Friday, August 27, 2010

Balloon Festival

After work tonight we took the kids to a balloon festival, which was 90% disastrous and 10 good.

I got lost on the way and then we had to queue for half an hour to get in because even though a million people showed up, there was only one nice but doddery old lady on the entrance gate.

We queued up for everything: toilets, bouncy castle, slide, funnel cake. We attempted to queue for a balloon ride but several people told us not to and I'm glad we didn't because when we were about half-way through queuing for our funnel cake a lady came out and announced to the mile-long line queuing for the balloons that they had run out of gas, or something like that. People were so mad. She just looked like all the event managers did - they were completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of poeple that had showed up. Maybe in past years, pre-economic implosion, people spent their time shopping at Gap or jet-skiing on a warm Friday evening. Now, they look for things to do that cost $5. In addition to the queuing, people were just obnoxious. Pushing shoving, being rude. There were people everywhere, queuing for everything and it was Friday and all the parents were tired and pissed off. And then Danny started screaming and Jack howled because he couldn't get a balloon ride.

Other than that, the evening was a roaring success. It was right up there with the time I got a black eye trying to limbo under a car park barrier and had to take a day off work.

IF we go next year I'm going to be as prepared as a SAS warrior going into battle and God help the family that jumps the queue in front of me. Hi-Yah!

Still, the balloons were lovely, really worth the hassle. And once we relaxed, found a little spot of grass that was ours, we had fun ...








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