After a long season, the three of us (me, Arthur and Renny) decided to take our better halves away for a short break to Dublin. A short hop from Leeds/Bradford saw us arrive in Dublin's fair city. After a quick check into the hotel we hit the town, now I don't drink a lot and Arthur has been on the wagon for about 4 months, so it looked like Renny was going to be drinking on his own, that was until we decided to try a pint of Guinness. It slipped down like drinking milk, and by the end of the night, all three of us were staunch supporters of the drink.

Whilst in Dublin we visited Funderland, the indoor fairground. Talking to someone we knew from England, she told us that they had had two very good weeks, but the fair was now to all intents finished. We did notice that it seemed very drab and depressing, but perhaps that was a consequence of being under artificial light.

Whilst in Dublin, we started receiving enquiries for new events, in fact by the end of the second week in January we've received more enquiries than all of last winter!

Being deep into the close season there isn't really a lot for me to write about at the moment. We've attended a couple of private Christmas parties with children's rides which I always enjoy as the events are usually on private housing estates and everyone is very friendly. The last one I was at I spent the night refusing champagne, ( I quite like champagne but not when I am in charge of children). The only other piece of news is the fact that I have agreed to sponsor this years Aston carnival by way of paying for and maintaining a dedicated website for the event. Aston Carnival was revived last year after about 40 years, and is a charitable event held to raise money for local good causes. Last year I was contacted at short notice to provide some attractions, which I managed to do even though it was our busiest day of the year. This time round I intend being there in person as I think the event has the potential to became a major fixture.