Opening Ceremony and Parade

We had a wonderful day yesterday with the opening ceremony and parade. The opening ceremony had a large choir and percussionist (playing all sorts of instruments, some of them made from unicycle parts) performing a piece of music composed especially for Unicon 14. There was a fantastic routine by the Danish team which included a guy playing a guitar along to the music whilst riding a unicycle - very inspiring stuff. It was a great atmosphere with 1000 competitors and 500 family & friends as well as a large number of volunteers.

After the opening ceremony there was a parade (complete with a police escort at the front and an ambulance at the rear ). The Australian team (those that had made it here already) lined up and were cheered along (with a number of people calling out Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi - as they rode along). The parade itself was quite long (we aren't sure how far, but between 8 - 10km), which presented a challenge for many riders. (Nikki & the two other Australian supporters stayed behind at unicon whilst they went on the parade).

The day was a lesson in stereotypes - from the Japanese team riding in precise lines, and the competitoris from Puerto Rico partying on, managing to sing, dance, play a drum and ride all at the same time. (we are REALLY glad that we are staying in an apartment as the other Australians are sleeping on a school floor, with the Puerto Rican team in the classroom above them).

The Australian team t-shirts have been a hit, with a number of countries asking to swap shirts with us (thankfully we brought along shirts to swap - thanks to David who told us about doing this).

The day ended with a new challenge for us - because the girls tyres are black we were told they would have to get new white tyres, so that they don't mark the wooden floor (we haven't had any problems with this in Australia, but they have the rule so that the floor can be 100% protected). This meant we had to get new tyres for the girls uni's. Thankfully unicycle.com has a stall at unicon, but EVERYONE was lining up to buy tyres at the same time. We didn't stress about the wait, but took the opportunity to talk to all the different riders in the line (especially from the USA team who were very friendly). Jacqui & Hannah smiled nicely at Nicolai (the guy manning the stall), who put the new tyres on for us. That was when the real drama started, as we discovered that Hannah's wheel had been damaged in the hold of the plane, and so we needed a new wheel. When they had put the new tyre on the new wheel (after having already put it on the old wheel), we discovered that the wheel was the wrong size for the frame. This required us getting a new frame - basically she has a whole new unicycle (but has kept her pedals and seat) - all because we needed white tyres!!! Apparently it will ride much better, but the girls are concerned the bikes won't ride in sync now. All up it took 2 hours to get to the bottom of the story with the girls uni's, and we ended up leaving them at unicon to be picked up today, as Nikki really needed to get back to the apartment to rest.

The next few days are quiet for the girls, as most of their competition starts on Thursday when they will do their pairs routine (Saturday will be the mountain unicycling and Sunday will be athletics). We are taking the opportunity to do a bit of sightseeing in the morning, and the girls are attending unicycling workshops & practicing in the afternoon.

We hope you are all well back home.

Cheers

Nikki

(a very proud Mum)

The photo's are of t