2006-04-17

Circus fun and follies

When the driver of 34369 pulled out of Whitney Institute without looking to his left, I thought to myself, oh great, just what I need... a trip to the hospital. Luckily, I had enough time to brake (and deliver a honk of the horn the way you're supposed to, as opposed to the usual greeting honk) and let the deliquent joker ahead of me. He then gave me a wave. He should have at least shouted "Sorry" or something.

Further along, I'm stuck behind the same car and in front of him is some delivery truck, licence HC693, who has decided to become a traffic warden of sorts, as he is holding up traffic on the main road into the city, to allow a heap of vehicles from a secondary road to pull out into traffic. Gaaak.

So that's my Monday morning for you after the Good Friday Holiday weekend. You can deduce that I'm pretty miserable right now. By the way, both drivers, are totally Booked.

Saturday, I attended a circus. First circus I've ever attended, by the way. This wasn't the prototypical Barnum and Bailey type - this was strictly human performers doing feats of balance and athleticism. The hosts, one DNA Entertainment, did a good job of providing talent. Many of the performers appeared to be ex-gymnasts, as they demonstrated their strength and flexibility. There were two guys who although very talented, strong and flexible, gave many of the audience members a bit of a "oh no it's Brokeback Mountain" vibe. The chief clown of the day was very entertaining, I liked when he went into the audience and had select members participate in some activity or another. The show's final performers, a trampoline basketball crew, I found to be very overrated. However, basketball's something that Bermudians would identify with far more than people balancing on things or stretching their limbs in all directions while hanging from something, and I think they got the most cheers even when they missed (at least 5, in my count of) their routines. My companion remarked that typically, the Bermudian public tends to not applaud for things (unless prodded, I suppose). Could be right.

However, where DNA Entertainment failed miserably was the part outside of the 'big top'. The concession stand was crammed underneath some of the bleachers (more on the bleachers later), and there was no sense of order there at all. It was the typical Bermudian "free for all" scenario regarding service and any attempts to form a line or anything was easily averted by the many people squeezing in cut ahead. Also, while taking a breather to walk around outside I was somewhat rudely told "you can't go this way". Now, if someone had put up a SIGN or something to indicate where people were allowed to walk, that would be one thing. As it is, I can bet that many other people received a similar cussing-out during the show's intermission period. The bleachers themselves, were shoddily assembled together, it seems. My companion was justifiably concerned about the creakiness of some of the seats and at least one of the floorboards had come off. Seems typical. And a shame to mar an enjoyable day out.

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