The Royal Melbourne Show

So I went to the Melbourne Show today with V, Tsan, Brian and later joined up with Han Lin, his cousin, his friend, Winston and his friends. The show was... interesting, I guess. I woke up at the usual, we originally planned to meet at the bus loop at 9:30 but it was too early. Tsan didn't wake up with enough time to get ready. So V said he would pick me up at like 9:45 so we could leave at 10. Problem was that we wanted to leave from Clayton station but we didn't want to get a zone 1 and 2 ticket (since it's like $3 more). So we got Brian to buy the tickets for us and validate it (he was like one stop ahead only at Huntingdale station).

We unexpectedly met up with Amanda and Jia Chee at Huntingdale. They were going to the city also to meet their friends and watch Rush Hour 3 with Sharon, Stan and co. Anyway we headed over to the showgrounds area which is north of Melbourne.

The Melbourne Show had a lot going on, it looks fun but you need A LOT of money to enjoy yourself. Basically no money = almost nothing to do. We spent a lot trying to get those stuffed animals from the rip-off games and stuff. There were rides also but I didn't go on any. It was like $7 per ride. Bleh. And the showbags! Showbags are like... bags full of goodies based on specific themes that may have the total value of like $80 of the goodies but is only $20 or less. So yeah, get stuff you want for $20 or less when it is worth more then that if bought separately. Specific themes like a Hello Kitty showbag I got, girly showbags based off of magazines, Simpsons one, chocolate ones (like Kit Kat or Cadbury), any other cartoon you can think of, costumes, scary stuff, other nice stuff. If only I had the cash... but yeah, in the end I wanted at least one showbag. So I went with a Hello Kitty one, although there was another one called Pipeline that I wanted.

First impression of the Melbourne show~

Some rides...

And more rides (see the tall one? Brian, Winston and his friend went on that...)

Prizes....*___*

Rollar coaster...

Example of showbags like the Garfield one...

Some many nice goodies...

I want....

I bought the Hello Kitty set above... I also wanted the Pipeline one though (bottom left). Tsan bought the Girls Only one (bottom right) for her sister. My set was worth around $40+ (but I paid $18.50) while Tsan's was worth $60+)

So yeah, we first began our time at the Melbourne show walking around looking at what is available. I needed to go to the animal Nursery because my education partner, Debbie is working there and we were gonna do a upcoming presentation on the nursery. So yeah, we went around there, Tsan and V entered the petting section. Heh. In the end, Debbie agreed to do all the work (collecting data) so I said I would do the actual analysis and stuff to make it fair. So I had the day to myself! Yay.

The Melbourne show had a lot of random things.. arts and crafts centre, pet shows, animal nursery, fashion show, bazaar, super cheap book sale and this huge tent full of food. Lots of wonderful food with free samples and stuff. I ate like free samples of peking duck, honey yogurt, chocolate and licorice (BLEH). We then went to buy some yummy REAL ice cream. Not that freezer stuff I don't like.

V looks comfy with his koala...

After the food place... uhh.. we wandered a lot. Eventually Han Lin, his cousin and friend joined us. And the guy tried the "test of strength" thingy and won a pony for Tsan! Not that it was a test of strength, more like of aim since the most important thing is to hit the centre.

Hit~

After that our money spending craze hit us as we tried to win those stuffed animals. We did so many things like... crossbow gun at balls (Han Lin's cousin won me a lil' kitty, yay~), air gun on paper, throwing these super bouncy balls into the bucket, Black Jack (trying to get an odd number to make 21), lucky number draws and so on and so forth. It was ridiculous actually. Me and Tsan spent forever in the showbags hall also picking out which one we wanted. In the end, I went with the Hello Kitty one while Tsan got a "Girlfriend" one (full of magazines, a bag and some cosmitics) and another one for her sister (with like 3 different bags, make-up, jewelry and stuff). We got really bored eventually... and did stuff like watch people cook in some contest and act like cam whores (a.k.a. taking random photos).

Cooking~

Taking photos at the cooking place (my head is wonky cause I took the picture)

Monster truck...

Us at the monster truck place, haha~

Eventually Winston finally came with his friends. And they decided to go on that one scary ride no one else wanted to. Where you spin in the air high up and stuff. While they were waiting, Han Lin's friend.. (uhh I dunno how to spell, Loy.. Loi.. was it?) went to that Black Jack 21 thing and got an odd number. So Tsan got a cute HUGE orange dragon. Just look at the pictures below to see it. Hehe. After Winston and co. got their ride, we went around wasting more money on games, then buying random shitty food (couldn't get outside unfortunately), I got a chicken fillet burger... while waiting for the fireworks to start up. We went early to the place but it was monster trucks and free style cyclists so yeah, we had a nice time watching them. And the fireworks were cancelled. T_T

We sat on the stairs since there were no seats....

Damn you, fireworks. It was kind of cold, so yeah.. made our way back home. But before we go! I wanted some last minute group photos.

Look at Tsan's dragon, hehe. And no I dunno what Winston is doing with it. The large bag Brian is holding is my Hello Kitty showbag. The horse on V's shoulder is the first one we got. And the cat on top of V's head is the cat Han Lin's cousin won for me.

Better shot of the dragon when we were on the train...

Waiting at Flinders for the train... dunno why those two suddenly wanted to read papers...

Got back to the station. It was raining and FREEZING cold. I was shivering. We were all shivering (okay, Wins had it worse wearing only a t-shirt). V went to get his car, and we literally squeezed ourselves in because it was just too cold for anyone to walk back. We headed over to Tsan's place, where they all copied my photos and stuff. And yeah, V drove me and Brian back to the Halls.

Tomorrow, Paintball with MCAC. Ahahaha, unlike the GFN one I decided to be a bit more aggressive this time. Less of a coward. So yeah, I will allow myself to get bruised and shot a lot more. Or so I say. I may run away in the end after taking a couple of shots.