Melrose.
Well Melrose was dry on Thursday and Friday nights which did improve business. Not large sums by any means but in this financial climate every little extra helps. Saturday started off dry but by 4pm it was lashing down. That said, we had the best of it by then. So a wet pull down. There was a hoopla in the way of the tower on the DZ, this dictated that we only half pull it down. We finished the rest off in the morning. I wasn't bothered because I was soaked through. It was early afternoon and it looked like more rain was coming so I took the DZ to the lorry park in Gala. "r" in his wisdom decided to wash the miami while on a soft grass park. The result was that it just managed to move off its plot, after both diff and cross locks were engaged. I moved it to a harder spot in the park in readiness for the early shift next morning. That night the rain battered down again from 8pm until 6am. I didn't get much sleep worrying if I should have taken it out to the lorry park also. 6:50am and I got up to take the ride into Gala. It did move off ok. The small town is very tight so to turn the ride in the right direction I had to do a 3 point turn using a side street. For 7:20 am the ride was set on its plot in Gala. I then nipped down to the lorry park (1/4 mile away) and brought in the DZ. It was set on the plot before 8 am. They were the only two items on the park. At that I returned to Melrose for breakfast and then to bring in the trailers.
Galashiels.
To help minimise any damage to the park, aluminium tracking was laid at the gate. This was organised by the lessees and cost £700 (I'm told). It was to prove useful and definitely helped minimise damage in this area. It was just before noon and I wanted to get the DZ up before the rest of the fair pulled in. The twist had been set on its plot while I was away. When we went to swing the tower around it was hindered by the twist load. So we built up the miami first while the twist was being set up, then we swung the tower around over the top of the twist floors. That was pretty much it, all done for 2:30 pm. Tuesday morning and I had another go at the set- air filter,fuel filter, I even run it on derv for an hour but it still smoked. There was a new theory that it was coking up due to not having enough load on it. On Thursday night I put the twist on the set as well as the miami and DZ. The fair was quite busy and when all three rides were working the amp meter was hitting around 185a per phase. I did think the smoke was starting to clear, then the rain kicked in and the earth leakage trip went. Probably due to the wet working with the extra load. Taking no chances and to avoid further problems the twist went back on its own set. Well it was busy and when 3 rides go dark at once it does affect business. Friday was a good night too. Saturday was dry,wet,dry,wet and the cycle repeated all day. The ground quickly became muddy under foot.
The Ghost Train had developed power supply problems to the track, so the cars could not be driven through the ride. However the effects inside were still working fine. So in true showman style- The show must go on and all that, the two brothers took turns pushing the carriages through the ride all day!!! The punters probably never even knew because its dark inside anyway! Halfway through the day they were getting a bit tired so they asked a local lad who used to work on the fair if he wanted to help. You know, take a couple of hours pushing the cars through the ghost train. This lad was 6ft tall and built like a brick s__thouse and his answer-"That will be right! You'll need to put the lights on before you'll get me in there!!!" As for the two brothers- Well done, true showmanship to keep on going and never say die, improvisation. Good luck in getting that track wiring repaired.
That night just after closing it was raining again. It had been a decent days business though and everyone had been on their feet since 1pm. It was well after 11pm now and all the rides were closed. Most of the small stuff was away. The waltzer had been the last to close. We were halfway down with the DZ as I looked across to the Waltzer. The rain was teaming and I could see one of the waltzer men sitting against one of the cars. I could see it all, I knew exactly how he felt, what he was thinking, by his posture, he was knackered, on his feet all day and when all the punters were leaving to go home for kip or put there feet up, he had another few hours of hard graft, in the pissin rain. I know why I do it, born into the game, a way of life. You could go as far as "Institutionalised" knowing no better, but these guys do it by choice, that must take extra effort. Thanks to them, the fairs couldn't get about without them.
The park was quite soft on Sunday morning but the rain had held off a bit. Taking care all the heavy stuff went out through the centre of the park. Between the rides were there had been less foot traffic. The result was hardly any mess and this is were the tracking had paid off at the gate, no repeat of last years damage. That day I did two rakes to Glasgow then over to Burntisland to pull the skydiver down. We started at 9pm and it was on the road just after 11pm. By the time we got it set on the next gaff and we returned back to the yard it was after 1am. Then we started all over again in the morning.
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