A fairground life (What's in a Decade?)

What's in a Decade?

The last ten years have been the shortest of my life, it has absolutely flown by.

Back in 1999 things were on a new start for us.I had been working all summer to complete the renovations on our new home. We had also moved onto another yard in Glasgow (with good company) for the winter. It was only a week or so before Christmas 99 that we finally got moved in to the wagon. Life seemed that bit more comfortable. The new millennium (2000) seemed to hold a lot of promise, I mean after we had survived the Y2K bug.My new car was a Renault Laguna 1.9dt RT sport.

As the year quickly stepped into 2001 more things were on the move, I had just bought a new lorry for the skydiver, An ERF EC10, although we had trouble with it initially (a burst intercooler) it turned out to be a good buy. It was a young lorry for any showman at the time. Soon after (out of necessity) I took possession of my first silent running generator. A whole 100kva! Wow I'll never use all that power! We holliday-ed in Euro Disney that year. I know these are all material objects but it shows how good things were because I had no other worries at that time to mention. During this year we first attended the mall for easter, business was good, very good for the first few years and life was sweet.

Christmas came and went again and 2002 stepped up. That year seen us take another step forward with the purchase of the Miami ride. I have always been a cautious person, only doing something that I felt was abso-posi-lutely secure, so the four years repayments were considered, pondered,reviewed and eventually agreed on. Again I was lucky, life was good as the ride made it's deadlines and a small profit to boot. Our Holiday was in Florida on our first ever cruise.

2003 came around and at the end of that season I had enough cash to take my rides into a shed for the rest of the winter. Not only that they all got a major overhaul.Things were rosey the following summer as the maintenance had all been done. No holiday though, you can't spend it twice.

2004 arrived and for the first time the reality of life knocked on the door as my father took seriously ill. We had never known heart ache before, this was something that happened to other people, I mean it's been 5 years and he's still gone!

2005 rolled in, we were one man down now but it wasn't slowing us up, my bro took possession of his new twister ride and we all had new jeeps. Biz had dropped a little but not enough to worry about.Holidays this year were in Cannes, a lovely location full of the "beautiful people" and a few months later Florida.

2006 and "r" entered into uni for his engineering degree, a university student was a first for our family. We picked up a few new events, fairs and hires.I also got my first ever brand new generator, a 200kva ,what happened to only needing 100 kva???? Oh!, and the miami was paid for!, what are we gonna do now? As a wise showman once said-"life is like driving along the motorway, as soon as you take your foot off the accelerator, someone passes you". So just before 2006 expired, we took on the Drop Zone to keep progressing. Again life dropped us a reminder of the important issues when my Uncle "Jr" passed away suddenly.

2007 was full of expectation and excitement as I had a new toy to play with. We ventured further afield and went to some new fairs as a result of the DZ, St Andrews and Irvine to name two. Pushing on further to try and better our lives we took on the investment of a House (a yard seemed untouchable). Our holiday was in Florida again, I really enjoyed it with plenty of company this time.

2008 drew in, we were still coping but it was getting tighter. Half a decade had passed and we were back in the shed again doing major maintenance on the skydiver. Later in the year "R" passed both of his HGV tests first time around and life got a lot easier for me. This year saw us go to Muir of Ord and later enter the SECC with the DZ. The secc helped us through that winter.

2009 arrived and I knew instantly it was all going to go pear shaped, I suppose deep down I'm a superstitious person and 9 is an unlucky number. Biz dropped again, everywhere not just at the mall, expenses were rising without pause. My secure investment of the house had lost a fortune in value. I did get my holiday though, Florida again, but this time I didn't enjoy it as much, just had a feeling of been there, done that. So we went another,probably the most enjoyable and relaxing I've had, one (cheap) week on the Red Sea."R" graduating with his degree was the highlight of the year. As 2009 draws it's last breath, I can honestly say I'm glad to see it go. Mrs Showman and I have seen out three decades together, the Noughties have been good for my family. We have achieved many a thing in the last ten years, unfortunately we have suffered some losses along the way. The next ten years will hold things a-new, but I know I can't hold down the accelerator for much longer, my foot's getting tired along with the rest of me. Maybe I've seen the best of times?

Best vehicle of the decade-ERF EC10

Best buy of the decade- miami ride

Worst vehicle has got to be the Kan't'goo

Worst buy has to be the Kan't'goo too.

Best Holiday, hmm! that's a hard one, possibly Cannes as I also got to visit Monte Carlo.

Worst Holiday had to be the last one in Florida, just seemed to be an anti-climax.

Most memorable moment- "R" graduating.

Worst moment-obviously my father.

Bitter Sweet moment- was watching our wagon leave after selling it.

Photo of the decade- dad getting his Rolex on fathers day 2003.

And That's what's in a Decade!!!

Happy New Decade Everyone, and thanks for reading.

A fairground life

I didn't think we were going to get opened at all on Boxing day. The snow was falling with flakes the size "of half crowns" according to my father in law, I don't know what that is in today's money. At around 1pm the snow stopped and I began to clear the rides and salt the platforms. This was supposed to be one of the "gaff" days but it didn't happen either here or at the secc. Who would venture out in that weather anyway? The temperature was a whole 1/2 degree above freezing so at least it felt warmer. The secc was cold inside too, obviously the heating was off during x-mas day. This resulted in "r" calling to say the DZ was not working, I told him to switch off the extra cooling fans and idle to pump for a few minutes to thin the oil. Sure enough that solved the problem, I must be getting to know the ride's idiosyncratic behaviour now. The water lasers are still frozen, I've finally put an electric heater in beside the pump in an attempt to thaw it out. At the last attempt there was still no joy. The pirate galleon ship in the water lasers looked more like HMS Discovery with the water frozen solid around its hull, hope it doesn't take two years to thaw!

a fairground life

Well the mall has changed from a winter wonderland to an arctic tundra. It was -7 today so the rides were frozen beyond operational limits. A day off for some while "r" and I did our shift in the secc.

merry christmas everyone!

a fairground life

Well it was the calm before the storm, only literally and not metaphorically speaking! The snow has hammered us for two days now. I spent over an hour yesterday and again this morning clearing snow from the miami and skydiver rides. Then I salted the platforms on each ride. All to no avail as there are no customers about. The DZ was even affected by the snow as the secc was closed early (7pm) last night due to public transport problems. It took me 2hrs to get home at night as the roads were so bad. Roll on christmas day so I can get my feet up. As for the water lasers, they are still frozen solid, maybe I could alter them to fire ice cubes?

a fairground life (calm before the storm)

Since last Wednesday we have been busy busy working but not earning. The DZ was set up in the secc ahead of schedule as I had allocated 3 full days for this but managed to do it in 1 and a 1/2. Just as well as we had the miami booked in for the Soulwaxmas event at the braehead arena too and both gigs kicked off on the same night (fri 18th). The miami setup was supposed to be from Thursday but there was no activity at the Arena site, so I half pulled the ride down to move it the 100 yrds onto its event plot and left it for the next day. All the smaller rides were removed from the mall area as this was now being shared with the music event. To ease any congestion, avoid blocking the view to the music event entrance and prevent any damage being done to these rides, we removed them from site earlier in the week. This meant that they would all have to be re erected on Saturday morning before opening. I said "half pulled down the miami" as that was exactly what it was. We never removed the weights or lowered the backflash, we just packed the control box and raised the front platforms. The lorry coupled up ready to move. So back on Friday early noon to set the ride up again. It only took a few minutes to move the 100 yrds distance and about 20mins to re erect the ride. After that it was back to the secc for opening. I arrived back at 4pm to see one of the other ride operators pull in with his van. He had a large hydraulic ram inside, which he had just got repaired. Unluckily for him the seals had went whilst trying the ride out after trying out on Monday. The ram was repaired but now had to be fitted. So a few of us gave him a hand. We got the use of a forklift from the secc to remove the cylinder from the back of the van. Now we had to devise a way to lift it into position four feet off the floor at a 45 degree angle whilst being inserted through two beams with cutout holes and not forgetting that the eyes needed to align for the fixing pins! At that the helpful HSE officer for the secc arrived to give us the benefit of his wisdom. The outcome of that was- the forklift was not designed to carry the ram, but since it was safer than us lifting it by hand he would "kindly" let us use it. I suppose if we had strapped a palette to the bloody thing that would have been alright then! So watching the clock and with the help of the experienced forklift driver (which made all the difference) we did manage to get the ram in position and the pins hammered in literally on the stroke of 6pm when the doors opened. Mean while "r" was doing the music event with the crew from Falkirk. Skyliner "c" arrived to help me with the DZ.

The secc was quiet and I called "r" on the hour every hour but the news was always the same-"it's crap, there's no people here!" he informed me. So "R" struggled on until 3am in the morning before they half pulled the ride down and moved it back onto it's funfair plot again for opening on Saturday morning.It's a good job we only had 100 yrds to go or we would not have cleared the moving expenses!! thats how bad a gaff it was. At 8am I headed out to the mall to erect the ride again while "r" got some kip. It was after 11am before I got things ready again and I made a dash for the secc to get organised there for opening too. Everything was running smooth apart from the Miami set needing a filter change, which my bro took care of for me. Sunday was a nightmare, the snow was about an inch deep and it took an hour to thaw out the rides at the mall. No such problems for the DZ in the warm,dry hall 4 of the secc. Any way I shoveled four bin bags of salt and spread them all around the miami and skydiver. The water lasers were a no go, being totally frozen solid. I hope the pump hasn't been split, I'll find out tuesday no doubt. At 6pm we closed at the mall, just in time as a blizzard hit as we were leaving. I called in at the secc on the way home to see if "r" needed any help. Luckily for me "c" was still on hand so I got an early finish. On the way home the roads were so bad that the jeep got stuck on an exit ramp of the m8. I quickly put that fuse back in and got the 4wd working again. Maybe I will be able to keep it in now or maybe the diff problems will return????? Any way it got us moving and home. The roads were just sheets of ice again this morning.

Monday and I'm in the secc with "r" today, things are working well at the moment but that can change quickly as we have seen in previous posts. Managed to get a little x-mas shopping in this morning. It's the calm before the storm in here, just got to keep it all running!

a fairground life (secc)

Tuesday morning we head over the the secc, the DropZone is already in the carpark from the day before. The traffic was heavy on the M8 and we arrived ten minutes later than planned at 8:10am. The door to hall 4 was open and within 5 minutes we were in and set on the plot. We used the generator for power to get built up so we didn't have to wait for the sparkies to connect us up. As the floor is perfectly flat the ride was levelled in a jiffy. In fact the ride was erected very quickly and we then started on the other jobs. "R" replaced a sticky limit swich while I cleaned all the handrails, then I waxed the panels of the ride. At noon we stopped for lunch. When we started again we cleaned all the brush contacts, waxed the control box, got every single bulb on the tower working (first ever I think) which then made the fuse blow!! So "r" climbed the tower and replaced the fuse (stupid designer put fuse box at the top of the tower!). After that we painted the tower yellow again. The ride is very smart and tidy. While we were doing all this the other operators were building up too. The layout has changed again and we have new rides in- Superbowl, Superstar , Extreme and the Mega mix. The large Gallopers, TopSpin and Twister Coaster rides are delete. The DZ has moved over one plot from last year. It was 7:30pm before we called it a night, we wanted every last job done as when them doors open on Friday it will be "full on" for two weeks. All we have to do is erect the Q pen when the sections are delivered. The photo is a blurry section of hall 4 taken by "r" as we test run the DZ.

a fairground life

The last of the light ups for us Alloa. I have been providing the fair here for the last 10 years and apart from the first year in 2000, I never presented any of my own equipment. This year was different though as the Fair was to be moved from the origional car park to a new location just across the road. I must admit, at first I did not fancy the new location as it was further away from the High St and the fair was partly hidden from view by a neighbouring building, but on the night the people did turn out to support the towns event. The organisers realised that the new location for the light up stage show needed some extra effort and they really pulled out the stops. They had extra x-mas lights installed leading down to the venue, a new Christmas tree put up and lights fitted to it, then they had a world record attempt organised for the most people dancing a reel. To top all that off, there was a charity fair in the aforementioned building and plenty of advertisement to let the public know. So we set off from Glasgow on a dry , cold and dark Saturday morning at 6am. It was very foggy with poor visabillity but by the time we arrived in Alloa at little before 8am the fog had lifted a bit. The new location was almost clear of cars, in fact a sole van was parked and as mentioned before in this blog it was parked in the obligatory way. We juggled the position of the ride to compensate then started to build up. A short while later the rest of the tenants arrived, as it was a new site I had prepared a plan before hand but this was quickly modified for the better. As in previous years we all headed over to TESCO for our breakfast before opening. The parked van was moved by the council just before we opened at 11am. The first few hours were slow but just about 3:30pm the crowds started to form for the switch on an hour later. The crowds dwindled to see the light up and then headed back over to the fair again just before 5pm. A few minutes later the DZ had the breakdown. The RCCB had tripped the power off during a ride cycle, "r" went and put it on again and as the ride was stopped, I pressed the manual lower to bring down the carriage for a restart. Alas the ride only lower about 30cm when it stopped again. I thought it was jammed and went out for a closer inspection. I could see that the ride had jammed on a fouled rope. All I needed to do was raise the carriage 1-2 inches to clear it but the design of the ride is such that it can only be started when the carriage is at the bottom position and it was 12ft above this! So we followed procedure and had the fire brigade remove the passengers. At 6:30pm the last one was removed by ladder. It only took "r" a minute to clear the jam by attaching a ratchet strap to the tower and carriage. He ratcheted up the strap and the empty carriage raised the inch or so and he cleared the fowled rope. Literally 2 minutes and the ride carriage was lowered down. But you could'nt do that with the public sitting onboard. At 8pm we were heading back to Glasgow. The next morning we were supposed to do the light up at Cambuslang. We arrived on site at 7am to look at the position for the DZ, it was too tight for the fire passage and the alternative was on too great a slope, so we took the ride back to the mall. There we erected the ride for 10am then replaced the fowled rope with a spare. All ready for noon we tried the ride but it would not go, for 5 hours "r" and I tried everything to get it to go. Eventually, being frozen to the bone, tired and de-moralised we left it for the next day, lucky we didn't go to Cambuslang. Monday morning and I sent emails to the manufacturer in Italy and called an electrician. I also phoned "IS" who used to have a similar ride before he sold it. "r" and I stopped at Maplins to get some components, we tested every diode, resistor, contactor , connection. We read the schematic, traced voltages and even looked up the CPU manual on the internet. The ride still would not go, it simply lifted about 2m from the floor then stopped and blew a 2A fuse. It was about 2pm now and I felt sure that we had fried the CPU when the RCCB trip had went at Alloa. Then in a last ditch desperation thought, I had an idea! The only thing that was out of the ordinary for (apart from the rope foul up) the ride was all the foot traffic across the floor of the ride the night of the breakdown. Normally the carriage is positioned here and prevents foot traffic, so I said to "r" to lift the tread-plate sheeting. Hallelujah!!! a tiny comms wire was rubbed bear and touching on the flooring. As soon as "r" touched it the ride came to life. I called the electrician and "IS" to inform them. As for Italy it was two days later before they contacted me. At that I headed home to pick up Mrs Showman and headed down south for a showmen's function. I don't know if she was happier cos the ride was re paired or because she was getting to go to the function.

A fairground Life (THERE AND BACK AGAIN "R's" Tale)

Campbeltown

5:30am and the alarm goes off, at this point I am already regretting the trip to Campbeltown, I dragged myself out of bed and picked up my bag I packed the night before. It was a short trip to the house to pick up showman and then off to pick up a good friend of mine who would be making the trip with me "RM", from there we headed out to the Mall where the Drop zone was waiting for us. On arrival RM quickly put the bags in the cab of the lorry while I set about starting it and building the air up, but this was a no go as the lorry turned over once and then died, so it was out with the battery charger and on with the generator. Within five minutes the charger had the lorry roaring to life and the air was coming up nicely. Another ten minutes passed as I had a last look round and we where on our way. Showman followed us in the pick up to the junction for the M8 and from there he headed back home. I think that was the point at which it really dawned on me that I would be doing this not so much alone but without guidance. Campbeltown is run by another showman we call "Shiney shows" (on account of how clean he keeps his equipment) but for easy writing i'll just call him SS. The plan was for us to leave together but he ended up leaving half an hour behind me by the time he picked up his wee brother KS this meant I got to go in front. For weeks people have told me that the road to Campbeltown is one of the worst they have driven and one person even told Showman that if he wanted the ride back in one piece he would need to drive it there and back himself ( Thank you for the vote of confidence ! ). I will admit that it is the most dangerous road I have ever driven, narrow with blind corners and verges that are anything but forgiving. I will say that I did have a few "hairy" moments on the 140 mile journey, one being a Loch gate that you cross just the other side of Lochgilphead, there are no lights or signs to tell you that you are approaching the bridge ( that can be open or closed ) and as you turn the 90 degree blind corner you have less than 100 yards to swerve away from on coming traffic as the road goes from two way to single track for crossing the bridge itself ! I admit I was lucky that there was no coming traffic or I would have been in trouble. After the bridge at Lochgilphead the journey was less eventful as I'd had the s@&ts put up me and I drove with much more consideration! We arrived at Campbeltown around 11 am and I phoned SS to see where he was at, he had stopped in Tarbert ( 35 miles away ) to book the B&B for us that night and would soon be on his way again. I took this opportunity to park the drop zone on the sea front and have a look at the ground. The site itself was a small car park between three buildings with access via a narrow side road that opened onto the high street, a tight get in to say the least and to make things just that bit harder there were cars parked everywhere. There was a sign up at the entrance to the car park stating that it would be "closed at 1pm" and a 12:30pm SS turned up with KS and we set about stopping cars from entering. Within half an hour we had decided that enough cars had left to try and get the drop zone in, we were WRONG. SS and I went back to the parked ride to bring it in, but alas the bad battery had not taken a charge on the long journey. Luckily SS had a booster pack that we put on and that got the lorry started ( I could see this was going to be an on going problem ). First off I tried to go up the high street and swing right into the narrow road leading to the car park, but it was too tight so it was decide to take a drive round the town and come down the High street and swing left. I got half way round the town when I turned right to go down one of the small streets and I got stuck! A van driver had parked and I could not get passed plus the drop zone was still blocking the road I had just turned off of. It was mayhem! Again luck struck and the driver was only talking across the road, he saw the commotion and quickly shifted. Eventually I had come full circle and was making the left turn into the side street leading to the car park, again this was lined with cars and very narrow, my drivers wing mirror was brushing the wall of a building and I was clearing the cars on my left by mere inches. From this point on it took us an hour and a half just to get off the side street and into the car park, we tried reversing in but parked cars would not let the lorry follow the truck so we straightened up and reversed back down the street we had just driven up and drove into the car park but this meant the ride's tower would be the wrong way and could not swing, so we spent another 30 minutes jack-knifing the truck around with only a few feet to spare. I have to say that without SS, KS and RM there is no way I would have got into that car park, especially KS who has a real knack for guiding using every inch available to get me in ( Thank you ). After that the build up was easy. RM and I threw the drop zone up and grabbed a quick bite to eat, while we waited on darkness falling and the people coming out. About 5 pm folks started to arrive and we stayed open till 9pm. Business was steady but we were just a bit too far from the main event ( a parade down the high street ) and this did hinder us. The pull down was uneventful and I had put the battery charger on the lorry while we were open so it started no problem, by half ten we where back on the road heading towards Tarbert for their light up the next night. The road at night was a lot quieter and I was following SS who knew it better than I, so it was easy driving as I was only following a set of tail lights. We arrived at Tarbert about midnight and drove right onto the plot as it had been coned off for our arrival, I uncoupled the drop zone and parked the lorry behind it while there were no cars in the way as the main street was quiet. After that I walked across the street and checked into the Tarbert Hotel. A strange experience to say the least as I have never stayed in a hotel between light ups, as we usually just head home but I guess this time we were just a bit far out for that.

Tarbert

The next day RM and I slept through breakfast and right on till noon! Unlike SS and KS who have never been known to miss a meal (lol). We got up had quick showers and set about building up the drop zone which again was uneventful apart for a brief 30 seconds where we had to stop traffic so we could swing the tower across the main road. RM and I where all done for 2pm and headed back into the hotel for a quick wash and to check out. SS and KS took us to a cafe that they frequent during the summer (when they are opened here for three weeks) and introduced us to the owner, from there we went to the art shop where SS showed me photos and paintings of the fairground during the summer and one of his 50 foot wagon on the quay side in the middle of the town by itself. Then we went to the ruins of the castle to see the town from a high vantage point and collected some branches for the owner of the cafe to paint silver and decorate the cafe windows with for the coming festivities. I have to admit the four of us looked somewhat peculiar walking through the town with arms full of sticks! KS cracked a few jokes about pagan rituals and we had a good laugh, this earned us a free meal when we stopped by the cafe again just before opening so it was worth it ! We opened at 5pm and the parade came down the high street and stopped right in front of the drop zone while the local councilor said a few words from the balcony of the hotel, it looked like we where going to get something as we had a few runs after the speech ( In which the councilor thanked SS for putting on the fair and congratulated him on his new drop zone ride ! ) but the weather beat us and the rain came down hard clearing the street, at 8:30pm RM and I started pulling down and by 10pm we were on our way back to Glasgow. I followed SS to Lochgilphead where he stopped for fuel while I carried on. It was plain sailing all the way to the Erskine bridge where I stopped for fuel in preparation for Alloa the next morning. After that it was a quick hop over the bridge where I caught up with SS again just as he was cutting off the M8. From there I went to the layby where showman was waiting to pick us up and take RM home. That was the end of our little adventure, 280 miles 2 fairs 2 days and a guided tour of Tarbert ! I have to say I earned more in experience than I did in cash and travelling with SS, KS and RM was without a doubt the highlight of the whole thing, we had a good laugh, but I was glad to be home!