Tuesday afternoon at the Exhibition

Side Show Alley P and I took Elliot for our yearly sabbatical to the Exhibition (a.k.a 'the Ekka'). What does it mean to me - strawberry icecreams, fairy floss, the ski lift, fireworks, animals, show bags (of course!) dagwood dogs and the fruit exhibit. I have some very early memories of going to the Exhibition. I hated the rides - due to my having motion sickness it is hard to try the Hurricane when you get sick just using a swing. I would only use the ski lift and that was it.

We always manage to get free tickets so we don't have any excuse not to go plus since Elliot became old enough to know a trip to the Ekka is synonymous with show bags we really need a good excuse not to go. Last year we took Elliot while I plodded around being 7 months pregnant it was quite an effort considering I could barely get P and Elliot to actually do anything or see anything.

What about the big Ekka drug scandal this year - it has been discovered that cows udders have been injected with an unknown substance to make them appear larger than they really are. I think quite a few news readers have been trying hard to deliver that news with the right tone given the recent drug scandals and the Australian cyclists. I think the message is very clear Australia is tough it won't tolerate drug cheats in relation to sports or cows udders.

Anyway back to our Ekka trip. P wanted Elliot to try an adrenalin ride for a change - in the past he has only been on the dodgem cars and the Ferris Wheel. This year we watched the Materhorn - initially we thought it only spun around very quickly and compared to a number of rides that seems relatively innocuous.

However, after we had purchased the tickets we got to see the entire ride and the carriages were rather savagely shaken from side to side while they were being quickly spun around. I took one look at P as he waited in line and we both raised our eyebrows. I told him that if he didn't keep a good hold of Elliot while it was shaking from side to side he would be in huge trouble. In the end Elliot made it through half the ride - the passengers were given the option halfway through the ride to bail out after this point the ride continues in a reverse spin.

Three showbags later we made our way home on the bus. Most of the fun for Elliot is our being able to take public transport as a family. We normally take the train but came through the city instead. I will post a few pictures next of the city I took while waiting for the bus.