The Ekka is the Agricultural equivalent to the Olympics. It started off as a small fair for farmers or something like that and since then grew into what it is today: a sports ground/animal show/carnimal/theme park/cultural exhibition/free publicity for major corporations… etc…

Anyways, i went with a couple of friends and we were expecting some sort of exaggerated picnic ground but it was HUUUUUUUUGEE. The place they used for the Ekka used to be this gargantuan, empty piece of land called the ‘Exhibition’. Ever since i’ve got here i’ve only seen that area left idle (but that may be because i don’t get out much). But seriously, you could get lost for days there. Perhaps thats why the first booth we saw after we purchased our tickets was a ‘Lost Children Booth’. No joke. (Sorry guys. No pic.) There was a guy at the entrance shouting ‘Tag your children! Get the tags over here and fill in the parents phone numbers! Tag your children!’ I was so dazed at the time i didn’t even find it funny.

Being a bunch of adolescents, we naturally gravitated towards the theme park section which was funny because most of the rides were gravity-defying. (OK. Lame joke i know.) But seriously, the rides were AWESOME. Some guarranteed you won’t be able to hold your lunch down after going on it. So it probably was a good thing we chose to starve before attempting any of em. I went on one. Take a look. See if you can find me.

Check out how 'shioked' out i was!

I can’t believe i actually went on it let alone keep my stomach inside me. I didn’t puke! Mum you must be so proud. But after this ride, we didnt have what it took to go on more death-defying throws into the air. I couldnt handle anymore adrenaline rushes. But this wasn’t enough for my pals so they went on a few more little adventure rides.

BUMPER CARS! How mature!

This was actually the worst ride. Even though its the least scary one.

So that was our little ‘letting-our-hair-down’ session. Our sanity was questionable at the time but at least all our limbs are still intact. Haha. But even after that we still needed a ‘cooling down’ session so we went on the Ferris wheel thing next. Admittedly it was also because we kept getting lost and the ferris wheel would let us see the whole place. Well, that was the plan anyways. Didn’t work because we were too hyper to pay attention.

Ferris wheel by day...

Ferris wheel by night... We chould have gone on it at night. Waaaaaay cooler!

I don’t actually remember the day turning dark. I guess we were all too preoccupied with the show bags and shows and everything. There was really a LOT to see. And DO.

Women on stilts.

Check out my tattoo!

Yup! Mum! I got myself a tat!! Hahahaha. A temporary one. It was supposed to last a week at least but the crappy thing came off when i sweat. LOL. But u gotta admit, it looked pretty cool while it lasted didnt it? Check out my other one!

My glitter gecko!

And one more thing weird at the Ekka. They’ve got these painted statues of cows everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. I KNOW it’s an agricultural show but it is still pretty weird don’t you think? I thought it was some sort of special trademark thing so i decided to take a picture of one (as shown below):

When i did, people kept giving me these weird stares. I was thinking, ‘Yeah, i know it’s a cow. There’s tons of it about. I want a picture of it. Deal with it.’ But when i zoomed in closer… guess what i discovered?

Zoomed in cow.

Yep. Of all the 427 cows there, i took a picture of this one. I sure know how to pick ‘em.

But i got over the embarassment as soon as i found the ‘International Cuisine’ section. Was i pleased! I didn’t even realised i was sooo hungry until i saw all the food being displayed. Eventhough some of ‘em were a little too weird exotic to my liking. It was one of the toughest decisions of my life, deciding what to eat. They were all too inviting but i have to admit, one of the stalls stood out above the rest.

I always suspected Africa had cannibalistic roots! Lol.

But it was not the highlight of my night. They had a wonderful fireworks display at the end of the day. I wish i could’ve recorded that but my camera batt very conveniently chose to die on the at that exact moment. Got me a little peeved actually. The fact that i manage to record the preliminary events of the closing ceremony placated me a little. LOL! It was GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Parachuters from the army. I couldn't get a pic of them in the air. It was too dark.

One of 'em did it with an Australian flag. How patriotic. (It WAS during the Olympics)

Ute racing. It's an Aussie thing.

Monster truck show.

Yea.. the pics are pretty blur because its so far away and so dark. And the cars were so super fast. I’m surprised i actually got em. The videos are way better but somehow wordpress isn’t letting me put them on. I wish you can see them but most of all… YOU SHOULD’VE BEEN THERE! Especially for the Motorcross thing. I’m a big fan now. Thanks to the Ekka. I’m definitely going back next year so i gotta start saving. LOL.

Empty talk.

It went like this:

(Kate & Shirley were trying on earrings.)

Leah: Hey, i WANT too wear nice earrings too!

Kate & Shirley: SO get your ears pierced!

Leah: Fine! I will! Tomorrow.

Guess what? I was dragged out of bed the next day to go shopping and we walked past ‘Deborah’s Nails and Piercing’.

This is the studio.

To show i wasn’t a coward, i had to hold up my end of the bargain.

We walked into the shop and i was asked to fill in a form

1. Have you eaten in the past four hours?
2. Have you consumed alcohol in the past 24 hours?
3. Do you have a phobia of surgical instruments, operations blah blah blah?
4. Are you 18 years of age OR have parental consent?

The list went on and on and on and on…… It took me 20 minutes to fill in the ridiculous form because my hands were shaking sooooooo badly and the lady wouldn’t let my friends fill in the form for me.

Not only that, the piercing area looked like an OPERATION THEATER!!! Are they making two small holes or 2 gigantic cuts??? She must have washed her hands 5 times and changed her gloves 3 times before actually piercing my ears.

When it actually got to the piercing part, i was nearly in tears! She angled the gun thing close to my ears. I was trying to keep cool – not doing a bad job i might add. Then, when i finally heard the spring recoil, i reached out and grabbed the first thing i could get my hands on. I PULLED THE POOR PIERCER’S SKIRT DOWN! I thought the worst was over.

When she did the other ear, i ripped her pantyhose.

ALL for this:

It's no bigger than a full stop.

So, being in Brisbane, it was logical and easy enough for us to come to an understanding that i would drag my butt out of bed on a Sunday morning (forgoing all sleep) to traipse to the city, grab another friend of ours who is from Malaysia as well, walk to Central Station, get on the train to Nerang, get OFF it just to get ON a bus, just to get lost in Surfer’s Paradise.

Sharlene and i were getting grumpy on the bus. As you can see…

Me and Sharl bored on the bus. Well, we WERE grumpy. Must be a good camera.

This time i am NOT exaggerating. But let me elaborate. It was meant to be a one and a half hour trip but because of all the bus and train changing, it took us twice the time to get there. While on the bus, we received a call from Ashweein (the friend we were supposed to meet) who said to call when we got there and we would all meet up in Condom Kingdom. It was not the most conventional meeting place but being grumpy and tired, Sharl and i didn’t think twice.

~Fast forward~

Voila! We FINALLY arrived at surfer’s paradise. I dutifully picked up my phone to call Ashweein to be greeted by ‘The number you have dialed is not in service. Please try again.’ So i did. Same response. (By the way, if the number is not even in service, why should i try again?) Sharl tried next. Same response. We repeated the process again. SAME RESPONSE. Now we had to revise our plan of action. We had to look for… you guessed it; CONDOM KINGDOM. (Thanks for that Ash!) Sharl and i, two innocent girls, weren’t about to parade around the city asking “Hi, could you please direct us to Condom Kingdom?“.

Somehow, by some miracle, i remembered going to the Gold Coast several years ago as a little girl and actually SEEING – NOT ENTERING – a huuuuge, ostentatious, flashing neon sign that bore entrance to a meticulously decorated shop. What it was decorated with i leave to your imagination. The other thing i remembered was it was near a beach.

Sharlene: Yeah, we’re in Surfer’s Paradise. A BEACH IS MANDATORY! (Well, she was thinking that.)

Luckily, Surfer’s Paradise is littered with maps for tourists so we hobbled along to one and narrowed our intended destination to a mall strip called Cavill Mall. It was by the beach. Somehow, even with the map we were at a loss so we finally resigned to ask the attendants of the Information Booths. We asked the dreaded question bound to ruin our reputations for all eternity. “Could you please direct us to Condom Kingdom?“

Guess what? It was JUST AROUND THE CORNER!! Anyways, during the course of that fustrating and highly traumatizing search for the shop (by the way, it wasn’t as flashy as i remembered. I should’ve taken a pic.) we still tried calling Ash, Cass and Yii Fang. We even tried calling Ms Donna (the teacher accommpanying them). No luck.

We were dismayed, desperate, and downright hungry. We temporarily abandoned hope and sought solace in Hungry Jack’s. (I wanted Subway but Sharl insisted on Hungry Jack’s. We should’ve listened to me because they gave only a little bit of fries but let’s not get into that conversation.)

I don't normally look like that. The sight of food was VERY comforting ok?

Sharl may look more sedate but i sensed the inner turmoil.

~ Fast forward : 2 hours later ~

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng! Finally! A call! From Ash! He calls wanting to know where we were while we fume about having to wander aimlessly for two hours.

Anyways, in the end, all is well because we met up with all of them outside… you guessed it CONDOM KINGDOM!

What happened next was typical of tourists in a foreign city: SIGHTSEEING AND SHOPPING! (Dad, please breathe. I don’t consider myself a tourists so i didnt spend money. Not a LOT anyways. We can still keep the house.)

Here is a collage, as best as what i can do with a computer and with wordpress which i am still unfamiliar with, of what we did next:

Cassandra greying and me going blonde!

This is us. We're posing with a big chair. It was that or the gold man. We had to pay the gold man to take the pic so we chose the chair. LOL.

I FOUND MAMMA MIA BOOTS! THEY HAD PLASTIC-Y PURPLE ONES TOO!

Anyways, the day HAD to end. So we all went our separate ways. Ash, Cass, Yii Fang and Ms Donna went off to something called the ‘Aqua Duck’. Please don’t ask because i have NO idea what it entails. Sharl and I went to retrace our steps back to the bus stop . At least now when we get lost we can ask more dignified directions. LOL. The adventure had ended…

OR SO WE THOUGHT.

Sharl and I took 5 long tedious hours to get back from Surfer’s Paradise. We were shuttled on and off buses frequently on the train trip back. Why? Apparently someone has walked onto the tracks and got hit by the train so they had to close that section of the rail. We weren’t on the train that hit the poor guy but we missed the train that left before us by 2 seconds. Scary huh?

On a more fortunate note, we managed to get on the absolute LAST bus of the day to go home from the city. Oh, it wasn’t that late – about 8.30pm – but here in Aussie, they take things sloooooooooow and easy. So we only have a handful of bus trips on Sundays.

So after that eventful day, i’m on the lookout for more adventures. Mid semester break is coming up soon so i might be in luck then! Tata for now.

You know, i’ve always wondered why they call them ‘blogs‘. No offence but the word doesn’t exactly hold much appeal. But now, as i am older and wiser than i was yesterday, and have signed up for wordpress, i saw that ’blog‘ actually came from the words ‘web‘ and ‘log‘ put together. I don’t know about you but it was a little anticlimatic for me. Guess i expected something a little more interesting from that little word.

Anyways, this is sorta my informal introduction to the world. I’ve been given a voice over the internet - although i think my friends will tell you the last thing i need is to be more audible. So now you’ll be hearing a LOT more from me.

xxoo