Boots and Saddles!

Coming back from the coast yesterday arvo, had a frustrating time but a small reflective revelation of sorts... Who'da thunk?

The reason I went down for a couple of nights was a touch of sanity time and to go to the Berry Show. I'm a bit (lot) of a sucker for the ol' regional Ag Show. I got there early on Friday morning but lo! there were no stalls open, only the cattle and horse judging.

I shouldn't say 'only' because I can watch this for quite some time. It was quiet, and cool in the shade, and even with the megaphones announcing results there was a lovely contemplative nature to the morning, especially after I moved away from the people with bratty children who were so loud (children, not adults) even the judges looked askance at one point. Didn't help that one of the non-parental adults thought this was hilarious and was egging them on. Sigh.

After a while though, it was getting hot. The Grand Parade wasn't on till 1pm and the Pavilion didn't open till 1:30pm. So hied me back to the cottage to tidy up, pack the car and get back to see the parade of shiny, perfectly groomed prize-winning animals being led by a bloke riding an enormous Brahman bull.

Local eccentric, or a new category at the Easter Show next year? Time will tell...

The Pavilion opened a bit late but there were some good exhibits, and of course some hideous ones. Much as I have no objection to Andre Rieu (the Toasty Toddler thinks he and his orchestral hijix are the ants pants, thanks for asking) the two entries portraying him were EUGH. Just as you'd expect. One was a framed rectangular ceramic plaque, and one was needlecraft - cross-stitch I think, my subconscious is suppressing it as I type. Some of the other items, ceramics, weaving and cake decorating though, absolutely stunning.

Needed to get back to Sydney at a reasonable time, though, so I set off from Berry around 2:30. Almost to Gerringong, there's been an accident and the highway is closed till about 5pm - found that out from an exasperated mum from Bateman's Bay who had called the Police to find out more.

Back to Berry an hour later, stop for petrol, decide to come back via Kangaroo Valley. Which is a truly beautiful drive when it's:

a) not friday afternoon,
b) it's not hot, and
c) the road is not full of NONGS.

Nuff said.