A fairgound life (Park Life)

So Thursday morning we head over to park life in Strathclyde park. The event was larger than I thought with four large tents/arenas. The fair was moved from prime tober to a part at the end of the event, in fact it was that near the end of the event that it was literally in its own fenced off pen. So at 4pm we headed in with the miami. The ride was set up on the end of the semi trailer that housed the Polish workers that had erected the tents. It was a tight fit , leaving only enough room for the tower to erect just inside the event gates. We erected the miami along the edge of the fence. I was relieved to see that we were on tarmac after all the rain we have had lately. The next day we arrived with the dz and set it along the fence too.The fire master decided that the polish abode was a fire hazard and needed to be removed from the site, only problem was that the miami was now in the way! Luckily we managed to shift the miami pay box to let the semi trailer out and away. We were finished for T time and headed home again. The next day was Saturday and we were due to open at 12 noon. The gig opened at noon but the punters didn't find their way down to us until after 2pm. It was a hard position where we where and it was even harder as the security would not let the punters in to us if they had drink in their hands of if they seemed drunk! Now lets look at this-- drinks were £4 a pop and every body had been drinking since noon!! not much scope for many clientele getting thru to us. To be fair we did knock out half a living but we lost three times as much. At 10 pm the gig ended and we got the rides down pronto. By 11:30 pm both rides were heading out of the park.I took the rides back to a lay by and left them overnight until the next morning.

a fairground life(21 and a half hours)

7am and the alarm goes off. I get up and shout "R" up. Its dry and bright so it looks like we may get a dry Saturday. I start to build the show up and "r" appears a few minutes later. At around 8am I went down to Tesco's garage and got Derv in 25lt cans to put into the lorries so that tonight after we have pulled down we can leave. At 9am I get in the jeep and head for Ingliston to mind the DZ there while "r" and the missus look after the rest of the kit at Blairgowrie. The jeep is messing about a bit and I keep it at 50 mph all the way to Edinburgh. It is bright there too and I do a little finishing off work before we open at noon. Skyliner "c" shows up to give me a hand on the DZ today (big thanks to him ) and at noon we open. The crowds are slow coming in but at 1pm we are riding full with a Q in the pen. I was worried about the 80 kva hire set not being man enough to run the DZ but it did so fine, even though its amp meters were maxing out on the big drops at over 100 amps per phase."C" looks after the DZ while I more or less take it easy. There was a lot to see and do at this gig and I watched the "Strictly" stars do a turn on the stage. The numbers were about a couple of thousand strong, they were also a nice class of people attending with their families. At 3:30pm we stopped for half an hour while they attempted to break the world record for the most people doing the air guitar. The record was set at Glastonbury so it was a tall order but they did manage to beat their sister event in London last month by 100 people with 1300 and odd people doing the head bopping, feet stomping air guitar. At 4:15pm we opened up again and rode full until we closed at 6pm. "Bjorn Again" was on stage and Abba music rang out as I left the event heading back to Blair, hopefully just in time for the gaff starting around 7pm.The rain started at Edinburgh and continued all the way to Perth , then it stopped. I was hopeful it would stay dry at Blair. At 7:15pm we pulled into the town. I could see all the crew had arrived and were at their posts. I went onto the skydiver and the missus moved over to help "r" on the miami. At 7:30pm the crowds started to arrive. It stayed dry until closing at 10:40pm. I had pulled the show down first and "m" took this away while Mrs showman followed with the trailer. Two hour later "r" and I left with the Skydiver and Miami. At Perth I lost all gears! The lorry was still in gear but the selector was sloppy, I realised that it was probably that bolt again that had broken two years ago and cost me a clutch. Having learned my lesson the first time I pulled into the kerb. "r" pulled in behind me. It was pitch black and I didn't have a torch but then "r" suggested the light from the Skydiver lighting set. He removed it from the case and attached it to the batteries on the lorry. The cable was just long enough to reach under and from the faint light I could see the sheared bolt laying on top of the gearbox. All we had to do now was find an 8mm bolt 50mm long with a nut. Eventually we removed one from the miami paybox chair. It was 50mm long with a nut but only 6mm in dia. It got us moving but the gear change was rough and the gear sometimes jumped out again. Around 2am we pulled into the services near Dumblane and put more Derv in the lorries. We continued on and after 3am we arrived at the next port of call and set the vehicles. Mrs showman arrived shortly after to pick us up with the car. Off we headed for home and at 4:30am I finally got into kip, 21 and a half hours after leaving it.

a fairground life

Thursday morning 7am and the rain has battered down all night. I'm still at Dunkeld with the Hobby caravan and about to leave to go to Ingliston near Edinburgh for a private event. When I look out I see that the ground is flooded. I couple the jeep to the Hobby and make a charge for the roadway. The jeep slips and slides but does manage to reach the road. When I look in the mirror the front of the Hobby is covered in thick brown mud that is running down the front and dripping off like a chocolate fountain. We cant go on the road like that so I get out in the teaming rain and using the washing brush I wash the front of the trailer with a puddle! The heavy rain finishes off the job and after 10 mins the trailer is clean again. On arrival at Ingliston I find the organiser. The rain is still falling and the location for the event is flooded, so we have to do a quick re think of the set up. About 30 mins later we bring in the first of the rides and start to set them. We do have tarmac paths to work from but some attractions still have to go onto the grass area. Fortunately the grass is hard underneath and we manage to get the DZ onto its plot. At that the other rides appear from Glasgow and we set them. The rain fell constantly all day and it slowed our progress as it was nearly 6pm before we were finished. I didn't plan on returning home but as we were soaked thru I left to return to the house for a hot shower. The next morning we returned to set the other ride that had came up from Newcastle. We were expecting a large crowd and I had arranged for 100 barriers to be delivered so that we could fence the rides and make larger queue pens for the patrons. At 4pm we left to return to Blargowrie for opening. En route the jeep made a couple of alarming clicking noises like a cog jumping and I could feel power loss for a second. I think this is more differential problems. I eased on the speed down to 50 MPH to make sure we got to Blair. It was 5:45pm when we arrived and Mrs Showman managed to rustle up a quick tea before we opened at 6:30pm. Friday night is usually short and sweet here and this year was no different as we were closed for 8:45pm.

a fairground life

Wednesday morning 5am and the alarm goes off. I hadn't slept since after 3am anyway. At that I heard my bros jeep pull up outside. I got up, dressed and knocked up "r" as I passed his trailer. It was still dark and very foggy. I headed down to the field where the lorries were parked and started up the Maimi's Foden and the show's ERF.I could see the twist side lights as it pulled up to the gate to leave. I got into the Foden to move it out too but it would not move, it was skidding. I pulled the show in front of it and wound out the winch cable. At that "r" arrived and climbed into the Foden. It was about 40ft of wire rope we had wound out and I began to tighten the rope. The winch pressure climbed to around 3500 Psi and the Foden slowly inched forward out of the ruts. "r" gave it a little help in first gear and the needle dropped back to around 2000 psi. So there we go the winch was tested a whole year early, how wrong could I be when I suggested next year? I headed to the gate but the twist was still there, stuck due to the fence on the corner. We reversed it back in again and took another angle out. This time it made the corner. So at 5:55am we headed off to Blairgowrie, me in the miami, "r" in the Skydiver and my Bro in his twist. I had only done about 1/2 mile when I heard a jingle, then a jangle then a rattle. It sounded like a loose wheel cap so I pulled over. When I looked out the wheel cap was ok so I looked under the lorry. One of the exhaust straps had bust (possibly caught on mud) and the silencer had drooped enough for the end pipe to scrape the road. Only option was to tie it up, so I looked in the cab for something pliable but non combustible. I found a 10m extension cable, so I tied up the hot exhaust with part of the cable and then wound the excess back and forth around the two front couplings to take up the excess. It did the trick and 3/4 of an hour later I was in Blairgowrie. Unfortunately the extension cable will now have to be trimmed to about 8m due to the extreme heat.The carpark was clear and we started to set up the rides immediately. We erected the Skydiver first then the Miami. After tea I went back and brought over the show lorry.