Damian Jay is a holiday park entertainer who tours the country performing for families and putting smiles on people’s faces.
Damian started performing a comedy and magic show, which he still performs on Britannia Ferries through the summer. But last year he launched a new show themed around bubbles. After years of practice researching how to make perfect bubbles Damian is finally ready to perform the show.
“Like most performers I got started with a magic set for Christmas and I just turned around to my mum and dad and said this is what I want to do,” Damian said.
He continued: “Now the bubble show is a lot of work, but I enjoy it a lot more because the audience seem to get a lot more out of it.
“There’s only a few bubble performers here in the UK, but there are some massive shows in Asia and the Americas that tour all over the world. The dream is to recreate some of these shows here in Britain.”
Performing these shows takes a lot of dedication. As well as evening performances, Damian has to factor in hours and hours of travelling time, hours and hours of practice time and hours and hours of preparation time to make sure everything runs smoothly.
But for him, it’s all worth it.
“I always think what a huge privilege it is to stand in front of an audience and performing your show. They’ve all paid money to see you and you need to treat them like friends,” Damian said.
He continued: “Obviously there are some times when not everything goes well. And no matter what you do when you’re on stage it doesn’t make anyone laugh. That’s when you start questioning why you’re actually doing these shows. But the positive reactions more than make up for those days.
“The one show that really sticks out for me was one that I performed for a terminally ill children’s charity. It was a magic show that I do with puppets, and after the show a mum came and told me that her daughter had a smile on her face for the first time in months. I will never forget that show.”
If you thought that being a bubbleologist (yep that is the right term) was easy, then think again.
It’s not just about dunking and blowing like it was when we were young. Believe it or not, bubble making on this scale takes an understanding of chemistry and physics, as well as a sense of
Damian spent many months coming up with the right bubble formulas to make the different types of bubbles that he needs for different tricks.
He keeps the different formulas in different brightly coloured buckets until show time, when he decants them into different vases on stage. Damian chose H&O Plastics because the bright , colourful buckets make the different liquids easier to recognise and the colours add to the fun of the show.
“I actually hunted the internet for quite some time because I was after some quite specific colours and sizes. Buy Buckets had everything I had for and it was all very reasonably priced,” he said.
Are you excited yet? There’s officially twelve days until Christmas and a lot of people are already feeling the buzz that comes around this time of year.
Well, the children are at least.
For the rest of us though, those Christmas stresses are setting in. What are you going to wear to the Christmas party? Are certain family members going to embarrass themselves on Christmas Day again? How on earth am I going to fit ten chairs around that tiny dining table?
Believe us, we know the pain well. And we have some tips to help ease it – all of which involve buckets. Here’s how to use a H&O Plastics bucket on every remaining day before Christmas.
Whether you put your Christmas tree up in November or on Christmas Eve, you can be sure that everything will not be where you left it the year before, especially the tree stand.
Sound like your family? Well fear not because we have got a great homemade solution to your problems. Check out this guide to the perfect homemade Christmas tree stand that we made last year.
Ok so this job isn’t exactly the most glamorous job to be doing over Christmas, but you know it has to be done and you might as well this time off for something right?
H&O Plastic buckets come with handles which makes taking them up ladders much easier. And if you do a good job, who knows, Santa might bring you more presents for being extra good this year.
Well not the halls, but the drive and any pathways could certainly do with a good gritting, especially if you have elderly relatives coming to visit for Christmas.
It’s good practice to have a bucket of grit on standby throughout the winter, because it’s usually the times when you need grit the most when it is so hard to find.
Anyone who’s ever seen a low-budget Christmas movie will know that the true meaning of Christmas is giving back. Pick a charity that means something to you, gather some friends and family and hit the streets to spread some festive joy.
So you have something to collect all of the charity money you should buy and decorate a H&O Plastic container with the colours of the charity you will be representing.
If you have a small army of friends and family coming to visit on Christmas day then you’ll need somewhere to store all of those extra shoes. Early weather forecasts indicate that some northern parts of the country will receive a dusting of snow this Christmas, but many other parts of the country will get more of the heavy rain and gusts coming through.
Either way it’s a good idea to keep a big plastic container by the door to stop muddy/snowy feet being tramped through your lovely clean home.
If you have an open fireplace then you’ll know that there’s nothing finer than a roaring fire on those warm winter nights. And an open fire is even better when you can roast chestnuts or marshmallows on the night before Christmas.
One issue you might have with an open fireplace is where to store firewood. If you haven’t got space inside or a barn outside then you could be in trouble. One of our open top kegs has room to store enough firewood for all of winter.
If it’s your turn to cook the Christmas dinner this year then you might be freaking out about the amount of vegetables you have to prepare on the seventh day of Christmas. Carrots, potatoes, parsnips all of them will produce an awful lot of skins.
Why not take the opportunity to start a compost bin in your back garden. Take a large plastic container and start filling it with organic matter before using it to feed your garden.
If we are blessed with a white Christmas this year, then building an igloo is the perfect way to celebrate. And your bucket can be converted from storage container to construction tool quicker than you can say HO HO H&O.
Get yourself a few rectangular plastic containers from our website and pack them with enough snow to make a brick. Then all you need to do is stack the bricks on top of each other and you'll be on your way to making an igloo. Who knows, if you get enough snow you could even build a snow castle.
The office Christmas party is my favourite part about Christmas. It’s a chance to let loose with the people that you see almost every day. Sometimes though, people can get a little too loose and in these situations it pays to have an H&O plastic sick bucket somewhere close at hand.
With only a couple of days to go until Christmas it might be time to defrost your Christmas turkey. Fill a large bucket with tepid water and weight the bird down so that it’s fully submerged. Once the turkeys defrosted and dry you can wash the container and fill it with ice to keep the lagers cool.
If you are anything like me then you have definitely left the present wrapping to the night before. But plastic buckets come to the rescue again.
Clear a space in the dining room and arrange everything you need in separate buckets – wrapping paper in one, sticky tape stuck around the rim of another. Make up your own system and you’ll be able to avoid the embarrassment of badly wrapped presents – or making yourself look like an Egyptian mummy.
Finally, we present the super adaptable multi-purpose Christmas Day mega bucket that is so versatile it can be used for all sorts of different jobs through the day.
On Christmas morning, your H&O bucket can serve as a wrapping paper disposal unit to keep your living room nice and tidy. By lunchtime your bucket will find its way to the kitchen where it can be used as a turkey de-frosting station, or even as a place to keep the champagne on ice. In the evening, your bucket can be re-purposed again, this time as the perfect Christmas storage pod. Just pack away all the festive decorations, party hats and unwanted gifts and they will be ready to use again come Christmas 2015.
It’s bonfire night tomorrow! And the festivities will likely continue all weekend long. Everybody loves bonfire night. It’s the most loved (and probably the only) celebration of a foiled assassination plot in the world.
But bonfire night is only fun if it’s enjoyed safely. You have to remember to take the proper precautions before throwing a bonfire night party for friends and family.
We’ve put together a few tips for a safe bonfire night. Many of them include plastic buckets as a simple but effective safety feature.
Fireworks are the most dangerous aspect of modern day bonfire night. Used to symbolise the gunpowder used by Fawkes and his conspirators, fireworks can pack a powerful punch. And they seem to get bigger every year.
You should always buy fireworks which meet the British Standards (BS 7114; 1988). Don’t be tempted by dodgy retailers.
Preparation is crucial to a safe firework display. Make sure you have eye protection and some sort of padding for your head and gloves. You should also have a bucket of water (or a few buckets of water) nearby to douse any fireworks which don’t seem to go off after 30 minutes.
You should also have safe launching equipment. Lots of firework sets will come with a small plastic tube which you’re supposed to put into the ground and fire from.
But take it from me – these small tubes can fall over – and the results are pretty scary.
Best practice when you’re launching fireworks suggests that you should fill a large bucket with earth or sand and insert the tube into this before firing.
Sparklers can be very pretty, and it’s a good way for children to get involved in the fun of bonfire night. But they can also be dangerous. Sparklers can reach temperatures of up to 2,000°C so make sure your kids are wearing gloves.
Children should be supervised at all times and children under five should be kept away at all costs.
Sparklers stay hot for a long time after they’ve burned out – and curious fingers can get burned easily. That’s why it’s a good idea to have a bucket of water or sand nearby to dispose of any sparklers in.
The fire service recommends that you keep a few buckets of water and sand nearby if you’re hosting a bonfire party. Although these measures might sound overly cautious – they would be welcomed if there was an accident and something or someone caught on fire.
You can buy buckets cheaply and in bulk from bucket manufacturer and seller H&O Plastics. Shop online now.
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