a fairground life (soft target)

Over the last week we have been open at Coatbridge, nothing unusual to talk about there. I removed the blown end cap on the winch. It turned out that the end cap (made of cast steel) had split under the pressure. This was given to "jm" the Ayrshire engineer, I asked him to make another from steel. I was lucky as he happened to be in Glasgow at the time so I didn't need to run out to Ayrshire. Hopefully when it returns all will be well. This does raise the question, what about the pressure relief valve though?

Last week I get a call about the Miami for a small music  event in S'clyde park. The ride is free that Saturday so I agree to attend. 

On Friday "r" and I take the ride over for 5pm. We had hoped to get in earlier as we were also open at Coatbridge that night, but not to be. To minimise risking damage we reverse the ride onto its plot. For 5:50pm the ride was set and level but not fully erected. There was no security fence around the event, but we were told someone would be on. I imagine this park turns into a "zoo" after dark. We have to leave and go and open at Coatbridge. 10 pm and we return to the Miami, this time the security fence is erected, on closer inspection I notice its a joke, the fencing only surrounds about 50% of the site and the remainder is waist high! We climb over and start to erect the ride again. Not wanting to attract any "nightlife" we do it almost completely in the dark.

Saturday morning my wife and I leave to go to the Park. Its 9:15 am. She suggests we stop at Tesco for some juice etc for the day. 9:30 am I'm in the back of a police car being booked!!! Why?, simple when you get behind the wheel of a vehicle you are a soft target, an easy victim for a cash injection into the "system". At the front of Tesco there is a short (20 m) taxi/bus lane that misses out a set of traffic lights. I took this short cut to enter the store, just as the Police car was coming the other way. They do a U turn and follow me in to the car park. That was that-fixed penalty £30. I tried to blag it, saying I was not from the area and thought it was the main entrance-no go, I also mentioned it was early Saturday morning and there was no busses or taxis about-nope, fixed penalty my son. Am I annoyed because the Police are doing their job? No, but ask yourself this- If I were a drunk NED staggering down the street with my Pit-bull lead in one hand and a bottle of Buckie in the other, would the Police have made that U turn or would I have been too much trouble? Unfortunately the law only works against people with something to lose. License holding driver-easy soft target and cash rich.You cant eat,drink or phone while driving, how long before the radio's and cd players are taken out too?

So we were off to a bad start, would things improve? We got onsite for just after 10am. Expecting to start at 11 we got ready. The sun was burning through and I knew it was going to be a scorcher. 11am-no people,12pm no people,1pm no people, 1:30 and we finally get a couple of punters. The first run and the set stops!! I restart it and away it goes again- this is what it did at Ingliston, remember? It must be something to do with running 3 rides then giong back to only running 1.There was another ride present, a twist. They had problems too and they ended up changing the ride oil and bypassing the hydraulic filter to get the ride going (at my suggestion). For 3pm the event was quite full but they were all laying on the grass drinking heavily.Not by the bottle full ,but cases at a time. I knew by 5pm they would be pissed as newts. Fortunately a thunder storm erupted and the rain got them up and moving, it also slowed down the alcohol consumption. The lightning arced across the sky and just as I was about to call "r" he phoned to say he had close the DZ at Coatbridge and removed the wire from the generator. Just after 6pm and the rain stopped, the people came out of the tents and slowly we did get something, they were all still well oiled, but they seemed a better class of people, no football tops or shell suits to be seen. There were a couple that started to slide up and down in the mud at the front of the stage and at one point I though one of the bands lead singers was going to start a riot when he sang/shouted at the crowd-Dont F*** with the Casuals and you's lot shut up shut up shut up, get a job etc. One guy jumped on to the stage and just as I though he was going to punch him-he grabbed the mike and shouted insults back! At that a brief scuffle broke out as the spectator was dragged off. I though how can they get licenses for this and we struggle to get licenses for funfairs? and we don't sell alcohol! Any way it was hard work knocking out a couple of quid and dealing with the alcohol handicap. 9:30 pm and we close. I wait a further 30 mins for the event to clear then I pull down the ride. By 11:30pm I'm back at the yard, but can't get in because "fast jack" has his car and bogey trailer abandoned in the middle of the yard-nice one. So I have to leave the ride outside until Sunday morning. Oh!, I also noticed a leaking air valve on the Foden. Things can only get better.

Digi clip of part of the gig.