A fairground life(cyprus adventure ch14b)

Part b
It was nearing the end of our time in Limassol, business was just good enough to justify us being there. The other rides were doing much better trade than I was.The ‘pop it on’ game was doing better than the disc on the plate game for us. “d” had done me a big favour lending me the game. Its best days earnings was here on a day when we had our first winner for tree weeks (only 1 winner at Larnaca). A young lad won, when in a fit of frustration he threw the ring and it hit the back of the stall, re-bounded straight onto a ring and won £10. There was a small crowd watching when he done this and instantly they all wanted a go and all tried the same trick. I thought I was going to lose all the prize money, but no one else won that day. Don’t get me wrong- I like it when someone wins, it stops the “it a con!” comments and is good for custom.
It was our last week in Limassol (so I thought) and we spent a few days in Nicosia looking for our next hotel, but there was only one and it was very expensive (£50) night. Thgis was the hotel everyone had stayed in 3 years before on the first trip to Cyprus. Then it was being redecorated on one wing. This wing was closed to the tourists, but the showmen struck a deal with the hotel manager to let the rooms on one side of the wing at a reduced rate. No such luck this time. We thought we would all split up and rent private apartments around the city. This was concerning on a security issue as we had to leave everything in these apartments while we were out. Some of these were in less than appealing conditon or areas of the city. We were having good nights in the hotel in Limassol and eventually decided to stay here and commute (56miles)to Stravalos near Nicosia every day for a month to the fair.
The weekend that we pulled down in Limassol the Irishman had been asking if anyone could build him a stall. As I was handy with the power tools, he was pointed in my direction. He wanted a basket ball game stall constructed of box iron so it was easy and quick to erect. Much along the lines of a market stall, just a bigger scale. Luckily I had brought my chopsaw and welder with me, I was short of cash so asked him to provide all the materials and I would do the work for £200cy. I started the day after we pulled the rides down and were waiting to go to Nicosia.