A fairground life
It's my FAVOURITE day of the year, by this time tomorrow it will all be over. Things are on an up at the moment, biz at the mall been better year on year, credit crunch!what credit crunch? How easily pleased we are and with short memories too, hope all those x-mas shoppers aren't falling into the plastic card trap (again). Sorry that's just my pessimist side clicking in, enjoy Christmas while you can, I'm sure we all deserve it. Any way DZ still working on top form, how long until we have to look at it? Me and "r" had a bet going and it already past the long shot 5 day mark. I noticed how shiny the brush contacts were, the indoor environment agrees with this ride. Some others not so lucky but they seem to have sorted things out now. Boxing day will see the start of the big rush and long queues, I better take it easy on the christmas SPIRIT.
Merry Christmas everyone, thanks for reading.
posted by showman @ 13:09
11 Comments
11 Comments:
Ho Blakey! you never told the readers your adventure.
That is a good point about trying this format else where. They have and it failed, in the early nineties the AECC management tried it for several years, no good, I was there for one of those years and my father was there for another. Now the last two years has seen a Showman present an indoor event at Ingliston, Edinburgh. The last years event just scraped by and most of those attending said they would try it one more time, so hopefully it will pick up a bit for them. Glasgow is a hard act to follow and it has several advantages that undoubtably help it.
First location- in the middle of Scotlands biggest city with all public transport at hand. The AECC is on the outskirts of Aberdeen, namely Bridge Of Don. As for Ingliston, its in the middle of nowhere.
Two- Glaswegians and the west coast towns (Port Glasgow, Greenock etc) have always been big supporters of the funfair and only rivalled by Fife in their support of Showmen in general.
Three- With the Glasgow green and Kelvin Hall fairs it is bred into their heritage, fathers have taken their kids and so on, the carnival (as known by in Glasgow) goes back around 88 years. Every Granny has had a game of bingo there!
Four- (and this will really set the cat among the pigeons) Glasgow was always heavy industry, blue collar. Some would call this working class and going to the fair was the normal holiday experience. Edinburgh was always looking down it's nose at it poorer city neighbour. During old Vickies days, Edinburgh was white collar, producing doctors, lawyers and beaurocrats. While Glasgow was knocking out industry to power the empire, Edinburgh was knocking out intellectuals to govern it. Not the sort of posh folk that would visit the shows. Take the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston and Braemar Highland Games, no shows there, I don't think Old Lizzy approves. Has she ever visited a fair anywhere???
And before any one mentions Burntisland, it may be on the East coast, but it is in Fife! And if you looked out an seen orange buses in the morning you knew you were gonna get a living, if you seen maroon you went back to bed for an hour.
Strangely enough it was sunny fife i was thinking about, there is a certain shed you may know of,
excellent road access that would take in edinburgh, north fife, central and west fife catchment area. Its large enough to fit nearly all of scotlands showmen in a oner with room to spare,
Anyone guess where?
And where is the blakey tale of woe? Cant be that bad its not making it into print??
good day all ah xmas eve every males excuse to get out the house and get all his xmas presents lol i can safely say im one of them lol as showman said what credit crunch crumbs every shop i was in it was mobbed local coop was full to the brim and the shelves were vastly emptying so where does the word credit crunch come in heck you would think the shops were never opening again lol. ah well i hope everyone enjoys there xmas day dinner and a few alcoholic beverages at least santas slay doesnt run on fuel ha ha be an expensive tanks worth lol. cheers borderer
I think i mentioned in the past that i leave the tails of woe to showman so i can add a bit of light relief.So on that note here's the big countdown.
At two is daf. Daf would have had a real shot at first place,but like all the other all so ran's it is let down by the automatic gearbox in the newer model's. This might sound trivial,but most new lorries are now predomenantly automatics. I dont think i have driven a lorry with a gear stick and a digi tacho yet. All new lorries must now have a digital tachograph that work's with a card[like a credit card] rather than a hand written chart. Yes big brother is watching us even closer. Your every move is now down loaded on to computer's.
Daf are very good lorries,at least in the driving sense. Very comfy,handle well and every thing in cab is close at hand. Plenty cup holder's tray for paperwork and great night heater's. Very important on cold morning's. All new daf's also have an on screen display that count's your driving hour's and breaks for you. This feature also in the number one lorry,but been in daf's for a few year's now. They also have sun visor's on the side window as well as the windscreen. This again is great. Try driving a man down the m74 with the sun off to your right in summer.It is basically a big square box with window's. It's like driving a green house. Side visors on all lorries please.
The older daf i have driven y reg onwards, and with gear sticks were all four high four low with half gears rarely needed when hauling food etc. They were good runner's aged well and went like the clapper's when solo.Has anyone found out what clapper's went like yet. They could sometimes be a bit adverse to going in to reverse.The gear stick tended to vibrate. Anyone driving them long term could end up with a withered left arm. So daf are the second best out there, but as a said they are let down by the auto's. Slow at roundabout's and like the other auto's they revers in instalment's. Very dificult to keep your revs up'and reverse smoothly.
One quick update. Had a proper shot of the new merc's. Their new auto box almost as good as the number one lorry. The fact that they have stuck the radio back above your head means they have no chance of a late attempt at a higher place. Totally stupid idea. A massive reverse leap for man kind.
Might do the number one tonight if not tomorrow.
he wont spill the beans, so I'll give you the gist- M74, no spare filter, battery charger, The Police and finally a tow job. More excitement than I've had all year!
Just had update from the "R" phone. DZ disabled for 13 minutes due to brush failure. Only another 47h 47m of breakdown time left!!!
At least it was only the battery that got charged. It could have been me.
Good evening hope all have a good xmas day cheers borderer.
just to wish showman and everybody a happy and prosperouse chistmas and new year.keep up the good work on the blog.jonah
hope all regulars had good xmas, showman the mall and secc busy today,regards to what jesters said lease big shed then lease out plots and charge entrance fee and set price for rides. then everyones a winner showman what you think.cheers borderer
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