After Jodie's birthday at the beginning of the month, there's still a couple of dates that stay in the fore front of my mind coming up in October. With a couple of weeks in between, it gives me a chance to save a little for the annual Menai Bridge fair. It's a traditional fair that dates back to 1691 as an agricultural fair where live stock was traded and also help was hired. In the past 40 years though, things have shifted and the fair, as I've been told, became mostly stall based and people would do their Christmas shopping here. However, with this in mind, year by year I notice the number of stalls have dwindled and Rides have taken over. Not that the children are complaining, but I do hear from the locals that its not the same as it was.
The fair comes once a year for a few days, with the main day falling on the 24th October (unless its a Sunday, then it will fall on either the 23rd or 25th), and this is when the road closures happen causing slight chaos. Bus routes are moved and Menai Bridge looses all of its Car Parks as it's filled with rides of all thrill-seeking levels.
There's one car park that can be closed for almost a week as its home to a small amount rides (a variety that can suit all ages) that you can go on for couple of days before the main day. There's usually a 'family day' at this car park where the rides are discounted which is great if you have a big family as the costs can easily mount up at these kind of places.
I decided to take Jodie to this family day (which was on the Saturday 21st, a few days away from the main day) to ease her excitement of the fair. I'd only brought £15 with me and made sure Jodie knew that once it was gone, it was time to go home. To be fair, at £1.50 each per ride, we managed to get a few decent rides in. I went on a couple of the bigger rides with her, the Snow Storm and Skimmers, and she went on a few of the smaller rides on her own.
The older Jodie gets, the braver she becomes, to try out new thrilling experiences and I'm so happy that we can now share the experiences together. Gone are the days of standing on the side line, shivering from the cold, waiting for the tea cups or trains to finish.
True to my word though, once the £15 had dwindled to nothing, we were on our way home, gladly too. At this time of year, the cold sets in quickly and the locals refer to it as 'The Menai Bridge Fair Weather'. My toes were numb from the cold and my fingers were on their way there. Jodie however, didn't seem phased at all by the cold, but we both toddled along on our way home, talking about which was the best ride we went on and guessing which rides would be at the main day.
A few days on and I have such an excited child who's refusing to go to school because she wants to go to the main fair day! what else was I to expect really? Jodie reluctantly went to school, but by 3:30 we were on our way and Jodie was ready to run if I let her. As any other child, she has no sense of money worth and she just wanted to jump on the first ride she sees. luckily she had some birthday money left over so I wasn't too out of pocket. But still keeping money in mind, I suggested we take a look around the occupied streets to see what rides were around so Jodie could then think of where to spend her money. At £2.50-£4 a ride, you have to try and reign in the spending somehow.
Fun Houses, Mini Miami's, Skimmers, mini rollercoasters, Helicopter rides, Helter Skelters, not to mention the countless food stalls, sweet and savoury. It all mounts up. In 3 hours that we wandered through the streets, Jodie was loving life on all the rides, she managed to spend around £40! However, she was not done yet. She spent another hour at the fair with her father and her brothers and managed to squeeze another £20 out of him! But for a once a year experience, I'm not even mad!
Despite the nature of the fair changing over the years, its impacted everyone who has ever attended. Memories have been made where they turn into stories to be told in school the next day, or the next time they see family members. Not to mention it is one of the longest running traditions that I know of that takes place on the island, and I hope it keeps running for many more years to come.
