a fairground life

Thursday morning and the new pump arrived for the skydiver. We did intend to fit it before going over to EK to open, but the weather was horrendous. Around noon it did dry up and for the next few days it was fine hot weather. So we fitted that item on Friday morning. Saturday it was "w" and I on the DZ as "r" and mrs showman headed off to the mall to open the miami ride at the Tiesto event. It was packed with people but the rides fell away at 11pm as the tent next to us closed and the punters all moved into the arena. Figuratively and literally speaking, we were out in the cold.

They finished at 4am, R got home at 6am so "w" and I did sunday at EK too, and they got the day off. Monday night I moved the miami off site to a nearby showman's yard. Today was the last day at EK and although we closed before 6pm (just as the rain started) it will be late before I get finished. I'm at the house writing this as half the DZ is pulled down, but since I can't get the full ride down until the miami is away,until the waltzer is away and until the dodgem is away, it will be a few hours yet. So my plan is to return there about 9pm and hopefully all the others will be gone. Then we will get the DZ down.

a fairground life

Tuesday afternoon I got word that I could be accommodated at a small fair next to the EK shopping centre. So "r" went up and scoped it out to make sure we could fit onto the position available. It would be tight and the neighbouring miami ride would have to wait until we erected before they could get set but we could just fit. So we picked up the DZ from the west side of the city and took it over. It was just before 5pm and to avoid the congestion on the Kingston bridge "r" decided on a route via the M77 then across country to EK. It looked good on the route finder but I did warn him about bridges. I knew that the DZ was 14'6" with the top sodium light upright and about 14' with it horizontal. He set off and I followed in the pick-up. Things were looking good, the first bridges we came across were 15' arched but then a few miles on I noticed a low bridge (13'9") diversion. "r" carried on by and I thought here we go. There were a couple of cars between us and I wasn't too worried because if it was an arched bridge it would be plenty high in the middle where that sodium would be. "r" came to another diversion for the low bridge and again he carried on by. Around the corner and up the climb we finally came to the bridge. Oh no! it was a flat steel beamed bridge with plenty of scuff marks along it's leading edge. I slowed up to give some room between my bonnet and that sodium light and wished the cars in front would do the same! I watched as he drove under, he had slowed down too by now and I waited for the sodium to explode. I couldn't believe it as it passed under unscathed. I swear there couldn't have been a 1/4" gap. Any how all's well that ends well. When we arrived on site we started on the DZ. The fair location was tight and the tower just swung around into place missing a nearby lamp post by a couple of feet.It was a little before 7pm when we finished and at that we helped guide in the miami onto it's plot. It was a tight squeeze and many many shunts later the ride was jacked knifed into the position, but it was too close to the DZ and needed to be moved along about 5ft. So we took off his 6 wheel Foden unit and coupled our shorter 4 wheel ERF unit on. This give us the space needed to move the ride along. The next day we were to take the miami over to a music event at the mall. Land lord 2 was in and we shunted his funhouse out the way to get the miami out. Then we shunted the funhouse back again. Around 4pm we began to set up the miami. Then we picked up some extra mains to take over to EK as we had to position the unit a little further away and weren't sure if the main there would reach. It did, but just as well we brought the extension main as we had to lend it to the miami ride. The picts show the multi storey carpark behind the DZ and MS's miami, GS's waltzer.

a fairground life

Egremont was more or less a holiday this year. I never did a hands turn other than painting a grubby looking handrail. Friday nights biz was down on last year also. Although Saturday started off dry by 5pm the rain had came on. As the night went on it got wetter and wetter. Not that it had affected the business though as it was plain to see that the numbers where poor hours before the rain had came. We finally closed just after 9pm, but the side stuff had been pulling down since 7pm. We couldn't get the tower down due to a hoopla stall being in our way. Not having any place to shoot off to anyway we just left it all for Sunday morning. I expected it to be dry but at 9 am it was still raining. The hoopla was away by then and we got started. Before leaving I took the lorry and two jeeps down to the local garage for fuel. The price was 120.9 per liter, (ouch when it's 113.9 elsewhere) £300 later we where fueled up enough to get back home. Just before noon we headed out of the town in a small convoy, me in the DZ and the two trailers following. The rain fell all the way to Carlisle when it stopped, after that it was a bright sunny trip up. I parked the DZ on the wasteland while we juggled the loads onto the yard. Then "r" and I returned for it a couple of hours later and took it over to another showmans yard at the other side of the city. The pump for the skydiver is ready for dispatch, all I have to do is send down the cheque. We have a couple of days down time while we await pulling in to the music event. I'll get a haircut and catch up on some correspondence.

It's getting near that time of the year again, when I start reflecting,thinking,wondering about where I have been and where we are heading. I don't mean in the geographical sense either, for some reason at this time of year when it is nearly over for the traveling season I start to wonder about what could be next for us. Maybe it's an age thing, maybe it's a mid life crisis thing or maybe it's just discontentment, I don't know. What I do know is that it's a feeling of needing to make a move in some kind of profitable direction (either for cash or some other kind of benefit ). I wonder if other people (showmen or not) get this urge and if so, is it at this time of the year?

The images are a couple of random picts of my late fathers arcade just before he sold it about 8 yrs ago

a fairground life (3 days of winter)

The previous week we have been closed. Noticing that the skydiver's speed seemed to lack zip at Blair, we took the pump off and sent it to Norwich to be tested. Needless to say a replacement has been ordered. I suppose 17 years service without problem is excellent by any standard. Hopefully the replacement will last as long. On Wednesday I ordered 40 square meters of decking for the garden.Mrs showman has been niggling about this for a year now. Friday we were up at 6am and took the miami to a 1 day event in Edinburgh's Napier University. The carpark was tight but we squeezed Blakey's funfair project into the space. We built up in the dry but at 10am the heavens opened and it was torrential until around 1pm. It did dry up soon after but there was no weight of people and we didn't get half of our expenses.That evening we finished and took all the kit back to Glasgow. The next morning at 8am the decking arrived and for the next two days "r" and I never got off our knees. On Sunday night the decking was finally done, just in time too as the rain came. We were meant to be headed off to Egremont by now, but we were too tired and decided to leave it for the next morning. We made a plan for 6am but didn't surface until 8:30am. I dropped "w" off at school (she's staying with the grand parents for school) and headed off to pick up the loads. I took the DZ and "r", Mrs showman brought the trailers. When we arrived at Egremont it was still pouring down. We set the ride on the plot and got soaked through doing so. After tea it dried up for an hour and in this window we got the DZ set up. Just as well as the next two days were just as bad with high winds and heavy rain showers falling on/off all day.The decking is probably now a big raft floating around the house. Here at Egremont the big hole in the car park has been repaired now. This years new attraction is "dt's" bomber ride. A good advert for the fair as it can be seen from the main road passing the town. The picture shows the bomber silhouetted behind "RF's" miami ride. We opened tonight at 6pm, it did stay dry but biz was poor tonight.

a fairground life

Dunkeld came and went without too much fuss, the Friday night again seen the local teen binge drinkers make an appearance. One chap was clearly on a mission to start some bother and ended up with a clip on the jaw for his efforts from a senior showman of pension age! His pals took him away before I knew anything of it. Just as well I suppose. Saturday was fine and clear and the games were well supported during the afternoon. The teens came down again after teatime. Just on 9pm I closed the DZ and started to pull it down."r" started on the skydiver just after 9pm. Mrs showman hung on with the miami until 9:45pm when she had had enough of them falling about drunk and closed up. The crew had arrived and by half midnight all the kit was packed up. Our next port of call was Blairgowrie and since pull on was Wednesday morning, all we had to do on Sunday was take our Caravan and DZ back down to the yard in Glasgow. Monday was a day off and Tuesday at 8pm "r" and I headed back upto Dunkeld. The next morning at 5am the alarm went off and we took the Miami and skydiver over to Blair. It was on 7am when we arrived on the carpark. Unfortunately there was a 46ft artic trailer parked on my plot for the skydiver and another small car on the plot for the rock o plane. I tried to couple up the skydiver unit to the trailer to move it, but the pin as too far under. So I coupled the miami unit to it instead, I drew the trailer forward the length of itself so I could set the Skydiver trailer. As I was putting the Miami Foden back out the way the contractor arrived and took away the trailer, if I had known he would have been so quick I wouldn't have bothered but I had visions of it being there for a couple of days! This is what happened with that small car until the police moved it on Friday morning! During building up I noticed the 100kva set didn't sound right. I decided to change the filters, fully expecting this to cure it. We also cleaned out the Racor fuel trap too as it was full of crap. After that the set would only run for a few minutes then die. This we repeated for a few times. We then decided to clean the gauze in the lift pump. It had a hole in it and the dirt was also in the pump. We cleaned this too but to no avail. That night we headed back to Glasgow to get a new lift pump. It was Friday before we retuned with the pump. "r" fitted it but the set still wouldn't go. He bypassed the Racor system by connecting the two fuel lines directly. The set ran fine after that so now we know where to look. Thats a job outstanding as we were now at opening time.During all this I had looked into the running light box and finally got it working again. The problem turned out to be dirty contacts on the EPROM chips! I removed them and clipped them back in and away it went in full 10x4 fashion!! For how long is anyones guess, but the ride looked good for that weekend. Friday was about on par and there were no teeny drinkers to speak of. We were all closed before 9pm. Saturday morning came and I got derv from the local garages for the journey away that night. The day's only minor issue was a slack wire in the skydiver ride plug. I smelt it as I passed. Luckily we caught it before it knacked the plug and it was an easy fix by cutting back the cable to a fresh bit. This all happened around 3pm long before the big rush. The street was closed again this year (more expense for the closure order) and business was good but not as busy as in previous years. This is the second year of the drink ban and although it did thin out the punters it made the whole event much calmer. There were only two idiots to speak of and I refused them admission on the miami for their own safety and other riders comfort. The police were out in force and cracking down on anyone with a bottle. At 10pm we were closed and at 12:14am the two rides were heading out of the town Glasgow bound. At 2:30 am we were back in Glasgow.

"r" had arrived 20 mins before me and I found him slumped over the steering wheel sleeping.