A Day at the F
air
Late changes to our plans added a morning little visit to Jane and Cecil Sniff prior to heading into the fair. Finally we meet :-). We have known each other via dachsies@riva.com since about 1996 but have never met. Shaun has met Jane several times.
Jane has been good support to me over the years. She is just about exactly the same age as me and she has travelled similar paths so she understood my story and helped prop me up emotionally more than once. She is a dachshund lover and is originally from California. She, just like me, married an aussie who also has a great smile (like Shaun) and came here about 3 and a half years ago I think. It seemed that she always got to do everything I wanted to do. But now we are all in Australia, happily married to our husbands and all is right with the world. LOL.
This picture doesn't do any of us justice. Jane is very elegant in person. I am certainly much thinner, and LA is prettier as well. :-) Heck even Cecil looks better than this pic depicts lol.
Jane lives on a quiet tree-lined street near the city. Their house looks little from the outside but is big and wonderful on the inside. Nice big windows across the back, and high ceilings keep claustrophobics like me very content.
They have a fence that I love, a car or two that I love, and they gave me great ideas for the garden. I particularly like their native Australian grass in the front area.
Jane has a great dachshund collection. You would be so envious. The mandatory foot scraper, a hair brush holder, a sterling silver dachsie that breaks in half to expose a bone inside his little body..and a zillion others. It was so much fun to check them all out :-)
Doxette first introduced me to wire hair dachsies. They are probably my favorite, especially after meeting Cecil. I have heard terrific stories about Cash (Doxette's Grand Champion) but not until I met Cecil did I confirm they really do have great personalities!
Cecil loves his Kong toy and ate it on my toes. I would have paid extra for the lickings my toes got... He is so sweet.
We could only stay at Jane's for a few minutes. Just enough time to go away smiling and thankful that we have met. The next time we meet we can do it properly.
THE ROYAL MELBOURNE SHOW
It was a great day, weather-wise. Not too hot and not too cold. A little windy on top of the Ferris Wheel though! Sheeesh I was scared. :-) . The Ferris Wheel was very cool though.
Instead of just simple bench seats, it had big cages that seated about 6 people. Shaun had worn his BRISBANE LIONS shirt (because the finals were the following day). The operator of the wheel saw the shirt and brought the "BRisbane Lions" fans all up front.
He put Shaun Leslie and I in our own little basket and praised us for being fans :-) It was lots of fun getting that attention. Shaun thinks he gave us an extra long ride too. :-)
After the ferris wheel, Shaun and LA went on the ZIPPER. BIIIIIIIG mistake :-). Both of them came off looking totally green, especially Shaun. Leslie on the other hand was really really sick. ABout to barf, puke, spew sick.
She was soooo bad off! I thought she would ruin our whole day. After sitting -- a lot --- and getting lots of fresh air I still thought she'd puke. Then I got the idea to bring her into the pavillion that had the jewelry booths. That perked her right up!
They then went on the Swings - that looked like a lot of fun. Shaun was a little nervous that his big grown up weight was going to snap the rusty chains his seat was being held up with but everyone got back to earth safely. And to thing *I* was wanting to go on the swings.
Apparently, the *Mad Mouse* is a staple of the Show. It's a small roller coaster that doesn't do flips or anything but is pretty scary. (*I* would NEVER go on it!). I love the picture I took of them. The profiles of courage! It is a great picture! I am happy that LA recouped enough to go on the Mad Mouse. She also went on the Starship thing that spins so fast that you are stuck to the walls inside.
We all had a blast on the Dodgems. Bumper Cars! yeee haaa. I crashed into everyone and caused a big pile up. I steered out of it quite well while strangers had to be pulled apart by the management team. :-) I can't wait to go on the dodgems again. I might get one of those all day passes for the one ride :-)
We went into all the pavillions, I think. There were buildings filled with Goats, sheep, horses, cows, steer, turkeys, ducks, chickens. A dairy pavillion had lots of free samples. Next time around, I hope to buy some salsa. They had great salsa there. Everything was great. The Victorian Government had a pavillion with information about the State police force and immigration and customs. It was good. There was a perot mime there. I tried to get LA to pose in front of it but she refused.
I posed in front of the mime and I suddenly heard this kiss-smack -- long and wet -- in my ear. It was very funny. Thus, the big smile on my face in the pic below.
At another booth, there were asian men cutting profiles from paper. I have had my father's profile done like that and it is accurate usually. We had Leslie Anne done. They didn't get her nose right so I don't like it. Plus her hair looks too neat!
I discovered a really good way to get Leslie Anne to smile while posing for a picture. Just put sugar in front of her. I love this picture of Leslie Anne with the Cotton Candy in her hand. It looks very natural and very much like her.
The show is famous for its "Show bags". They used to be free but as years went on, they started charging a little bit. Now they charge a lot but they are varied and fun.
Leslie Anne got a Winnie The Pooh Show bag for $16au ($8US). It had tattoos, makeup and a back pack. I dunno what makeup and tattoos have to do with winnie the pooh but after checking all the others out, this was the one she wanted.
I had thought I'd get a Cadbury Show bag because I am so addicted to Cadbury Chocolate, but the value of that bag was not great. Shaun got a "Minties" bag. THey had a good variety of Candy in it and we munched on it for a few days.
On the way out, they had a special deal on the "Vitality" bag, two for $15. The bags were enormously heavy and had two magazines - PC User - and a garden magazine. Also, a salsa, my favorite Uncle Bens rice and some sample deodorants and tampax etc etc...lots of usable bargains.
We bought two, one to give to Ricky and Wendy when we met them for dinner later on.
I look forward to going back next year because now I know what to expect. I'll spend all my time picking out showbags and tasting the free samples. Oh and I will attend the dog shows. The dog shows this year were not on the day I was there. Rosemary's dachsie, Nicky, won Best of Breed at this year's show. Next year hopefully we can see her do it again and maybe get best of show. :-)
We'd made plans to go to Ricky and Wendy's house in Boxhill and we were running a little late. To add insult to injury, we couldn't find our car for about a half hour or more AND when we finally did find it, we got a little lost cuz the City link expressway doesn't have onramps where we needed them.
So....we were an hour and a half late for dinner. Good thing we brought them the vitality show bag!
It's a two hour drive home from Melbourne. We were in bed sound asleep by 1am. Wow. What a long day.
This was our first trip to the Melbourne Show. The Melbourne Show is like the Houston Rodeo and The Brockton Fair (only way way way bigger than both).
We got lost getting there. It was a little unnerving the see the Melbourne skyline with about 4 helicopters hovering around the tall buildings. I felt they were clearly there to monitor the sky and prevent further terrorist attacks on big buildings.
I may be wrong though. I found out that there was a big Grand Final parade downtown so it might have been news helicopters.
Once we finally got to the show, and we FINALLY parked out in the great outback somewhere, Shaun said "Ok it's about a 2km walk from here" !!!.
