the day of the show

Yesterday saw a at one of the largest one day agricultural shows in England.

The Driffield Show.

For the past few days we've been nipping backwards & forwards checking forecasts trying to decide what on earth the weather would be throwing at us. One internet weather report stating severe weather warnings with tornadoes, then another with sunny intervals. As it was we were very, very lucky with the odd light shower & warm sunshine. The going in places was a little sticky, & we had taken the 'tardis' as opposed to the hand cart just in case of flash flooding plus waders, oilskins & diving gear as listed in our risk assessment.

By tuesday evening we decided that perhaps the best course of action might perhaps be a recky of the site. How wet was wet & where exactly were the electrics in the Enterprise Village? Important stuff especially when everything just has to be in place by 9.00am sharp! The area for the village bit was larger this year, normally we sit right on the corner of the main walk way. This year we were -- no where? No pitch, no name spikes, nothing. Ok, who was the joker in the pack then? Had a rival ice creamer pulled the plug? After a flurry of telephone calls Mr G turns up, all in a fluster l might add, pointing us up the hill a little bit waving his hands in an 'over there somewhere' sort of way. Fine, thought l in case of flooding, but how do the punters find us?? Hubby retorted that 'it'll be fine'....

Decided that evening not to watch weather forecast, then if the actual day dawned blue sky n sunny l would be pleasantly surprised.

Urggh, 6.30 up. Leave at 7.30. wrong Hubby was off at 7.30, Haz & 'meself 'were off just a little bit latter....

Traffic on show day is pretty dammed awful. Tyrannical traffic wardens who seem to relish the traffic queues. Perhaps they have an in house competition to see who has the longest queue? Ev..en..tu..all..y we gained access to the showground, 30 minutes to drive a few hundred yards....

Arghh, what the **** has hubby done parking THERE!! instead of being slap bang in the middle visible to all, we were 'shoved ' to the back behind a string of classic motor cars. 'Might as well go home now', H stated. OK, pull in stomach, make the most of it. Decorated our pitch with some straggly plant pots, put up picnic umbrella set out seats, waited for first customer... would they be able to find us...placed two a boards complete with arrows...customers began to trickle in...then a few more....by lunch time we had a queue.

They found us. We served up the ice cream. We laughed & joked with the customers. There were 3 of us working in a 3 metre square van, working in shifts, as soon as one collapsed the next one shot in...once more unto the breach dear friends [sic].

By the end of the day, we had survived. We had served up ice cream cones by the hundreds. drunk water by the gallon & by closing time were well & truly knackerd....

Will we do it again next year?

You Bet!!