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.
posted by showman @ 19:28
21 Comments
21 Comments:
evening all in blogland. another great blog entry showman and great pics of the fair im glad buisness was good for you over the days hence the less attractions more coins for yourself. miss borderer is home now for 6 weeks after her buisness trips to america and south america we had the house warming party last night and have had a few glitches with electrics and plumbing in the past few weeks god darn new houses !!. hope yourself "r" "w" and mrs showman and blakey and family are all well showman. and hows all the regs jesters. flatty. skyliner c many thanks borderer.
Morning showman it looks like boa is going off the boil a little bit. I don't think its anything to do with the fair itself, but just lack of cash from the punters. (HI Blakey wer've you been) Its interesting you mention the tall ships Mr s there were thousands of people there and I would have thought the showmen would have made a living, but they had three fairs spread over a wide area, I would guess jm might have had less trade because of the walking, and as the other two fairs were nearer to the action would have had more,I would think gs would have been ok as that was built up near restaurants and bars. The rides were still there on the Wednesday morning fully built up, to me indicating they had a late one. Marshall's were built up near the bus terminus and when we were round there seemed to be doing ok. But the showmen can only vouch for this. Is sa fair llamas market? because if it is Ive had a butchers at the web site and it looks like a major fair, if your dz was built up near a blue inflatable pond I might be on the right track. It looks like your dz + GS, WM, GC, JW, and was that brother B's dodgems on the pics, and with a better weather might of had a decent living. I'm wondering regarding the tallships as jm been the lessee for a long time now how did the other fairs open, or are they counted differently or is there an issue over time and distance.
Hope everyone has a good gaff,
Glad the house warming went well borderer.
Kind Regards,
Flatty.
Good afternoon all
Enjoyed St.A's as my 21st was on the Monday. Had the Skyliner open as well at St.A's for the 1st time in X number of years. Pulled down on Tuesday night, drove back to Glasgow, 2 hours kip and back up to take the kiosk to Rothesay for the local cattle show on the Wednesday morning, opening at 9am. Out with the family last night for my 21st birthday meal, sloshed big time and got another party tonight. Happy days!
Hope all regs well,
C
P.S Showman...ba ba Americano!
hello happy birthday skyliner c how was buis at st a's, glad to here from u flatty hope all well ur end, just in from combining and only got 300 acre left to do and thats that for another year phew!! ploughing and seeding for next year crop after it tho darn. taking miss borderer out for a meal and a special surprise lined up after it i no im getting to soft. hope all well borderer
Hello Sky c looks like your havin a ball, ho to be 21 again best wishes and congradulations.
Take mr showman out with you tonight he'll enjoy it.
Best Regards, Flatty
Good Evening All,
T'was My First Year In St A's With The Skyliner And I Must Say, Even Though Buisness Was Slow To Start, I Enjoyed Every Second Of It. Uploading A Pretty Large Blog Including Inverkeithing Lammas As Well As St Andrews And The Journey Home With The Food Kiosk to Rothesay Cattle Show!
Take Care All
Skyliner Stewie
yes john the lammas is st andrews. that is MM's dodgem in the square, it used to be JS and before that it was the late JW's. The DZ was next to the pond.
good question about the other fairs, some sections have different by laws for time/distance or exemptions for some towns/cities. also perhaps the tallship event moved in on an established fairs time. cant comment too much as I don't know the facts and there may even be complaints pending.
Happy 21st "c", hope you had an americano time of it!
welcome aboard skyliner stewie.
Borderer-you'll just have to "plough" through it! haha
Good to see all the usuals in tonight! Lovely to have a bit of sunshine today also, hope it lasts till Sun. Not overly busy today but better than nothing.
Passed the convoy on the A80 on fri showman, you were all trundling through the 40 section. You must have been wanting fed as you were checking your watch lol.
All the best for your birthday skyliner c, hope its a good one.
All the best to the usual suspects and skyliner s !
a great evening enjoyed by both of us miss borderer happy shes been wined and dined and i was just happy to get out of the combine cab for a few hours special surprise was a weekend away for 2 to venice and she has even decided to invite me as her 2nd person man i should be chuffed lol !!. hows buisness this weekend showman where are you about i cant keep up with all these places jesters hope buis good and hope all other regs are earning a few coins as well. cheers borderer
Hi to all regs. sorry not been on lately,but been a bit hectic of late. It's hard work keeping my stuff,and showman's on the go. that was me driving the skydiver on friday jester's. showman never looks at his watch he's got mr's showman to tell him the time,and what to do next.
I could bore you all to tear's with tale's of broken down cars at the busiest time of year,but i like to leave the hard luck stories to showman. It's a long story about a fuel tank breaking up inside and a potentual bill of £4,500. after 2 weeks of a car that would'nt tow anything[quite important at this time of year] and 2 weeks in the garage after much negotiation with the manufacturer's,i managed to persuade them to pay the bill in full. to say i was quite chuffed was an understatement. showman recons i should retire and become a consultant. I have hopefully finally got to the bottom of the car probs i've had since december.
I will try to be a bit more consistant with my comment's as i will be in internet range a lot more in the coming weeks.
Business has been ok over last few weeks and on a par with last year,although i have had an additional bit of equipment[inflatable kicker]so i suppose i've been working harder for the same money.
note to r. I hope everyone noticed you picked the busiest week of your year in a feeble attempt to win the argument over
weather it was tougher to travel in the old days. you could have picked the 4 weeks you sat at a shopping centre rather than your trip up north. anyway you only took your wee diddy dz. you left all the real work for your oldman.
hope all reg's are well and nice to see some more regular contributer's. anything's better than the rubbish showman writes.
just when I thought it was safe to go back into the comments page!
HI Blakey, Nice to have you back on tap again. I thought you must have had busy with your own stuff I did'nt realise you were working for the showman,when he says he gets the crew in to help out I just thought he meant the staff. So really speaking you and the showman are very good friends.Glad you got the pill sorted out. Hope it gives you many more break down free miles. You must be coming up to the back end runs now so lookng forward to hearing
from you more often. What was that comment about "r" (think he might be the next blogger).
Best Regards,
Flatty.
glad to hear buisness is good with you blakey and welcome back to the blog, ah yes the comments on build ups past and present was a good read and i take my hat off to every showman for there hard effort in pull downs and making sure there equipment is top notch for the punters which showman and blakeys equipment were spectacular at "WL" when i visited. whats on this week for the regs showman,blakey john and jesters im knee deep in combining as the weathers fab get it while its there and miss borderer is even helping by driving the tractor and baler. cheers borderer
Sorry for the error blakey, was oppo direction so assumed it was showman, were you checking to see if you were on double time?
Good to have you back in circulation! Nice to hear the motor will be sorted too.
We have been caught out by natures ned, the wasp. They have decided to build a small city in the loft so bug man coming tomorrow.
Business has been slow and well down on last year, only two left for this summer and thats me back indoors again. Hope the harvest has been a good one borderer and all the usuals are doing well.
good to hear from all the gang, harvest has been a good one i no its a miracle u hear a farmer saying positive things but this year has been a good harvest after thankful rain and the recent weather has ment we got all the spring and winter barley and oilseed rape in on record time for a first for us lol just midway through wheat and then start potatoes start september then after that its back to ploughing and seeding the fields for next harvests crops then feet up bout end october just winter jobs alot of them to do lol. where are u at this weekend showman many thanks borderer.
hi john no i'm not part of showman crew. it is actually quite common for showmen to help each other out when shifting,particularly when you have to be somewhere by a certain time. it was done as a favour and trust me no payment was made. he could never afford me.i'm pretty sure the favour will be returned soon. we are fortunate in our business as there is always someone on hand to help if you have a problem or just need a wee bit of help. no one can do it all themselve's in our business. if you ever see a showman having generator problems or a mechanical problem while open,then you will soon see plenty of other's over seeing if they can help.
HI Blakey,
Nice to here from you. I often wondered how if a fairground family have three or four machines, how the logistics of them getting minded and the pull down and build up etc and transportation is handled. I would think that the employment of the gaff lads, (trustworthy ones) is one answer but on a few gaffs i've looked at it seems that if the staff aren't there then it boils down to either other showmen helping out as you say or as I suspect the family bringing there machines and positioning them at site and returning to the last gaff to pick the wagon up (which is a lot of hard work). I suspect between all the banter between you and showman and us that the fair ground is a large family who are either related or know each other well enough to earn that respect of being reliable in that you can always be called upon to help out, which isn't a bad thing. Some of the flatty fraternity of this world could learn a lot from that because in some neighbourhoods you cannot close the window in case you trap somebodies fingers.
Thanks for the input Blakes,
Flatty
good evening all- well another day of combining and bailing done with the help of miss borderer ( theres a farmers wife in her yet :)lol ). finished up at 7pm after a 12 hour stint and decided to take her and the gang out for a slap up meal at the local italian was good, anyways just been on nialls site and saw the irvine marymass photos and 3 really good ones of the dz in action at the fair looked a busy day for u showman hope was a good coin earner. hows all regs cheers borderer feeling the affect after a few pints not used to this drinkin lol dont get let out much.
Hi all bit quiet from showman at moment.He will be back in internet range on sunday.cant wait. busy weekend coming up for yours truly. glasgow event on saturday till six then 150 mile journey to north east of england[hope to be there for about 11] for sunday event that starts at ten on sunday morning.i'll need to be up early to build up for that one.I then pack up there at 5 and head to wooler show and set up again on sunday night for monday.I should be home about ten on monday night[and r thinks he's got it tough].i'm feeling tired just
thinking about it.
blakey sound like an action packed weekend, hope north england is good for you and that us green wellie brigade spend a few pounds at the wooler show i may be attending myself if can get time out the combine cab and miss borderer lets me venture out her sight a good days weather will surely give u a good coin, hows all regulars many thanks borderer.
Hello Blakey, What part of the North of England are you visiting on Sunday? If its ok to meet up let me know location and I'll pop round for a chat.
Regards, Flatty
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