Hard to believe, I know, but there are some life skills that I have never mastered. I cannot click my fingers, or roll my tongue (my siblings teased me mercilessly about this), and I could not hula-hoop – that is, until last night. The undoubted highlight of the Gathering was my hula-hoop break-through, the sudden pelvic epiphany that enabled me to keep the hoop rolling gracefully around my gently swaying hips. The frock may have had something to do with it, and the angle of the bunny ears, but now that I’ve got the hang of it I don’t know why I was so incapable before.

However, the rush of excitement went to my head & in attempting to learn too much in one night I sustained my first-ever circus injury (a split lip, when the hoop i was attempting to twirl on my toes while lying flat on my back fell on my face) which has made it difficult for me to enjoy smiling through the final day of the Gathering.

I must add that my own accomplishments with the hula hoop were modest alongside Helen M who performed Endurance Hoop, Jak who blew us away with her multiple hooping, & Pipi whose backbend-while-twirling-hoop-on-raised-foot inspired me to sustain my circus injury. When will i learn that i should only try one new trick a night?

Helen V J