Category: Fun Story

Fun Story

Royal Security, Not!

19 February 2020

There is a bit of an argument brewing about whether Prince Harry and Meghan should have publicly funded security provided. Well I dont want to argue the ins and outs of whether they deserve public money or not, but to be honest we have been involved with 3 events and found the security to be spectacular. Spectacularly bad that is.

Eton College Boating Lake

The first incident was a few years back when we provided a small children’s funfair in conjunction with the world rowing championships at Eton colleges boating lake in Dorney Park

Now the days the Royals were there, security consisted of seven rings. Radiating from the central point where royalty were sitting. You had to have appropriate passes to enter any particular ring. Being situated in the outer ring we had only level 1 passes.

One day, just after carrying out the daily checks, and a bit of maintenance on one of the rides, I went to the public toilets. These just happened to be near the gate for the next ring of security. I had a pair of overalls on to keep my cloths clean as I had been lubricating some moving parts. As I neared the entrance to level 2, the guy staffing the entrance, opened it to let me through.

Hmm, I wonder how far I could go. I actually walked through the first 5 levels, into level 6 before I chickened out. It was quite a lucrative contract, so I didn’t really want to lose it, but it opened my eyes, all you need to beat security like that is a pair of dirty overalls.

Princess Anne’s Helicopter

Princess Anne's Helicopter
Princess Anne’s Helicopter

The second incident came when we again provided a small children’s funfair to the National Farmers Union Insurance company. They were opening their headquarters after a major refurbishment.

Now, we couldn’t set up until Princess Anne had taken off in her helicopter. Unfortunately she was running late, and I was panicking about being ready in time. I came up to the aircraft in question, and asked the security detail if I could fetch one of my cars up to unload it nearby, it would save me 5 minutes is all, but time was going to be tight.

The guys in the suits and ray bans had a quick conflab, then told me I was ok. I duly drove the car up, opened the boot, and discovered to my horror that my wife had stacked all the rifles off the shooting gallery in the back of the car, I smiled sickly as I slowly closed the boot, and told them it was ok, I would wait. Luckily they didn’t notice what was in there.

Agreed they were only air rifles, but they could have been actual assault rifles, and I could easily have shot the security staff then went looking for the Princess Royal.

Prince William And The Royal Birth

My favourite was during William and Kate’s last child being born. We had been contracted by Ladbrokes, the betting group to go down to the hospital where Kate was in labour. We were to give out tea and coffee to the paparazzi. Then when the baby was born, dispense copious amounts of Prosecco.

The brief from the client was that they didn’t have permission, and if the police objected we were just to leave, but they would still pay us.

When we turned up, the police were walking around with machine guns, yikes. I jumped out of the van, told the nearest copper what we were doing and that his guys/ladies and he could have tea and coffee whenever they wanted. He gave the thumbs up and we set up. Thing is, no one asked who gave us permission. Or even looked in our van to see if we had anything nasty in there.

It got even better. After the actual birth, we used our prosecco up, the client thanked us and told us we were free to pack up and go. Now, what we didn’t know was that the police had prevented any traffic moving in the vicinity of the hospital, as prince Williams motorcade was on its way in from Buckingham Palace.

Only, we were inside the cordon. We packed up jumped in the van and set off, straight around the corner and ran slap bang into the motorcade. Unfortunately our side of the road had a row of security fencing up so we couldn’t move over. As a result Prince William and all the following security vehicles had to drive up onto the pavement to squeeze past us. We were about 2 foot from the Prince, and could see his quizzical looks. We could also see the security officers and police in the following vehicles having apoplexy. Royal security not.

Catering, Event Planning, Fun Story

Cannabis Candy Floss, A New High

16 February 2020

Long one of our most popular desserts. A Californian (where else) company is taking it to new heights with cannabis candy floss.

Candy floss is now available from them laced with THC, or to give it the correct name Tetrahydrocannabinol .

For those who don’t know, this just happens to be the ‘active’ ingredient in cannabis. The bit that gives you the high.

The new floss, comes with a full 100mg of active ingredient present. Enough to give a new meaning to the phrase party snack.

Cannabis Candy Floss

Now, we aren’t going to argue the morality or otherwise of such a product. TBH we very much doubt its going to appear in the UK.

A few years ago the medical establishment was experimenting with using candy floss to deliver drugs to kids. Laughing at the time we wondered how long it would be before someone launched floss with recreational drugs.

Perhaps our new range of alcohol flavoured candy floss might be more palatable. Especially considering they are flavoured but don’t actually contain any active alcohol. We are launching with Brandy, Whisky and Gin, but if the reception is good enough will be expanding it over the summer season.

It makes you wonder though what cannabis can be added to next, there is likely to be a steady stream of food and drink coming this way.

Sadly we aren’t yet allowed to offer cannabis floss, but if you would like to hire a candy floss cart then we can help.

Catering, Fun Story, General

Britain the nation of hot fresh Popcorn Lovers!

2 February 2020

Britain the nation of hot fresh popcorn Lovers! In fact most say it’s the only treat worthy to indulge in at the cinemas along with a tango ice blast slush. I mean what’s better than hot fresh popcorn…salted or sweet or if your adventurous maybe even toffee popcorn washed down with a mixed slushy.

Subsequently however many hot fresh popcorn lovers will also be able to tell you how annoying it is to get popcorn pieces stuck in your teeth and just how stubborn the curved shell can be to remove from the residence they seem to take upon your mouth. In fact I think it’s fair to say some popcorn shells try to take up squatters rights.

One man who lives to tell the harrowing tale of having a hot fresh popcorn piece stuck in his tooth is 41 year old Adam Martin from Cornwall. Adam a firefighter and farther of three managed to get a piece of popcorn stuck in his teeth after watching a film one evening in September with his wife and kids. Martin’s used a number of tools for around three or four days to try and dislodge the popcorn including items such as a tooth pick, pen lid, piece of wire and even a metal nail. After dislodging the popcorn Adam carried on his day to day activities forgetting all about the popcorn fiasco.

Less than a week later…

Less than a week later Martin began to suffer from the typical symptoms of flue, fatigue, constant headaches, body shivers and sweats, however when these symptoms had yet to subside months later he took a trip to the doctors who diagnosed him with a mild heart murmur and sent him home. When he continued to feel unwell he went to Cornwall Royal Hospital where he was there diagnosed with Endocarditis which is an infection of the endocardium which affects the lining of the interior chambers of the heart. According to specialists the infection is brought on when bacteria enters the bloodstream especially from the mouth and skin

Adam himself stated that he felt there was something seriously wrong, and that he was sleeping all the time and had aches and pains in his legs. He was admitted the same day to the hospital for more tests and to see the extent of how serious this infection was. The tests and scans showed that his heart was severely damaged and he had to undergo an emergency 7 hour open heart surgery to repair the mitral valve and replace the aortic valve.

Moral Of The Hot Fresh Popcorn Story

If Adam had gone to the dentist in the first place to remove the hot fresh popcorn piece safely then this near death experience may never have happened. Even though it wasn’t proved that the popcorn led to all that had gone wrong Adam stated that was the only thing he could think of to cause an infection. The infection could also have been handled sooner if he had of got antibiotics sooner.

Don’t let this story put you off enjoying the hot fresh popcorn at the cinema! This is such a trivial situation that lead to an unfortunate but rare situation. So guys the moral of the story is if you get popcorn stuck in your teeth go to see a professional and don’t use any old object laying around.

Fun Story, Photo Booths

Classic Mini Restoration

30 January 2020

Continuing our restoration we have just finished the front subframe. That’s the classic Mini version of a chassis, they have one front and one back. The front one here carries the engine, front braking system and front wheels.

This one was a bit worse for wear than the rear frame. Necessitating replacing the entire metal structure with a new one. We took the opportunity whilst doing this to replace and upgrade the braking system, drive hubs and brake pipes.

Classic Mini Front Subframe

We replaced the entire front subframe to give us a firm base to start from.

Badly Rusted Towers
More Rust

We also made the decision to go back to solid mounts on the front subframe and semi solid on the tower mounts. Although it is meant to slightly worsen the ride quality, it is supposed to vastly improve the handling, and lets face it, the best part of a classic Mini is the ability to throw it around corners, fast.

Our Newly Refurbished Frame

We also decided that we were going to replace the brake discs with some uprated versions. After much research settled on some Red Calipers from KAD. To be honest this was as much for the looks as anything else. They are absolutely stunning in anodized red, we also added vented and grooved discs, and lightweight alloy drive hubs for a little weight saving.

Braking System

KAD Brake Calipers
KAD Brake Calipers rear view

We also added the obligatory Goodridge braided brake pipes. Fully adjustable tie bars and bottom control arms to allow the suspension to be set up to perfection.

Specialist Components LIghtweight Tower Bolts

The late great Colin Chapman once said, give a car more power and its faster on the straights, make a car lighter and its faster everywhere. To this aim, we swapped the tower bolts for lightweight alloy alternatives. Another product from Specialist Components, a little weight saving along with stunning looks.

DSN Retrosport Solid Front Mounts

The other front mounts.
Stainless Top Arm Brackets

Its meant to be a classic mini restoration, but the aim is to use modern components to make it better than original.

Catering, Fun Story, General

Edible Coffee Cups…Whatever Next?

25 January 2020

Edible coffee cups are a new green innovation being trailed by Air New Zealand; a leading national airline. The Cups made from vanilla flavoured biscotti are made by a local New Zealand company Twiice. When first hearing about this trial my first thought was no one wants a leaky coffee cup! Imagine sat minding your own business and before you could finish your coffee the biscotti gives way and hot frothy coffee leaks all over your lap staining your clothes and making you uncomfortable for the rest of your flight! However after further research I have been informed these cups are apparently ‘leak proof’.

edible coffee cup
Air New Zealand’s new edible coffee cup.

Numbers Don’t Lie

Statistics show that 99.75% of coffee cups are not recycled, the UK alone are estimated to throw away 2.5 billion coffee cups away each year and only 0.25% are recycled. Air New Zealand are responsible for serving more than 8 million cups of coffee a year and said that they want to reduce the amount of waste that the company sends to landfills. This is just a small step on a large scale global issue. Many people have said that a change in cups is not a big enough environmental commitment for a company that size to make however in a statement released by Air New Zealand said that these new cups was being trailed both on the ground and in the air and was a small step into finding new innovative ways to meet sustainability challenges.

The cups have been a big hit so far with customers and they have also used the cups to serve desserts in rather than plastic dessert bowls. The cups are said to have a really good impact on the environment especially if it catches on to other companies around the world. The switch is from compostable cups made of paper and corn that is used in most of Air New Zealand’s lounges and aeroplanes, these cups are environmentally friendly however still fill up the landfill sites and take years to decompose. The plant based bio degradable cups have still been made available for consumers that may have a food allergy as the cups may contain traces of nuts, dairy and eggs.

Edible Coffee Cups Saving Reputations

Air companies and travel companies come under a lot of scrutiny when it comes to the environment. Flights produce a lot of greenhouse gases from burning fuel which contributes largely to the world’s global warning issue when the fuel is released into the atmosphere.

All companies no matter how big or small can take steps to help reduce their carbon footprint… if these new edible coffee cups literally take off and become popular than we may have to look into them for our coffee cart events.

Event Planning, Fun Story, Photo Booths

Jasper’s New Clothes

21 January 2020

Jasper is our British Racing Green Classic Mini photo booth. One of our most popular booths he has travelled the highways and byways of our green and pleasant land. Dispensing lashings of fun and weddings and corporate events. This will be a running tale of Jasper’s new clothes, also known as a full restoration.

After much hard work it was felt that Jasper was starting to look a little frayed around the edges. The decision was taken to patch up some of the rust that is starting to appear. Then to paint the engine and engine bay to spruce him up a bit.

However, like many of the best laid plans, once we started stripping him down, this suddenly morphed into a complete nut and bolt restoration. Similarly it was felt that a little extra power would be nice on the engine front. Which rapidly became a full engine rebuild with numerous upgrades to increase the power and drivability.

Currently Jasper is in bits, (and we mean in bits, there isn’t any 2 pieces still connected together). Pictured below he is being carried into the shotblasters. He is going to be taken back to bare metal before the new body panels are fitted.

Jasper Being Carried Into The Shotblasters

Over the next few months we will post regular updates to keep you informed of how he is coming along. At the minute the shell is in being blasted, the engine parts are at various experts getting work done. The sub frames are at our base being rebuilt by us.

All in all we are sure Jasper’s new clothes will result in a stunning example of this classic British car.

Fun Story

A great Expedition for a small boy

4 December 2019

There is nothing more frustrating than playing on the grabber machines in an arcade…when you spend all your loose change on the stupid bloody machine because each time you get so close you know it’s just going to happen the next time…but it very rarely ever does. You may even get so frustrated you try rocking or booting the machine. But the designers was one step ahead of you they made it impossible to cheat your way to a prize. 


Yes this game is purely about luck and how much spare change you have to keep playing and trying your luck. However one three year old boy had an idea how to cheat his way to a prize. He ventured into the machine in order to grab a toy from inside with his own hands instead of the claw. 

Noah


Noah and his twin brother was on a visit to a play centre in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire when their mother turned her back for a second to hear the screams of other people their asking if that was her son, when she turned back round she seen Noah inside the machine. In the hopes of trying to get himself a toy he was now lodged in the machine. 

Funfair Grabber


The rescue lasted 10 minutes having to break three padlocks and prising the machine open to reveal the three year old child. The machine was then delivered an out of order notice so no one else could challenge the machine that day. The grabber was owned and installed into the arcade of the play area by a third party so they didn’t have the key to rescue him meaning that they had to break the padlocks with tools to be able to help him break free  

Noah had gotten himself lodged in the crane machine and couldn’t move to retrieve a teddy. This was a great Expedition for a small boy. I have to say though hats off to the young lad for his determination and skill to think outside the box…or should we say inside the box haha.

An hilarious expedition for a young lad.

Catering, Fun Story, funfair events

CBD pale ale Bevvy

30 November 2019

Cannabis oil has made quite a launch in the UK recently with CBD oil becoming a miracle cure for many health issues from skin problems to anxiety to chronic pain relief. With many people appealing to make the strongest form of cannabis available in the UK, with little or no luck so far.

From Hemp skin care products to CBD oil a new launch has now come to the UK. Cannabis craft beer. Green Times Brewing has partnered with a Leeds-based Northern Monk to create a 7.2% CBD pale ale which contains cannabis oil.

The pale ale named Green Heathen contains a legal 10mg of cbd oil per pint. This is legal and highly popular. It has been described as having a soft resinous tropical flavours. CBD oil is mean to be packed with natural ingredients meaning that this CBD pale ale should be good for you theoretically. With the boosted liver function that is meant to come with the oil then technically the alcoholic beverage should help process alcohol more efficiently meaning you should recover from drinking faster. There is also anti-inflammatory effects which not also could help speed up your recovery but also  make sure your skin stays lush.

CBD Pale Ale

Perfect partnership for CBD pale ale

Green Times Brewing and the MD of CBD ultra described their CBD pale ale product as the perfect partnership. The MD said that he is honoured to be working with the ale company and that for more than 10,000 years both beer and cannabis have been used to enhance health and mood so both together is the perfect infused partnership

As well as creating the perfect pale ale that will fly off the shelves they have helped to boost trade in the little northern area they are from. This is a perfect way to boost income as well as create new products. We may even have to get some of this unique and special pale ale to try on our bar.

Catering, Event Planning, Fun Story

Pizza Themed Wedding

27 November 2019

Wedding Pizza. For most people getting married follows a set of traditional trends that’s been around for century’s, a church, till death do us part vows, a big white dress, something old, new and blue and of course sharing the day with your family and friends. However for some they may want to think outside the box and do something a little different, something that will set their wedding apart from any other wedding in history. This can be hard though to think of something that hasn’t been done or how to put your own personal spin on a wedding but still manage to keep within your set budget…a very stressful times for many newly engaged couples starting out in the big wide world of wedding planning.

Chicago Town

Chicago town pizza may have just the answer. The fast food pizza chain is offering a competition for all soon-to-be-weds to enter with the prize being a pizza based wedding package. Who wouldn’t love a pizza wedding????

The wedding package includes a fairy tail elegant, princess worthy bridal gown fit for any beautiful bride…with a cheesy twist instead of the traditional white lace this dress dons the detailed print of a scrumptious looking pepperoni pizza on it, complete with a thick crisp crust. There is also accessories accompanying the dress such as a matching pizza bouquet and a six tier pizza cake that the lucky couple get to cut into, a honeymoon to Chicago and some spending money to treat yourself once your there. The competition is not only aimed at the quirky couples or the lifelong pizza lovers but also the couples that may have a small budget.

Research First

The fast food chain decided to run the competition in the first place based on a poll that was conducted with 2000 brits. The research conducted found that overall wedding guests consider the food at a wedding to be more important than the actual exchanging of vows, with around 2 fifths of poll people saying that they would enjoy having a pizza meal at a wedding. And around 64% of brits said that they are excited to attend a wedding if they now that pizza is on the menu.

The competition package was created to appeal to both newlyweds to be and their guests. The Chicago Town Brand Manager, Rachel Bradshaw said that “Weddings are the ultimate celebration of love, but it seems like our obsession with food trumps everything else when it comes to anticipating and enjoying someone else’s big day.

Check out our other catering options.

Fun Story

A small trip for man…one big trip for toddler

24 November 2019

One small trip for man…one large journey for toddler We’re all used to hearing the stories of how you can’t take your eyes of a toddler for two minutes as the fearless children take seconds to get up to any type of mischief. Even in their cots you hear of children learning to take a leap and jumping out the cot and escaping however it’s unusual to hear that a small child escaped down the street to a fairground!

 Kenneth Allen is a toddler from a home in Minnesota. The child’s parents had to called the police in a frenzy when they realised their small son had gone missing in his toy tractor. The police was called when worried parents couldn’t find their small child who had been playing in his battery powered tractor.

Local Reports

According to reports it was found that the small independent child had taken a trek to the local fairground which was two blocks away from his home. Having visited once the child miraculously managed to navigate his way through his home town to get back to the fairground.

The police arrived and responded to the incident quickly and managed to locate the boy watching the Tilt-A-Whirl ride at the Chicago County fair ground. The child was found safe and happy and returned to his very worried parents. It seems that once the incident was over and the toddler was found safe that the funny side was seen by all involved. I have to say I can’t blame the poor boy for wanting another day at the fair before it leaves his town!.

Once found and returned home the tots father removed the tractors battery! Hopefully the Child’s license was revoked as well and he won’t manage to escape on another journey to his favourite local spots and keep to small trips.