I can't remember if I've ever been to a circus before, if I have I was probably very young when my parents took me, but I have no recollection of it at all. A few weeks ago, a circus came to town, and I thought that would be a great opportunity to go and see it. There was already quite a long queue outside when I arrived.
By the time we entered, it was already quite full, but luckily we found some seats with a good view of the ring. I loved the lighting effects to keep the audience entertained before the show started.
One of the first performances was the tightrope walkers. I get jelly legs even walking across glass platforms inside tall buildings, so this is definitely something off my charts. One of the guys did a hop along the wire, then he stood on the chair which was balanced on the wire, and for the finale, the two guys carried the girl across with her standing on a pole rested on their shoulders. Absolutely crazy stuff!
The trapeze is another crazy act. The guy on the left is probably the strongest on the team, he is suspended on the bar and is responsible for throwing his team mates around, and I do mean literally throwing. Sometimes he grabbed them by their ankles so they were dangling upside down, and throw them out towards the bar in front. And sometimes he would do a big throw and the guy would land standing pretty near to the end of the safety mat. If he used too little strength the guy would probably land tummy on top of the bar, or if he used too much strength, then I'm sure the guy would be thrown out into the audience. Disaster either way.
Next on were this couple on their roller skates. They were spinning around on that small circular platform at very high speed. Every time the guy did different lifts of the girl whilst still spinning at very high speed, I felt my heart was about to leap out. I was so scared they would lose balance and the pair of them would shoot off the platform. Of course that never happened, but it was still a very hair raising performance.
My favourite act of the whole evening has got to be what I call the Hamster Ring - actually, I just googled it and its called the Wheel of Death. The two big rings are balanced on either side of a frame that spins around as the performers run around inside and outside the rings that also rotate. Initially the guys were inside the ring and they looked pretty chille, even sitting down as the frame spun around. Then both of them climbed outside and stood on top of the ring and kept running as the two pair of rings kept spinning. It was another crazy act because the pair of them had to make sure they were synchronised and in perfect balance so they don't speed up or down the rotation causing the other to fall off.
The finale of the evening is this motor cycle cage. If you look at the person sitting in front, you can tell the cage isn't that big. A motor cyclist first went inside and zoomed around it, revving his engine at high speed.
Then a second one went and everyone was clapping at cheering watching them chasing one another inside.
Just when everyone thought they had achieved the impossible, a third guy entered...
and then a fourth.... and finally a fifth. I forgot to take any photos when five of them were inside as I was so gobsmacked with the whole performance. It was truly an amazing way to round off a thrilling evening.
Overall, there were around 30 acts that evening, and everything went as smooth as ice cream. However, I noticed there were no animals acts, and no traditional clown with painted faces and clown outfits. There was one guy who was like a modern clown, wearing a funny outfit and running around in between performance setups, mingling with the audience and doing silly things keeping everyone especially the kids entertained. Maybe the animal rights movement has had something to do with this, or maybe it's just too much hassle to keep and train animals to perform, and on top of this maybe circuses have to be sensitive to those with coulrophobia. It's a new world!
JUNE HPUD GUESSING CONTEST
This month there were 34 entries to my HPUD Guessing Contest. There was a good range of answers ranging from 45cm to 74cm. Nearly all were on the lower side of the correct answer and no one guessed it correctly, so the prize goes to those who guessed the nearest.....
! [The correct answer is here]
Congratulations ladies! You have both powered up this month so your total prize per person is 20 HBD!!!! I hope you will use the prize to treat yourself to something nice, or perhaps use it to grow your Hive account a little bit more. And as always, thanks to all 34 of you who entered my HPUD Guessing Contest this month. See you again in July!
