Crazy & Co.

Coronavirus Diary 30th March

30 March 2020

This isn’t going to be a coronavirus diary par se. Its more of an occasional ramble of what we are doing and thoughts about the way things are going. To be honest its more to give us something extra to do rather than being a serious social commentary.

Like everyone else we are in lockdown. Luckily our house is built on the side of our business premises, so we have a fairly secure 3 acre site to wander, rather than being stuck in a small gardenless house.

My significant other is starting to repaint all of our external fences. Tbh they don’t really need doing yet as she did them about 18 months ago, but she’s happy that it gives her a couple of weeks work to pass them time on.

My daughter, who hasn’t been speaking to me for a couple of weeks due to my refusal to let her make a trip to Birmingham, has come round a bit. We have decided to spend some of our time learning a language. After a bit of debate we have settled on sign language. We don’t interact with the hearing impaired all that often, but it would be nice to be able to show we have made the effort on the occasions we do.

Learning Something New

When we built the wild west stagecoach photo booth, we added quite a number of props to it. One of which was a ukulele (and indeed a banjo, because we were going to recreate the scene from deliverance). This has sat on the top shelf in the office for quite a while now. So I decided I am going to learn how to play it. Lol, by the end of the lockdown, I will either be a musician, or I will have a ukulele shaped dent in the back of my head.

We usually refurb our carts and equipment a couple of times a year. This enforced downtime will let us go through them all ready for when the events industry re emerges. It will also give us time to look at possible new ideas and lines to add for the forthcoming season.

I have just had a months stay in hospital where I ended up losing 2 stone. In truth I needed to lose a bit of weight, but that is probably half a stone too much. As soon as the remnants from my surgery heal up enough I intend to have a fairly heavy exercise regime, it would be nice to tone up and keep my weight down. We have a few basic items such as kettlebells so should be able to cobble together some basic exercise sets.

Woah boy overdoing the exercises a bit there.

Truth be told mentally I am not feeling the lockdown too much. When ever we were not at events, I always had plenty of promotional work to be doing on the computer, so I am just doing what I would normally do. It will let me get our blog and seo work well in front, and take the pressure off me once things get moving again.

The World At Large

In the wider world, I still can’t believe just how many people are totally ignoring instructions to stay in. The police broke up a party in Derby yesterday, where they had a disco and buffet, the full works. Are people really that stupid, or are they just plain ignorant.

I got into a debate with a guy I fly with, a liberal democrat activist who claims the government haven’t been clear enough about having to stop in. WTF, every time you turn the telly on it is telling you to stay in. Every other post on Facebook is tellling you the same, what more do people need, Zeppelins roaming the sky with the message painted on the side? What it really needs is the North Korean method. It was reported there that a guy refusing to isolate was shot. I bet that wouldn’t need too much promotion from the government before it was adhered to.

So in summery everyone;

Stay SAFE

Stay IN

And check back for more ramblings from our Coronavirus diary.

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Fun Story, General

Free Colouring Pages, Something For The Kids During The Lock Down

25 March 2020

Pretty much the entire world seems to be in lock-down at the minute. The scary thing being no one really knows how long it will last for and whether it will actually work.

Its trying enough for the adults to keep their sanity during this unprecedented crisis, but it must be even worse for those who need to try and entertain young kids. At the best of times they take some handling, without needing to do it 24/7 every day of the week.

Here are a few funfair themed colouring pages to download. They might just pass an hour or two on.

There are plenty more examples for free download on the internet, just google fun fair colouring pages.

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Fun Story

Sometimes The Simple Ideas Are The Best

23 March 2020

Sometimes the simple ideas are the best. I have just come out of a 5 week stay in hospital, to find scenes of carnage in the supermarkets. Toilet rolls (lord knows why), hand sanitiser, food all stripped from the supermarket shelves by hordes of the criminally stupid panic buying.

There are tales of older people and infirm distraught because they can’t buy anything. NHS and other key workers are similarly finishing shifts to find they also cannot buy any shopping. Civilisation is starting to fray around the edges.

Genius

There has been much talk of what the retailers should have been doing, limiting sales to so many per person, exclusive hours for older people etc.

One supermarket in Denmark has hit upon an idea so simple, yet so bloody effective.

Basically if you want to buy a bottle of hand sanitiser, it works out at around £5. If you want to buy more than 1 bottle, you can do, but the price then becomes £125 PER BOTTLE.

Brilliant, there is no argument at the till about limits or suchlike, you can buy as much as you want, as long as you are willing to pay for it.

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Fun Story

Apocalypse Now, 21 Days Later

19 March 2020

As I lay here in my hospital bed, connected up to drips and feeling the warm glow from my last shot of morphine, I can’t help feeling the sense of dread that is leaching through the walls as the apocalypse approaches..

Wait, I hear you cry, whats with the hospital bed? Well I would like to say things went like this. 3 weeks ago I was flying a Cessna (one of my hobbies to relax after a hard week), when my appendix unexpectedly burst. I heroically ignored the pain and managed to land safely, before being whisked away for emergency surgery.

Well, that’s what I would like to say, but the truth is a little more mundane. I was actually flying, and my appendix did actually burst. However the initial symptoms were mild indigestion, and I landed the plane without even noticing.

4 days later I was in severe pain and ended up at A & E. After a CT scan and some blood tests, they admitted me for emergency surgery. At this point I was still quite laid back. I knew the appendix was a useless organ so wasn’t too worried about losing it. It was only when a nurse commented on how well I looked for ‘someone seriously ill’, that I started to worry. A quick Google revealed that said useless appendix, could become a fatal appendix once burst.

Surgery

Surgery went well, although the surgeon commented it had been one of the worst cases she had dealt with. Unfortunately I then developed a massive after infection, and have been in here 3 bloody weeks. I am beginning to think it is easier to get out of prison, than hospital.

Anyway back to my first musings, when I came in, there were a handfull of Covid 19 cases in the UK, and a couple of deaths. 3 weeks later, reading the news reports and social media we appear to be on the verge of apocalypse. The expected deaths are being reported at anything from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Sport, outdoor events, pubs etc are being advised to close. People are fighting in the shops for supplies. Its like one of those movies where the hero becomes unconscious for a couple of weeks and when he wakes up society has collapsed!

Fashion

What I am worried about, is do we have to start dressing like they did in Mad Max above. If so how soon, can we like wear our normal cloths until they wear out. Or will we have to immediately wear the new styles.

Absurd? It is rather, but then again, is it anymore absurd than grown adults fighting over toilet roll. Some of the stocks people have they are going to need to crap hundreds of times a day to get anywhere near using it. Once this crisis is over, the poor toilet roll makers are going to be twiddling their thumbs for months whilst people use up the stocks they have.

Looking at some of the scenes we appear to have turned into a nation of Corporal Jones’s You know the character from Dads Army, who screams ‘Don’t panic, don’t panic’ whilst running around like a headless chicken in a blind panic. In some ways I think a zombie apocalypse might have been better. The supermarket shelves always seem full in a zombie apocalypse.

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Catering, Fun Story

Irn Bru and Its New Candy Floss Flavour

16 March 2020

We are always on the lookout for new flavours to add to our candy floss carts. But it seems that everyone else is looking for a way to make their product taste like candy floss, including Irn Bru.

Supermarkets started it with candy floss flavour grapes. Thorntons added candy floss flavoured truffle chocolates. Ann Summers even does a candy floss flavoured lube!

Irn Bru

Well now that famous Scottish drink, the one ‘Made from girders’, had been launched in a set of four limited edition flavours, including candy floss.

The public are being asked to vote for which of the flavours should hit the shelves. With the top 2 making it into production.

Some members of the public however are raising a stink about the new flavours. They insist that Irn Bru should go back to its original formula. When they removed the sugar it didn’t really do the taste any favours.

If you want to hire a candy floss cart, sadly without the Irn Bru, let us know.

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Catering, Fun Story

The Fluffy Cotton Candyfloss Tree – Katsu

12 March 2020

If you’ve ever been to the fairground then you’ll know just how strong the sweet smell of fluffy cotton candyfloss is and just how it looms and lingers in the air around! If you enter the fairground at one end it wouldn’t take you long to follow your nose and locate just where the fluffy cotton candyfloss is being made and served.

Many companies and brands have tried to bottle the smell and create fluffy cotton candyfloss candles, or lipsticks or hair products that are meant to fill your life with your own sweet smelling candyfloss but somehow it just doesn’t quite do the original product any justice. There’s even fluffy cotton candyfloss Grapes that are meant to slightly mirror the taste of a stick of fluffy cotton candyfloss.

Edinburgh Royal Botanical Garden

Edinburgh home to the Royal Botanical Garden has lately been overcome by a new delightful fragrance. The sweet smelling fragrance of fluffy cotton candy has filled the 70 acre grounds… No a fairground hasn’t set to work here. Nor have they lit scented candles around the area but in fact the smell comes from a live plant growing within the grounds. The Katsura or to an expert green finger gardener the technical name of Cercidiphyllum. The tree originates from japan and Chinese regions and is known for releasing a scent of burning sugar.

We have had some fantastic weather recently. As a result the tree emits a stronger than usual dose of the fragrance. With a lack of wind the smell has been congregating in the area. The smell of the fluffy cotton candy comes from the leaves of the tree. They emit a chemical compound called Maltol. As soon as you walk into the gardens you can smell the fragrance. The visitors to the garden looking around to find where the smell is coming from.

A Fluffy Candyfloss Tree in Germany

The Germans call the distinctive tree ‘Kuchenbaum’, which translates to ‘cake tree’.

Looking to hire a candy floss cart then we can help.

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Fun Story, General

Coronavirus, Problems Brings Opportunity.

8 March 2020

Coronavirus, another Chinese import. They say that every cloud has a silver lining. Well, its hard at the minute to see just where the Corvid-19 virus is going to present any advantages. There is talk of cancelling outdoor events throughout the country. This will devastate not only the funfair industry but also large parts of the outdoor events industry.

The virus itself is undoubtedly liable to kill large numbers of people. The NHS and other public services are predicted to be overwhelmed. The economy is going to talk a major hit.

Now we have the great British prats, opps, sorry, public panic buying things like toilet roll. WTF, as far as any of the reports suggest, the virus doesn’t give you diarrhea. So why the hell is everyone buying massive amounts of toilet paper?

Opportunities

Nevertheless, in the spirit of free enterprise, there are people taking advantage of the opportunities offered.

On the fairground, and seaside amusement arcades, the crane or ‘grabber machines’ have long been favourites. Basically, you have control of a 3 pronged grabber that you maneuver around the machine full of soft toys, then when you think its lined up you press the button. The grabber drops, grabs at the toys and hopefully manages to snag one for you. If you are lucky it carries the toy to the exit slot and drops it out to you.

In reality it tends to grab the toy and then drop it, the reason being the electromagnet controlling the grabber is set to be too weak to hold the weight of the toy. After the machine has taken a certain amount of money, it turns the magnet on full power and you will have a winner.

Toilet Rolls

With the panic buying of bog rolls, a number of enterprising operators have removed the soft toys from the machines and fill them with, yes, toilet rolls.

Who would have thought that one of the consequences of a worldwide coronavirus pandemic would be a shortage of toilet rolls.

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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

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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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