haha loving the versace in the jungle lol. you guys look like youre having such an awesome time! thanks for the photos freelea! this is all just cementing my desire to be there, doing bridges on the beach, with you guys in a couple of years.

  <- how cute is this!!!!!!!!!!

he just looks so happy, its infectious. i have a huge smile on my face now.

Its on my birth certificate lol...

But this is the first place ive ever felt comfortable just using my real name as my online 'handle', so thats kinda cool

hahaha oh my... youre all gorgeous...but that pic of Grant.... hahahahaha im gonna be chuckling for a while now...  just in that pic hehe, he looks like a raw vegan crazy cave living hermit or something lol...

wonderful stuff jen. thanks for posting these. so many spunky people on here!! 

hehe you two cuties!!! thats so awesome... i sometimes forget how new this is to some people hehe. Yes, i know CJ. in  fact it is how i make my living when im busking hehe. when it comes to juggling, CJ is my greatest love. it is the reason i got into this world of circusness in the first place... I should make a video for you lovely folks. hmmm give me a couple of weeks and i'll see what i can do.

hehe much love to you both! hehhehe 

thanks for the nice words Jen. when things are not so good, or just a bit all consuming in my life i tend to withdraw into myself a little. thats ok but youre right. maybe it would be nice to open up and let other people cheer me up i'll give it a shot next time.. maybe. hehe

Pea! Good luck! I worked in Merch for Varekai (the same show youd be applying for) when they were in Brisbane! its a bunch of fun! really good crew to work with/for. I had an awesome time being the 'Barker', the guy who stands out the front before the show and yells his head off selling programs etc hehe. Did really well at it too  Had a blast! I hope you get in!

Things with me are trundling along. The universe seems to be doing some strange things lol.. busking is getting my name out a little, and i keep having people aproach me about gigs.. but so far theyve all wanted me to perform for free lol. i worked out with one that i would trade a performace for a costume, so thats all cool. another one is a charity gig, but its not a charity i really support so i might see if we can get a trade of something or other on that one (theyre sponsored by an airline), and one lady wanted me to pay (!!!) $45 to busk for tips at a school fete! hello! i know she didnt mean it that way, but thats just rude! lol. so i very politely declined hehe. nonetheless, i seem to be better off financially than i was a couple of weeks ago.. when pay day came this week i actually still had some money left over from last week.. that hasnt happened in a while lol. and im having a second interview for a place im looking to move into this afternoon. (honestly, who has second interviews for renting a room in a flat? lol) if i get it it will save me a good $40 a week which would be nice lol. i really dislike thinking about money like this lol.

and sorry for filling a post with financial hoo-haa but its whats in my mind lately.

but on the training side of things... doing good! i have a carpet-type burn on my forhead lol (neet get your mind out of the gutter) from headbouncing a ball too much lol. broke, or rather SMASHED my 5 ball juggling record yesterday, landing new ball spinning tricks.. making lots of progress in juggling, slack rope, maybe in tumbling too lol but its hard to be sure. ive chosen to drop all of the arial work except web, which is a releif. I dont have the strength for arials really, and to develop that strength would take training in my own time, that at the moment i fill with extra training for juggling lol. we're starting to focus our training more. and in 8 weeks we get to narrow it down even more.

im starting to think more about performance. looking for good songs to do some contact juggling routines to, and have an awesome song to make a hat routine to, when i find the time. possibly even a hat and cane routine would be nice

its a bit tough at our school (probably all circus schools) coz the admin have an idea of where they want you to go, and you have to fight to make sure that you head in the direction that you *want* to go in. and theres the same situation with all the individual trainers. stan is 68 and from the Great Moscow Circus so he wants everything very classical old school circus, Chris the clowning teacher is very traditional "Red-Nose Buffoon" clown and wants everything that way. I on the other hand am a great lover of 'Dark Art'. I like things with a bit more atmosphere. Not everything has to be safe in its style. But thats ok. We come to a compromise while im here, then once out in the big wide world, i do things my way lol. Besides, this training is good for things like street shows, where being 'dark' or a little off centre in a way that doesnt appeal to or sit well with *everyone* doesnt really make you any money. whereas in corporate gigs or stage shows, you can do that and just aim it at your target market.

blah blah blah.

anyway, things are good im still reading everything on here, even if im a little quiet lol. now its time to get a little juggling in before that meeting. much love to all of you.

-ant

May,

You could make the quince into quince jam or jelly and give it to your family and friends. That way you would still get joy from your gift by seeing it bring happiness to your loved ones, but you wouldnt have to eat something cooked.

Just a possibility

-ant

hehe i'll have to leave this one to the voice of greater experience than mine hehe.. i have no idea one way or another what they are... maybe cut one open?

that, dear may, is a guava

.... hehe and piers is very quick off the mark nice one

we have mangosteens in conventional supermarkets here in Christchurch Sheryl! I was astounded! and thanks for the tip, the first one i ever bought was divine, but i got one yesterday and it was a little bit hard and half of it tasted kinda nasty.

im gonna just sit here for a while and daydream about eating a whole bag of mangosteen hehe. theyre $1.70 each here lol so its really just something for a treat lol....

mmmm mangosteen *sighs*

lol ive bookmarked this thread hehe. it WILL be coming in handy. it may not be for a couple of years, but oh yes, i will be using ALL of these phrases....

anything special i need to know about buying mangosteens grant? lol

The blog entitled Thoughts that come when immediate gratification has gone is a good one. the last paragraph really sums it all up (as a conclusion should i suppose)

Rudolf: go to asian grocery stores. youll find heaps more exotic fruit there. The mom and pop places are great, but they do usually just stick to the things they know.

that is gorgeous sheryl. and you and piers are a perfect example... i recieved my fudge bars thank you, beautiful people! It brought some real joy into my day. i was laughing like a kid at christmas hehe!!! 

oh yeah, mangosteen is definitely my favorite fruit!! so sweet and silky and *swooooon*

one of my fruit adventures, that i will put up here to prevent anyone else making the same mistake, was a Kiwano. theyre a beautiful fruit to look at, orange and yellow with spikes all over them, cut them open and they look even more wonderful, lots of very effective looking seeds, seperated into segments. a truly beatuiful fruit on the eye... but try eating the goop inside and its like chewing little seeds of rubber. with no real flavour to note either.  just sort of this bland, chewy seed goo that you never really get your teeth through... very unsatisfying. its like a big tease. it looks wonderful, but then you get into it and its a huge anticlimax.

dont waste your money. unless its for a decoration in the centre of your table. this is a purely aesthetic fruit.