City Sorting

I have arrived back home after a busy 36 hours of Away Time.  It’s AMAZING how much one can stack into a car with no ‘distractions’ (where distractions = kids!).

Let’s just say that Officeworks never knew what hit it! (Anyone else out there stationary addicts?) I keep hoping the NEXT bit of organisational genius I purchase will actually magically transform my office into something, well, organised.  In trays, mouse pads, diary inserts, addressing labels, whiteboard markers.  And don’t get me started on clear plastic envelopes.  I dream of organisation. And I wake up to chaos.  I suspect I need to go to a ‘Magic Wand’ outlet to make the nasty Chaos Monsters go away. Heh.)

I got to see my gorgeous nieces, Salina and Paris, while I was away.  Salina has HORSES plastered from one end of her room to another, and spends her free time reading. About horses.  I have flashbacks to my own childhood whenever I see her in action.  She is DEFINITELY related to me!  Paris is ALMOST crawling (please pop over to my sister’s place to Oooooohhhh at footage of this commando-crawling action.  *waits patiently, twiddling thumbs*).

Anyway, I arrived back at Granite Glen this afternoon, just in time for the school bus … and lots of little helpers to get all my loot out of the car!  They never like being left behind when I go shopping (I seem to have a reputation for being a soft touch when it comes to ‘treats’).   So I distracted them from the lack of kids toys (after all, I had been focused on ‘BB toys’ like filing trays, lime green binders, accounting software and such) with mention of the Ekka…

Do you remember when we went to the Ekka a couple of years ago? (And in the same trip, in a fit of Queensland Tourism delights, we also visited Australia Zoo – I lost count of the coffees required to get me through that effort!)  We had a blast – it so much different visiting Queensland’s biggest show as a ‘bushie’ again than it was as a ‘city slicker’.  (Which, let’s face it, is what Mr Incredible and I had become after a couple of decades of urban life.)  As a city-ite I loved soaking in my dose of country – the smells of the cattle pavilion, the clop and snicker of the horse sheds, the grunt and sweat of the woodchop arena, the glossy splendour of the show ring winners. (And the aroma of beer and sound of tall tales emitting from the Cattlemen’s Bar.)  As a bushie once again, I feel the quiet excitement of seeing the best of the best on show.  I feel the hours and hours of effort each show exhibitor has put into their chosen area and the training and preparation behind each exhibited horse, cow, bird or dog – and the comforts they have given up to sleep near their animals during the strange chaos of a city show venue. I wonder if this latter compromise explains the level of alcoholic recreation usually undertaken by certain sections of those exhibiting?)

Anyway, to preview a little of the Ekka action, thought I’d share some shots from our 2008 visit …

(see how much the kids have grown up!):

Those hats are almost completely TRASHED now.  And look at them in their Bush Kids Visiting the City garb.  As I recall, Violet was a little bit excited. Dash was already over his mother taking photos…

We saw some amazing things (beside a LOT of other folk all bustling about in random directions at the smorgasboard of activities)… like the Susan River Horseman.  Un-be-leiv-able!  Not sure if this impresses those who don’t have much to do with horses, but this guy does gets his steeds to do the most incredible things – one would NEVER see horses do this in the paddock.  Utter, utter trust between horse and man.

And we also saw some fabulous bulls (and the cattle weren’t bad either, Harv) … this shot taken during the very serious business of judging the best Brangus of the show.  Sadly I don’t do ‘serious’ all that well, but luckily my friend, the judge, is quite adept at ignoring me. Heh.  Oh look… we saw Harv’s better half, the lovely Elle that visit too…

You ALWAYS catch up with the BEST people at the Ekka … whether they are city sweethearts or bush besties…

And you get to see the event through their eyes…

And now I get to see it all through the eyes of my kids…  and let me tell you, it’s a pretty exciting view!

We cannot wait to get our Wrangler butts (okay, mine only fits into a RM Williams Curvy Fit jean these days) to BrisVegas and hit the Ekka.  Who knows, if I get the energy I might even organise a bit of a bloggy gathering somewhere.  (If you are in the area, email me if you are keen.)

So…do you think Officeworks might have some kind of device to make that activity easier for me?

Signed

The Laziest Woman in the World (aka BB)