A Morley visits the Ekka.....

Well another week down for 2011.

The Spa Project is coming along nicely. (Touch wood!) I've organised for our Garden man to rip out the pool and decking, then the following week we have the Dirt man dropping off LOTS OF DIRT, followed by the Bob Cat man. So the next few weeks will be all Men and Dirt. Just how I like it! ☺

Here is a pic of the pool and decking as it is at the moment! I like to call it Pea Soup.

Sad isn’t it… ahhhh but soon will be Morley Resort ☺

Well last week was full of catch ups with friends. I had a lovely Work Team Lunch on Thurs, lunch with Cris on Fri and then dinner with Al on Friday night. Always great to have a laugh and a good old goss.

Saturday saw Embee Louise going to the vet to have her annual needle and check up! She loves going there as this is the venue that her Puppy Pre School was run. Our other poor old dog Dannii used to start shaking in the car park, but Embee Louise cannot wait to walk inside and see all the cats and dogs!

Here she is with her vet:

And of course after all the poking and prodding and nail clipping, comes the Hydrobath! Here she is with the young girl that has been bathing her for the last four years that I nick name “Jake’s Girlfriend” as he has been perving on her for prob that long!

Of course as any good dog knows, after you have been to the vet you need to have the obligatory “Pigs Ear” that you must guard with YOUR LIFE and keep in your mouth the whole trip home!!

And of course being August in Brisbane, Queensland means one thing THE EKKA! Now the “Ekka” as we call it, is our Royal Queensland Show and is the annual agriculture show of Queensland, Australia. It has been operating every August since 1876 in the same show grounds which is very close to the city. Ekka is short for Exhibition and I guess a slang word we use here in Queensland.

As a kid we used to go on the first Saturday (it runs for 10 days from a Thurs to Saturday) as a family and I am not really a ride kinda kid, even back then…. And Grandad and I used to go on the chairlift every year. Last year was the first year that the chairlift was taken down, very sad… ☹.

But of course a big tradition is the Dagwood Dog (some may call it a Pluto Pup), which is a sausage on a stick fried in batter dipped in Tomato Sauce (Ketchup).

They always taste the best when you buy them at The Ekka for some reason!
I even thought for a sec that I saw Baby Jake at The Ekka….

But then remembered he was home. The resemblance was remarkable hehehe.

I mainly go nowadays to reminisce about when I was young and went with my Mum, Nana and Grandad. Every year I go though, things are slowly changing….. I know it’s progress, but some things I think should stay the same. Tradition can sometimes be a good thing, don’t you think?

I’ll give you an example: The Strawberry Ice-cream. Now at this time of year in Brisbane, it has just started to be Strawberry Season. And this begins with The Ekka Strawberry Ice-cream. But this year they have changed the recipe! And whilst it taste’s more strawberry (real strawberry) I think they should have stayed with the old way. Am I just a foegie you ask? Well of course I am ☺ butttttttt Groover’s – Strawberry Ice-creams are to die for and should remain the same way as they have been over the years.

But by far the saddest picture this year, was the old Show Bag Pavilion. It is no longer ☹. You see they have ripped it down and left a small part of the facade where over the next 15 years they are going redevelop and include a hotel, high rise apartments, state of the art convention and exhibition centre.

It was very sad to see where it once stood and whilst I know it was very old building, it had character! Here is a pic of the temporary one this year:

Which in my opinion didn’t really cut it? And yes I know that it’s Temporary but still……

One of the fave’s from when I was young and even for Jake was the $1 Bertie Beatle Bag! It’s now gone up to $2, which I think is not bad, but some of the bags and even some of the rides are sooo expensive, it’s crazy!

But with progression you still see some of the old Sideshow Alley games!

We used to also love the Butter Board Sandwiches, where through the glass window you could watch the ladies make the sandwiches. Such a simple thing when you think of it, but as a kid we just loved to check it out!

But times have changed and it’s been downsized too ☹

I can remember when they had the big building to buy the Tasmanian Hot Chips! We used to queue up for a bucket of chips… ahh good times!!!! Now of course with all the food to choose from it’s not quite the same.

But you know what still remains? The big old trees we used to sit under (on the grass, which is now bitumen) and eat our sandwiches drink our strawberry flavoured milk and sit and go through our treasures in our Sample Bags.

Nice to know some things remain the same! ☺

Morley Vault

Of course The Morley Report is not complete without The Morley Vault! And this weeks of course in keeping with the theme is a Ekka Morley Story! ☺

Soooo my Mum and my Nana used to love to buy the “Lucky Tickets” or “Lucky Numbers” mainly from the Surf Life Savers Stand! Mmmm maybe they liked the eye candy, not sure hehehe. And they would win all these amazing prizes!

One year they won a Kermit the Frog doll, which of course was for ME! ☺

I was soooo excited and loved this doll a lot! So fast forward say around 6 months and one day what do you think happens? Welllll all these strange looking insects start to come out of poor old Kermit!!! Insects we have never ever seen before. So I guess something laid its eggs in his stuffing and hatched months later and it was some type of international bug/insect!

So do you know what happened to poor old Kermit? Yep, you got it….. Poor old Kermie was put into our incinerator in the backyard and went up in smoke! ☹

Took me a while to get over it and some say I’m still not there….. hehehehe.

Personally I think many of my adult problems in life stem from this very moment! Either that or when I first saw Jakes Face! Hahaha.

So yesterday when I got home (and may I just add that I caught THE TRAIN) I knowwwwwwwwwww even I am shocked, BUT it is the easiest way to get into The Ekka. I was brave….. ☺ But when I got home my Dad had turned up for a visit. He lives in Newcastle but for the last three months has been travelling around Australia in a Caravan.

He slummed it last night and slept in Morley Manor! Andddddddd between you and me, there was a moment last night when Embee disappeared into The Visitors Bedroom (and we all know what goes on in that room!), as there were two new pillows on the bed (courtesy of Dad) and there was NEARLY another big loving session, butttttttttttt Dad caught her out! Oh well, there is always tonight!

So Dad is staying for two nights and today he went out to purchase a few things as when he visits we keep him busy with Morley things that need to be fixed. You know Handyman stuff that Jake is really, let’s face it, not qualified to even look at close up, let alone from a distance…

So that brings us to the end of another Morley week. Stay tuned because there are big changes a coming for The Morley Report! I have big plans that I am going to share with you next week…

Until then Groover’s – Keep it Hanging!

Me xxx