our 1st royal easter show as a family

a few years back dh and i had gone to the sydney easter show and loved it - from the lumberjacks throwing axes at targets to the different homemade produce and crafts on sale. it must be one of the largest, if not the largest, agricultural event in oz open to the public.

so now that we are living here, we had to do the easter show again, especially as the bean can appreciate the farm animals on display. unfortunately, we "chose" the wrong day to go - on good friday itself - and it was overcast and wet. the coldest day in march so far (max. 19 degrees C), bringing with it a real feel of autumn-winter (even dh wore his lightweight fleece jumper and his raincoat).

i don't know whether the easter show has always been this big, but this year it lasts over a week (from march 20 to april 2) and every night there will be fireworks. needless to say we didn't plan to stay till the evening - we don't have such stamina and the bean certainly won't last that long.

anyhow, the first thing we went to see were the cats at the cat pavilion. the breeds that were being judged that day included ragdolls and norwegian forest cats. and there was a ragdoll for people to see and stroke during the purina cat talk. its fur was wonderfully soft and it lay limp in its handler's arms looking faintly sulky and petulant. when the bean entered the cat pavilion, she was "i want that one!" at every single cat. she did get to touch the ragdoll that was being displayed but she could spend an entire day happily playing with a cat if she was allowed.

post-cats, we went to the dog pavilion where dogs were being trotted out and being judged. that wasn't very interesting and we went to watch the woodchopping instead, in the stadium that
has been purpose-built for this 'sport'. we got there in time to see some lumberjacks chop trees. there was a token canuck who was useless really. took him forever to do just one side but he got there in the end and the crowd encouraged him on towards the end (especially this enormous chap sitting in front of us).

the woodchop was dh's favourite event and the only thing he would come to the show for, really. and i have to admit that it was pretty interesting to see these rugged men and women make short work of very chunky slabs. (the commentator seems to think that everything needed explaining to the audience. and at one point, he even told the audience that the hunks of wood being used for most of the competitions are called "slabs", "that's s-l-a-b ladies and gentlemen". i had to roll my eyes there and stifle a giggle.) it is quite an international sport in that we saw reps from kiwistan, usa and canada besides those from the other oz states - queenslanders being fairly well represented after the nsw-ers.

the bean got very restless after about 4-5 of these woodchopping and sawing events. a change of scene was called for, although dh would've gladly stayed for the axe-throwing contest. too bad; maybe next year we'll get a chance to see that.

when we got out of the woodchop stadium, i saw a sign for the r.m.williams's sale so we went to the store, which had a few ersatz stables leading to it with real horses in them. (r.m.williams is a large chain of expensive country-bush gear, selling clothes and gorgeous boots to city-slickers who would never be within 10 yards of a tractor.) the bean was very very taken with the horses, "i want that one!" to all 4 that were there.

after dh had indulged in his retail therapy, we went to another horse 'barn' where a dear little miniature pony was on display. children were allowed to come up to it and pet it. the owner said that it had no function other than as a family pet. it was gorgeous. a lovely black sweetie. the bean got a chance to stand next to it and stroke its mane and head.

we then did the 'heritage walk' and found a pony ride that didn't have a massive queue. the bean was probably one of the youngest and smallest there but she behaved very well on the pony, whose name was snot (yes, really). dh held onto the bean as she and snot were walked around a paddock, and he said that the whole time she kept going, "riding pony! having fun!" so i was well pleased we did this.

after this we went to see the cows, whom the bean insisted were "horses" instead. we had to repeatedly assure her that cows can indeed be this big, especially the holsteins. as the cow barns were really aromatic and i was feeling faint from not eating a proper lunch (and the miserable weather didn't help with my mood either really), we speeded through those and decided that the farmyard nursery would not be for us. i just had visions of the bean contracting mad cow disease or hand-foot-mouth from too close bovine and poultry encounters. i know it's irrational but...

we then went to see what the kids world pavilion was about but it just had stalls selling very gaudy, plasticky toys and tat for kids. big yuck! however, it was useful as a temporary retreat from the rain that was beginning to sleet down.

we missed the morning abc kids show as we were watching the lumberjacks - i was hoping the bean could see the bananas in pyjamas in real life - but with the rain in the afternoon, i doubted that there would be a repeat performance, so we did a brief visit of the world bazaar (tat for adults) before finally entering the woollies food pavilion (my objective).

in the food pavilion, also sheltering from the rain were the rest of the easter show crowds. we managed to get some free wheaties samples from the uncle tobys (or was it the kelloggs?) stall and huddled at a costi seafood oyster bar table, where dh and i took turns to look for food: he for more free wheaties and me for sushi (which i paid for).

i think some folks could have free meals at the pavilion just by going round the stalls and getting enough free samples: e.g. we managed to get some biscuits and cheese dip and chocolate macaroons.

after meandering around the woollies pavilion and then through the arts and crafts section, we headed out to see if it was worth it to visit the showbags pavilion, as i was in two minds about getting the thomas the tank engine showbags. they seem quite interesting, with a wheely bag, beach ball, etc etc advertised inside, but i have been disappointed with the quality of showbag contents before and wasn't willing to part good money for tat.

then as we turned i saw the longest queue i had ever seen (even longer than those of the customs queues in the airport) - people were queueing just to get into the showbag pavilion - i didn't want to know what the queues at the showbag counters would be like. so i had to not look back and repeat to myself, "je ne regrette rien."

that was the finale for me - we walked back to the car park and sang to the bean to make sure she kept awake. she was a little trooper the whole day. apart from some minor truculence earlier on when she insisted on meandering off on her own, she had been quite accommodating.

dh remarked that the easter show seemed bigger this time, or maybe it was just that we had the bean with us and negotiating our way around is a little bit slower.

p/s. i felt strangely flat walking back to the car park from the show, but what cheered me up was this very unexpected "have a happy easter!" from a man on duty who was monitoring the buses ferrying people to and from the show. the kindness of strangers sometimes...