Show Show Show!

[kerravonsen]

Well, I'm just back from taking my eldest niece to The Show. My brother and I had made plans, and contingency plans, which were good enough to survive the battle...

We met Under The Clocks At Flinders Street Station (a very classic place to meet, but it works). Then I and the niece went to platforms 8 & 9 and caught the train to the Show. It being Friday before the school holidays, there weren't huge huge crowds, but there were still crowds. We managed to get a map from a wandering helper, and went to the Dairy Pavillion (easy to find, as it's near the train station entrance). We sat down as I ate cheese cooked on toast, and consulted the map, and made plans, which didn't all get followed -- ah well. I bought the King Island Dairy showbag, and sampled their new honey+cinnamon yogurt (nice).

We went out, with intent to find some showbags for my niece to look at, but as we were passing the meat pavillion, we saw this open door which had "Art" written on it in large letters. So, curious, we went in, and found we had entered into the exhibition for the "mouth and foot" artists, and we ended up spending about an hour looking at all the paintings. Three artists we kept on noticing enough to note their names were Jan Long (who did very detailed large sketches and paintings of country scenes; a house with a man and his dog; two ones of chickens, and one of a man on a horse-drawn harvester) and Glen Hoyle (who did very sleek horses in the bush, and one of cattle and jackeroos in the bush; he really got the light right) and J. Alexander (who did these magnificent breakers on a beach). There was a wide range, some better, some worse, but you wouldn't know, if you hadn't been told, that these artists were handicapped.

Then we managed to find the Hall of Manufactures (both buying a Waffle With Cream on the way -- yum!) and we looked at all these showbags, but my niece didn't find anything that appealed. I hesitated a bit at buying the Bertie Beatle Bonanza bag, but decided that the Show comes but once a year...
Then we went to the pavillion that had all the baby farm animals in it, which was stinky but cute. Then we had lunch at the food court, but some of the stalls that had been there last year weren't; guess one shouldn't make assumptions. A pity, as I'd been looking forward to having some Dutch Pancakes for dessert; as it is, we didn't have any dessert.

Then we wended our way towards the Arts + Crafts show, but we didn't manage to see everything, as our allotted time was running low (we were meant to be meeting my brother a block away from Gate 3 at 3 o'clock). But we did see the dresses, some of the crafts, and most of the cakes. The cakes were amazing. I don't see how anyone could eat them after all that work.

Then I started making noises about going to Gate 3, as it was about 2:40, and I didn't want to have to try to go too fast, as my foot was starting to hurt by this time. But my niece sighed about the fact that she hadn't been able to find a showbag to her liking, so we dashed into the Rural Pavillion to see if there was some nicer stuff in there, and while there was, it was a bit too expensive for her pocket. I did buy the Lavender Essentials bag I'd considered getting but given up on.

By this time it was almost three o'clock, so I knew we would be a little late. What I didn't know was that the Grand Parade had caused all access to that part of the showgrounds to be blocked. We tried the most obvious way, and then talked to the security guard standing in the way, and he told us we would have to go out the main gate. Which was more than halfway across the showgrounds from where we were, and then we would have to walk all around the block to where Gate 3 was, and then walk from there to where we were supposed to meet my brother.

Yes, I was stressed out.

With my niece navigating, we managed to get out the main gate. I looked at my watch and found it was 3:20pm, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get to the meeting place by the absolute deadline of 3:30 (which is when we'd agreed that both parties should give up and go to Plan B). So I gave my niece the map and told her to run; I would walk there more slowly.

It turned out that my brother would have waited until 3:45, but it was just as well anyway, because my niece was able to meet him at the designated spot, and they came back for me as I was still limping up the road.

Then I squashed into the car and we all went to our various destinations. I went in my door and collapsed...

Ah, my feet ache. It was that last mad dash that really did it.

Comments

[drednort.livejournal.com]

I haven't been to the show for years - sheesh, it's probably been 15 years! Keep wondering if it's worth going again. One day I think I will - before I start teaching, as it's probably a relevant cultural experience for a teacher in Melbourne to have.