Bear blog

The Toys:

I'd specially ordered a Nimbus X, with a few minor alterations, for collection at Scarborough, so the first thing we did when we got there was find Roger and raid his van. Then we sat in the hall and put it together and I got all excited about how shiny and red it was. Then Pete put the frame together and told me that it didn't fit. He talked to Roger, who said that there should be a 7ml clearance on it. Nah. It was upsetting, but I found myself more irked than anything. Roger didn't seem terribly apologetic about it. I'm obviously foolish to imagine that a batch of new products would be quality tested before being sold. He tried to placate me with talk of a temporary frame being made up and a new frame being shipped out to me in a couple of weeks, but that didn't really relieve my frustration. Especially seeing as he buggered off and left Miark to do all the hard work of hunting out the temporary frame for me, and bearing the business end of my grumpiness.

The next morning Pete decided to pump the tyre up anyway and found that it did actually fit. The moulding down the centre of the tyre rubbed, but otherwise there was about 1ml of clearance. So the frames work, but they're still defective. I had to then bite my tongue and apologise to Roger for being mardy with him. Then I hunted round for Miark to apologise rather more sincerely, as he'd apparently been hunting round till midnight to get my frame sorted. I felt even worse when his resonse to my apology was "That's ok; as long as you're happy." It would appear that the onus of customer service falls to the grunts at UDC.

The other toys were all much fun. Lizzy seemed rather pleased with her red Nimbus 24. I have to admit it looked better than I thought it was going to, especially with the addition of a pair of red pedals. Once she'd scratched it and muddied it up a bit, it looked even better. I finally managed to get the seatpost cut down on my own 24 so that I can now ride at a slightly more reasonable height. Rod eventually built his new KH. It was blue and shiny as it should have been.

 

The Venue:

Really rather poor, in my opinion. There were three halls, as well as a few ancilliary bits like the tennis courts and the trials area. But two of the three halls weren't really up to much. They were pretty pokey, and generally had other things going on in them, taking up a lot of the available space. So when the hockey tournament and the freestyle competition were going on in the big hall for the best part of Saturday people who just wanted to ride were left pretty much to their own devices. I felt a bit cheated by it all, to be honest. I'd paid my £35 quid like everyone else, but it seemed that my needs were ignored in preference to the hockey players.

On paper, I'm sure that three halls seemed like ample space, but the organisers hadn't taken into consideration the simple stuff like children playing, and people standing around chatting. Taking so long to set up for the show took away valuable space as well. The situation gets even more baffling when you consider that they were running at a loss all weekend, presumably meaning that there weren't as many attendees as they had originally planned for. And whilst they obviously hadn't made any provision for the rubbish weather taking the outside areas out of commission (aside from writing 'remember to bring the sunshine with you' on the promotional fliers earlier on in the year), there really should have been more attention taken to making sure there was a decent amount of space for everyone. Very poor, indeed.

 

The Show:

Entertaining in part. I don't think anyone went into the show in the best of moods, doors opening about an hour and a half later than we were originally told. Our particular situation wasn't helped by being sat directly in front of the Yorkie Bar Shits who, having been left unsupervised for the entirety of the weekend, had turned into raukous, abusive little twats. Nor was it at all entertaining to have to put up with those whizzy balloon thingies. Again.

Maynard Flipflap had a go at compering. He ranged from tedious to cringingly bad. There were a couple of freestyle routines which were hampered by the teeny-tinyness of the stage, and a trials love fest between Yoggi and Joe which, whilst different, only had me watching for the possibility of imminent injury. Tempei did his usual diablo act and was awfully droppy. It was quite disappointing in the knowledge that that was his last performance in the UK. Best bits were Tommy Baker doing fantastically entertaining stuff with basket balls (including wantonly confusing a four year old) and Luke Wilson doing a simple juggling bit really really well.

 

The Ride:

Sunday was ride day. We decided, for various reasons, not to bother with the organised rides and just go off to the seaside with the Emu lot. We also forgot to pick up our packed lunches. What a shame. Although £35 quid for a weekend convention with all meals included is bloody good value for money, I kind of expected the food to be edible. After a lot of faffing and various people reaching various levels of narkiness, we got into the cars and got down to Filey for a ride around Filey Brigg and down onto the beach where we met up with the Emus. They played gladiators whilst I made my sandcastle fort. If nothing else, we kept the tourists amused. I discovered that riding on sand is infinitely more difficult than I had previously imagined. And I also found out that I have a fear of UPDing into puddles and/or the sea. We went up onto the front for chips and a wander around the arcades. A dog-dog tried to steal one of my doughnuts but I resisted. A very good day.

 

The People:

Steve Granger was quite funny. Darren used his comic observation to christen him Talkie Toaster. He spent the weekend asking me whether I would like any more brown toast. Invariably, the answer was no.

 

Miark spent the weekend fluctuating between wandering aimlessly and being harrassed with work, but he kept a sunny disposition throughout. If nothing else, the weekend served as very good proof of how little day-to-day graft Roger actually does with UDC, and of how much credit he takes for other peoples' hard work. We passed some clubs around on Saturday night. Miark taught me some really nice 'French' patterns which to throw feel somewhere between horrible and fantastic.

 

Barnesy had taken the executive decision to come to BUC without any of the normal juggly people to chat to. So we spent quite a bit of time with him. Lizzy liked him because he has zips on his coat. I liked him because he's funny. Especially when riding, and when pulling his Concentration Face.  

 

Rod and the Emu lot were very nice to be around. I learnt new names and put old names to faces and generally enjoyed insulting Parry. I enjoyed their company so much that I left on Sunday with the feeling that I might maybe one day be inclined to pick up a hockey stick. I especially liked James after he'd told me how nice my new uni was. The man has taste. I was also utterly surprised to hear that Joe has a wife. He just doesn't seem the sort. Rod was good to me and spent an inordinate amount of time holding my hand and putting a stop to my grumps. Best of all, of course, there does seem to be an opportunity to blag another free sticker.

 

On the whole, I'm not sure that I get on with unicyclists as a breed. They don't appear to have the friendly attitude that I've come to expect from hanging around with jugglers.  Hockey types are a bit too competitive. Trials types, on the whole, seem rather immature. There's also the problem that unicycling is a much more kid-friendly activity than juggling, so if you don't like spending your time around a lot of manic children, you're stuffed.

 

The Best Bits:

• Having a new shiny toy to love and cherish.
• Being grumpy and rude to Roger in an effort to make him understand that he's actually a bit shit.
  
• Riding on the beach.
• Miark hugging Darren through a door.
• Luke Wilson's horrificly skinny arms.
• One of the Yorkie Bar Shits smashing his hub to pieces.
• Driving home past a farm that had pigs with big hairy ears.