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Published: April 6th 2008
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This weekend was set to be a busy one with Saturday tickets for the Easter Show and an AFL match on the Sunday.
We went to our usual Friday night haunt at Megan and Stews, after a very tasty BBQ, which resulted in a few too many goons consumed by all. Despite the prospects of a few sore heads the next morning we all agreed to meet relatively early in an attempt to beat the crowds at the Easter Show. We had heard lots about the Easter Show from various locals at our work including the strain that it had on their wallets, despite this we were all quite excited and eager to minimise expenditure we packed a picnic armed with goodies and water bottles that could be refilled at the Show.
The early start didnt quite go as planned, and we were finally on the road to the show around noon minus a few passengers. Arriving at the gates it reminded me of the County Show although on a much larger scale.
There was not really anything "easter" about the show, apart from the time of year and as we walked around, it became very apparent that
most of it was very corporate including the much loved "show bags"!! These are bags that were originally given out free of charge to visiters, containing a number of goodies inside. Today there are hundreds of different show bags ranging from $5 to around $25 from a great number of corporate companies. A lot of the bags are filled with rubbish that has an appeal of about 5 minutes and most of them aimed at kids. It only gives a slight saving on the items contained within and that's using the infamous RRP price tags that companies use for reference. I think the most expensive Show Bag was Coca-Cola's.
We decided that we wanted to see as much as we could and in particular those things that were free of charge. We followed the animal trail, and were all amazed as to how groomed the cattle looked.
Out of our group I was the most excited when it came to the horses. I had been looking forward to it all day. Arriving at the main arena they had just starting the showing of the horses, so we settled there for a little while before heading around the stables.
Although to be honest I think I was the only person in the group that actually enjoyed this!! I was disappointed that I had missed the show jumping, which perhaps was a good thing, as I dont think I would have seen much more of the attractions at the show if it had been on.
With tiring legs and heat exhaustion we headed to the wood-chopping stadium to recuperate, while being entertained by a number of team events and a very funny commentator. We did spend some time pondering over the thought of how people get into this sport in the first place!!
Throughout the day we avoided the carnival rides like the plague as some of them were up to $15 per person per ride!! Its no wonder that some families spend a fortune at these types of events.
Inside information told us to head to the food pavilion where they were giving out lots of free food and wine tasters, so we spent some time sampling numerous different products saving us the needs to buy overpriced junk food from the fast food stands outside. We decided to try a very hot chili sauce (the hottest
you can get), and Gary being adventurous decided to take a big spoonful. Lets just say our mouths (and throats and stomachs) were on fire for the remainder of the day. Poor Stew went to the next stall to buy an apple in an attempt to cool his mouth down!!
Around 6pm the heavens opened and hail stones came out of nowhere we all dashed for shelter and after a few minutes of heavy rain we decided to get the ponchos out, head for the show bag tent and then head home as we were beginning to get quite tired and we had seen most of the show facilities.
On the way back to Megan and Stews flat we decided to treat ourselves to a take-away from Nando's for tea. We settled on their sofa after tea with a few glasses of goon, although it wasnt too long before I was nodding off on their sofa after the exhausting day.
After a very brisk walk to the Sydney Cricket Ground we arrived a mere 2 minutes late for the match. We had great seats just 3 rows from the pitch. It was really weird being so close
to the players. The game was made up of 4x 30 minute quarters. Although the time went so fast. It was such a fast moving game and by the second quarter I think that we had began to grasp what exactly was going on. After a slow start the Sydney Swans ended up winning by double the points. It's definitely a sport that you could get into as it was just so much fun.
There was a big crowd at the game and everyone was is good spirits. All the fans were again mixed and as like the other sporting events that we have been to in Sydney it was very much a family outing. The stadium had numerous bars and food stands, resulting is less queues for cold refreshments. Megan and Shannon decided to try a hot dog from one of the stands, however it was unanimously declared the worst tasting hotdog ever, so we were pleased that we stuck with the cold refreshments.
After the game we decided to head back to Megan and Stews again and cook a stir fry for dinner. (Mum guess what, Gary ate all his broccoli) before, during and after dinner
Gary and Stew decided to finish off the 'goon' from Saturday night, interrupting the DVD watching and resulting in an interesting trip home in the bus for us. Needless to say both Gary and Stew were suffering the next day at work, and probably not smelling or looking too hot either. Drinking on a school night is a bad idea that won't be repeated anytime soon.
Their drinking session and suffering the next day opened up a great April fools opportunity for me and Megan. On Tuesday morning, I got one of the Australian men from work to phone Gary, pretending to be from his employment agency, asking him to come in for a random alcohol and drug test, as there had been a complaint from his work the previous day about the smell of alcohol coming from his room. I really didnt think that Gary would fall for it, and despite his knowledge that it was April fools day, we got him really bad!! hehe!! He was even reading up on the internet about the employment agencies alcohol policy. After a few hours of letting him stew I phoned to let him in on it!! Much to his
annoyance and shock that we had got him so bad, he did agree that it was a good one!! hehe!! That will get him back for all those april fools that he has pulled on his parents over the years!! :-)
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