Timaru

The Timaru stand was parked up inside the Caroline Bay loop road. It was a great location, and very visible from the road. It was extra nice being able to drive around the whole loop road and circle the tent from above - at night with all the festoon lights up it looked like a little bit of magic.

We were nice and close to town, and having befriended some of the girls in the local cafe, we were being well supplied with nice coffees.

Luke and I were on duties - and we were on duties when we had a whole lot of extra people staying with the circus… I will never forget the look on Luke's face when he walked behind the chuck wagon to discover the mountain of roast dishes that lay before him - it was really something. Neither of us had ever experienced a stack of pots, pans, plates and cutlery quite like this one. Horrifying just wouldn't cover it - and to make matters worse, the rain had just started. We stood there cleaning for nearly 2 and a half hours.

We were exhausted. We'd sold tickets, ushered, worked at the concessions stand, performed two shows and then spent our night time cleaning. Two cold, wet, grumpy circus performers trundled back to the bus. It was leaking, and the lights weren't working. All of the woe was ours.

The three photos here are of Luke on his ladder, David mid rola-bola act, and the tent as seen from our rainy bus window just before the show.

Can the pot call the kettle black?

Town: Gore, NZ
As twilight falls, a thick mist engulfs the big top. The lights from our food caravan twinkle in the foggy moonlight. For a moment I am taken by the true and intense beauty of circus life. Then I look down at my hands.. elbow deep in the dish water, soaked in chicken lard and constantly finding floating lumps of indistinguishable unknown food leftovers. I cringe as my vegan hands rub past something that was slightly slimy. Sigh. Reality, it happens.

Everyone at the circus is on the roster - except for the bosses. We have a rotation -first meal you clean out the food kitchen, second you are on dishes, and the third, on the drying and putting away. It is often a fairly merry task - the three performers on duties each joking around and attempting to avoid the horror.. the nightmare.. the dreaded task of washing the.. *insert a loud scary drum roll*.. the 'black pot of death.'

The black death was a large iron cauldron like pot, heavy, charred and black with age. It had this amazing ability to turn everything it touches black. It is so feared by the cast, that everyone would cover the tables in newspaper, and wear gloves, just to move it into the dining area. Once touched by the black.. it was there forever, a lesson learned by many of my favourite items of clothing.

Luke was on chuck, he gave me an apologetic look as he delivered this doom pot to my side. "I think that is everything" he reassured
Nick was drying "Ah.. the black death.. Ha! Glad I'm not on dishes!" He teased. I flicked him with dishwater and looked down at the black filthy pot.
I nodded to myself. Gotta love the circus life.

Too many clowns in the chuck wagon!

The chuck wagon.. in some ways a focal point of the whole circus - we all try to cram in there to scrounge for breakfast, we all queue up in there for the chance to boil hot water at night time, and for some reason, no matter who is on clean up after dinner - on a saturday evening, the entire cast end up in there to make the clean-up process an all out nightmare!

I frantically tried to get benches cleaned as one by one the cast descended on the caravan kitchen. There was a loud chatter behind me as Briar and Nick who were in a playfully argumentative conversation, set up the stereo. After much station flicking and plug-swapping, it  was turned on- firmly establishing the chuck wagon as the party venue for the evening.

David charged in and wedged himself in the corner with bottle of beer shortly followed by Mary who waltzed through the door with a merry grin "TOO MANY CLOWNS IN THE CHUCK WAGON!" She hollered, raising her glass high.. This ignited a chorus of silly voices and echos from the rest of the cast.


I was not sure how many more people we could fit in this tiny carriage..But while at circus school, we got 12 stilt walkers in a phone box once.. so anything is possible..

Eventually Mary and David vacated the chuck and Nick wandered off behind the caravan. He too, was on duties. Briar looked at me and smiled - I hadn't talked to her much and she was the only member of the cast that I hadn't met previously. She stood there for a moment playing with the stereo and then looked up with a fit of horror.. "Is nick on Drying!! Then I must be on Dishes!" She stared up at the roster and then vanished in a flurry of ginger hair and tiger stripes.