Judith Proctor's Journal

Feeling tired from too much travel - been visiting friends and family over the last few days.

Had just managed to work out my poi routine for the Discworld maskerade - a fairly complicated one using scarf poi and a newly learnt figure called a 'fountain'.  Took me a week and a half to 'get' the fountain, and to do the whole routine without twisting the scarves.

Managed to leave the bag containing poi, cross-stitch and the book I'm reading (my 'on voyage' bag) on the train coming home.  A couple of phone calls elicited the information that the bag (if it's been found) will be in Bournemouth until Thursday (before being taken to Waterloo), but of course, in this day and age, you cannot phone a station.  Great efforts are made to ensure you have no number to phone.  A friend of my son's in Bournemouth did a quick check, but lost property closes at 6pm.

Will have to try again tomorrow, but am feeling frustrated.  If I can't get those poi back, I'll have to re-learn the routine all over (different sets of poi move very differently) and I don't know if I have the time before the convention.

I found this one easier than the reverse weave, but that's probably because I spent several weeks last summer learning some moves whose components fit into the hip reel very easily.

It'll take a few days to get it smooth, but I can do the basic action.

Managed to whack myself on the head a couple of times while practising the reverse weave - there's a reason why I use my fluffy ball poi for learning...

If you stop doing poi, becasue it's been winter and there isn't room to practice indoors, then it's amazing how long it can take you to catch up again. I've been relearning my tricks one by one the last couple of weeks and I've finally hit the point where I stopped last year. I can do 'chasing the sun' once more. It's a trick that involves swinging both poi clockwise in front of you and then both of them behind you going the same way. Unless you get the timing exactly right, the strings tangle very quickly.

Poi are good for stress. You have to concentrate hard on the balls, as the moment you don't, you get whacked by a fast-flying poi. (Women have one serious advantage when it comes to doing poi. Getting whacked by a ball in the balls is seriously painful - or so I'm told by exalted_mugwump...