video) which terminated with the use of a 12 FOOT WHIP. Now this may not sound all that much but when you're basically aiming it at someone else everything changes; especially when that piece of paper is only a foot wide.

Fortunately Haggis was allowed to keep all his limbs and fingers and face. The event ended at around 10, at which point Jamie and I decided to go back to his halls for some dinner with a bottle of wine (or 2).

Having seen his previous post where he downed a bottle of wine with his house mate Oli, I wanted to take him up on that challenge - even though we had already downed a pint before (at Anna's birthday if I recall correctly) and lost - I knew what I was up against. It seemed to start quite well only once it got to half way JAMIE had finished...(http://www.opaquelucidity.com/facepalm.jpg)...watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe0SmEnr0CA

Needless to say it was an easy win for him. We decided that we needed to prepare dinner before the wines effects actually started to hit and metabolising alcohol commenced. What ensued was a mad rush to cook dinner as quickly as possible with help from a house mate who had some spare rice from when the chinese people invaded the kitchen for an hour and took over all the cooking space. The rice was eaten with some strips of bacon which went down a treat albeit quite slowly.

Fiona arrived then after what seemed like forever (drunkenness does strange things to time) and we decided to go to Parade which was closed (fortunately as I had since consumed a further point of cidre). Fiona then decided to go and get her apple tini supplies (well not really because she had no apple juice) but did not want to go and therefore delegated the task to Jamie who ran off to get it while we walked back to Eastwood 4 kitchen.

(Gap followed by sleep).

I have to conclude that that weekend was one of the best and most enjoyable I've had in a while and I may even take up juggling (need some juggling balls first) although I am unsure if such a society exists at Imperial.