The Go To Girl Visits Hull Fair……..

Hull Fair is Europe’s biggest travelling fair and has been coming to Hull for over 700 years.  The whole town stops what it is doing and goes to Hull Fair for a variety of reasons which include food from burgers to in the last few years Indian and Chinese cuisine.  Then there are the rides and stall which range from hook a duck and shooting ranges to children’s big wheels and bombers for the more adventurous of us.
One of the weird but true facts of Hull Fair is the official ‘Fair Day’ is the eleventh of October, which happens to be my husband Chris’s birthday.  He always said Hull Fair happens every year on his birthday.  As part of a ‘Hull’ tradition everyone gets together with their friends and family to visit Hull Fair.  I say part of ‘Hull’ tradition, people from all over come to the Fair. 
I heard just last week a family with relatives overseas had organised their holidays around the fair as they were originally from Hull and loved the fair when they were here.  As a family we all arranged to go in various groups, our daughter Lou and her husband to be took Theo on the first day.  Theo walked into the salon when Lou works and told her he was going to the fair after she left work last Saturday. 
This made her laugh as he is only just 4 and he definitely knows what he wants so they took him for a walk round.  She told me how much he enjoyed it and had been taken again by his uncle later in the week.  It finally came to our turn to take him which was the last day of the fair and our only opportunity to go as it had been a busy week as usual.  Theo has a very busy social life and had a party to attend so instead of Friday night stay with granny and gramps he was coming to us after the party. 
Lou dropped Theo off and said she will meet us at Hull Fair.  Off we went in the car.  As we are local we know all the little back streets for parking and have a favourite street called Selby Street.  It brings back a lot of childhood memories of the journey to Hull Fair as our families used to walk the same way as we do now.  Down Selby Street and over Waliker Street bridge, straight onto Walton Street where the fair is based.  Theo’s only little so a short walk to the fair was a good idea as walking round the fair can add miles to your trip.
We finally made it to the fair around five and began walking down Walton Street which is the street the fair is on at the bottom there is a large open area used for markets and parking for the KCOM stadium on match days or event days.  Walton Street is just over half a mile long and the space at the end where the fair rides are situated is sixteen acres which is a very large site for a toddler to walk.  The rides start around half way down the street and as soon as Theo saw the kiddie rides he was off.
Come on gramps can we go on this ride?  First ride was the kiddie wheel, as he was getting on another little girl wanted to get in the same carriage with Theo.  We thought she was a bit scared to go on her own and Theo did not mind.

Next was the monster truck ride.  Theo loves Blaze and the monster trucks so as soon as he saw this ride he thought he was going on Blaze LOL. As we walked around he saw the Coca-Cola truck, anything to do with cars will do for Theo.  We had a candy floss break next just for a bit of a fair food.  In case you don’t know what candy floss is, in the USA it is cotton candy which is whipped sugar with colour and put on a stick.  this has been a fair staple since we can remember and probably a lot longer.  We walked up to the other end of Walton Street to meet up with Lou while sharing candy floss which was by the way was really sticky.  Next ride of the night was the hot air balloon ride which went up in the air.  Lou asked Theo shall I come on this with you?  Theo’s reply made us all laugh.  Why would I mummy!  Well he is four now!!  Next was the worst ride of the night an old battered fun house which was no fun at all, so next!  Theo spotted the ski jump in the distance so we had to race to this with him.  He wanted his mummy on this ride with him but it stated on the notice no adults, sorry mummy.    Mummy got her chance to go on a ride with Theo on the next ride though……..  Here come the Dodgems.

The airplane ride was a particular favourite as it was from another favourite of Theo’s, Planes and his plane of choice was Dusty.  Another fun house was next as the last one was such a bust.

He went on again with mummy.  He does love his mummy.  Finally my favourite time, time for food!  On the menu tonight for Lou and I was vegetable noodles and sweet chilli sauce.  Chris opted for the traditional cheese burger.  We could not get Theo to eat fair food as he was too excited to go on more rides and had eaten at the party any hour or so earlier.  We received a phone call from Chris’s brother and his family to meet us at the children’s helter skelter.  We arrived and more or less walked up at the same time.  By this time Theo was starting to get a bit tired, he must have walked a good few miles around the fair.  Even though we had just met Dave and Claire and the kids I said we probably would not be able to stay much longer as Theo was getting tired.  We walked around for about anther half an hour while the girls went on some of the adrenaline fuelled rides.  Kids are crazy at fair, well teenagers they want to go on the biggest, the tallest and the fastest ride there is.  Just like us when we were their age.  Now it take going to Disneyworld to get me and Chris on this kind of ride.  The final ride of the night for Theo was the biggest fun house on the fair.  I suggested it might be a bit big for him and he burst into tears.  Granny I am four now I am not a baby he said!  Ok if Aleesha and Ebony will take you on you can go but you must hold hands all the way around.  Ok granny I promise.  Slightly worried I let them all go.  He went on the fun house, held the girls hands and came off safe and sound.  Phew! We left Dave, Claire and the girls walked back up Walton Street without forgetting to buy an Owlet balloon for Theo.  You have never seen a child look so happy as Theo looked when the man handed him that balloon.  About a half hour later we were back home.  I would usually say into the warm but this year was a weird year for fair weather.  We have a saying in Hull ‘here comes fair weather’ as every year for as long as we can remember it has turned colder, rained and blown a gale all on the week the fair comes to town.  Not this year, when we left home for the fair it was 24 degrees centigrade and when we returned it was 21 degrees centigrade.  Chris and I have never experienced this weather on fair week in our lifetimes!! So all in all time spent with the family at ‘Hull Fair’ was time well spent.  Just another reason I love being me.
Thanks for reading and come back soon for more tales of love, life, family and our travels.
Love always The Go To Girls Blog xxx