Bring on the clowns...

Brilliant family day with an exciting trip to the circus today. Most enjoyable.

It was the Netherlands human circus or summat, no animals just human acts. I remember going to the circus when I was wee in Aberdeen. There were elephants and ladies riding on the back of horses with a sawdust flooring, the smell was incredible, like fireworks night, only on at a farm! Absolutely brilliant, although of course cruel in hindsight. I seem to remember the clowns were hilarious, unlike this one who was merely ok, but I love this photo.

The acts were fantastic. I particularly enjoyed the Trapeze and had that heart in mouth, I can't look feeling more than once.

The circus is an incredibly romantic ideal. Eves wee face was a picture as the beautiful people, dressed in their glittery finery contorted and twisted themselves into death-defying feats, the trapeze artists flying through the air with the greatest of ease as is their want. However as an adult, I felt a real pervading sense of pathos from the experience. The staff clearly felt nothing but utter disregard for the punters, the whole 'outfit' being money grabbing and slightly desperate. And the tiny caravans and terraced static dwellings certainly managed to ensure that 'running away to the circus' no longer had the once aspirational edge it used to!

All that said, it did feel like a wholesome, old fashioned way of being entertained and I will definitely make it a yearly Watson tradition to go to the circus from now on.