a fairground life(cyprus adventure ch18)

April ,Paphos 1999
It was approaching Easter time at home, “a” had sent the twist back to catch his best fairs and the Dutch lucky number game was going home also. Mr“a” had ideas about staying the summer and setting up a permanent funfair in Limassol on the sea front. Thoughts about this had been circulating since we first arrived in Cyprus, now it was coming to decision time. He and George had secured an empty plot of land next to McDonalds. The location seemed like a dead cert but the terrain was waste ground and would require a lot of work. “c” had started to look in Europe for a ride to bring here for the summer. “d” was taking the superbob home but decided to make a stall to stay the summer with and also leave two round games and the balloon slide all of which his sisters in law was going to look after. As for me , I wasn’t in a position to leave equipment here and for reasons to become clear in the next three weeks would think it was going to be no good anyway.
The site at Paphos was the best we had been on. It was next to the old Keo brewery. It was near the town and had a low wall around it with a lockable double gate. It was a white kind of gravel surface, perfectly flat and made the site look very clean as if on a marble floor. The only problem was it gave us snow blindness and we had to wear sunglasses all the time because of the glare from it. The hotel we were staying in was the Damon. It was fine and had a large swimming pool. We almost lost “w” in this, she was with the other kids in the small pool. She was wearing an inflatable ring around her waist. She dropped her doll in the pool and as she bent down to pick it up she flipped right over and the ring held her head under and her legs in the air. We were all at the pool sunbathing but didn’t see this happen! Luckily one of the other kids of the same age seen her and pulled her upright. What a fright when they told us. After that no rubber ring , only armbands. I still have nightmares now when I think back about it. We will never be as lucky again.
The night I pulled the ride into Paphos was so clear, the stars were bright and this seemed like a different planet not a different country. The air was warm and I could not believe we only had four weeks to go until home. Our original flight tickets were to expire in two weeks, so my father and mother in law were to go home then. My wife and family would change our tickets for an extended period to finish this fair. As “d” and “c” were staying longer for the summer they would put my ride on the boat for me and save me having to stay here longer. But I still had this fair to finish..