Saturday...27 October 2012

"You  will soon witness a special ceremony."
That folks is the contents of the very first ever fortune cookie I have ever opened, and it was given to me by a Chinese gentleman last night. I will await the outcome!

Today was another big day.
We have just got home from the Tullibegeal Sports and Gymkhana day. This one had it all people.
After lunch we took a nice slow drive across the paddocks and down a dirt track which led to a dirt road and eventually after half an hour or so, we came to the little town of Tullibegeal.
The car park was full to overflowing with good town cars and bashed up work vehicles. There were trucks unloading livestock for the various events. Everyone near and far had turned out for the biggest day on the calendar. A large number of the crowd were related to us as this little town is part of the history of Himself's family. Whole families were there in their nice new outfits, jeans, boots, akubra's and crisp cotton shirts; one mob all wore the same colour shirts, some of the younger set wore skimpy shorts and singlet tops with beautiful cowboy boots. Our uncle said he had seen better legs on tables! I even saw a  couple of much older ladies who should have known better wearing similar attire.  The akubra's were all sizes and shapes. Big belts and shiny buckles abounded.
There was the usual over chatty loud speaker person and the crying of tired children and babies amid the buzz of conversation as neighbours and old friends greeted each other and relaxed while watching events such as the kids walk, trot and gallop race. That one was actually harder than it sounds as horses are naturally competitive and it is hard work to hold your mount back to a walk when the one in front reaches the mark and starts to trot or gallop. What usually happens is all the other horses want to trot or gallop too! There were full on horse races for the adult riders and some of them were very exciting.
Then it was back to the kids for the rooster catch and the wild pig chase. Fun to watch the kids trying to hand catch the roosters or the baby piglets. As part of the day, numbered bob tail lizards are auctioned off, with the proceeds going to charity and then the lizards are set free and a 'race' is held as they slowly or quickly leave a designated race zone. There was running races for all age groups and an egg throwing contest and yes the eggs were fresh, not hard boiled!
Then the action moved to the rodeo arena and the kids had a go at poddy calf riding or steer riding depending on the age of the contestant. The adults did some bare back buck jump riding and one very talented lad managed to ride a buck jumper while cracking a whip!
After all that excitement the crowd headed to the food stalls for a steak sandwich or a sausage in bread. Of course the bar was open and doing a roaring trade. The good ladies selling tea and coffee were not as busy but they too did a fair trade.
There was a bouncy castle, hey come on, a local event is no good without the bouncy castle. And right next to the castle was the soft serve ice cream van. Yum!
It was pleasing to see many of the dads pushing the prams and doing their bit to let mum have a bit of time off.
After the tug of war, the band started playing and we took that as our cue to go home as it was getting late and we had to negotiate the dark dirt roads and tracks back to our place. So pleased we went.
On the way out we saw a couple of kangaroos and lots of emus. On the way home it was rabbits galore.
No animals were harmed during our great day out!