It was the Newcastle Show this weekend and we went along for the day. Country shows are big here, the Sydney Royal Easter Show is apparently a huge affair but this one was a fair size made up of a funfair, a big central arena which was hosting showjumping on the day we were there, food and drink halls, animal competitions and a whole hall dedicated to showbags.
Showbags are a big deal and feature in all the advertising way above anything else. They are basically a carrier bag with a picture of Barbie or Thomas the Tank Engine or similar to denote boys or girls ranging in price from $2 to $20. They contain a selection of useless plastic rubbish and a couple of sweets (called lollies here) and, as far as I could tell, it was the quantity that increased with the price, not the quality. They are exactly the kind of thing Zoe would have driven me nuts for when she was small, thank goodness we didn't have them in the UK.
Several schools were on trips to visit the show and these boys were wearing their school uniform, they must go to cowboy school.
There were various places where people were showing their animals off and having them judged, sadly the animals weren't the most interesting, some cattle but mostly pigeons and chickens. There were hundreds of categories of chicken and pigeon prizes, I can only guess the guy in the picture won the tallest pigeon competition.
The part of the show that took my breath away really was the arts and crafts section! Crafts are big in Australia, especially in the more remote country towns - not much else to do I guess - and there were hundreds of examples of knitted, crocheted and embroidered work, some truly awful. Any Pulsfords reading this be warned, you may think knitting a few vegetables is an innocent pastime but it can get out of control and lead to this! Mind you, even I have to admit the koala tea cosy is quite cute.