luckykaa | Entries tagged with trapeze

Hadn't done anything on a trapeze for a while. Manchester has at least two aerials studios with classes for beginners.

The Circus House did a mixed aerials class. 2 weeks of Trapeze, 2 weeks of hoop, 2 weeks of silks. I got to the end of the course, and there wasn't really anything else.

So I tried Cloud Aerial arts. I went for Rope because it fit my schedule.

The location is the run down, dilapidated, mugger district of Manchester. Rally quite charming. So I parked the car, walked past the boarded up shops, typed the code for the tough security door, and went up the concrete steps trying to find the place. It wasn't all that clear which floor it was but since the location is "The Skyloft" I correctly guessed it was at the top. And there was so much activity. Seemed to be 3 classes happening at once. And the studio was way smaller than the circus house or Circus Space in Brighton.

I managed a Russian climb. I then did a French climb; which I always find easier. I managed straddle. I sort of managed clothes line. I don't have the body strength to do a one arm hang. I'm sure I'll get there. I had fun!

Crossposts: https://luckykaa.livejournal.com/637339.html

I was feeling the need to get out more and do something physical. I need the exercise.

Trouble is, I'm not very competitive, or team oriented, so team sports don't work for me. I find gyms and jogging boring. I do, however, enjoy dancing, and circus skills. I had a lot of fun when I did trapeze, and Ceroc.

Dance classes were a no-go. All the ones I found clash with other things. But there is a circus skills course. I had a choice between aerials and tumbling. I chose tumbling. I'm undecided about whether I chose wisely.

The thing is, it's really hard work. And I lack useful skills such as body strength and coordination. I'm the least fit and least coordinated person there. And after the first week, I was aching everywhere. And I am finding it hard to do the basics. I collapse when I try a handstand. I can't get my head around all the steps in a short space of time. And the conditioning is completely knackering.

But that's the negatives. I do feel I'm learning stuff. I did have fun doing a front flip and attempting a somersault (we had a harness. It was safe). And the conditioning probably is building up my muscles and stamina.

So despite the struggle, it's a lot of fun. And I have 3 more weeks of torture to see how it goes.

Crossposts: https://luckykaa.livejournal.com/635119.html

Last week I bought a car. It's very nice. A Blue Toyota MR2 - 2002 reg. It is now fully equipped with an adequate sound system rather than the device with a non-working radio and broken CD multichanger. Still haven't really driven it far, except for a brief jaunt to Worthing and the drive from Bracknell. I want to drive it a lot. I also want to drive it in the summer when I can take the roof down.

Today I went to Trapeze. I had a lot of fun. Emma has been replaced by Vicki and it has a very different feel. A lot more freeform. Went there today and had lots of fun and seem to be making friends.

I'm starting to get too settled. This is a little worrying. I don't want to give up either of the above but I do still want to work in other countries. These two points are incompatible. Actually trapeze class is pretty much incompatible with me getting a contract. Very few companies down here want to take on contractors. I could go permie, but I don't think trapeze means quite that much to me, and I'd need to find a job I actually want to do.

I guess I'll be taking things as they come. Kinda need to do something. Been in limbo for too long now.

This is just a long whinge.

So, this week, I finally managed to get through to Circus Space while they were actually answering the phone, but by the time I got managed all the classes were sold out. Seem to have missed out on the gorilla circus one day things as well.The awesome purple DMs that I'm sure I saw and wanted for my birthday don't seem to have ever existed any more. All a bit diappointing.

Really not happy with how my.Nano rewrite is going. It's better. I've worked out what the problem is with my dialogue. Now I need to address the suiddenly quite glaring issues with a complete absence of any character in my minor characters. Seems that everyone my main character meets is a bored bureucrat. And my heart's no in it. I should probably take a break and focus on something else. It's only a hobby. Why is it becoming a chore? I feel guilty if I don't spend a lot of time reading as well. I really can't work out why. Do I need to justify the investment? Is it that I identify as a sci-fi geek and feel I should want to? Why can't I just sit and enjoy these books when I feel like it?

My concern rhere is that I allow myself to stagnate the four evenings a week I'm away. I spend way too much time surfing the net and arguing with idiots on reddit. Writing is an actual hobby that I feel is self-improving. I want to go out and do something and I can't find anything in Welwyn that appeals. Hell, I should go and visit friends in the vicinity. They're not too far away.

Pah! I'm just rubbish at this life malarky. I should have a great one but I have no idea how to use it.

So, after chronic absent mindedness, I finally get round to booking that trapeze course. I was hopoing to do it online but they only do telephone bookings. I discovered this at 10:30 one evening so felt it was too late. Monday I was too sleep deprived to remember anything. Tuesday I was busy. So I call.

"Your calling credit is running low"

72p might be cutting things a bit close. So onto the Vodafone website. Get as far as the security for my card. It gives a somewhat muddled error that tells me both that I didn't provide correct information and that the service is unavailable at this time and I should try again later. Or their error handling wasn't expecting this particular issue. Try another couple of times. Give up and call.

I hate automated telephone systems. They insist on referring to themselves as "I". It is not a person. It is a machine. It is not at all sorry. But eventually I type all my detail in and it does "get" it.

So all this is doen. I get a recorded messge. "Office hours are 10am to 8:30pm Monday to Thursday..."

IT'S 7:55PM!!!!

Perhaps somebody is telling me I don't want to do this.

The Netherlands State Circus! All the fun of... uhm actually it wasn't that good.

The first half had a juggler who had nice ideas but seemed to be at the edge of his expertise. I've seen far less ambitious performances work better just due to polish. We had a bubble show and a skipping and an acrobat who was actually quite good. But really - bubbles? Skipping? So yeah. The first half was a little underwhelming.

The second half was actually a lot better. There was a flying trapeze act and another trapeze act and a balancing thing which was all quite good, although when someone has balanced five or six things on the end of a knife held between his teeth, a seventh is a little too predictable. Even the flying trapeze seemed like it could do with a little more spectacle. I'd have enjoyed all that a lot more but the first half had managed a bit more wow factor.

So, in summary. It was all a little less impressive than it might have been.

I was standing on a platform, holding on to a bar, leaning forwards with nothing but a suddenly very flimsy looking net between me and the ground 10 metres below.

"Ready" said the instructor.
I bent my knees.
"Hup!" said the instructor.
I jumped forwards. Just a little hop, and I was flying! I was given instructions, but actually this came easily to me. Fying trapeze isn't so different from static trapeze and I'm fairly confident on one of them. This was actually a little easier. Swing myself round at the top of the swing. Iweighr so little at that point. Hanging by my legs was easy enough. I swung back as instructed, let go and fell to the net.

Didn't manage the graceful backflip dismount the experts made look so easy. Still, after three successful swings, there was one more. Swing, get caught by a catcher and drop.

I steadied myself. Jumped at the "hup". Swung round as I'd been told. Stretched out my arms and let the catcher catch me. A brief moment of blissful weightlessness and then I was swinging from another person. He let go and I dropped to the net.

Walked back with an overwhelming sense of euphoria.

Worth Every Penny.

Current Mood: ecstatic

So, I'll be in London tomorrow for a flying trapeze lesson.

That finishes at about 2. Anyone feel like doing something after?

I was always pretty confident at height, and didn't have any nervousness hanging from a bar. It's just last time I did trapeze, I could quite happily fling myself into pike, hang there as long as needed, get into sitting position, pull myself up with one hand and scoop the bar under me to do "flag".

Suddenly not so much.

I was just completely out of shape. It's been way too long since I did this. Rope was no better. I can get into straddle (just) but couldn't hold myself there. Panic reflex just kicked in as I started to tire oh-so rapidly and I had to land. Heavily. Couldn't even make it to the top of the rope.

But it was nice to be back on the bar. It was fun. Just wish I had the upper body strength. Still, that will come.

So, someone's car decided to catch fire on the way to Bristol. That's downright inconsiderate. Glad I had air con and a good audiobook. Am just a bit conerned I'm going to finish this one before the next one arrives.

Trapeze was interesting. Teacher wanted us to bring a skill that we could combine with trapeze. This is tricky. The only skill I can think of that I'm reasonably competent at is dancing. That (a) needs a partner, and (b) relies on footwork. I can juggle a little but doing so while standing on a bar ain't easy. Other skills are a good memory for numbers, puzzle solving and software development.

Is there a new skill that I can learn in 6 days that might be more useful?

I soooo need a trapeze icon.

Still, that was rather good fun.

Did gazelle (sorta - still have trouble with that one). Eagle, hanging by ankles. Basically it was about torturing our wrists and ankles today. Also did a fun doubles thing where we were held up by our ankles.

And managed to injure myself slightly. Pulled/split a toenail.

Next week teach wants us to also demonstrate another skill. Tricky. What other skills do I have?

Ear clogged up, sore throat, feeling tired and thirsty and head-cold-ish all the time (okay, that's probably part of the throat infection).

Really wish I could book myself into a garage for a tune up and replacement parts.

Well, screw healthy eating. I'm going to fight this infection with lots of junk food and calories (and fresh fruit).

Wasn't too ill to get to Bristol for trapeze class. 2 hour session.

Less "fun" than Emma's class in Hangleton. Not that it wasn't fun - spinning around a bar is always a laugh - and well worth going to - Just didn't quite have the atmosphere. Was interesting though. Different people do trapeze stuff differently.

Driving home was tedious. Why are there 6 sets of roadworks on less than 40 miles of motorway?

So, after heading up to Bedford, Down to a convention, over to Cheltenham, I'm now back. Even managed to make it to trapeze class.

Found a nice place to stay for the next 3 months. Bit pricey but the landlady is lovely, the room is large and nice and clean and has a desk and aerial socket and other human beings, and the kitchen has a gas cooker!

Work has been tedious so far. There doesn't seem to be a lot of direction. It's a very bureaucratic organisation. Today my line manager got permission to talk to someone in another department about work related stuff. If I want new software I'm out of luck because I won't get approval until after the contract ends.

I have a regular drive to and from Cheltenham for the next few weeks. This takes me not too far from:

Reading.
Oxford.
Bath.
Bristol.

By a staggering coincidence I know people in all these places.

Unfortunately I don't think any of them actually keep up with my LJ. Will have to bug them more directly.

God, I missed that feeling.

Celebrated with a nice high calorie Chinese takeaway.

Woohoo! Managed straddle climb!

And got into catchers on the rope!

And had completely forgotten everything about Trapeze (It has been over a month).

Should really get downtime for Aliens and Alienation done but I'm really certain I'll go for a new character next time.

Wow! There were a total of just five of us there and a different teacher.

Guest teacher are always so much more pushy than Emma.

This time, after knackering ourselves slightly on rope, we went for a trapeze routine, developed in pieces. Sort of "I went to the shop and I bought..." style.

I went on the trapeze and I performed...
Pike,
Birds nest,
Mermaid,
Star,
Spider,
Lean forward,
Crucifix,

That's a tiring lot. Teach let us off Round the world.

I learned to get on a trapeze. Randomly perusing gumtree for interesting community activities comes up with some fascinating hits.

Also, I learned how to climb a rope. It's not hard, it just requires an understanding of technique. Would have been nice if someone explained it when I was at school and completely unable to get more than 6 inches off the ground. Did P.E. teacher ever y'know, TEACH P.E?

Profile

luckykaa

Navigation

May 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Fun with ropes!
Taking a tumble
Too soon to settle!
Naval gazing
(no subject)
Circus!
Just Call me Singor Bona Slang
Flying visit to London
I used to be so much better at this.
Trapeze and other mad skillz
Hanging in Bristol
Gaaah! I'm falling apart.
Musings
Every muscle in my body hurts
Nothing beats torturing myself with ropes for improving my mood.
I went on the trapeze and I performed...
This young man by name was Signor Bona Slang,

Style Credit

Base style: Librarian's Dream by branchandroot
Theme: Black Lily by Musyc

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Jul. 6th, 2025 11:51 am