The fair is over, and as usual for events like this, it was wonderful and exciting and a load of fun and really, really exhausting all at once. Fairs mean pure frenzy for several days - it starts with the preparation, as in packing things, making lists, checking stock, preparing food to eat during the fair, and finally loading everything into the car.

(If you are wondering about the food part - yes, there are caterers at the fair, but since we're only two people at the booth, we don't have the time and leisure to toddle off and take a proper break to buy stuff and eat in peace; it's snatching a bite from what we brought when there's a lull at the booth. We don't mind that, not at all, but it means we do have to plan ahead and bring suitable things (including emergency chocolate). In the evening, we're way too tired to go somewhere or buy stuff, or think about what to cook, so that needs to be settled and ingredients bought and brought beforehand.)

Then it's driving there, and then setting up. That means lugging all the stuff from the car into the booth space and then putting up tables, decorating, and setting up things. This time we had the mirror-image booth compared to the one last year, as we were in a different hall, but the basic setup remained the same for us, which always makes it easier.

When I arrived, Margit had already covered the naked booth walls, so we could start setting up in earnest:

There's no picture of the complete and utter mess that happens when both of us are arranging everything at the same time, but this is how everything looked when we were finally finished:

And of course, I brought the spinning bench to demonstrate historical spinning! (It also served as our seat for taking a break, and as a welcome place to put aside skeins of yarn for those shopping):

I did quite a bit of spinning, as it's always fascinating for people to see the historical method - and some even came and directly asked to see it, as they had been told about my spinning by the also-spinning colleagues at other booths. That was really nice!

And thus passed three days of fair, with lots of interesting chats with visitors and colleagues, lots and lots and lots of things to see at the fair (we did a pre-opening-time round one morning so we could get an idea of all the things on offer), and then, Sunday evening, everything gets packed up again and loaded up into the cars, and then there's the drive home - about three hours in the car for me. You can probably imagine how much I enjoyed sleeping in on Monday, and not doing much the rest of the day - there was tea, and some chocolate, and I read a bit, and there was an afternoon nap, too.

Now it's back to all the things that need doing, though. NESAT is approaching, and there's a paper to be prepared for it. No rest for the wicked, eh?