Sunday, 5 April 2015

a fairground life (Planes Trains and Automobiles)

PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES.
Rewind to February 2014, the Mall fair is finished but we're not packing up totally. There is a new fair opening at the Forge market and we take over the Miami. R however has decided he wants a ride of his own and after pondering all summer has found an AliBaba in Sweden. So after getting all set up at the Forge we leave Mrs Showman in charge and set off. Flight to London, connection to a small airport outside Gothenburg arriving at 9:30pm. The airport is so small that we Q outside the tin hut building in the freezing cold to pass immigration. As we walk through and outside the only building to be seen is thankfully our hotel.  Stylish, clean , modern, if it wasn't built by Ikea it was certainly fitted out from their stock. One chap was the receptionist, waiter and bartender. A beer and a snack then off to bed. Next morning there was snowfall, our lift had arrived in his Audi Q5. We had 120km to travel. We chatted showmen chat, biz was on the down turn for him too, even though there were only two families traveling in Sweden. Turns out he was now in the refugee biz, housing hundreds of Syrians on his yards for the Government. All of a sudden we are sliding down the dual carriageway sideways, the Q5 is 4 wheel drive and soon gets a grip, straightening up and our driver doesn't even break sentence! I suppose they get used to the snow conditions. We arrive at the small park, the two staff have just built the ride up again, there is partly erected rides dotted about-caterpillar, superbob, dodgem etc and a 1965 red double decker London AEC bus. The ride wasn't to our expectations and the snow was getting heavier, feeling anxious for the return flight, even though it was at 10pm, we refused lunch and asked to be driven back to the airport. That was a long wait in the Hotel but once on the flight I settled down. Landing in London we had a pre booked taxi to get us to Euston for the sleeper back to Glasgow. I told the taxi driver to push it and he did, we made it with only a couple of minutes to spare!! I settled in to my seat and with very little sleep we journeyed home to a snow bound Glasgow. All for nought.

1 Comments:

At 6 May 2015 at 19:37 , Blogger Unknown said...

Hello showman, have tried many times to comment but pc won't have it. I think the ride you chose with "R" was a good choice. Not to big to handle and also not many travelling. I hope it brings lots of luck for you guy's, hope you bring it down our way sometime,
Regards,
Flatty.

 

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