Donavin, The Fire Juggler

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10/16/06 to 10/19/06 - Donavin, The Fire Juggler

I juggled fire torches this week, well kind of anyway. I received a text on Tuesday morning from Jonathan (from Texas) who has been here in Auckland going on two years now inviting me to meet his friends at a weekly gathering of performers that use fire. I had no idea what to expect, I figured that it was just a bunch of pyromaniacs getting together to play with fire. Well it was much better than that. The gathering was in a small grassy park with a Stonehenge like stone ring at the base of a steeply slopped U-shaped valley. Those that were there to put on a show assembled in the center of the circle and put on a show.

I ended up doing a bit of juggling myself. Singed some of my arm hair off but otherwise I survived the experience. I’ll be back next week to continue the training. I loved the smell of burning kerosene and the fire and smoke brought back the memories of the two times Ben and I caught our back field on fire!, now that was fun.

Met with Marcos, Jen and Sarah to coordinate our December trip to the south island. Everything is a go and we are off to a good start planning.

Work is fantastic! I’m working on some very interesting projects from a wide range of fields. My favorite job this week was putting together an estimate for nine different pedestrian bridge options for a new link to an existing coast walk. The bridges all came in at around a million dollars plus or minus 100k.

I’m going through autumn withdrawals. I miss the fall colors, enough to the point that I went out on Sunday and hunted down a silk flower shop that had a small supply of imitation maple leaves. The light is a difficult thing getting used to. It’s October, I should be seeing reds, oranges and yellow lights from the fall sun; a real Mannerism pallet. Instead I’ve been engulfed by the brilliantly harsh light of the Auckland sun and all the colors that it brings, blues, greens, purples. I miss raking leaves and putting the lawn mower away for the winter, however I must say freshly cut grass here can be intoxicating. I miss football, Mr. October and an excuse to stay at home and laze the day while it rains outside. This time of year I especially miss that familiar feeling of being a month into university classes,

All my best from Auckland. D

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Comments

[Jim Lesniak]

Thanks again for the interesting blog and photos. I like the smell of burning Kerosene from the antique lamps that we have on our mantle. Somehow, I have just never tried to juggle them!! Jim