I'm scared of the Ferris Wheel & other observations from the Royal Show

This time each year the Royal Adelaide Show comes around. In the past, the thought of trying to keep track of 3 children at a venue where the whole of Adelaide had converged on, surprisingly didn't fill me with joy, but this year we wanted to share this uniquely S.A. experience with Emmas, so with a back pack FULL of sweets (read Bribes) we set off on Saturday to the Show.

There is sooooo much to see and do at the Show, including but not limited too:

• gardening, sewing, cooking, quilting displays
• wood chopping competitions
• ute driving display in the main arena
• all types of dogs on show ~ cute fluffy ones and ugly hairless ones
• stalls selling all types of stuff that you never knew existed
• street performers ~ jugglers, musicians
• farm animals ~ chickens, sheep, cows, alpacas, horses, the children's petting farm which is always popular
• side show alley

While the kids enjoyed seeing and experiencing all of the above to varying degrees, what they were really hanging out to do was go on some rides and get a showbag.

First of all they enjoyed sliding down the big slide on hessian bags and once the kids all had a turn we wander up to the Ferris Wheel, which everyone decided to go on. Initially I opted out but as Ewan was purchasing the tickets I momentarily talked myself into joining them.

As everyone knows, the Ferris Wheel is just about the most tame ride you can find, well maybe the Merry-go-Round is tamer, but nonetheless it's up there in the tame stakes. It's not flinging and spinning you around until you feel your stomach (and the contents within) in your throat as other rides do. It's merely meandering around and around; and you get to view your surroundings from a birds eye advantage point.

So we patiently wait until we are ushered into an empty carriage/pod/death trap (I'm not really sure what they're called), we sit and I'm getting caught up with the kids excitement. They shut the gate, we start moving and instantly I recall why I don't go on Ferris Wheels and I want to get off NOW!!!! But I can't, and the kids are looking at me like "what the heck's wrong with mum and why has all the blood rushed from her face?" So I try bravely to smile and say "isn't this fun!" but inside all I'm thinking is "I'm going to DIE!!"

So locked into the carriage the rules become ~ no ones allowed to stand or move or breathe or anything that might see the carriage unhinge itself and have us fall to our deaths. And absolutely NO ROCKING!!!! It's just not funny Ewan!!!

So we are turning around and around and around, and I'm gripping onto the railing trying to see happy but failing miserably, and Emma chirps up with "we're really getting our moneys worth". At this moment all I can think of is "just my luck that this is the ONLY ride that doesn't short change you and make you feel like you've been totally ripped off ~ I WANT TO GET RIPPED OFF!!"

Well long story short, the ride finally ended. I lived to tell the tail and I have provided my family with hours of taunts about me being scared on the Ferris Wheel.

Anywho, moving on.........

After walking around for nearly 5 hours and listening to "can we get a showbag now?" every 20 minutes or so, we deemed that we had seen enough and headed to our last stop - Showbag Hall.

In the hall we were presented with about a gazillion choices ~ there were food showbags, magazine showbags, costume showbags, TV themed showbags, AFL showbags, Disney showbags and many more. After we did a couple of laps of the hall and the kids had surveyed all their options, the boys decided on the Pokemon showbag and Ailish chose the High School Musical showbag.

With three super excited kids and three very weary adults we decided to call it a day.

All in all we really had a terrific day out together.