Here we go with another write up about my life in latex, we will get back to the Care & Share Balloon Days but developing a balloon magic act was also part of my life in latex and a section that I’m really proud about and wanted to include. Don’t forget we have the very last Care & Share balloon day this week, on Wednesday 2nd July in Sutton if anyone would like to attend, we have 11 people booked in at the moment, in it’s heyday we would get 40/50 people attending. Back in 2006 when they started there was not anything for the balloon twister… now and this is a good thing there are events every other week for the balloon twister to attend which is fabulous and will help to keep on improving our art. For me it’s off to plan… well we have done plan A, B and C and even X, Y and Z but we will still be about, I’m not going away. Next year we already have a two day mystery workshop/convention planned for Birmingham in June. At the moment it’s just £80 to attend and when we announce who the star lecturer is on the 1st January the cost will be going up to £120 but this is for the full two days so I like to think still a bargain and affordable. So please start saving your pennies and hope to see many next year and also a few more for the Care & Share day this week in Sutton. Booking details for both events can be seen here, Balloon Days.
Here we are again with chapter/week 4.
Going back a little over The Millennium Jam and the early years with David. They used to be held in June and David and I always got invited to BBQ’s, well when I say invited… I can’t believe David did this… . I was to blame as well and soon got into the swing of asking people. It did work and was all said with a smile on both our faces, so this is how it went…
We would be talking to people at the event and David would ask if they were having a BBQ one night, when they said yes David would say great, Graham and I are free Tuesday or Thursday, which is better for you and we will bring the beers ROFL.
This went on until every night of the week we were both off to BBQ’s and we would take the beers/wine as our contribution. Sometimes we both got double booked for some of the nights… shock, horror.
This is how our best BBQ came about with Anne and her family, now we had never met Anne before but got talking to her in the Jam, David did his usual talk about what night might they be having a BBQ and then told Anne what nights we had available. Anne mentioned she was here with her family and to give her a minute, she came straight back and said yes, all fine with her husband Jurgen. We had never met them before but it’s a treasured memory that still gives me goose bumps while writing and remembering… such special memories that will live with me forever XXxx
And the BBQ with Anne and Jurgen was deffo the best we had while at The Millennium Jam, so thank you for the memories, cherished forever.
I met so many people via David during the early years, and I think this helped in later years when running the balloon days. David was well known in the balloon world and was just a typical down-to-earth nice guy. When David got invited to a special event he would always say I am here with Graham, and they always said… well bring Graham along as well. This definitely helped in opening some doors and getting to meet people who without David I possibly might not have met and became friends with.
So many people we met in those early years and still wonderful friends, one of the first years I had to help with a tunnel walled balloon entrance made from round balloons, I got paired with Sofie, who is now Mrs Sempertex Europe, we still talk about the tunnel as we dubbed it the tunnel of love. Goodness the memories go on and on, I’m just sitting here reflecting now on TMJ, the tunnel of love and the BBQ’s. Then there is the Macaroni girls, Brenda and Petra, they used to attend the event with their families and they would bring us some food into the jam room……. And I’m sure you guessed it, the first few times it was macaroni, and yes the name stuck. Even when they came over to run a balloon workshop for us in Sutton, they were billed as “The Macaroni Girls”.
Goodness it’s getting a bit emotional all this writing and going back down memory lane.
I was getting a balloon magic act ready, trying out things with magical principles that would also work with balloons for The Millennium Jam 2007…. Goodness I have never worked or rehearsed so much on an act. It was a little different and unusual. I used to show a very good friend Pearse Halpenny all the things I was working on, I knew Pearse so well and could see in his eyes and face gesture if the trick worked and might be usable for the show. It was about this time I was working on climbing inside the big balloon as the finale to the act.. a nod to Andrew Smith here for his help and guidance and knowledge about getting inside the big balloon, it was appreciated.
The hours Pearse sat and watched the rehearsals, even getting the venue to rehearse in, Pearse sitting there with scissors in case he had to cut me out if something went wrong. We videoed everything so we could watch it back, Pearse was shocked as mostly of the time in the videos all you could hear was Pearse talking to me about this and that and everything in between… it was so funny, what a lovely man, Pearse was like a second Dad to me,
Pearse passed away a few years back now in 2016, he had an amazing act and was a very funny comedy juggler…… seriously one of the best in the UK, so funny and so natural, so friendly to just everyone. Thank you Pearse … for being you and a friend for over 35 years XXxx
The first Millennium Jam in 2000 they had a big build of two football players, I think it was the world cup being held in Holland and Belgium while the Millennium Jam was taking place. The build took over a week to complete and is well worth a google.
The same as with the very last Millennium Jam in 2015, they built a balloon Maze that was a Guinness world record at the time, again worth looking at and I remember Olivia, Amanda and Diane working on the design.
That’s me for this week, I’ve still not talked about the Balloon Magic act and its first outing, which I believe was at Diamond Jam in 2006 that Ed Chee used to run..
TO BE CONTINUED… Thanks for reading.
I was trying to find the picture of I think 7/8 people who had attended every Millennium Jam as thought that would be a nice picture to post here. Unfortunately I cant find it at the moment… oops. So this is the maze and football world records. The Maze before and after pictures, from memory there were 5 main points in the maze with each one having a large balloon design inside to view.
