About 6 weeks ago our planning calander was a bit bare on 2 weekends in November, so thinking laterally I decided to book some attractions into a couple of Victorian themed markets. At the time it seemed a good idea, however by the time November came around we had filled both weekends with corporate bookings, so the markets not only imposed an extra workload, they were bloody cold and miserable on the days I had to be there, so I think now I have got markets out of my system.

The range of Victorian market stalls are coming along nicely, we are in the process of adding lights to them and pictured below is the work in progress on the design for the front panels. Although I have put the design together, its via a bit of digital trickery, not because I am in any way artistic.



We have a couple of promising new developments on the corporate front, one is a series of jobs for a large casino chain, the other is a joint agreement with another operator to place attractions at a number of new ventures next season, details will be added here as the events are firmed up.


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Arthur has recently jumped out of an aeroplane. At the time he was strapped to an instructor and this was part of his 40th birthday present, which is quite strange seeing as Arthur is generally terrified of heights. I think it is due to him being a P.O.R.G (person of restricted growth). Usually he is closer to the ground than the rest of us, so any increase in height is correspondingly greater for him.

Anyway I knew he was travelling down to Lincoln for the jump last Wednesday, and around 11 o'clock I received a text message telling me he had done it. I rang him back to inquire as to his health. "Fine mate", he replied, "Not a scratch on me!", which just goes to show what a selfish little git he really is. For weeks I had been extolling the possibilities of publicity for the company if he managed to splat his self on landing, after finding I couldn't convince him to do that I at least thought he would have come up with a few broken bones for me, but no, not even a bloody nosebleed (pardon the pun). So now we have the opportunity to tell people about him jumping out of a plane and landing safely, all the publicity value of someone drinking a cup of coffee without incident. I should have arranged to have the instructor throw him out without a parachute. I will post a video of the jump here as soon as Arthur sends it to me.

Anyway back at HQ where some of us have to work rather than jaunting about the skies, we are hard at work putting the logistics together for the upcoming Durham festival on 1st and 2nd December. The festival has been running for a number of years, but this year there is a concerted effort being made to expand it and turn it into a major festival. We have been asked to supply a number of catering solutions along with Victorian style sidestalls and a ferris wheel. The event organisers are expecting around 40,000 people to attend the event on the Saturday. A local council news release is here.


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Our various websites contribute a steady stream of work, except for helterskelterhire.com. This has consistantly lagged behind the others, so much so that I considered cutting the website from our portfolio and letting our general funfairgames site handle its enquiries. Now I'm glad I didn't, over the past three weeks the site has generated more bookings for 2008 than all the other sites combined. So much so that our Helter Skelter is likely to be our most popular attraction next season.

This week is another hectic one, we have just returned from an event in Gloucester, undertaken for a consortium of property developers, to help promote a new giant housing development. On Wednesday we are sending attractions up into Scotland for an event on behalf of the largest speculative property developers in the U.K, at the same time operating one of our range of Victorian style catering carts at Wakefields 4 day Victorian market.

At the Gloucester event we trialled our new range of compact Victorian style side stalls. These are intended to be used for corporate events, their small footprint making them ideal for indoor events such as staff parties and promotions, where our existing range of full sized fairground stalls would be just too big. The picture below is a shot of a couple of them in use, they aren't complete, the decoration such as lighting and artwork has still to be added, but the general shape is there. We have completed the intial units of our first batch of 20 stalls. If they are as succesful as we expect, this number should double over next season.




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We've just rolled in from another trip down south. I think we could do with moving the office down South, it seems that we spend more time there than anywhere else. This event was for the HQ of the Royal Automobile Club. The venue was absolutely stunning, the site dates back to the 12th century, (obviously not by the present owners), with the RAC being in occupation since 1913. The fountain outside the front entrance, leisure club and golf course combine to make it a really impressive site, I wonder if the AA have anything similar.

We are at events in our own neck of the woods for a couple of weeks,then its a trip up to Scotland, followed closely by another couple of events in the London area.


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We have just joined an events networking group in conjunction with Leeds Metropolitan University. I spent a pleasant day at my first meeting on Wednesday. Amongst the other business owners I met were Emily who runs Shine Promotions Model Agency and Kevin the owner of Mint Photography. I have worked with Kevin before when we were both commissioned for an event to celebrate the opening of a new Lloyds TSB branch in Leeds. After the breakfast networking meeting, we then took part in a workshop on promoting your business using social media and communications. One thing that became apparant during the workshop was that I am already doing most of what I should be to promote JARM Amusements via the web, in some areas I was apparently in front of many businesses, so all that time spent tinkering with websites and various promotions seems to be paying off.

November is now almost fully booked, it looks like it is going to be one of our busiest months. December is starting to fill up so hopefully it will just be the normal January-February lull we experience.

For next season we have commissioned a number of new Catering carts and a salection of Victorian style sidestalls. These will be used with our Victorian style funfairs, and also for corporate entertainment jobs, where there more compact dimensions will make them easier to operate in Hotel rooms etc, compared with our fullsized fairground stalls.


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