Hobbies

[Andrew Walker]

Growing up in Paddington we were only a block away from the Showground, so many great memories of the show as we would be there 3 or 4 nights as my father had free passes as he would work there some days fixing the public phones
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The very last year at Moore Park even as a grown up i kept on going on the chair lift as they said they weren't taking it out to Homebush

I miss the Easter Show at Moore Park From memory the last one there was 1997

[mightyrooster]

Growing up in Paddington we were only a block away from the Showground, so many great memories of the show as we would be there 3 or 4 nights as my father had free passes as he would work there some days fixing the public phones
.
The very last year at Moore Park even as a grown up i kept on going on the chair lift as they said they weren't taking it out to Homebush

Awesome. We didn’t make the trip to Sydney every year but when we did it was always exciting. I remember getting a few show bags each and then going back to the grandparents house to show off what we got.

[mightyrooster]

Linking that in with hobbies, I have one of the cable car gondolas from the old showground (have renovated it as a little 'room' for playing retro games and sipping limoncello).

Dare I ask, how did you manage to score one of those?

[mightyrooster]

I collect and occasionally repair vintage digital watches. Yes I'm a nerd. Here's a clip of part of my collection.

https://youtube.com/shorts/plYv3A581QM?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/plYv3A581QM?feature=share

Nothing wrong with being a nerd Big Dog. You do the things you enjoy doing and who cares what others think.

[horrie hastings]

I miss the Easter Show at Moore Park From memory the last one there was 1997

Yes it was at its its best at Moore Park, so much history and yes 1997 was the last one there.

[horrie hastings]

Awesome. We didn’t make the trip to Sydney every year but when we did it was always exciting. I remember getting a few show bags each and then going back to the grandparents house to show off what we got.

The show bags in the late 60's and early 70's were great. Where we used to enter at the Paddington entrance just off Moore Park rd had the wood chop arena and a beautiful carousel as soon as you got inside the gate, i used to love sitting and watching the wood chopping when i was young, there was a mechanical electrical wood chopper figure at the entrance to the arena which always intrigued me, he never missed a beat. In the Government pavilion , the NSW railways had a huge model railway which i could watch for hours. The thing i didn't like was sitting in the main arena and waiting for the fireworks display, for some reason when i was young the noise used to scare me, i would sit through the whole display with my fingers in my ears. From our home we could see the fireworks the nights we weren't at the show from the balcony off my bedroom, the terrace houses on Moore Park rd blocked the view of the lower ones but we could see all the higher ones, i felt more comfortable watching them from there.

[ism22]

Dare I ask, how did you manage to score one of those?

In a nutshell...

- When Wonderland was bought out by Malaysian investors, they bought the showground's cable cars and turned them into a ride called the 'Skyrider'.

- When Wonderland closed, a dude who runs an amusement park business in Queanbeyan bought the cars and put them into storage.

- A few years back, the dude in QBN was clearing out his storage facility and put the lot on Facebook marketplace (individually). I purchased one.

- People are now trying to sell them at a $$$ profit and I've had some crazy offers. This one's mine though (I didn't risk my marriage for nothing)

[mightyrooster]

The show bags in the late 60's and early 70's were great. Where we used to enter at the Paddington entrance just off Moore Park rd had the wood chop arena and a beautiful carousel as soon as you got inside the gate, i used to love sitting and watching the wood chopping when i was young, there was a mechanical electrical wood chopper figure at the entrance to the arena which always intrigued me, he never missed a beat. In the Government pavilion , the NSW railways had a huge model railway which i could watch for hours. The thing i didn't like was sitting in the main arena and waiting for the fireworks display, for some reason when i was young the noise used to scare me, i would sit through the whole display with my fingers in my ears. From our home we could see the fireworks the nights we weren't at the show from the balcony off my bedroom, the terrace houses on Moore Park rd blocked the view of the lower ones but we could see all the higher ones, i felt more comfortable watching them from there.

One of my brothers hated the noise of fireworks when he was young too. In fact my son was like that too and still talks about it. That would have been good to see the fireworks from your own home though.

[mightyrooster]

In a nutshell...

- When Wonderland was bought out by Malaysian investors, they bought the showground's cable cars and turned them into a ride called the 'Skyrider'.

- When Wonderland closed, a dude who runs an amusement park business in Queanbeyan bought the cars and put them into storage.

- A few years back, the dude in QBN was clearing out his storage facility and put the lot on Facebook marketplace (individually). I purchased one.

- People are now trying to sell them at a $$$ profit and I've had some crazy offers. This one's mine though (I didn't risk my marriage for nothing)

I think I remember that Wonderland theme park too. I only went for once from memory.

[ism22]

I think I remember that Wonderland theme park too. I only went for once from memory.

I went there on their last day (where they promised to keep some of the rides going all day regardless).

Hanna-Barbera land was closed but I jumped the fence into it with a few friends and we snuck into a bunch of the old buildings. This included a stage, which had a back dressing room full of gear. We had fun

[mightyrooster]

I went there on their last day (where they promised to keep some of the rides going all day regardless).

Hanna-Barbera land was closed but I jumped the fence into it with a few friends and we snuck into a bunch of the old buildings. This included a stage, which had a back dressing room full of gear. We had fun

So it is the place I remember. I went there once with my little brother who is way younger than me. I went on a big roller coaster ride with him as he needed an adult to accompany him on it and the parents were not interested. Let’s just say I was hoping it would be a very short ride once it got moving.

[Big Dog]

So it is the place I remember. I went there once with my little brother who is way younger than me. I went on a big roller coaster ride with him as he needed an adult to accompany him on it and the parents were not interested. Let’s just say I was hoping it would be a very short ride once it got moving.

I think the big roller coaster was called the Bush Beast.

[Andrew Walker]

I am taking up a new hobby of ice skating I went the other day and found gliding across the ice to be very therapeutic

[ism22]

I am taking up a new hobby of ice skating I went the other day and found gliding across the ice to be very therapeutic

Are you that slim, silver-haired, European fox at my local skating rink who wears the fancy clothes, struggles to skate forwards (always seems to be skating around backwards doing various tricks) and has all the young ladies swooning over him during private lessons?

[Andrew Walker]

Are you that slim, silver-haired, European fox at my local skating rink who wears the fancy clothes, struggles to skate forwards (always seems to be skating around backwards doing various tricks) and has all the young ladies swooning over him during private lessons?

lol not me. The only ones I saw doing that were teenage girls showcasing and fine tuning their skating abilities.

I was going to ask how to be shown how to do it but was told in no uncertain terms by those in my skating party not to do so

For the sake of peace and harmony I allowed my inquisitive nature to wane and remained silent You know sometimes silence or saying nothing really is the best option