Jugglers' walk through Perth, Scotland - 2 April 2005
It was a sunny day yesterday and we had our first picnic of the year, in the garden, Mum and Dad and me. Then we drove to Perth and it didn't take too long, about half an hour. Dad was worried about where to park but we found a space near the river.
We had a little walk through the nice park and then over the bridge. I was trying to see the river over the side of the bridge. Dad said something about a wall to stop flooding, but the river wasn't very high. We walked along beside the wall, and there was a black metal gate with a wheel on it which Dad said was to keep flood water off the street.
We didn't know where the jugglers were going to come, and some people we asked didn't know either, so we asked a policeman. He told us that they were going to start at 3 o'clock from the Bells Sport Centre and walk across the big park (North Inch) then along by the river to a square to do a show.
We walked across the park in the sunshine and the daffodils were out on the river bank. There were a lot of tents on the grass near the sports centre.
Then we could see little balls flying in the air above the people. And I ran ahead to see them.
We found lots of people in front of the sports centre. They were throwing balls in the air and clubs, and had lots of funny clothes on. One man was like a statue with a ball but when we threw the ball to him he suddenly caught it in a thing called a diablo.
Someone started playing a fiddle and the people started walking along doing their juggling and their funny skateboarding. The things that your feet go on were all wobbly and you had to move your feet to go up hills.
Some people were twirling sticks around while they were walking. And there were people on cycles with one wheel. One of them was just a little boy with a funny hat on. I don't know how they didn't fall off the cycles.
We kept up with them and Dad took photos like he usually does. They walked back along the road by the river and the policeman stopped the cars coming down. I asked Dad how far it was to the square and he said not far, like he usually does.
This time it wasn't too far and the people stopped at the back of the Church. They were just standing round and talking and some were juggling balls and things. I sat on a wall for a bit but then came down because I couldn't really see. The man with spiky red hair told everyone to clear a space for some games. We were at the front of the crowd. It was warm weather but a bit hard sitting on the stones.
They started to play juggling gladiators and they had to try to knock each other and stop them catching things. It got down to the last person who was still juggling and he won a prize. There was a race with things called diablos and the racers were on their hands and knees pushing the diablos with their noses. One cheated and pushed it with his head. They did some things to see who could do it for longest like standing on their hands. I said to Dad that they were mostly men. Then a young lady did the competition for doing a trick on a unicycle and she won it. That made me happy.
There was another funny thing called something like acroflags and one person stood on another person, with one foot round their neck and one on their knee, but they weren't allowed to use their hands. They did it for a long time and there were still three pairs left. Then they had to touch each other's noses and knees and someone in the crowd shouted to do pattacake, and they did and they still didn't fall off. But then a couple got too tired and just hugged each other, and the ones at the far end won.
There was a game on the cycles where they tried to push each other off. Twice someone nearly fell on top of us but Dad held up his arm.
The people on the cycles tried to do a long jump as well and one person landed on the chicken they used to mark the distance. The man with the marker said that was why the chicken wouldn't cross the road.
They even did juggling in pairs like a 3-legged race and then did gladiators with that as well, knocking each other's clubs away.
There were lots of funny things like that but then Mum and Dad said we had to go home to make tea. We didn't get to see any juggling with fire, that was on later. We walked back to the car across the bridge, then we drove home and I fell asleep in the car. It was great fun.
Contributed by: Frances Llanwarne
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