posterity may learn how dangerous it is to let speculation riot unrestrained, in the pursuit of enormous profits from inadequate causes.

The above quote could be used to describe the situation that Bernard Madoff has created with his "Ponzi" investment scheme. But is doesn't, in actuality it was a quote describing the great South Sea Misadventure which occurred in England during the early 1700's. For full details on the South Sea Bubble Click Here.

If you go a little further back to 1637 we find the Great Tulip bulb bubble, when speculators paying absolute fortunes for Dutch tulip bulbs suddenly found themselves holding a pile of worthless flowers when everything came crashing down.

I haven't really looked any further back than this, but I am quite sure that some enterprising cavemen at some point in time made an absolute fortune by selling options on wooly mammoth tusks. No matter how often these sorts of schemes pop up, run their course then collapse leaving people destitute, there is always a new herd of sheep waiting to be fleeced out of their money. I suppose the old saying of you cannot con an honest man has some truth in it. These people who think they are being ever so clever by investing in schemes that are too good to be true only to find they are too good to be true probably deserve what they get. The annoying part is when institutions like banks fall for it, then are bailed out by the "honest" people who didn't jump on the bandwagon, and actually invested their hard earned funds in genuine schemes. Anyway enough of a rant for this week.

The job we did for the Trinny and Susannah show at Godstone back in the summer finally made it to the screen the other night. There was a fleeting glimpse of yours truly whacking the peg on one of our strikers, a quick glimpse of my other half making candy floss and a few shots of the swing boats and sidestalls we had there.

At the end of November we presented attractions at the four day Christmas market in Stockton On Tees. We also had a number of other smaller Christmas Fairs in various parts of the country, and we are currently in negotiations to take quite a few more on. The upshot was in conjunction with another operator we formed a jointly held limited company specifically to market ourselves to that sort of event. Our new website can be seen at www.christmas-funfairs.com. Its still a little sparse but will be built up with additional pages over the next month or so.

|