We had a really LONG day yesterday at the New Zealand v. England cricket match. No security detail this time, yesterday we worked the "Bouncy Castle." Unlike the earlier Twenty20 match that we worked at, this was full blown cricket. There's no telling how ridiculously long these things can last. Yesterday's match ran about 8 hours.Needless to say, it's not the ideal spectator sport for some kids, so there was some entertainment set up so that people could enjoy it during some of the down time. From the feedback we got from some of the kids, it sounds like "downtime" is about half the match. They don't really like to watch The Black Hats bowl and play defense. They just want to watch the batting.
We arrived a couple hours before game time and shared the auxiliary field with some of the players getting warmed up. We unrolled the Castle, hooked up the giant fans, staked the thing into the ground and we were ready for action. Of course, no one would be arriving for a while so we had to test the thing out and make sure it was working, right? Hope you enjoy the footage of our races through the castle. Fellow ultimate player, Crystal, worked with us. Here are Jen and Crystal racing.
Eventually, the boss arrived and decided that we should try to put up a second ride despite the ridiculously strong winds. This one was a gigantic slide that was much taller than the castle. We just got it fully inflated when the boss decided this was a horrible idea. It took seven of us to hold it down and keep it from flying away. We now know what it's like for all those people holding the floats in the Thanksgiving parade. We struggled with it for almost an hour before we got enough air out of it to just leave it where it was un-inflated.
The rest of the day was less entertaining. Just a long series of letting kids on and off the ride. Some of the older "kids" got pretty rowdy and Chris had to break up one actual fist fight, but no major injuries. Who knew a bouncy castle could have such an effect (or maybe it was the ridiculously long and boring cricket match...hmm).
At the end of the night, we had the fun of deflating the castle, rolling things up, and trying to pack up the truck. You wouldn't believe how heavy those things are! Five of us struggled with it for an hour or so and by the time we were done, we put in a twelve hour day. It was hard work, but we're all pretty psyched to add "Bouncy Castle Engineer" to our resumes!
8 comments:
Just think how easy it will be to assemble Frosty and Santa for your lawn, now that you're so experienced.
Engineer? More like King and Queen! Way more impressive on the resume.
Also, isn't this the second time that Chris was just standing there and a fight broke out. I'm starting to think it's him. Maybe it's his deodorant or shampoo or something.
You should check on that.
[insert Borat voice here] King in da kessle, king in da kessle... you do this and you do this.
[now back to my voice] Chris: I bet people would stop fighting around you so much if you wore a cardboard helmet and held a foam sword everywhere you went. If things got rough, you could always cheapshot them in the butt when they're not looking (a move I think should be called "the White Kiwi")
While testing out the castle, did you check if it's safe to jump into it from the roof of an adjacent tall building? From what I've seen on TV (specifically, on "the Office"), some people do that.
Was that the NZ version of the American Gladiators (redo) final event "Eliminator?" In your travels you have missed the writers strike, which has given us remakes of "American Gladiators" and "Knight Rider." AG was so desperate for contestants that they brought back two Contenders from the original run. (Who knew that show was on until like '94!) and K.I.T.T's voice is Gob, but the main character goes by Mike Knight. I guess this was so he is not confused with his astranged father Michael Knight! Yes, Knight family disfunction was part of the plot of the pilot! It has Gob in it it cant be that bad huh mikey!
Yeah, GOB!
I can understand not being able to save the soaking wet helmets and swords, but certainly the castle is more durable, right? I'll expect it to be inflated in front of your apartment as a welcome obstacle course in April. After nearly 24 hours of travel, I'm sure it will be quite challenging.
Guys, can you settle an argument? Did we see Along Came Polly in the theater together? Obviously it would have been with Jill, not Jen.
Post a Comment