If Valentine's Day is my favourite day of the year, then my second favourite would have to be - without a doubt - going to the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
I
went yesterday with my brothers, and as per usual; it was the best thing ever.
Apparently,
the show has been running for 190 years. I don't believe it. Has Australia even
been running for 190 years?
One
of the main things about Australian culture is that we have no culture. No
history. Well we do, but not to the same calibre as places like Europe, where
they have architecture dating back centuries, and war relics being excavated from
deep within the ground. Australia... well, it was a big desert island where
England sent it convicts. We're built on the backs of prisoners, and we made a
known nation as we ruined the lives of the Indigenous.
Political
rant aside, yesterday was thirteen hours of wonderful.
Exactly
what it should have been. I felt happy, I felt festive, and well; I felt Australian. Very, very Australian.
Listening
to this song:
we
had a very full-on non-stop day. We watched pigs race, and dive into the water,
we saw cows, horses, goats and sheep. We went in the petting zoo (win), visited
the cats and dogs, watched sheep being shawn, watched a little wool judging,
and sweat it out at the wood chop.
 |
| just a little bit excited about the whole thing. |
 |
| this doesn't even express how much I love goats. |
We
saw trick riding, precision driving, the cattle mustering dog show and an incredible side show; where we
saw this guy:
put
a cork screw through his face. We also saw a man stick his arm into a dingo
trap, and another bendy wonder dislocate his shoulder, and suck his organs into
his lungs to fit his entire body inside the rim of a 10 inch tennis racket.
 |
| clearly a man in a tennis racket. |
On a slightly quieter note, we looked at the cakes, the photography, and even the crochet exhibitions, we
made judgments on the flower arrangements and discussed how on earth
it was possible to grow a 618 kg pumpkin.
 |
| terrifying. |
 |
| amazing cake. |
{side
note: if anyone knows how to grow such a pumpkin, please tell me. It's a new life goal}.
We
reminisced at what show bags we used to get as kids, and we ate almost an
entire meal worth of free samples from my favourite place; the Woolworths pavilion.
We made a 'if you see a sample, you have to try it' kind of rule, which saw us
eating licorice, mustard, dukka, oil, wine {the guy assumed I was over 18 for
the first time in my life!!!}, rump steak, sourdough, baked fish, ice cream,
rice crackers, olive dip, vegetable chips, cane sugar slushie, and chilli
sauce.
To
keep the day interesting, my brothers and I also made a pact. That if we saw a
cut out, we not only had to stick our faces in it, but we had to take a photo.
That meant that spent a great deal of the day lining up with the under two's to
make this happen:
We
had a discussion about what these things are even called. Head in hole boards?
Stick your head in the cut out props? Head missing fun times? Who knows.
We
stayed for the final entertainment, which was incredible this year. Motorcross,
men made of lightening, a giant horse puppet, a giant girl puppet, kites with
fireworks on them, fireworks without kites on them, dancing fire people and the
rodeo.
IT WAS AWESOME.
Everything I remember, everything I expected, and everything I wanted.
Sitting in the final arena at night fall and eating my aussie meat pie, listening to the people behind me drop the f-bomb and say "that's sick" about every three seconds, I was so proud to be from my country. With only a couple of weeks left in this beautiful place for a while, yesterday epitomised everything I will, and won't miss about this land. The super hot sun, the sweat pooling over all the places, the great outdoors, the people, the talent, the traditions, and the strange creativity.
 |
| such an awkward/ amazing photo. |
You're a sick one Australia, I'm going to miss your hot, stinking, ridiculous, amazing, foul-mouthed face.
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