Ekka

There hasn't been much time for blogging as I have been knee-deep in Drupal trying to get Noket AS's website up and running. Drupal makes EZ Publish actually look easy, and I never thought I would say that about EZ Publish. Anyway, it's just about there now, and I hope to have a link ready this week. Noket is our little company, and the website needs to be ready in the event that I do not get a job soon. I have applied for several jobs at the universities in Brisbane and one job in a mining company. It's been a while since I've been in job-hunter mode, and I can safely say that the fun has worn off.

On to the Ekka. Ekka is billed as the week the country comes to the city. It's a ten day event, and it turns out the kids have two days off for the occasion.So, it seems to be a really big deal in Brisbane and we thought we'd better check it out. The main purpose is to highlight all of the good produce offered by rural Queensland, and this we of course support. Unfortunately, most of the food on offer was standard carnival fair like cotton candy and corndogs. There were lots of demonstrations and free samples of local produce, but you had to battle the crowds to get a bite-sized taste.

Ekka itself, unfortunately, is a nightmare. Turns out my favorite thing about the country is the lack of crowds. Tough to pull off when the country comes to the city. Same with the country quiet and the country tempo. The most notable characteristic of the people in this crowd was the lack of belts. I don't think I've ever seen so many plumber's cracks in one place. This at an expo that actually offers genuine leather belts customized while you wait! (This seems to be a genuine problem in Australia at the moment, not just at the Ekka.)

A large part of Ekka centers around animal pageants. I'd never seen one of these up close, so I was curious. I was a little shocked to see a pavilion full of dogs in cages, but more than a little shocked to see their owners sitting with them, in only slightly larger cages. Seriously, the animal owners are caged in along with the animals, numbered and waiting for their turn. OK, the more I think about that, the more fair it seems from the dog's perspective, but it amazes me that people want the prize enough to do this.

I was also looking forward to the sheep shearing exhibit, but the razor broke about two minutes into the demonstration, so that was that.

The highlight was definitely the horses. I'm not really a horse fan, but the horses at the Ekka were stunning. There were breeds I had never seen before, and the animals were in amazing condition. They were beautiful.

But, OK, there are two days off school coming up and we definitely do not have to go back to the Ekka. I just hope everyone else does so that we can be all alone on some quiet beach, no plumber's cracks in sight.