Over the weekend The Other Half and I travelled to Canberra for a meet with fellow Aussie Bloggers. We stopped in Goulburn, as you do. Here is The Big Merino, which seems to have a distinctly superior expression on his face.
It is not until you drive around to the back of The Big Merino that you see why he is looking all superior. But why would you put an enormous pair of concrete testicles on a sheep that is a tourist attraction when you know that kids are going to ask their parents what that is about?
And why would you move the sheep to a new location, build a lovely new tourist centre around it, but make the sheep’s butt (and consequently large testicle/s) be the major thing that people parking at the centre get to see?
I’m surprised they didn’t install some lovely concrete poop just to make it a little more realistic. :) They now have a lovely shop attached to the sheep which contains some of the most expensive woolen things you will ever see in your lifetime. $316 for a thin woolly jumper? Err, no thanks. Even though it feels very nice. :)
I went there because I was hoping they would have a sheep snow globe. And they did, for $7.25 or some crazy price like that. I would have bought it but it already had air bubbles in it, which is something you want to avoid when creating or buying a snow globe.
So instead we went to Mcdonalds to get a coffee as we’d missed out on coffee at breakfast due to 16 zillion screaming families trying to eat the buffet breakfast at the same time we were there. I guess that is what happens on a Sunday morning when everyone wants to sleep in and show up to eat breakfast 30 minutes before the buffet closes. We threw some food on a plate and retreated to the safety of our room where I discovered that I had found some of the most incredible mini croissants ever, and only taken two of them. I would have gone back for more but I could not face the adults literally fighting over food and berating the service staff when the scrambled eggs ran out.
I spoke about how brilliant the croissants were most of the way from Canberra to Goulburn, much to the dismay of the other half who had not taken any croissants – he went for the hot food but I allowed him one tiny bite of croissant heaven. The moment we stepped out of the car at Goulburn we were hit by this freezing cold wind. Some evil beyotch had tied up her poor dog right where it was getting hit by the freezing wind and the poor thing was shivering, whimpering and crying while she was inside getting her immense rear fed – I felt so sorry for that dog! Sometimes you *should* leave them in the car, with the window down. And an 8 degree C day with a biting wind is one of those times, providing you park the car so that the wind isn’t going right inside the car.
Our drive back was lovely and we arrived home to find the kitties were fairly happy as we’d managed to leave the heater on. That is especially hilarious in light of the fact that we’d unplugged every other appliance from the wall. Yes, the TV’s computers etc were unplugged in case something went wrong, but we left the heater plugged in and switched on.
We have another meet in one month, this one closer to Sydney. So if you’re a Sydney blogger and you’re reading this and would like to go to a meet, let me know.
Oh my! I have been through Goulburn so many times on our way to the In-laws, but I haven’t seen The Big Merino before. Or it’s appendages.
I’m A Sydney blogger, but meets ‘n’ things scare me to death, so I’m undecided about going to one…I am so lame :(
I wonder what the obsession is about building giant stuff. I have seen the giant pineapple, banana, gallah and crayfish. Its kind of bizare although i guess the “normal sized” whatever doesn’t have the same drawing power.
What’s really weird is that it looks like the sheep has skid marks! As for the giant testicles, why would you want to shield a child from the knowledge of testicles, I mean all males have them, right?
Tornwordo – It’s more about the time and place aspect. You’re travelling perhaps from Sydney to Melbourne, which is over 700kms, it is early in the day, you stop to take a toilet break and get a coffee, and you have a giant sheep’s sack in your face. And if you have kids in the car, I’m betting they’re going to ask what is up with that shiznit. ;)
Especially when they drive past some sheep down the road and none of them have testicles down to their hoofs.. :) it isn’t exactly anatomically correct.
BALLS!
Wow – that is quite the big manly sheep. I was hoping it was anatomically correct for that type of sheep because that is the only reason I can see why they would make the testicles so huge. But I just read your response above and it doesn’t seem that is the case so I have no reason why they’d do that except that they are immature and like exaggerating. Anyway, your meet sounded like fun and I hope you will post pics from the next one in Sydney as well. I hope they don’t have any big sheep there! LOL
So you had a *ball* of a weekend with a freezing wind that wasn’t the by-product of a big *ball* of wool ? :P
Sometimes you really wonder what kind of minds can justify that as art..
Dorothy from grammology
remember to call gram
http://www.grammology.com
I’m in Sydney, probably wouldn’t mind going to a meet, although I don’t know what they are and what you do. ;)
That’s a pretty freaky anatomy lesson!
@Greg – you haven’t seen the giant prawn?
Naturally, my kids had a good laugh at the sheep’s balls when we parked behind it when we stopped there last time … which I think must have been the first time since they moved it. In the old location the parking was beside the sheep not behind it so you just didn’t notice its balls.
heh balls! lol i went there a coupla months ago did you climb up its head? it was locked when i went sadly. i remember a childhood of running up the stairs to see who could see out of the eyes first…