Wednesday 2 September 2009

Eye Show



We've just had a fantastic bank holiday weekend at the Eye Show - our fourth one of the year in Suffolk! Rebecca, Ronan, Tinker and myself set off on Saturday for the journey up the A14, and met Tim at one of the junctions. However, Tim had been standing on the windy motorway bridge waiting for us for a while, and his hair is quite long at the moment, so by the time we met him his hair was exceptionally big - as you can see from the photo above he truly looked like a mad professor! We arrived and set up with no problems at all, except that the ground was so hard we could barely get the stakes for the tent in!



We were really looking forward to the show as their arena programme was packed with loads of different acts, some we'd seen before such as the Sheep Show and the Vander Brothers Wheel of Death Extreme, and some we hadn't such as the Red Arrows and Icelandic Beer Racing. There were also dog and duck displays, dressage displays, rugby demonstrations, tree felling competitions and all sorts - we were in for a busy weekend!



Sunday was a lovely day and both our shows went really well with no mishaps - which was a nice change from our last attempts at Tysoe and Cheshire! Having turned the boys out in the arena for the evening we entertained ourselves playing bat and ball and juggling - all with limited success! We'd been warned that there was going to be a 'rather noisy' party in one of the marquees in the evening so off we all went to investigate..... and found out that it was a foam party! When they started the foam machine everybody crowded around and was soon immersed in it, before coming out looking rather bedraggled! However, because of the warning signs saying the foam could cause damage to skin and clothes, and should be showered off as soon as possible we decided to avoid it - as although our lorry does have a shower we haven't worked out how to use it yet!
Monday was another gorgeous day, and as we weren't on until 1.45 we spent the morning wandering around the showground. We watched the Vander Brother's act, and instead of being scared of the wheel we just wanted a go ourselves! Maybe if we could teach the horses to do it.... We also saw the Icelandic Beer Racing which was quite amusing. The ponies have their own special gait, called Tölting, and to demonstrate how smooth the gait is they race around holding glasses of beer (or cold tea!) - whoever has the most left at the end wins! Have a look at the little video below to see some racing!

Monday was also the day for the Red Arrows - which we were really looking forward to! I'd just got on Tinker to start warming him up when all of a sudden WHOOSH!! They appeared as if from nowhere, nine of them and extremely loud! I needn't have worried though, Tink didn't even bat an eyelid - I think they made me jump more than him! They proceeded to do the most amazing display of air acrobatics, twisting and turning, doing tight formations, and painting the sky with their coloured smoke trails. I think every single person at the show had their eyes trained to the sky for there whole performance, it really was amazing. Have a look at the videos below to see what I mean - I couldn't decide which I liked best so I've put them all up! We also took some pictures over the weekend - though unfortunately we didn't manage to get any of our shows! Click here to have a look at them.

Our shows went well again, and then it was back down the A14 and home. We're doing a duo show at Moreton Show on Saturday which we're very nervous about. It's the biggest one day agricultural show in our area and we've been trying to get it for five years, with no luck until now! So we really want it to go well, and lots of our friends and family are coming too - more pressure! I'll let you know how we get on!

Love Rosie xx

3 comments:

S said...

I worked at the Eye show about 12 years ago, some very odd memories, and I'll leave it at that!

Good luck on Saturday at Moreton, I'm sure you will be a big hit and it will become a regular booking.

Rosie said...

Funny you should say that - we've just got back and the comment they left us in our book said 'when can we book you again?' Next year I say!!

S said...

Yah brilliant news, though no surprise.