This was my second trip to the Sydney Royal Easter Show (after first going last year). I was invited along by some of the girls in the Knitters’ Guild – thanks girls! – and we all headed off in the hopes of seeing some inspiring needlecraft. Unfortunately we were pretty much disappointed. Everything was so daggy! I soon broke off from the pack and spent the day wandering around, snapping pictures of whatever caught my fancy…
I finally remembered what this whole “District Display Competition” reminds me of: decorating floats for Homecoming in high school. People around the country design and build big displays of their local produce, seeing who can be the most inventive and decorative. This Central District one was interesting because they had most of their veg displayed in rows between the grain, which mean that since they were on an angle you could only see up the rows when you were directly perpendicular. Clever.
The Southern District wins my personal award for Biggest Nightmare Inducer in Visiting Children: giant insects made out of vegetables.
It still weirds me out that I live in a place where bananas and pineapples are considered local produce.
A popular feature of each Display is the Wall of Decorative Pickles. I cannot imagine the mindset of a person who’d spent hours cutting perfectly shaped zucchini rosetts and arranging them symmetrically in a jar.
One of the Districts – I can’t remember which – seems to have some sort of tenuous “Celtic” affiliation, so they dubbed their Display “Celtic Country.” I never quite understood where that came from, but I did like this pixelated Celtic design made out of apples.
And no Celtic Display would be complete without a sword stuck in the prize-winning Giantest Pumpkin.
On to the knitting section… This knitted Advent Calendar was one of the few designs I really liked. I might have to give it a try.
Okay, so as a knitted toy it’s not the Coolest Ever, but this dog triggered some very insane feelings of nostalgia in me. Wasn’t there a dog that looked kinda like this that – and now I’m going to sound nuts – answered fanmail on the Bozo Show in the early 80’s? Or am I making that up?
The sculpture category is always fun. I liked this large welded metal pelican.
Something about this quilted wall hanging just struck me as very camp in a Jean-Paul Gaultier kind of way.
Remember the naked lady dartboard from last year? This must be by the same guy. It’s like he does another piece of porno woodwork every summer.
This building has my nickname on it! (Actually my brother gets called “Howie” by his college buddies too.)
A shot down the midway…
One of my favourite Show events: competitive woodchopping! This was the “Jack and Jill” sawing event which the Americans, pictured here, won handily.
More of the Jack and Jill in action…
This was the “Standing and Chopping” contest. (What, like I know the official name?) A massive Kiwi guy won this one.
This is the one I really wanted to see: tree felling. Each guy would take a couple whacks, then wedge a board in the cut he just made. Then he’d stand on that and make another, laddering himself up to the top. Once they were on the third board, they’d chop halfway through the trunk. Then they’d jump down and repeat the whole thing so they could chop the other side. I drew in some red arrows so you could spot the guys on the boards.
The other interesting part of this one is that each competitor had a handicap. Not in the sense that they were disabled, but in that each guy had a certain number of seconds to wait before he could start so it was a fair contest. The last guy was the reigning world champion and had to wait nearly two minutes before he could start chopping.
The champion guy is on the right. Even with the late start he still made up ground frighteningly fast. Apparently you use a different axe for chopping the board holds than you do for felling the tree, so he ran into trouble when dropping his first axe to the ground. It had a bad bounce and the blade whacked against the steel collar holding the tree up. So Mr. Champion ended up having to scratch since his axe was broken.
On to precision ute-driving! This was the neatest trick, where one guy drove really fast in reverse as another guy drove forwards with their hoods practically touching.
Roaring around in a tight group formation…
Another formation. I liked the utes.
I also liked this bit where they went up on ramps.
As I was walking the Animal Trail, I was delighted to come upon a booth that advertised itself as Sydney’s only authentic German fast food. So I stepped up to the counter and purchased the first real bratwurst I’ve had in years. YUM. Oh, and yeah, I bought a hat.
Without Amy and Rodd to back me up, I was a lot more tentative about sticking my arms in animal pens this year. I did like these goat kids though.
Tiny Teddie cookies being baked in the Arnott’s Travelling Bakery. They smelled so good!
Finished Teddies sliding off the conveyor belt. You could buy a box of them still warm from the oven!
As many Australians live out in the bush, constructing huge and imaginative Mailboxes is a popular pasttime (as the mailbox is all you’d see of their place driving by). This one is a larger-than-life cricketer complete with a Merv Hughes ‘tache and a bat signed by the Waugh brothers.
I liked the emu with the goggle eyes too.
Going home and the eternal Australian debate: Train or Beer? 🙂
The End!