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“Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy shit…what a ride!’”

~Hunter S. Thompson

Now that I actually have time to post a *real* entry about SL, here goes.

To begin with, I wasn’t going to go to Southern Lights as I was quite simply too poor to afford a ticket. Thankfully, the gorgeous Safire stepped in and offered me one of hers in exchange for hugs on demand. A fair trade. The festival kicked off on Friday the 11th, but I was booked that day to celebrate a friend finishing exams.

The Southern Lights camp

Friday evening went swimmingly, with a bunch of people back at hers having an awesome time. We did sort of lose track of time and before I knew it, it was light again and I had to leave to get home, pick up my stuff and run. This I did. Eventually I made it on the train, having run for it with a fairly weighty backpack containing mainly circus toys, paraffin and food.

When I eventually made it to Southern Lights, the party was in full swing and I wearily stumbled up the hillside to a vacant spot on the ground to pitch my tent. No tent-pitching was done for about 20 minutes as I simply collapsed on the grass and lay there, unable to move for exhaustion.

Oscar & I doing poi at sunset

Once things were settled, I set about exploring. I bumped into Skins who turned out to be my next-tent neighbour, said hi to Greeny and Oscar who were spinning away and found Thomas who was teaching a workshop on poi. A bunch of people from Spinning @ were around as well, which was good.

The events of the following few days are too numerous to list in prose so I will make it easy

• I had my arms painted in different patterns with SPF 30 theatre paints, meaning I now sport a patterned tan!
• Took some amazing sunset poi photos with the help of Skins’ camera and flash gear
• We had countless workshops taught by Thomas, G, Loooop and entire hours spent experimenting with things and just letting information sink in
• Spent a good chunk of time hanging out on Jan’s porch, exchanging massages with a load of people which was both fun and educational.
• Had a wine & cheese party while the pub quiz was happening with real Brie, Gruyère and all manner of other cheeses that had miraculously not grown legs and escaped in the heat.
• Drew shapes in the dark with some LED finger rings
• Ingested unhealthy amounts of sausage rolls, jaffa cakes and houmous.
• Cleaned up my stalls immensely
• Re-engineered my poi for extra length after playing with Thomas’ set

Ostensibly NOT packing

Eventually, things wound down and I found myself awake on Monday morning at God knows what time, convinced that everyone had nearly finished packing. So I feverishly stuffed all my belongings into my backpack and poked my head outside to find that nobody was up except the sun, the birds and the ever-present sheep. Cursing my misfortune, I unrolled my sleeping bag and passed out.

3 hours later, people were up and between packing, poi-ing and drinking with relish, gratitude and tears of joy in my eyes the steaming hot cocoa that Jan had cooked up, I managed to get everything squared away and was faced with a dilemma: whether to take the minibus to the train station and get the train to London or whether to get a lift to the station from Jan.

In the end, we all decided it would be much more fun for me to lie across her back seat with 3 people supporting me all the way to London.

All in all, an EXCELLENT festival and I am going again next year!

How I spent Monday afternoon. With 100% more door.

Since I could ill afford to travel by rail or air, coach was the only option. A 12-hour overnight one. With screaming babies. Joy. Being an adept of ‘sleeping on transport’-fu, I had no problems Upon arrival, the plan was to go to the Illicit Still for breakfast as it’s well known that they do the best breakfasts anywhere. Alas, they were shut so I had to make do with square sausage at ‘spoons.

Eventually Cat showed up after work and things got underway. Preparations complete, we headed off to Corinne’s place with burgers, sausages and some instant BBQs for cooking and general tomfoolery. Everyone was having an awesome time when we rocked up so we joined in the fray and had the evening of our lives! Here is a quick recap of what we got up to!

I can’t wait to get back there when the weather’s warmer and partake in more shenanigans!

One should always be drunk.
That is all that matters;
That’s our imperative need.

So as not to feel time’s horrible burden
One which breaks your shoulders and bows you down
You must get drunk without cease

But with what?
Wine, poetry or virtue as you choose.
But get drunk.

It’s a gorgeous day and I’m off to play in the sun.

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Enjoy!

So here is “Finding the G Spot!”

Also, stay tuned for a “getting started in poi” video coming from me!

The next time you see a fire video, those sloppy planes will be long-gone!