Keeping up with all the Health and Safety requirements is turning into a full time job. The helter skelter we have acquired comes under the working at height directive and requires harnesses and fall arrest systems to erect and dismantle it safely. We already have these and have done so from before the directive came into force. After the other day I have also decided that it is a good idea to wear hard hats when working on a Helter Skelter. Renny had been removing some rotten steelwork at the top of the attraction, he succeeded in doing this using the brute force method, ie hitting it with a big hammer. After finishing he thoughtfully left the hammer on the top section ready for whoever need it next.

I shortly afterwards began to remove a rotten section some 10 feet below, but I did it the easy way using an electrically powered cutter. Unfortunately the vibrations from the cutter bounced the hammer off the top section, and as sods law would dictate directly at me! i can't remember my school physics lesson on the acceleration of a freefalling object, but the hammer reached nought to bloody painful in a short space of time, and I spent the rest of the day with a bleeding (literally) big headache. Everyone bar me found this tale hilarious, but it has taught me that from now on, whenever I have to work on this particular attraction, I intend to be the highest person, working on the principal that 7lb lumphammers don't accelerate upwards!

We have also been offered another charity based event, again of quite a large size making this 3 major new events this month.

Originally we only intended covering events in the Northern half of the country. However we seem to be receiving offers of events more and more in the South. Its getting to the stage now where we have enough possible events to put a small run together down South so this is something we are definitely going to look at.

On the home front, since we started refurbishing our helter skelter, its never stopped raining, we don't have a shed big enough to build the attraction up in, and were struggling to get any fabrication or painting done outside.

We attended another private party with a single juvenile ride at the weekend, but this has led to two definite bookings and two more possible parties so this also is an avenue that seems to have plenty of scope for expansion.

We have started to finalise some of our upcoming events, so here they are in microformat style;



Tribute Band Festival:
May 27th-
28th,at the Newcastle Race Course




Aston Childrens Carnival:
June 24th
,
at Lodge Lane Playing Fields Aston




Wilberfoss Summer Fayre 2006:
July 9th
,
at the Wilberfoss Sports Pavilion




Yorkshire Carnival 2006:
July 21th-
23rd,
at Allerton Park, Knaresborough,

The Helter Skelter that we acquired recently was due to come into operation at Northallerton Mayfair, which in itself was an ambitious timescale. Now one of my business partners has had the brilliant idea of cutting 2 weeks from our work schedule by booking it into an Easter Fair!!!!

We would have done well to have had it finished by Northallerton but now we have had to readjust our targets, the safety critical items have been repaired/replaced, but the 'topflash' is going to have to be brought upto scratch over the summer, with a view to it being completely refurbished by the time Newcastle Hoppings comes around.

For some reason this season we have been offered three high profile events in the City of Windsor. The third of these is for a very high profile national organisation that would have looked good on our CV. Unfortunately it clashes with 3 existing events, and comes within time and distance of the Windsor and Eton Brocas fair so we would be struggling to attend it. Showmen's Guild rules are something we have to work within and for the biggest part are helpful, unfortunately this season they seem to have worked more against us than for us but I suppose it will even itself out in the long run.

Due to the increasing amount of work we are being offered for Helter Skelters we have set up a specialist website to concentrate solely on this type of attraction. The site can be viewed at www.helterskelterhire.com.

Mao Tse Tung once proclaimed that the longest journey begins with a single step. Thats a bit how I felt today as we made a start on refurbishing the Helter Skelter we have just obtained. We decided to strip it right down to the bare bones and then rebuild it from the ground up. Once we get a few levels sorted it will feel a lot less daunting but to begin with it looks a big project.

Most of the main steel work is ok but some of the thinner sections need cutting out and replacing, most of the wood is rotten so we will need to rebuild the steps, handrails and floors. Further pictures of it as it progresses will be posted here.

Seems like my last post was written too soon. We've just had the 'we are going to stop you 'phone call. Now I suppose some people would feel threatened and give in, we've decided that if there is a good business reason to switch venues we will consider it, otherwise we are going to double, the already substantial advertising budget we had agreed to contribute, and we have also taken 3 PR and marketing staff onboard especially for this event!