a fairground life (Bellshill/Edinburgh)

Bellshill and Drymen went off without any hitches, the weather was fine and the only excitement was at B/hill when the generator stopped on Sunday morning due to a clogged fuel filter. "r" put in the replacement cartridge but we couldn't get the fuel to flow. He took it out again and noticed a rubber plug inserted in the bottom, with this removed it was put back in and all systems were go. Monday evening at 7pm the fair closed, at 9:30pm we took the rides off the street. Again we used sheets of ply to protect the pavements. I was trying to be ultra careful but managed to hit a shiny bollard with my front wheel passenger side (blind spot). Luckily it was a slight graze and the bollard was fine, unfortunately my shiny stainless wheel trim lost its nut caps. The DZ needed a jump start due to a dicky battery, I took it into morrisons for fuel and started to pump. At £20 it clicked off, then the attendant came out and asked me to stop my lorry. I explained that if I stopped it , it wouldn't start again due to the battery. So she told me "no fuel then", I paid my £20 and drove 1/4 mile into a Shell garage where I pumped in another £110 with the engine running. The next morning early we headed off to WL, all the trailers in the first wave and we set the fair on arrival. We then returned to Glasgow to get the rides. We took these directly to a private hire event near Edinburgh. They all went in as one convoy as Blakey took the DZ for us (thank you). We had a time slot from 4 to 6pm as the access is via a single track road and everything had to be co ordinated to stop the event grinding to a halt due to traffic problems. The ground was grassed and tracking had been laid but it still took an hour to set the rides due to the humps on the ground that bellied out the Miami & Skydiver. We had to walk the rides over on blocks to clear this. Also we used ply under the trailer axles where they did not run over the tracking to protect the grass. It was nearly 8pm when we left for the night heading back to WL. The next morning at 10am we had returned and met some of our crew. They had come to give us a build up.The skydiver was built up first. It was a scorcher and everything was going fine until we noticed we had forgotten the DZ keys (a few days later I noticed a spare key attached to the lorry keys). So while "r" and the others set up the Miami, I headed back to pick up the keys. Ninety minutes later I was back and we finished off the DZ. It was still early-ish so "r" and I hung around doing odd jobs until 7pm, at least that way the bypass would be clear of traffic. The next two days we came back and forward to the event to get ready for the big weekend. The event was large, with a massive marquee, catering marquee, sound stage and many other displays and attractions including the free fair. The Saturday weather was tropical heat and the event was packed from 12-6pm.We worked hard for our money that day. Sunday was the complete opposite with rain all day. The attendance was still good but faded at around 5pm. At 6pm we started to dismantle, I was worried about the grass conditions now, but it was still fairly hard and all our vehicles came out with no problems. I suppose the downward slope had helped a lot. It had been a long day and the wet weather had really taken it's toll on my physique. We were back at WL for 10:30pm and set the rides on the plots ready for erecting on Monday morning. I was soaked through and ready for kip.

the photos are from part of the hire and Bellshill carpark.