We were finally earning good money. Just before 10pm Mr “A” came around and said we would have to close as the crowds were fighting at the gate of the fair! Apparently there had been a football game on (Farmagusta v Nicosia, this is were the crowds had came from) and the rival fans were fighting among themselves. We went to the gate to see the situation. There were several hundred people standing watching about fifty fighting each other. Just at that a police car pulled up with its sirens blowing. A lone policeman got out the car. We all thought to ourselves- if he tries to stop this he'll get killed. At that he pulled out his gun and fired two shots in the air. The crowd immediately dispersed and so did all our customers. The policeman got back in his car and drove away. The whole fair was closed within five minutes.
Nicosia March 1999
I had been running back and forward to Strovolos twice daily while making the basketball game. The hire car couldn't take it and eventually the engine seized up. Luckily my father in law had decided a few days earlier that the car wasn't safe enough for us to do the commuting to the fair in anyway and had hired a Pajero Jeep from Hertz. He said it was for his grand daughters safety. So we used that until George got me another car. I just did what all Cypriots did and left the seized one on the side of the road where it had stopped, George sent someone out to recover it. We had gotten so used to petrol cars that one day my father in law went to fuel the jeep and put petrol in that too. After about 1 mile it stopped then he remembered it was diesel. He found a small garage and had to get the tank drained. He got well ridiculed for that. And it cost him the repair fee.
For the next couple of weeks we had good business at this Strovolos and a couple of nights had been busy like the first night. One time the crowds were so deep at the pop it ons game that my father in law sat on the seat and refused to serve anyone because they were getting too rowdy. We decided to put my mother in law in to watch the game instead. That turned out worse! She clipped a cheeky lad under the chin and he fell back on his rear. Luckily all his pals laughed at him, he was so embarrassed that he got up and left. She got no more cheek after that! The security on the fair were not really that good. “a” on the twist lost a music speaker one night. The security told him he only had three to start with! What was even funnier was you could see the dust print from the missing speaker on the floor. Somehow later the next day it was returned. M “A” was getting worried about the refugees stealing money from his tokens boxes. He placed a spotlight on top of each box, wired to a switch so the cashier could flash the light for attention if there was a problem. M “A” informed the security of the new procedure. He decided to test it. Watch this he said, when I flash this light they will all come running. He flashed the light for over a minute. We could see the security, but not one came. M “A” stormed off in a fit, we all fell about laughing.
I had finished the manufacturing of the basketball game. All I had to do was get paid. The next couple of days were spent making the regulation hoops a bit smaller, so that the Irishman could put bigger prizes on. He was a character and for some reason the local youths gave him a hard time. They would go on the trampolines and jump from bed to bed and not come off when their time was up. The Irishman would go on and chase them to try and get them off, then, when he was exhausted he would go and get the security. One day when he arrived to open, the kids had undone all the springs. The first customer fell through the canvas. Funny now, but not at the time. So much for the 24hr security. “L”s wife also had problems at the dart game. After a week of torture from the youths she stabbed one in the hand with the darts while he was trying to steal the prizes from the game stall! Eventually “L” put chicken wire around the prizes to protect them. This made the stall look like Stalag 13, but it stopped the thieving. When it came to the end of the three weeks, Mr “A” added on another week onto Strovolos. We did get some money but the commuting was becoming too much (over 4000 miles in a month), good job the fuel in Cyprus was so cheap. One day “L” got pulled up in his Land Rover. When the police checked his number plates they were not registered to him . “L” had always wanted a private registration, so he had one made up and just put it on his vehicle! He got a slap on the wrist and had to change back to his proper plates, but he didn't mind, he had gotten away with it for three months. At this time the war in Yugoslavia was at its height. There was a strong objection here to the Allies bombings and the protestors were out on the streets in force. For the first time I felt threatened, we removed all the European & American flags around the fair and from then on we only flew the Greek & Cypriot flags. This was originally to be the end of our tour, but Mr “A” pulled a new venue out of the hat.
End of Strovolos March 1999
The last week of Strovolos was spent getting ready to pack up and shift. The twist ride owned by “a” was going home. “a” sourced some empty 200 litre barrels and stored them on his ride and filled them with fuel for getting home.( fuel in Cyprus was only 25c a litre). We all thought this was a great idea and before long we all had barrels packed into the rides. The last day of the fair “c” decided to take the roof cover off the dodgems to quicken the pull down time. What a blunder, sunny Cyprus rained that afternoon and the dodgem cars would not go around the track, they just skidded on the floor. Eventually someone remembered an old trick to restore their traction. He got a few fluorescent tubes and broke them on the wet track. Then he ground the glass to shards and spread it around. I don't know exactly why this works but it does and after a few minutes the cars were driving around again no problem.
That night when we pulled down everyone left the site and drove all the equipment to Limassol. It was about 2am when I got to the hotel. We all parked along the verge. When I got up in the morning and looked out I was mortified to see all our vehicles parked along the sea front. It completely blocked the sea view from the hotel. The management didn't seem to mind though, probably because we had been guests there for two months and had drank and ate in the bar nearly every night. Later that day some went to the docks to sail for home and we moved a few others onto some waste ground beside the old football pitch. A couple of workmen had started to rebuild the wall we had knocked down the month before to make the gate. (new concrete breeze block, you could easily spot the difference).
