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Published: October 5th 2011
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SWAN HILL 30th Sept
The Swan Hill show was in town at the local footy ground and we thought that it may be worth checking out. It was only on for two days and tomorrow being AFL Grand Final day, the only right thing was to see the show today and leave tomorrow free for footy!
We arrived at the show quite early to find a lot of things still setting up. Of course the kids fix their eyes straight on to the array of rides around the 'Main Arena' (footy ground)only to be told "we will do a lap first and then come back to the rides!" On our lap around the show we were constantly being harassed by the different specimen of 'Carny folk' who were trying to lure our business towards their business. One guy got Josh's attention, it was a basketball throwing amusement. 'Here you go boy! Try and get a basket with this ball" Josh takes up the offer and 'SWISH', in it goes. Then the man starts his sell, "$10 gets you 5 throws, get 4 in the basket and you can pick any of these (crap!) stuffed toys. I will even give you that
first basket you threw" We hand over $10, Josh gets two more baskets and walks away with a 50 cent plastic hand thing! 'From now on kids, we ignore the 'amusements', ok!'
We continue our lap around and walk past a carpark full of horse floats. The main event for today is the show jumping and dressage on the football ground. The age levels vary and all are very skillful. We take a bit of time out to watch.
Next on our lap is the animal nursery. Here they have baby everything. Chicks, ducklings, goats, lambs, piglets, kittens, pups, guinea pigs, rabbits and even alpakas. Most are for sale and some are even free (the litter of kittens which the farmer desperately wants to get rid of). There are also a family of dingos which the kids are drawn to. Most of the animals are able to be held or pat and in some kids cases poked, slapped, yelled at, etc.
Next is the CWA hall where on display are a heap of arts and crafts which have been judged or are being judged. There are some great photo exhibits which have been taken around the area by all different
age groups. The main focus on the photography are 'the farm life' and 'the floods' which happened earlier in the year in February. Also on display are handwriting skills from grade 1 up to grade 6, primary school artworks and a large exhibit of quits made by the local women of the area. The quilts had not been judged as yet and each one had a number next to them. A lady came up to us and said 'take a look at all the quilts and write down the one you like the best". Being a great quilt appreciation kind of a family that we are, we took this role on quite seriously, arguing between ourselves the different points of workmanship and detail for which goes into a great quilt. After much debate well all decided on different quilts and lodged our 5 results. Ahh! The life of quilt judging is tough!
The show bag caravans were next and each got to choose one each, Rach included. Spoilt for choice we walked away with Cars2, Girlfriend, Monster lollie show bag and Cadbury. Next in line should have been the dentist exhibit.
We got to see a reptile demonstration which included
lizards, snakes and a salt water croc. We played cricket which the local cricket club had set up, saw and sat in some drag cars, had faces painted and of course went on a couple of rides. A massive day was had by all and with the weather coming in again, we decide to call it quits and head back to camp.
Later that night we were treated to the firework display at the show from the comfort of our van. We had the perfect setup. Lying on the bed and watching the sky light up with a 2 second delay for each 'bang' as we were a couple of kilometers away.
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