Sydney Royal Easter Show, April 10, 2004

In the Woodchopping Arena we watched a couple chainsaw races. In what way is this competitive? Is there actually a trick to cutting something quickly with a chainsaw?

Waiting for the axe-throwing competition... That is the worst farmer's tan I've ever seen in my life.

The best axe-throwers by far were the northern hemisphere guys. Here's a Canadian contestant getting ready to throw.

Bullseye! The USA guy ended up winning.

There was a female axe-thrower! She was pretty good. She tied for third place, I think.

I was amused to see that the Wood Chopping Competitions were all sponsored by the State Forests of New South Wales. Or maybe I was horrified.

It was a gorgeous day. Here's the Snook and I soaking up the sun.

The concept of "Show Bags" was completely foreign to me. Apparently, in the olden days kids were given a bag of free stuff at the show. Nowadays you buy them, and they range in price from $5 up to $30 or so. This year there were over 300 show bags to choose from. Some are full of candy; others have trinkets and toys.

More show bags. Everywhere you turned you'd see some father struggling with twenty of them. These families must've dropped hundreds of dollars that day.