The month started off with "Jedward" turning on the lights at the mall. These two were definitely not in my top 1000 acts to see before I die. However they did attract a couple of hundred fans to the mall who all waited at the Grotto for them to appear. Meanwhile we were outside in the drizzle and opened the fair at 5pm. The lights were to go on at this time too and no doubt ran a little late. I looked at my watch at 6:40pm and the thought "we'll be shut for seven" crossed my mind. How wrong I was, just before 7pm the crowd of teenagers came out onto the fair. It was as many as I had seen there in a long time and we fiddled away until closing at 9:20pm. That's the latest we have ever been open there just for the fair. So for that reason Jedward have went up slightly in my estimation (as entertainers not singers!). After that we pulled down the DZ and Miami.
Friday morning we took the rides over to Drumchapel for their fireworks display as part of the Winterfest event. As in previous years the tracking was laid out ready for us. And as in previous years the grass around the rides turned to mud as we walked over it. "r" and I erected the two rides ready for the nights festivities and headed off to the local pub for a bite to eat. At 4:30pm the event kicked off, slow to start but by 6pm the rides were going hard at it and all the Q pens were full. The Q's for the rides were each over 100ft long. As usual some teenagers were skipping and I had to ask the security to place someone there. They must have asked the police as 4 officers appeared and watched the Q line for about 20 mins. That was fine while they did but when they walked off the skipping started again. The organiser appeared at 8pm and asked when I would have to close the Q line to be closed for 9pm.I told him 8:45 for the customers in the pen,but the other 20 yrds of Q outside the pen would not get on.So at 8:45 I closed the pen and the rides went hard right to closing at 9pm. "R" tackled the DZ with the help of "skyliner C" and I the miami. It was about 11pm when we pulled out of the park. I was last out in the miami.I had to brush through the trees with the vehicle to make the turn out of the park and as I pulled onto the road the Police stopped me. Unknown to me I had caught some lights put in the trees and literally pulled them all down!,oops!The officer helped me un hook them, at that I noticed that I had not put an underbox door on the trailer. I ran back into the park and picked it up. So I guess it was lucky I caught the lights or I may have lost my door. We headed straight back to the mall were the three of us erected the miami again. It was covered in mud, but not as half as bad as last year. It was half twelve and we headed home. The next morning at 7am we went back over to wash the miami before taking the DZ to Ayr. We had to run out 50m of hose to get the water to the ride. It was 9:30 am when we left in the DZ. The ride arrived onsite and as "r" jack knifed the ride onto its plot he nipped the red air line (emergency). The ride was still movable but the air was hissing out.We started work and the ride was setup at Ayr racecourse for 1pm , then we ran out 100m of hose to get the water to the ride. We washed all the mud off and at 2pm we were ready for opening. I returned to Glasgow to get a replacement air line. Funny how you never bust any for decades then you do two in a matter of months. We opened at 6pm and the rain was falling fairly heavily. It eased at 7pm allowing us to knock out half a living before closing at 9:20pm. By midnight we were back at the mall. Sunday morning we arrived on site at 10am to set up again ready for opening at noon.I was tired that night.
Monday morning Mrs showman and I dropped "R" off at the airport for his flight to Oz, she had a tear in her eye as we watched him walk through the departure gate and away for a month, and I must confess I had a lump in my throat.
