The M25 Fire Spinners.

Friday night we had an appointment under one of the M25 motorway bridges;

We went fire spinning with The M25 Fire Spinners who you can find on facebook;

I must admit I spent quite a lot of the night wrestling with my camera but I did enjoy it;

There were some very skilful fire spinners;

There were fire jugglers and here a fire eater;

Once again, a magical night;

And a chance to meet some wonderful people;

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Straight Outta Chemo 2; with the M25 Firespinners.

By the time I'd got out of Chemo and home I was tired out but I wasn't actually ill.....and my temperature was fine......so in the end there didn't seem any reason not to go out;

Because it was fire spinning night!

We hadn't been since November, just before I had my kidney operation so I didn't want to miss it.

You can find 'The M25 Firespinners' on Facebook and they meet up on the third Friday every month at Budgens on Egham High Street to start a procession that ends at the bridge over the Thames at The M25.

There are students from the University, some members of The Circus Society and Egham's Underground.......and an old codger from across the river......and Robyn!

I can't think of a better place to watch it;

Fire spinning is difficult, spectacular and thrilling;

And having been away for a few months we could see how people are getting better at it;

Unfortunately the same can't be said for Robyn and me - the last three months have been tough and we never got round to making Poi or Fire sticks so there's been no practising.

But I did get round to buying some steel wool!

I cheated. 

I cut my steel wool into some short lengths and then tied it to the end of some old electrical flex, added a weight, set fire to it and spun it in the tunnel;

Not bad for a first effort!

No skill required and lots of fun!

There's quite a risk of getting burnt or burning other people so you do need to take precautions.

It's dangerous enough that I decided there wasn't much point in having a trial run before I had a go.

Then Robyn took this amazing picture;

Which, I suppose says it all about me and what I'm about.

I've even made it my Facebook cover photo - I never had one before.

By the time I came home I was still buzzing with the Steroid party that was going on in my head and with the thrill of messing about with silly pyrotechnics.

Even better, some of the Fire Spinners have offered to perform at our wedding reception - it was always going to be hard enough to find a venue - now we need one that can cope with fire as well!

It's the most wonderful offer and if we can work everything out that's what we'll do.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Spinning with The M25 Fire Spinners.

I've been fairly ill for the last fortnight - at times it's been really grim but we'd been looking forward to Friday night for a month.

So we ended up waiting at 9pm on Egham High Street - deserted except for a few people walking their dogs.

We had lager and paraffin and then when we saw the procession coming our way we set off our glow sticks to welcome the M25 Fire Spinners! 

 

 

We were heading for the River Thames and the M25 motorway bridge;

 

 



 

 

 

It's a secret world, an amazing place - at night dark and industrial - the evil child of bored architect who designed a space that no one was ever meant to see.

 

Then once a month it's transformed into a very human space by the M25 Fire Spinners.

There's music and, of course, lots and lots of fire;

There are some very skilful people there;

My little camera could never really do it justice so occasionally I had to slip into flash;

But that doesn't really show you how exciting it is;

Or how great the bridges are lit up by paraffin;

And just take a look at this - believe me it's much better live;

So then the moment came when I had to have a go. I'm not sure who looks more worried here although I'm not actually bothered about fire;

Starting up here;

I like that a lot!

Oh yeah!

Then Robyn had a go;

And she's good.

Doesn't she look great?

We came away early - I'd had a rough week.

As we walked along the river we took a look at the Moon high in the sky;

And a last look back at the Fire Spinners far away, spinning into the night;

Few people in my situation get to spend such a magical evening amongst such nice people. Two hours disappeared in a matter of moments while the rest of the world just slumbered by the T.V. unaware of what they could be doing under the busy M25.

Who knows what we'll be doing the next time they meet or where we'll be.

It's going to be really tough what ever happens but neither of us will ever forget  tonight.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

A temporary freedom.

I've been scrabbling about trying to find........



 

 

.....some ancient Paraffin (or for Robyn 'kerosene') which I had to pour out of a really elderly container. It's supposed to be blue or red but it faded over the years.

 

It's the price of admission to a really exclusive event.

 

Can you guess from the specks that have got onto my camera lens?

 





They are drops of Paraffin (Kerosene) flying all around us.

I'm not sure this is going to help you either;

This weekend the clocks go back as British Summer Time ends - now it will be dark in the afternoon. I'm grumpy about it because spring might have been nice but I was too ill to enjoy it.

By the time I was back on walking sticks the summer was over.

I'm not dealing with it very well.

The only thing to do was to celebrate;

These are 'The M25 Fire Spinners' and they meet every month under the M25 Motorway at Egham, where the Thames goes under the road.

You can find them on FaceBook.

They meet near Budgens and have a little procession along the high street - we joined up with them a bit further on - then we all made our way to the bridge;

It's an incredible space; the river was black and still and above us the great arches of the bridge were like the flying buttresses of a medieval cathedral.

We spoke to Lorenzo who told us that they meet up because Egham is "so boring.....it's our temporary freedom".

These are real circus skills and it all took place against a loud background of Balkan Gypsy music and House.

There were drummers and everywhere a strong smell of Paraffin (Kerosene).

And fire!

There was fire eating and juggling;

I'm not sure where the evening went - in a matter of moments two and a half hours had gone up in smoke;

I can't think of a better way to party.

Robyn's already taken the first steps to spinning fire and we've promised that next month it's our turn;

I loved the fact that I've driven over the M25 bridge a thousand times and never realised what was going on underneath.

That we were having such fun while quiet Egham dozed in front of the TV.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com