The boys are currently on their Spring break and today I took them to The Royal Melbourne Show.  The Show has been a signature event in Melbourne since 1848, when it started as a ploughing competition in Moonee Ponds. Organised by the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria, The Show is Victoria’s largest and longest running annual public entertainment event.  They have carnival rides, fairy floss, agricultural displays of cows, sheep, dogs and chooks all proudly displaying their ribbons for “best in show”.  There are the very traditional cake, knitting and art contests and one of my new favourites is the “wood chop“. 

There are “show bags” to buy, these were originally designed as low cost sample bags but now they contain everything from comics to sweets and cosmetics.  The number of show bags to choose from is endless, my favourite is the Snickers bag.  They range in price from $1 to $1000 and the boys are allowed $25 each to spend on what ever bags they like.  The thing with show bags is they are heavy and clumsy and so we buy them at the end of the day as we are on our way out of the showgrounds, more on that a little later!  

We spent a good 7 hours at The Show and I took way too many photos so rather than ramble on and try to explain all the things we did I’ll just show you in pictures.

Our first ride, very tame at 130 MILES an hour!

From there we went to the more sedate Euroslide.

The bumper cars were a real “hit”!

The boys made their Dad proud at the shooting range.

Time to watch the monster trucks do their thing.

Then it’s time for the Crusty Demons  to show off and show off they did …

 

From there we headed back to the attractions.

Around the show there are Pavilions, the first one that we visited held the “wood chop”, surprisingly it was a lot of fun to watch!

And what would an agricultural show be without chooks! 

And finally before we head home there is time for one last ride.

We had decided to go by train to avoid the traffic, the giant car park, save on fuel emissions and it’s always so much fun on the train … yeah right!  At about 3.45 we got on the train, within five minutes it had filled to “sardines in a can” capacity.  Nick gave up his seat for an elderly lady and came and sat on my knee, mmm he’s a little heavier than I remember.  Ten minutes later and the train hasn’t moved and is now at ”ten sumo wrestlers in a sauna” full.

Then we hear an announcment … “this train will be delayed for five minutes”, great! 

Five minutes later … ”this train will be delayed for 30 minutes”, what?

Five very squashy, rather hot minutes pass and to our horror we hear … ”this train will not be leaving due to an accident on the line, please come back in an hour”. All I can hear is “@#%*&*@@!!!!!!”  We decide to get off the train if the old lady in Nicks seat is going to speak like that!

OK so we have all these show bags, our feet are sore, and the boys are nearly at the out of my mind winging stage.  We head for the tram stop but find everyone from the train has had this same idea, what to do?  Oh I know it’s now after 4 so Lee will be home, I call him and yeah he will come and pick us up.  Because it’s going to take him a good 50 minutes to reach us I foolishly offer to start walking at which point the boys almost have a complete melt down.  Anyhoo, it all ended well with Lee arriving a little after 5 and by 6pm we are safely home, show bags, children  and my sanity intact and all I need is nice cup of tea and sit down.

We really did have a fantastic day, the boys enjoyed everything and are at this very moment snoring their heads off in bed! 

TTFN