Or maybe we just left the ride area and were looking for a place sit quietly for an hour or so.
In any case, the ride area is right next to the show bag area. As a side note, I had never heard of show bags or entire buildings devoted to them before I came to Australia. Basically, what it means is there are sponsors or companies that make of different goodies branded with their
Now, it is always a good idea to save the show bag pavilion until the end of the day as we all know what is going to happen in that you buy these bags and then have to cart them around, along with everything else you pick up, the rest of the day. I even suggested by-passing this building but we
The building itself is an actual building where they used to have some kind of sport during the Olympics. I mean, it is not a small building. And it is completely packed with giant booths each one with a different sponsor selling their own brand of crap, I mean valuable merchandise. Companies like Coke, which has probably the biggest booth, and Cadbury and TV shows, or channels, along with Barbie and Ben 10 and Hot Wheels and just about everything you could ever find in a TV commercial or advertised anywhere they can cram in an add. All together, I would say about 600 different booths. It is not a quick trip to walk through there.
Maybe it partially my fault, but I believe you have to walk through most of it before you start buying things because if you buy from the first or second booth you come to, you end up seeing something better at the booth just down the isle. I think you should go through them all, write down or remember what you like and once you have seen most of the building, then go back and buy the things you like.
Again, we can imagine how that went down. First booth, we buy a bag. Ten booths later, kids see something better and we buy that bag. Goes on and on from there until we have probably 10 or so different show bags and we have not even bought the ones we really want as what we will call our 'big bag' for the day. So lets say it took us about two hours to go though the building. By the time we got out, it was dark and everyone was starving for some food. Once again, they put the really cheap carnival food next to the show bag pavilion so you come out and immediately started buying overpriced food you would not normally buy anywhere you would see it outside a fair.
I insisted we walk a bit further and get something from an area that had specialty foods and such along with the cold pre-made hamburgers and fries. So we had a fairly decent dinner. I had Mexican food. Bad Mexican food but that is really all you can get here so I was satisfied. The others had other things. Now that my mind has wandered, I forget what it was. Turns out, where I picked for us to eat was right in front of a stage where a band began playing about the middle of our dinner. Fortunately, it was a decent band and did not play too loud, or it was too loud for me but not for everyone else, so we stayed for a bit to listen.
After that, we were at my favorite part of the show, the food fair. This is a building that is sponsored by one of the grocery store chains, Woolworths Food Pavilion to be exact. It has rows and rows of different companies giving out free samples of their products. And lots of different things you cannot get anywhere else. Like specialty ice creams and wines and sweets and treats and all kinds of things I could just spend hours wandering through.
If you have been keeping up, you might have noticed the time is around 7 pm at this point. The show closes at 9. We still have about 80 ride tickets. And the inlaws want to go to the art pavilion. So, can we guess what we decided to cut out so we could do some other things before we left. You got it, the food pavilion. I did insist we at least walk though it and I did manage to pick a big bag of different hot sauces but I could see there were hundreds of other things I would have liked to have seen and eaten but we were in and out in about ten minutes.
From there, we decided to split up so the in-laws could go to the art pavilion and we would take the kids back to the kids ride area. What this also meant was that we would miss about a third of the show. The big stadium and lots of booths and demonstrations that surround that, plus a couple of other buildings and areas we were just not going to have time to get to. There is a lot to see at the show and you really have to get there when it opens at 9 to have a chance to see everything. Plus, you probably need to skip most of the animal pavilions and only see them as they are walking around instead of going in and seeing them in cages, but I think we got a lot in, even if we did miss the best part in my opinion and we did not see the big show in the stadium but it is usually boring and really is only a place to have a seat for a while so it is no big loss.
One thing that is new, or new to us, was this big giant Farris wheel. It is fairly dominant in the park, you can see it from anywhere and it is very high. Now most people may not know this about me, but I am really afraid of heights. Not just a little afraid but bone crushing, unable to move my head or anything else if I am over a few feet off the ground kind of scared. I do not like heights. Or, to be more precise, I can take a high roller coaster or an airplane or something where it only lasts for a moment and there are other things to worry about besides the height but a slow moving, get stuck at the top for ten minutes kind of height is just terrifying to me.
They talked me into getting on this ride. I was complaining right up until the time we got into the door of our cabin. And yes, I said cabin because this is how big this thing is, they have actual cabins you could have lunch in to carry the people. Once inside, I grabbed the seat with one hand and a bar with another and for the next 20 minutes did not move my head or my hands or anything else. It was awful, and to make it worse, the cabin swung freely while it was moving so even the slightest movement by anyone with us caused it to rock back and forth causing me to whimper in pain.
William decided he was scared too and clung to my side the whole time, except when he forgot he was supposed to be acting scared and moved around the cabin looking out at what the other people were looking at. It was terrifying. Each time I would start to relax a bit, someone would move, mostly William, and start us swinging and I would re-tighten my death grip on the poles. I think the whole thing lasted about six hours. I know I was looking for water when I got off, having sweated most of my body weight out while we waved at the passing planes that were below us. I will say we had a good view of the stars after we passed though the clouds on our way up.
I guess that is about it at the show. We got off the Ferris wheel and went on to the kids rides. Spent out last tickets and met back up with Bev and Karen. Took another 30 minutes to get to the train station, had to traverse all those end of day booths that we had already visited on the way in. Bought a dozen or more show bags, picked up some more water to take on the trip home, we might have even picked up another bear or two, I couldn't tell because I was under a mountain of things we had already bought and another few kilos or so didn't make that much difference.
We did leave a bit early and managed to beat some of the crowds so the train was not crowded. I am guessing we got home sometime around midnight. It had been a long day. The kids fell asleep, so we did not have to go through all the show bags again once we got home. It waited until morning.
I can say we had fun. Didn't get to everything, but we got to a lot. At least, you got to read about it all, which was a good time for you. Probably took as long to read it as it did for us to actually be there. Sorry about that, but I get carried away. Then again, if you are reading this blog, you know that already.
I am going to take the kids for a walk now. They are running through the house causing all kinds of trouble. William keeps waiting for the ice cream I bought them yesterday and he has not had a chance to have any yet. He wanted it for breakfast. Have to take them outside so maybe he will stop asking for it every five minutes. It would appear he has never had ice cream before, a very bad job of parenting on our part. Maeghan wants to go outside but William will not go with her, obviously thinking that as soon as he goes out, we are going to sneak into the ice cream and eat it all. A good bet on his part. And before you really begin to think he has never had ice cream before, the difference here is this is ice cream he picked out yesterday. We usually buy whatever is on sale and he always says he does not like whatever flavor we buy. So, yesterday, I told him he could pick out the flavor he wanted and that is why he has been hanging out for it ever since. Some kind of tutti fruity ice cream bars I am sure he is not going to like, but he can't wait to eat it all.
So I am going to be going now. Try to get back soon, blah, blah, blah, all my usually promises to get back to this soon.
I guess it is until next time
Talk to you later
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