We got there early-ish, about 11am. It was windy and raining, so the crowds were light.
We did a show discover bag, which was mostly crap, but did give us an excuse to walk around the whole place and visit most halls. Everything is compartmentalised now. Horses here, cows here, sheep here, rides here, show bags there. It was probably always the case, but it seems more organised now... and less random and fun.
The Grand Pavilion full of food and drink was fantastic as always. We tried out beer, talked the talk, and laughed at the expensive beer clubs. The animal halls were great fun, although the new buildings take away a little of the charm. We witnessed a cow meltdown and randy horse vs. thin wall. We laughed at the baby goats (kids!) and went right off our lunch looking at hanging cow placenta. Baby cows are HUGE when they're born.
We didn't do any rides ($8 each my ass), nor did we pay to get in (complimentary tickets through Katie's work), and yet we still spent a fortune. We were ripped hard by the "free massage" people who charged us $30 for what turned out to be a five minute massage. A similar amount of cash would get half-an-hour at Zhong's. Idiots. We also bought show bags.
A couple of years ago when we went, the showbag hall was hell on earth. A sea of people flowing around the hall in a circle, children crying, anyone under four feet tall buried in flesh. This year, it was what I might call mildly busy. There was room to swing a cat, but it'd probably hit someone before you got it up to a good speed.
The weather improved by later arvo, when we met up with family/friends and had a beer or two, then took the train home to crash in front of the TV with junk food and chocolate.
Inspired by the beer clubs we went to our local and bought two each of many many beers. We'll have our own little beer club at home and it'll only cost us $50, not $120 a quarter.
Metallica `Death Magnetic` has walloped in the number one album on the Australian chart this week with sales of 55,877 units in the past 7 days.[...]
The album sold 11 times more units than number two, `Breakout` by Miley Cyrus.
`Death Magnetic` also sold more units that the combination of all titles between number 2 and number 17.
Whatever you say about Metallica, their fans still buy CDs.
I'm interested to see next week's numbers.