Candy Floss Crazy Is Now A Registered Trademark

Due to some potential licensing opportunities, we have now registered Candy Floss Crazy and its variations as trademarks with the relevant offices. This will not only protect our brand, but also allows it to be licensed for use by other operaators, more news on this soon.

I am currently performing jury service at my local Crown Court. Its the first time I have been involved in any way in court and I have to say its a colossal waste of time and resources. THe first day we sat there from 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. Then we were sworn in on a case of assault. After spending 2 hours listening to evidence it was adjourned for the day. Upon taking our seats the next morning, the judge apologised, but informed us that the defence council had put forward a motion to have the trial dismissed due to lack of direct evidence. The judge agreed with this, made me the foreman of the jury and ordered me to acquit the defendant. Now, both prosecuting and defending councils had copies of the witness statements, could this motion to dismiss not have been put forward at the start of the trial and saved everyone half a day?

We were then sent home and told to ring an anserphone for our start time on the third day, upon doing this we were informed that we werent needed on the third day and to ring after 4pm to find out if we needed to come in on the fourth day, mesmerising stuff, just like being on Law and Order, and for anyone who doesn't know me that was sarcasm!



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Some government think tank has just announced the results of an in depth investigation they have carried out, seems they have concluded that when people come into this country from abroad, some of them end up taking jobs away from British citizens. Now the truly frightening thing about this, is that it has taken an investigation to determine this. What stunning conclusions will they come up with next week, perhaps they will uncover the news that when it rains, people get wet, or perhaps if you fall from a great height it is possible that the sudden deceleration at the bottom of the fall can cause injury. Its little wonder that the country is short of money if the government are actually paying for these services.





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Over the festive period we acquired an Ipad 2. Now I played with it briefly and found it to be like all the other Apple products I have ever used, impressive as hell for 15 minutes until you realise its all smoke and mirrors.

I wanted to transfer some images from a laptop to the Ipad so I plugger the latter into the former. Every other piece of electronic equipment on the planet with an inbuilt memory allows you to plug them into a Windows laptop and then cut and paste from one to the other, not Apple products, seems I have to download and install Apple bloody Itunes just to copy a single image from said laptop to the Ipad.

It got me pondering, I wonder what a car designed and manufactured by Apple would be like. Undoubtedly it would look like an Aston Martin only much, much sexier. It would have a build quality second to none, and the design would be a mix of cutting edge and class. It wouldn't have a boot (or trunk as our American cousins say), because if it did then people might put something non approved by Apple in it, and the bonnet (hood) would be securely fastened down to prevent you from tinkering with anything under it.

The filler cap for the fuel would be a strange shape that wouldn't allow you to use standard fuel pumps at standard filling stations, you would of course need to visit an Apple approved garage to have an Apple approved attendant fill your Apple car with special Apple approved fuel. The electrical system would be 17 and a half volts because Apple wouldn't want to use 12 or 24 volts, they were designed by some non Apple person, although battery failure wouldn't be a problem, it would be non replacable, and you would have to return the car to an Apple approved service centre where it would be replaced (you would also need to give them a credit card covering the £150,000 cost of a new Apple car in case the failure was your fault). The light bulbs would need to be purchased from an Apple approved source and any non approved light bulbs would refuse to work and the car console display would inform you that they were not authorised to be used.

Moving to the interior, it would be acres of classy wood, leather and aluminium. Driving would be simple, as you would have 2 gears, forward and reverse (anything more would be considered too complex for users), and speed would be limited to what Apple feel is appropriate for you. The radio would be something truly beautiful. Stylish, modern, state of the art, permanently tuned to Radio Apple. A cassette deck or cd player wouldn't be allowed in case you felt the urge to play music not downloaded via Itunes.

The pedals would take a little getting used to as the standard layout of left to right, clutch, brake, throttle isn't an original Apple design and would need to be altered to reflect the Apple design ethos. You would have to be careful when steering it, holding the wheel a certain way (the so called grip of death) would result in the wheels losing contact with the road, but Apple would fix this by giving you a free pair of gloves that stopped this happening.

You would never worry about being lost as the car would report your every move to Apple so someone would always know where you were and where you had been.

Selling it would be a mess on though as the new owner would need to have the ignition system reactivated by Apple, its current activation would only be valid with the original owner.

All in all I can't wait.

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As 2011 draws to a close, thankfully our hectic work load eases off. The income is nice but keeping up an average of 3 events a day takes a toll. Tomorrow were off up to Edinburgh to operate one of our giant snow globes on Princess Street for a few days. Arthur's Crew has been in charge of it since November but we are giving them a short break. The fabled Edinburgh Hogmanay party begins tomorrow so its something we are all looking forward too.

On a business front we have a number of new websites being prepared for launch, in the main they are not promoting anything new, its more of an additional marketing drive for existing products. Looking at the jobs we already have booked for 2012, our photography services are once again making a surprise showing with quite a few paparazzi and photo booth jobs already in place, necessitating at least one additional photo booth being built.

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On a recent job at John Lewis store in Newcastle Upon Tyne, (a paparazzi job following lookalike David and Victoria Beckhams around the store) I dropped my daughter off at my parents in Middlesbrough, then proceeded up the A19 to Testo's roundabout, turned left there and took the road past Howarth Metro into Newcastle. Anyway, a couple of mile before I reached the Metro terminal, I passed a number of people running up the road, a couple on each side of the dual carriageway, I did wonder if it was some sort of road race or something, and thought it was a pretty dangerous if it was. Everything became clear however about half a mile further on, a horse was galloping full tilt the wrong way up the Eastbound carriageway! I didn't fancy the handlers chances of catching it, they were a good half mile behind and it was going like the clappers.



December is shaping to be a heck of a month, as we have just picked up 2 block bookings from shopping centres, one in London with Chestnuts and Hot Pimms, the other in the Midlands with chestnuts, mulled wine and mince pies. Added to a number of bookings for Tesco stores, again with chestnuts, mulled wine and minced pies and they add up to over 2 dozen bookings from those 3 clients alone.

We have just resprayed our stock of hot roast chestnut carts, we now have 5 gas powered carts and 3 electric powered allowing us to cover most eventualities, although one of our Scottish based clients that usually hires 2 carts for a couple of weeks has told us they would like 4 this year so we may need to construct another couple to meet the demand.

At least 1 additional photo booth is on the cards as we have a number of dates for next summer when there are multiple booths booked out on the same day. Also we have just put together a long range wi-fi based touch screen system allowing us to shoot images which are automatically transferred back to the system and can be printed out with a single touch of the screen.

VOSA pulled our new Citroen Dispatch in at a Glasgow check point on Saturday, but a quick check round and look at the diesel being used saw us on our way, one of the benefits of buying new is I don't expect to have major faults during the 3 years we will be keeping the van. The other older Dispatch is a 57 plate 2008 model, that is now slated to be replaced sometime next year and with the sterling service we have had I think it will be another Citroen.

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We have added a number of other fun services to our photography portfolio, these are listed below;

Photo Sketch
Our software is used to convert the captured images into pencil sketches.






Photo Morph
The images are altered using morphing software to give an exaggerated caricature style look.






Digital Makeover
Using the latest in Anthropics software this one takes an image and quickly turns it into an airbrushed photo worthy of a magazine cover. Some of the options are a little much and include facial sculpting, but if you stick to the lower settings it gives fantastic results.



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We supplied a couple of games units to the print works in Manchester for a Holloween event. 4000 drunken students dressed as vampires, monsters etc meant I was expecting a hectic night, but as it turned out it was quite enjoyable.




On the home front, I've just had a letter pop through the postbox informing me that I have been selected for Jury service at Doncaster Crown Court, upto 2 weeks in the middle of December, usually our busiest month, so that is just bleeding fantastic, hopefully my application for a deferral will be granted.

Last weekend we nipped up to Glasgow for an event in the Polo Lounge, a new venue for us and a bit unusual, the decor was like a scene from a Sherlock Holmes film. On the way up there we came across the usual collection of messages displayed on the motorway matrix signs, "Don't Drive Tired", "Don't Use Your Phone," etc. The last one however was a new one on me, "Drive Efficiently". ????What the hell does that mean, it conjures up images of a dystopian future society, with a black clad Judge Dredd type figure, pulling you over and sentencing you to a prison term for not driving efficiently, knowing the British government, it will be a precursor to on the spot fines for non efficient driving of a motor vehicle.

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Paparazzi Instants

Out of the many additional services and games we have launched this year, the photography part of the company is probably the fastest growing, with us picking up regular work from a number of sources. The paparazzi service has been the favourite so far, our photographers dress as archetypal press photographers from days of yesteryear (long macs and trilby hats), utilising Canon DSLR cameras they take unlimited snaps of the guests at an event, these are then uploaded to our secure server and the guests can download them free of charge.

We have taken this a step further with our new Paparazzi Instants service, our intrepid 'Paps' can now come with compact hip mounted dye sub printers, powered by battery they can dispense professional laboratory quality prints in our 60 seconds, this means the guests can now take a print home with them. Once the pre paid package of prints has been exhausted, the paps continue snapping as normal with all of their images uploaded to our server after the event.

Paparazzi Remotes

A second variation on this is our remote service designed for exhibitions and sales events, instead of hip mounted printers, our intrepid paps have wifi enabled cameras, these transmit to a base station which then prepares the print, adds branding or effects such as a corporate logo, then prints it out automatically, this allows guests or visitors to collect their own print offering you the opportunity to inform them of the services your company can offer.

This can be extended by adding 42inch plasma screen stations which also capture the images as they are taken and adds them to an ongoing slide show, imagine having a number of these placed around an exhibition displaying a range of images taken, all with your corporate logo emblazoned across the print, whilst at the same time our paparazzi photographers are handing cards out to the guests inviting them to collect a free print from your stand!



Further details are available at Paparazzi Instants For Hire




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We have a regular band of operators that provide additional attractions at many of our events. Fred is one such operator, with us using his helter skelter or flying chairs on various occasions. He was attending a couple of events for us last weekend, and as far as I know everything went ok. Tuesday however I happened across Fred at a funeral.

"I had a bit of trouble at Saturday's event," was his opening gambit, know I hadn't heard of any trouble from the client so I was a little puzzled and inquired as to the nature of said trouble, "No, it wasn't at the event, it was on the way home."

The tale Fred related to me was as follows;

On the way home, in his van, he hit an unfortunate pheasant as it was crossing the road, the impact sent said pheasant hurtling across the road and into the front rider of a pair of cyclists knocking him and his bike sideways and down a forty foot embankment. Fred stopped, as did an elderly couple in a vintage car to offer assistance to the cyclist. Upon climbing down they found him a bit battered and bruised and his bike pretty mangled, so they helped him back up to the road.

Upon reaching said road, the cyclist spotted the offending pheasant (pretty much de feathered and looking like a turkey ready for the oven) and proceeded to boot it in anger. Unfortunately said pheasant flew back across the road, whereupon an unfortunate motorist took evasive action, managing to swerve into the elderly couples car promptly writing it off and severely damaging his new pick up into the bargain.

Upon exiting the pick up, the motorist demanded to know who launched the pheasant at him, whereupon Fred, seeing the size of the guy promptly grassed the cyclist up, only to see the driver proceed to beat the unfortunate cyclist some more, before throwing his bike up a tree!

There is probably a moral somewhere in this story, but for the life of me I can't think what, perhaps when I stop laughing it might come to me.

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We Now Offer Giant Snow Globe Photography

A stunning concept that we have just added to our portfolio of photography services is our range of Giant Snow Globes. These are giant inflatable domes that are like a supersized version of the little snowglobes that you used to pick up in tourist shops, you know the kind, you shake them up and the glitter inside gives the effect of a snowstorm.

Anyway ours are bigger, much much bigger, upto 21ft in diameter in fact. This not only alows four or five adults to enter, but also lets us add props to the interior such as a Decorated Christmas tree, or an inflatable snowman.

It is envisaged that the globes should be a good line over Christmas, we can supply them to our corporate clients, and take photographes of the guests inside, these can then be uploaded in the usual way to our secure server for free downloading, or we can set up a complete print solution allowing images to be purchased and printed immediately.




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Whilst using our accounts system recently to prepare our quarterly VAT returns, I hit a snag, the system suddenly asked me for a password, which as I had not set it up to use a password left me stumped, I couldn't give it a password I didn't have. After a couple of hours of no progress I finally resorted to ringing technical support. Like many technical support centres I was greeted by someone who's first language was not English. After another hour of trying to solve the problem with no success, they finally told me that a password reset tool could be downloaded from the company website and used to reset the software, wtf, through clenched teeth I asked why we had spent the last hour going round in circles when all I had to do was download this tool. After being given the web address I was confronted with a screen requesting I type in all of the details I used when registering the software, I duly complied only to be told that it didn't match what was on their system and I couldn't have the tool.

After another hour trying every email address and password I have ever used I rang technical support again, after trying they informed me that the software apparently wasn't registered and I would have to talk to the registration department which they could not transfer me to and I would have to ring back. After ringing back I had to repeat the process with the registration lady not being able to find me on the system either. Eventually she decided to register my software for me, after giving her all of the details, including the licence code she typed then in, only to inform me that my software had been registered in January! Dear Lord, please give me strength.

Cue another call to the technical support people, who tried for another hour to set the system up to allow me to download the reset tool, still with no success, eventually admitting defeat I was asked to email my accounts file in and they would reset it for me, "How long would this take", I asked only to be told 5 working days, "No, sorry I am not managing without an accounts system for 5 days."

Eventually I hit upon the idea of having customer support read all of my details to me phonetically ie Juliette for the letter J, alpha for the letter A and so on. At last, a revelation, turns out that not only had they managed to spell my name wrong, but also every item of my address and my postcode, once this was sorted I downloaded the tool and now have working accounts again.

The moral of the story is never again will I purchase anything that has a foreign based customer support centre, unless that foreign centre is based in an English speaking country, and if that is not politically correct, then, in the words of Rhett Butler, "Quite frankly my dear I don't give a damn".




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New Games For Hire From Jason AR Moody Amusements

Over the summer we have added a number of new games to our portfolio, many of these are designed to move away from the purely funfair type attractions and broaden our appeal.

Gold Cup Racing Game For Hire

Gold cup is a variation on the Kentucky Derby style Game, only instead of having to roll a ball into holes to move your horse you sit astride a hobby horse and simulate a galloping motion, once we have chance to shoot a video clip I'll post it here as it is hilarious to watch.

Wii Games Consoles For Hire

The Nintendo Wii probably needs no description, it has been a gaming hit since its launch. we offer it with a quad charging system, plasma screen display or projection screen for larger format gaming and an operator to help run the games. With the wide variation of titles available for the console there is sure to be something suitable for any type of event.

Inflatable Horse Racing

Another game that really needs a video posting, upto 4 riders sit astride the inflatable horses and proceed to race around an inflatable race course, complete with jumps for added mayham.

Giant Operation Game For Hire

Based on the old classic but supersized! You have 60 seconds and 3 lives to remove as many body parts from the patient as you can, a beating heart timer and buzzer add to the fun.

Giant Buzzer

Another long time favourite, move the loop along the wire without touching it to win. This has been around for a long time, but we have taken it to a new dimension at nearly 8 feet long. It can be used with a hand wand, or for team games we have a special hat mounted loop, turning a person into the wand and needing team members with strong arms to move it along the course.

Office Christmas Party Hire

We have just put together a number of special Christmas packages for smaller offices, these are designed to allow a short break to be held in your office, perhaps as a thank you to your staff. Details are available at Office Christmas Party our new mini site.


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Paparazzi Photographers For Hire

One of the photography services we launched was our spoof paparazzi photographers. I have been surprised by how many jobs we have picked up, seems lots of people like having their photos taken. One good contract was a chain of bars that are expanding, we are providing services at their launch parties, which make for quite enjoyable evenings.

Whilst we were installing a bar a couple of weeks ago, I received a call from a news agency, seems that a light aircraft had crashed into some houses in Salford and they required a photographer to capture some images, I explained that wasn't really what we did, although Ian who was with me was keen to give it a go! Truth be told I don't think I want to go down the route of snapping people injured and dying regardless of how well it might pay, the spoof service we offer is well rewarded and fun and I think I'll stick to that.

Paparazzi Photographers For Hire Nationwide Availability

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Or nomination for Moron of the year award.

Quite often nowadays I don't have time to keep this blog updated. Odd occasions I do have time I sometimes struggle for something newsworthy to write. Occasionally however something drops in my lap that I just have to put on here. I recently added a new van to our line up, and insured it with the company that insurers our other CItroen dispatch. In common with our other insurances we pay in a lump sum at the start of the insurance term. A couple of days ago the postman knocked on the door to deliver a registered letter from said company, upon opening it I read a formal notice that as I had not settled an outstanding amount they would be cancelling my insurance unless it was paid in the next 7 days. Now this puzzled me as I know I paid in full at the start of the policy term.

Upon reading further down the page, the amount outstanding was in large bold type to make it more noticable. It read that I owed them £0.00 thats right Zero pounds and zero pence. I sent them a very nice email admitting that I owed this amount and asking if they would like a cheque for £0.00 or would they like it in cash in which case I would send them an empty envelope.

I am awaiting the reply, but no doubt it will be a variation on the computer made a mistake routine.

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July finished off on the same note as it began, busily. Friday Ian and I were in Blackpool for the launch of the new revolution bar, we were providing paparazzi services in and around the club.

The following day I started the in Chesterfield, finishing around 5pm, nipping the staff back home from that job and picking a camera kit up to provide a Paparazzi and green screen service in Nottingham for a TA Army units wild west themed party. I finished there at midnight and was originally meant to travel to Colchester to help on a job at an army establishment there, but we managed to take extra staff mening I could just head home. I finished my weekend off by travelling upto Lumly castle to provide an ice cream cart at a wedding, that proved to be a nice relaxing job to round the weekend off.

Whilst this was going on, Ian and a couple of staff were providing a bar service to a wedding in Burnley. Part of the service that had been booked was us providing wine for the tables and also champagne for the toast. Ian rang me a little irate about an hour into the event. Seems that on arrival the caterers had asked us for the wine and champagne and then proceeded to use the champagne for the reception drinks due to the fact that they had forgotten their own supplies, to compound matters, they had then denied any knowledge of taking our wine and the bride then thought we had failed to bring the supplies, luckily Ian being a quick thinker managed to get the caterers to admit to using our wine whilst the bride was stood behind them, in Ians words the groom hit the roof and we were expecting reports of seriously injured caterers before the night was out.

Looking back we had a drinks fountain, photo booth, waffle cart, giant scalextric, paparazzi (x3), ice cream, 3 sidestalls, bar service all being operated directly, along with teacups ride, inflatable slide, dodgems, sidestalls being operated on our behalf.








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Certain weekends seem to attract higher numbers of bookings than others, July 4th is usually one, but this year we have had July 4th, 16th, 23rd and next Saturday the 30th is very similar.

On 23rd we ended up with 4 main jobs being run directly, and a number of others that were soley down to sub contracters. From our main office we had hot dogs, candy floss and popcorn going up to a wedding at Bishop Auckland, Candy floss going over to an event at Cambridge University, A Pimms cart off down to Aylesbury near Oxford and Dodgems, Trampolines, Train Ride, Crazy Golf, Bar, Ice Cream and Candy floss a short hop to Newark for an event we have supplied attractions to the last 3 years.

We also had dodgems at Oxford, Cambridge and Northolt.

Funfair Hire In South Elmsall, South Kirkby and the Rest Of Yorkshire

A few images below from some of the events;








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I've struggled the last month to fit the time in to write anything on this blog, over 60 events in 30 days meant we had a punishing schedule, its only slightly less hectic over the next month, but I have a few days off before the next round of jobs.

The images below are from the 450 year celebrations of the Queen Elizabeth endowed school in Mansfield where we provided some Victorian style attractions.

Funfair Rides For Hire Throughout Yorkshire

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We returned to one of our regular venues recently with a larger selection of equipment than other years, we also gave our new battle tanks system a good work out with a six hour running time, I had expected to use a large number of batteries to keep them running, but in the event I only had to change a set in one of the Sherman tanks about thirty minutes before the event finished.

Hire Dodgems In The Yorkshire Region

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Over the last few years we have carried out that many jobs that most of them are now second nature. Setting up most of our equipment has become an almost automatic procedure, and at many events there is very little conversation needed as everyone tends to know what they are doing.

Unfortunately every now and then something unforeseen throws a spanner in the works. On Saturday night I was supplying one of our new photo booths to an event in Harrogate. Now when we had the unit designed and built, I ensured it was capable of fitting into a standard size lift. The job at Harrogate was on the fifth floor, which knowing they had 2 lifts wasn't going to be a problem. However I hadn't realised that the architect of the building didn't like the look of the lifts, and surrounded them with a wooden frame, which had the effect of reducing the height of the lift entrance, to around half an inch less than I needed to slide the booth sections into. Try as I might, I couldn't fit it in.

Now the hotel manager was very obliging lending me 3 of his staff to manhandle it up the stairs. Which even that wasn't as simple as it sounds because the entrance to the stairwell between floors 3 and 4 was too tight to use. What we had to do was manhandle it up 3 interior flights of stairs, then take it outside the building and up the fire escape (resulting at one point with 4 of us trapped on the fire escape due to the door we had just exited shutting and locking itself, and no one being inside to open the door we needed to re enter the hotel).

Eventually I had everything in position and the booth operational, at which point the manager remarked that he could only lend me 1 member of staff for the derig due to the others having finished their shift by then!

The staff members we had who could drive through to help me were already on jobs. In the end I rang a friend Graham who came through from Bradford. After much huffing and puffing, being trapped again on the fire escape, skinned knuckles, bruised knees and pulled muscles we managed to have everything out and be on the road about two and a half hours after the booth closed many thanks Graham. In future I will ensure we only book jobs that have lifts without nice decorative surrounds!

On the bright side the booth system we designed has performed flawlessly and it is a system that once turned on pretty much runs itself.

Sunday saw me have an easy day (thankfully as I was sore all over), and I am now finalising the design of our new battle tank system, which will allow 2 teams to engage in tank battles using an infra red battle system, remote controlled Sherman and Tiger tanks, all played out on a portable battlefield that will contain buildings, trees, anti tank systems and a number of German PAK40 and American 57mm anti tank guns that can detect and shoot the tanks as they pass by.

Photo Booths For Hire

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