winter wonderland

❅ we finally made it to winter wonderland in hyde park.
i love the vibe at carnivals like that... all the coloured lights, the smell of fairy floss, sugary donuts and sausages all mixed in together, peoples happy faces as they stroll around snacking and spending money on rigged games that they never win, the intermittent sounds of gleeful screaming as the roller coaster carriages whizz past, the young couples holding hands as they skate the ice together, the carnies (that always have that same look) calling out to you, tempting you to gamble your money away, the old fashioned saloon style stalls wafting smoke from roasted chestnuts..... jerry and i bought a paper cone full of chestnuts and some hot mulled wine and wandered around enjoying the sights until we couldn't bare the cold anymore...
if it was summer i would've begged jerry to go on all the scary rides with me.

i used to love doing photo-shoots at amusement parks. i dressed my cousin up in vintage once and did a fashion shoot at the 'melbourne show' and we had a ball.
in fact, my whole childhood is filled with wonderful memories of 'the show'. in the beginning it was all about the show-bags full of junk food, the toy prizes; enormous blow-up baseball bats, headbands with the glittery stars on springs, kaleidoscope glasses, how many rides you could squeeze out of your saved-up pocket money, 'tasting' all the free samples in the dairy pavilion, begging mum and dad for a coloured baby chicken from the animal tent and crying when they refused.

then in high school it was about dressing up in your best outfit, sneaking in without paying, kissing boys in the dark part of the ghost train, stealing show-bags, smoking cigarettes for everyone to see how cool you were, getting into fights with the town bullies and spending the rest of the day running away from them, trying to steal one of those coloured baby chickens...

i had friends who weren't allowed to go to the show... i pitied them enormously, and i still pity them, that they don't have all the memories that i do.

and i still want one of those coloured baby chickens.

:o)