30th December

Nice temple school - 950 children!

We arrive at the school at 9.00 - it is right by a beautiful temple. There is just enough shade in the large yard for workshops and for the 1st show, though the audience have to be sat in a very strange configuration to keep the children out of the sun. We rig up one of the parachutes as a lovely, colourful backdrop to the show, which goes really well. I am beginning to get the hang of the sound system and the different sound tracks for the different spots, but it still makes me pretty nervous. Jess leaves on Sunday morning, so I really must master it completely by then!

Audience on balconies

The first workshop went great - no Steve till Khao Lak, so we split the 60 children into two groups - one group with Haggis juggling and one group with Jo and Jake doing plate-spinning, ribbon-twirling, diabolo and hoola hoops - and they come and make badges as and when seems appropriate. The first show starts with great workshop demonstrations by the children -there is a seated audience of about 350, but there are several hundred more gazing down at us from the balconies of the 4-storied school building!

A SMALL PART OF THE AUDIENCE FOR THE MORNING SHOW IN THE COURTYARD - THERE ARE ALSO HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN WATCHING FROM THE BALCONIES OF THE HIGHER STORIES. THE CHILDREN, MAY WEARING BALLOON HATS WE HAVE MADE IN THE WORKSHOPS, ARE REALLY ENJOYING THE SHOW

We are given a lovely lunch in the canteen and dosed with iced coffee (much needed as we are all suffering slightly from last night's excesses at the hotel cocktail party, and need all the caffeine, sugar and water we can get!) There is still enough shade to run the afternoon workshops in the main courtyard, but there is not nearly enough shaded space for a decent-sized audience - we are offered a large room on the top floor, but 4 stories is a long way to carry all the show gear, especially the PA and speakers, which are very heavy - and Haggis, who goes up and inspects the room, is not happy about the condition of the floor which he says looks rotten - the idea of 400 children up there in excited show-mode gives him visions of the floor collapsing and us all tumbling to our deaths!

Show at a temple

We are told we may use the temple building a short distance away - Somchai isn't keen, as in the building next door there is a morgue - but it's a lovely room, with fans, so we go for it - we are asked not to use water or fire in the show as it is a temple, so we decide to tone the whole show down a bit, and omit Jo's teapot water-spouting routine and the fire ending. It's time for the workshops to start, so Jess, San and I rush over to the other building to decide which way the show is set, and then I hare back to the badge-making workshop, leaving San and Jess to set up the show - Jess has been wonderfully helpful as a volunteer - always willing and supportive on the sound desk, badge machine or whatever, and our greatest prop and nag in the making of beanbags and badge bits each evening. She has taken some great photographs, and all in all it has been a great experience for her as a 17 year-old and has stretched her a lot in a very good way. She's really enjoyed it, and hopefully she will come on some future CWI trips as a volunteer. Goodness, I am going to miss her!

Enter the Press

SAN, OUR "MAN WITH THE VAN", HELPING OUT IN THE BADGE WORKSHOP - VERY WELL BEHAVED SCHOOL - NOTE THE ORDERLY QUEUE OF BOYS WAITING TO MAKE THEIR BADGES!

Andrew, the nice journalist from the Phuket Gazette which is doing a big feature on CWI in its 14 January issue arrives during the second workshops and comes over to the temple for the show - and gets picked on as the guy that "Daisy" flirts with in the show. The show goes really well, and then Andrew joins us over in the canteen where they feed us a strange pudding of banana jelly, syrup, red beans and shaved ice - then he takes some pix of the group (and Haggis is also going to email him some of the best jpegs of the shows). (There is now a link from the top of the Tour Diary to Andrew's splendid Phuket Gazette article - have a look!)

Somchai turns up again. "That was a good day - nice, enthusiastic, big audiences who really loved the show," I say. "Tomorrow will be even better", he says rather smugly, going on to explain that he has arranged for us to perform at a very big Government-sponsored New Year's Eve event at a big stadium in Phuket Town. We try to get clear exactly what this event is, and whether it is really within our brief - we were hoping to visit the children from the second Sea Gypsy Village tomorrow, but Somchai says none of them will be there, as everyone is going to the big event.

Not possible

We say we will go and have a look at the stadium, which turns out not to be a stadium at all, but a very large square, with stalls all round the perimeter, and the most enormous stage with vast PA and lighting. The stage is very high, and built in such a way that you can't see performers' feet or lower legs, and it is FAR too far away from the audience to work for our show - most of the skills and all of the humour of our show would be lost. We try to explain why a stage show is not possible, but say that we would be prepared to do a "street show" on the ground. We say we will come along at 4.00 pm tomorrow, when Somchai says there will be lots of people, and take it from there. He rings us later at the villa to say that they are going to give us one of the tented shelters around the edge of the square, as the base for our show and dressing room, etc., which sounds useful. All to bed early.

31 December