a fairground life (statistically speaking)

I never did get over to Kilsyth, that must be the first fair that any of my equipment has attended but I haven't. While "r" and "e" were doing that I had the other gear at a one day'er in Hamilton. It was a single day including setting up of the rides. The only good thing was that we got to park the vehicles on site a couple of days before (That was when we were spotted traveling down the M80). The gig was an early start so we were building up the rides from 6am. "r" and "e" gave me a hand before heading off to Kilsyth for the last day there. I worked at my event until 6:30 pm before pulling down.The music gig at Kilsyth ended around the same time. We all met back at the house for 10 pm. Both gigs had went off without any hitch. The next morning we took the DZ to Irvine. Again I left "r" and "e" there to do the ride. I returned to Glasgow and the next day repaired that suspension problem on the skydiver trailer. I got "jm" the engineer to come out as I needed a set of burners to heat a seized bolt. It only took us a couple of hours to complete the job. The next day "r" and I took the miami and skydiver up to Crieff in preparation for the highland games. We set the trailers and the skydiver and started to erect it. The rain came that heavy that we had to stop for an hour. We started again but had to stop another twice for the rain before finally getting the ride finished for 6pm. At that we headed off to Glasgow again to drop "r" off to get his pick up so he could continue to Irvine. He was well late due to the rain but "e" was there to open up the DZ. The next day I returned to Crieff and set up the miami. Saturday morning I too headed to Irvine to help there. We had to open there at 12pm until 9:30pm then pull down and shift to Crieff. This we did, arriving there at 12:15am. It was a clear night and we got the ride set on its plot and un-coupled. My bro was coming down from Nairn that night too with the twist. That was after he had pulled down the dodgem and twist there! The next morning at 7 am I heard the twist ride pull in the gate. Shortly after we were all up and got stuck into the DZ. We were lucky with the weather as it managed to stay dry, although I could see that the attendance was well down on previous years.

Again everything was pulled down that night and we each did two trips into Dunkeld that night. Returning to Crieff around 1am for supper and kip. The next day we arrived in Dunkeld for lunch time. It wasn't long after that we set the rides. I was tired but "r" and "e" soon chucked up the DZ followed by the Miami. It was the next morning before we tackled the skydiver. "e" has been a great help to us the last 6 weeks, but now he is off home to Australia to start his own traveling season there.

August stats-fairs/events attended-10

distance traveled-2000miles

derv used-1200 lts

gas oil used-2000 lts

build ups & pull downs-30

total opened hours-229

earliest rise-4:50am

latest finish-1:30am

longest day-17 hours

cash earned-not enough!!

a fairground life (St.A's)

BoA was a turn up for the books. The fair was the smallest I have seen it, with 5 less large rides, 8 less snack bars, 3 less funhouses and about 600ft less of other assorted side and center gear. Every night biz was decent apart from Friday but then it did rain constantly all day up to opening. The Sunday had glorious sunny weather until a little before midnight when we got a light shower. Me and 3 of the crew packed up the miami,skydiver and show. I was in kip for 1am and knocked up again at 6:30am by my father in law. We shifted the loads by 3 trips to a yard in Stirling before heading off with the trailers to St.Andrews. The DZ was already erected there by "r" &"e" on Sunday night. They had came down the night before from the North. I needed to be there for 12pm to make the Luncheon held for the South St fair. We pulled into the town at 11am and quickly got set and tapped onto the power. A wash and shave later I put on my glad rags and headed on up.It was the first time I've attended the luncheon here and it was held in the Town Hall directly across from the DZ. I could see the ride clearly from the second floor window. After the lunch I minded the DZ for a couple of hours still in my suit and tie. I had a jibe at Blakey that he should get himself tidied up for minding. We had a little rain on Monday and a little rain on Tuesday so for the fourth year running it hasn't stayed completely dry.The fair suffered from gaps too as some found the rent too expensive and others were at Hartlepool for the TallShips event (that I understand to have been poor). With "R","E"(aussie) and myself on the tower it didnt take long to get the ride down on Tuesday night. Unfortunately for some of the showmen in the square they could not get in to take their rides down until around 12am as the market traders were still in the way. They should have been off by 11pm but some were still there at 1:30am. Tempers were frayed! By Wednesday afternoon StA was only a distant memory as we turned our attention to Kilsyth's music festival.While crossing the Forth Road bridge I could clearly see the booster ride erected at Queensferry. They must have been away the small hours on Wed morning to get this setup."R" and "E" headed over to Kilsyth on Thursday and erected the DZ. I haven't set foot over there myself yet.

pics a couple of shots from South St and access to the square blocked by the market stalls.

a fairground life

R has completed the Muir of Ord gaff and had a decent fair. He left on Thursday night after pulling down. He and his Aussie counterpart drove straight to Dornoch and got to kip for 1:30 am. They were up again at 8am and erected the DZ ready for opening at 11am today. By 6pm they will be taking it down again and heading for Strathpeffer. Oh, to be on the right side of 30 again. Meanwhile here, I have been to St Andrews to help other family and arrived back at BOA for 9pm last night. The square opened at St A today at 11am. The rest of us will roll into South St on Sunday at 6pm.The town did seem a little quiet yesterday though. The lorries were still taking away loads of gear from the Open Championship. Surprise surprise the rain is falling on BOA for the fourth Friday night in a row.I cant complain too much as the last two nights have seen a great improvement on previous years.

The start of setting up in the square at St Andrews

a fairground life

The month of July has passed really quickly. After August the year will turn into the backend run. August has always been my favourite month, I don't know exactly why, maybe because the hype of the summer is over, maybe because I liked the places we travel in this month or maybe because by this time of the season we used have a couple of quid stowed. Not wanting to spoil it for myself I think I'll not ponder too deep into the reasons.

So, for the last couple of weeks "r" has had a new pal stay with him, an Australian Showman who has been touring Europe for a few months.He has spent a while on a busmans holiday staying with friends on the fairs.He is going with "r" to help him do the North run while I stay at BOA for this week. Anyway we all pulled down on Sunday night. The weather was lovely all day until about 7pm when the heavens opened. The lads were well into the skydiver by now and I was just starting the miami. I quickly got a hat and rain coat out from the Foden and carried on. It wasn't long before "r" came up and said that the EC12 wouldn't start. It had a brand new set of batteries on it, but that dead problem from WL had appeared again. I told him to put the EC10 under the ride to get it ready for the road. This was so I could take the skydiver away while "r" and the crew finished the DZ and miami. I took the skydiver away and arrived onsite a BOA around 9pm. It was 10pm when I got back to the mall. The EC12 still would not start, I bridged the batteries with a jump lead to check the isolator but it made no difference. Eventually I started the lorry by crawling underneath it and bridging the starter connections with a bolt. The engine roared to life. I was hoping the lights would come on from the alternator, but they didn't. The dash was all opened up from us checking for fuses so we took a jump lead, attached it to positive on the batteries, ran it along the cab and into the passenger window and connected it onto the largest positive bolt connection we could find on the dash console. This gave us power to run the cab electrics,lights,horn,wipers etc. So with that jury rigged we coupled it all up and set off. It was no problem all the way there and just after midnight we pulled into the fair, me in the DZ and "r" in the miami. We jumped into the jeep and arrived home for 1am. Monday at 11am we left the yard with the trailers. When we got onsite they were set and it was time to erect the skydiver and miami. We needed to get these up for teatime as "r" and "e" were heading off to The Black Isle with the DZ as soon as we were ready. The build up was fine and at 5pm both rides were setup. We went to change lorries on the DZ from the EC12 to the EC10(with generator) so "r" could get away, but the EC12 wouldn't start again. I tried to do it with the bolt underneath but all we got was a judder noise. Eventually we had to attach the EC10 on the front with a chain and blow off the air tanks with the emergency line to release the brakes. We dragged the unit off far enough to get the EC10 coupled under. I suppose we are lucky that the EC12 isn't the unit with the generator attached (there's that lucky outlook again). It was 6:30 now and "r" and "e" set off with the DZ and jeep with trailer for the Isle. At 10:30pm I got a call from "BS", he asked if I had a lorry on the A9. I thought "r" must have been stopped but he told me he was moving along fine, in fact he said tell him he's going too fast!I was also relieved to hear that the jeep was behind with the trailer too. It wasn't long after that that "r" phoned in to say they had arrived ok.

This morning I went and visited a mechanic in Stirling that my father knew. He put me onto an auto electrician that would come out to look at the EC12. (He had done this for me before in 2005 when at BOA the EC10 wouldn't start. It turned out to be a broken wire from the key barrel to a relay behind the dash. Funny enough I started the lorry by bridging the starter then too so I could make my journey). The electrician arrived and tested the batteries, no fault there. I tried the key but the dead problem was gone, now the starter just juddered. The sparky had the meter on the batteries and quickly deduced that the isolator I had fitted two years ago was faulty (same isolator and problem that we had on the Foden). He fitted a new bridge and the lorry started fine, only thing is, I cant help but think I bridged that with a jump lead??? or was that the night before but why didnt the dash lights go then? or was the lead not connected properly yesterday or is there another intermittent fault waiting to appear again??? At the moment its all working but for how long?

We open at The Black Isle and BoA tomorrow at 6pm, hope all's well.