a fairground life(end of borders)

Tuesday (leaving Selkirk)
it was 6:25am when I awoke to the sound of a lorry starting. This was a little later than I intended to get up so I didn't waste anytime. Straight away I was dressed and out. I started the Miami lorry up to build up the air pressure. By the time I was ready to leave my wife was in the car and ready to follow me. I got through Melrose just on 7am. The fair was set and I pulled straight onto the ride plot. The ground was wet, but still reasonably hard. We about turned and back to Selkirk. Second trip I took the Dropzone, "r" took his trailer, my wife took the water lasers. Again it was quiet through Melrose and we were on site for 8am. The Dzone only just managed to get set. The unit was slipping on top of the wet grass.
Back to Selkirk again for the next trip. This time we had breakfast before returning to Melrose. I took a trailer for a friend while my wife finished packing our trailer. Fourth and last trip, our trailer. It was just before 10am now. First thing first, we get the domestic power connected before I start on the Dropzone. I want to get this one up first as its in the middle of the fair. It has a small footprint when erected but needs a football pitch to get the pole swung around into position and then raised. "r" and the labourer finished the Miami for 2pm. All ready for operation.
Wednesday
back to Glasgow to pick up mail and get lacquer. Visited some friends and eventually left for Melrose at 10pm. It was midnight when we got back, what a horrible twisty road. No motorway to this nick of the woods!!!
Thursday
nice morning, did a couple of small maintenance jobs on the rides. The diesel supplier came and I re fuelled the generator again (another 1000 litres). We opened just before 7pm tonight. By 8pm the sky darkened and there were two flashes of lightening. As a precaution we closed the dropzone in case of a lightening strike. The rain battered down as hard as it could for 20 minutes and then eased to a downpour. The sky lightened and the rain eased again to a shower. We re opened the dropzone and stayed open until 9pm. Of course by now every living soul was away to find shelter some where. First night open and I've already lost 25% of this fair due to bad weather. There is no hope of recovering that here.
Friday
A dull morning, but we took a chance and painted the miami chassis.This time with a gloss silver paint. It does look better. By 2pm we were finished and the sun came out strong. Short lived though, by 4pm it was torrential rain again with lightening. It eased by 7pm and then we opened. Another wasted nights business due to the weather. Closed just before 10pm. Now lost 50% of this fair, will be lucky to get my expenses never mind a profit.
Saturday
I awoke at 6am to the sound of the rain battering down on the roof. Went back to bed. Finally got up at 11:30 am, the rain was still falling in torrents. Look on the bright side- no lightening. The rain eased at 2:30pm and then we opened, by 3pm it was raining again. I never went to the sports field accross the road, but I was told it was cancelled. All this rain had got into the electrics on the dropzone and blown a channel on the pole light box. The rain came and went until 8 pm then it stopped. All this meant was a dry pull down. I'm seriously concerned about getting off this park now. The puddles are inches deep on the grass. No doubt in my mind we will have to be towed out. Worse yet the next fair is a grass park too!
Sunday(leaving Melrose)
The rain fell through the night, but it had stopped by the time I got up, just after 9 am. We started to get the vehicles out. The idea was to take them to the lorry park at Galashiels ready for this fair. The pull on is on Monday morning. We did the twist first. We coupled the lorry under. A double drive E.R.F. We put bread mats under the wheels.(bread mats are the diamond weave bases cut from nylon bread baskets. They are about 2ft x 3ft , very light and give good grip for tyres on soft grass if you put them under the wheel BEFORE you start to skid) We reversed the twist off onto the path, along the path and reversed it out the gate onto the main road. Then we repeated this for the miami and dropzone. Every ride came out easily (to my absolute amazement) except the Dzone which needed a little tug from another lorry on the path. By 11:30 am all the rides were at the lorry park ready for Monday. I then went back to Melrose and left to go to to Newcastle town moor fair with friends. For the past six years I have done this. It is a massive fair on the town moor. There is always something new to see. Also it attracts a lot of traders that sell various goods to the showmen. Since we had stopped for lunch at Otterburn it was after 4pm when we arrived at the fair. Moor by name and moor by nature, we all came prepared with wellington boots. The entire fair was under 4inches of mud! Not a blade of grass to be seen. People were loosing shoes, slipping and sliding about. You would have to see it to comprehend just how much of a quagmire it was. The fair is so large it took us four hours to walk around it (stopping a couple of times to talk to friends etc. ). I bought some water proofs and light bulbs. It was midnight before we got back to Melrose.
Monday
Started at 9am. Drove to Gala and picked up the miami from the lorry park. Drove it on site and right onto its plot. The fair was soft and the organiser decided that "d"s heavy energystorm would be moved closer to the gate to try to minimise damage to the park. A council exec arrived and supplied us with 12 nylon skid matts 6ft by 2ft. ( profesional equivalent to the bread mats no doubt). This was a change, a council offering assistance, usually when things look splodgy they say "sorry no fair". I would just like to say "thank you" to the Scottish Borders council for the help on this occasion. The nylon matts were great. We used them to set the 50ton energystorm and many other rides."d" give me a hand to set the Dzone as we used his double drive lorry on it because my unit had started to skid. We built up the Miami and then the dropzone. "r" was raising the pole on the hydraulic ram, it was nearly all the way up and then he remembered about the blown fuse in the light box. Crap! now he started to lower it again. After 20 minutes he had crawled inside the pole to the light box, opened it up and replaced the fuse. I've said it before and I'll say it again-what a stupid idea, putting the light box in the top of the pole! When the pole is up you can't repair any blown fuses. Why didn't they put the box at the bottom and run a wire up the pole???? Back to Melrose to bring in the caravans, it was looking rather messy by the time all the equipment had got off.Later in the evening when the energystorm had raised its towers we noticed that it was too close to the Miami. I decided to pull the Miami down and shift it over. The moving of the energystorm onto the other plot had blocked the Miami riders exit. "r", a labourer and I pulled it down and moved it again for 2ft! All done for 7pm, time for tea and T.V.
Tuesday
A lazy day. Spent most of the afternoon walking around the fair talking. Then left to visit friends that live near Silloth. They have just bought a yard and house. The house is empty at the minute awaiting refurbishment so they are living in their showman's wagon at the rear on the yard. It will all be first class when it's finished. Partied until 5:30 am then a few hours kip.
Wednesday
Left for Gala at 1pm. When we got back it was straight into bed. Can't burn the candle at both ends like I used to! I'm glad the fair opens tomorrow night.
Thursday
We open tonight and guess what-It's still raining!!!Spent most of the day doing paper work for future events. At 6pm we started up. Tonight is usually better than Friday, but the wet weather will surely knacker that (unless it rains on Friday night aswell). We closed at 10pm, a full half hour early due to the rain. I went and got "d" and "c", we went to the bowling club for a drink. Its handy, almost on the fairground. The club staff are friendly and the drink is cheap, what more can you ask? every other showman was in there too. This is the times I enjoy the most, when we are all having a good crack and telling old stories. 2am bed time.
Friday
I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, I'm suffering from a cold. The rain is falling in intermittent heavy showers. The only job I did was put 50 litres of derv into the dropzone ERF. With the price of fuel, gone are the days of filling the tanks, now its just put in enough to get you to the next gaff. At opening time the rain did stop and the sun shone brightly, but the damage was done. When the crowds came out the ground turned to mud under their feet. It almost as bad as the moor. We did knock out a living though. Felt lousy at shutting time so I went to the club for a rum to ease the colds aches and pains.