Albion Park Show 2013

Yesterday we all made our annual pilgrimage to the Albion Park Show. The temperature was forecast to soar to 39 degrees once again, and there was also a total fire ban in force, which meant that it was probable that the fireworks would have to be cancelled this year.

Helen decided that a 12.30pm start was appropriate, and was also hoping to stay until the end of the fireworks and demolition derby, which meant it was going to be an even longer day than normal. Probably too long for me!

Having checked out our mate the Reptile Man with his collection of snakes and trivia, we headed down to the woodchopping, meeting Nana and Pop as well as Aunty Pat and Uncle John.

Setting up at the woodchopping arena

L to R: Pat, John, Helen, Christine, Josh, Jessica, Bill, Chris. Maddi took the photo.

After the initial section we headed off to the pavillions to check out all the entries in all of the divisions, especially to see the kids and Helen's entries. After last year's haul, we didn't expect anything significant this year, which proved to be the case. However, there seemed to be a LOT more entires in the kid's sections this year, and even thoough some of them didn't actually satisfy the curriculum that was set out in the rules of the competition, these were still awarded prizes. seemed a little unfair, given our kids had been entered to the letter of the "law".
And then Helen's entry was absolutely robbed. In the Xmas section, as seen in the photo below, the 'winning' entry is the tree on the left, while Helen's entry, the Xmas Advent Calendar was deemed as second place. What a rort! Throughout December, Helen had placed a cross-stitched designed sock a day on the tree, which contained a different gift each day for the kids. One day a chocolate Santa, the enxt a candy cane, the next a coloured pen, and so on. This was - COMPLETELY OBVIOUSLY -  the best entry in this catagory, and she only got 2nd place. A joke.

2nd Place my arse...

From here we moved into Sideshow Alley for the kids to have their way with the rides and sideshows.
Both of the girls wanted to go on the Bungee Trampolines, and had a great time. They then both went into the Maze of Mirrors, and unfortunately (for their father) found their way out far too quickly for the money it cost to go in. Josh then had a go at the fishing game, and managed to snare a reasonable prize by doing so. We then moseyed on over to the Dodgem Cars, which Helen and I though would be a cinch to get Josh onto. However, he just didn't want a bar of it, and so the girls had a go together which they both enjoyed. Josh instead wanted to have a go on the clown faces game, where he once again snared a better-than-average prize from.

The girls then wanted to head off to the petting zoo, where they were once again able to pet baby ducks and rabbits and lambs and the such. Josh and I hung around for awhile before heading over to the main arena, where we saw the motorbikes doing their stuff. Maddi turned out to be almost impossible to budge, hanging in for about an hour before finally being convinced to leave.

Settled into the main arena, we saw the stunt motorcyclists, and the vintage speedway cars, and some horse stuff that was a little mystifying. All of this led up to the annual Demolition Derby, which was as damaging as always.

The fireworks display followed this, and was as spectacular as ever. Photos cannot ever reproduce how wonderful it was, but here's a couple to try.

We didn't get in the door until 10.15pm after a long long day. The kids were asleep the second their heads hit the pillow, and didn't rise until after 8.00am, a very unusual thing.