The tightrope walker ... Olivier Roustan

Newport had a 'Big Splash' weekend. Well, it goes on until Sunday 5th September I believe, and this afternoon was good, really good, with loads of people about. This was due to the tightrope walker in the main and of course the good weather. My friend Anne and I went to support yesterday, but it was really chilly and quite breezy so Monsieur Roustan couldn't perform, which left a lot of people disappointed, but you can understand his point!

But conditions were better today and the man walked the walk. So where did he walk? Across the wires that run along the top of the Newport City Footbridge. His daring walk on the suspended wire was really spectacular and a little spine chilling. The danger was ever present, he looked like an ant when he started on the East side of the river Usk, but as he came nearer to the West side the reality hit you. This was a man, a human being doing this and a rapturous applause rang out. It was quite emotional. Well done Olivier!

The dragon trail...

There are seventy of these dragons dotted around the city and it's outskirts. They are there as a celebration of Newport's vibrant art scene (yes, we have one apparently) and the dragons photographed showcase a cross selection of work from some of the areas leading artists.




Newport superdragons are the result of many months of hard work from a truly amazing group of people. Sadly not long after they were placed around the city at least 15 of them were vandalised. Predictable in any city I suppose, a sign of the times, which I think is deplorable.




I wonder how the sculptors felt about that, and the school children who designed the smaller ones? In society today there is always a small number of people who will spoil it for the rest. It spoiled the dragon trail too. A super idea for tourists and locals to follow the map to where they are situated, but after the repair of the vandalised dragons, they were put in safer locations and not necessarily placed back where they were, so that rotted up the trail to a degree.





It must be disheartening for the organisers of this event, which is part of the Newport Festival Summer, a fore runner to the Ryder Cup. One wonders what will happen when that comes to town. You can bet there will be someone out there waiting to disrupt that event too.

Revival!

After deciding not to blog earlier in the year, and then returning to my first blog,

http//www.missjonesonlineblogspot.com

to find that somehow the format had been changed and it was all up the creek, I decided to make this second one, that I started in March, my main blog from now on.

So What am I going to talk about today? I am going to tell you about Tuesday, when I went on a dragon hunt, well more of a trail really and how pleasurable it was.


Please see next posting.