The Royal Easter Show

It's already a week ago, but I still can't get over the awesomeness that was my Easter Sunday. I ventured out West to Sydney's Olympic Park to go to the Royal Easter Show with some friends who have spent their childhoods doing the same.

This annual event celebrates Australia agricultural and rural life, and is a great day out, packed with events, stalls, animals, fairground rides and loads more. For a city lass like me it was a real eye-opener, and a window to the world of farming and life in the outback.

(Unfortunately my camera broke just as we were entering the showground, so all photos have been taken on my BlackBerry, but at least I captured some of the essence of joy from the day.)



First up, we went on the Animal Trail -- where we saw prize-winning specimens of all kinds of farm animals. The chook coup was the craziest -- a room full of squawking, screaming, crowing birds.



Then I bravely fed sheep and goats from my own hand, saw chicks as they hatched from eggs, and laughed at the ducklings sliding down their very own slide.

I think I can

I know I can!

I liked the way the Animal Trail was laid out -- any squeamishness had to be thoroughly abandoned, as we moved swiftly from the cute fluffy lamb enclosure to a pie-making demonstration (we sampled the gorgeous lamb and rosemary pies, yum).





Goats, pigs, cows, horses, alpacas -- they were all there.





Not all the food was gourmet though. The Easter Show traditional fare is legendary, and I had heard several horror stories of grown-ups throwing up after eating cheese on a stick, etc. The most famous delicacy is a Dagwood Dog -- basically a frankfurter on a stick, dipped in batter, deep fried and then dipped in Tomato sauce before consuming. Apparently they taste best when they've been sitting around for a while. I declined to sample this delicious fare, but instead had the safer-looking corn on a stick.



In the produce tent we watched a shoddy Women's Weekly cookery demonstration, and saw some incredible sculptures made out of fruits and grains. These were huge, and formed a competition between different districts.

A fish made entirely of apples (?!)

Next up was the fairground, where the more intrepid members of our group skipped a few heartbeats on the rides. I opted for the slightly tamer rollercoaster and ferris wheel, and had a great time on the dodgems. Clearly I am regressing.

In my day they were called Bumper Cars

The Sydney skyline from the Ferris Wheel

The highlight of the day for me was the Woodchop. This was an arena where various men from all over Australia tried to be the fastest to chop through a log with an axe. The log in question was trapped between two vices and they had to be standing upon it while chopping it in half. These guys were amazing to watch, and even the youngsters were following in their father's footsteps and attempting to emulate their greatness. The awards were handed out by a famous World Champion woodchopper. We even saw axe-throwing and two-handed sawing. The commentator was classic -- especially in the way he covered a young Canadian woman competing in the axe-throwing.



The day was jam-packed and there's not enough room here to do it justice, but the final piece of fun was watching the Rodeo in the big arena. First we saw Camp Drafting, where men on horseback had to drove bulls round various posts and show off theor droving skills. Then the Rodeo itself, which was amazing -- men on bucking horses and wild bulls, and 'pretty girls on fast horses' racing each other. The NSW and Queensland teams competed against each other the day we were there, and to the joy of the audience NSW won.

Rodeo!

My favourite part about the Rodeo was the seriousness it engendered in the audience. An entire stadium of people stood up before the show and sang 'Advance Australia Fair', the National Anthem. Afterwards an Aussie folk singer came on and sang all sorts of patriotic ditties, including one which made me quite emotional about my (hopefully) impending residency status:

We are one
But we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream
And sing with one voice
I am
You are
We are Australian

Anyway, enough of that. Much hilarity ensued when one of our party attempted to outdo two teenage boys with their lightsabres, and the finale of the evening was the firework display. Apart from the low point of breaking my camera (and the resulting low quality pics I obtained) this was without doubt one of the most fun days I've had in ages. If I end up staying here I will definitely take my kids to the Easter Show. It's character building.

Anyway, apart from that I have no life of course, what with work being so crazy and me being on deadline with the program. I'll buy a new camera soon and hopefully my flickr site will start growing again.

cx