Perth Royal Show is on 25th September to 2nd October 2010 at the Claremont Show Grounds.
Perth Royal Show has a rich history spanning 170 years, and is an iconic event that showcases WA agriculture, small business and entertainment. The show hosts competitions, animals, food, games, events for the family, and of course the infamous Perth Royal Show showbags. The following is a list of some of the events I think children and animal lovers will get into:
Pat-a-Pig
Name the THree Little Pigs
Brownes Milking Demonstration
Sheep Dog Trials
Animal Nursery Feeding Time
Equestrial Events
Camel Display
This is Perth’s biggest event attracting 400,000 visitors regionally every year. Before you go, make sure to download a Perth Royal Show map and to figure out where you’re going to park.
Given I’m trying to increase the prominence of Perth family and parenting bloggers (see the separate section on my blog roll), I thought to list down posts that have recently mentioned Perth. Some of them are from visiting bloggers, but most are from bloggers who live here.
Isn’t that title a bit of a throwback to when I first started the SuperParents Family blog?
Keywords certainly are important to gaining the right search engine traffic, but to really excel as a parent blog in Perth, what is more important than SEO is the networking amongst other parent bloggers that will draw traffic your way and making sure that you are able to maintain output as the author of your blog. Of course I had no illusions that there was any other way – except of course my mind was only obsessed with seeding those keywords properly through my text and titles.
I expected a general reluctance to SEO and thinking that was contrary to my own. But a comment about ‘being true to oneself’ appearing early on in an email dialog kept popping up in my thought clouds. My previous clients didn’t really care about ‘being true to themselves.’ So what is the issue here?
As I worked more on SuperParents and bonded more with my new online family, I realised that it isn’t so much about quality of posts; ‘being true’ is all about using ensuring your voice comes through clearly. While it really isn’t mutually exclusive, it hasn’t got anything to do SEO! Confused?
Bloggers who have improved their SEO knowledge know that “small sustainable changes” are quite easy to do. You can have a search-friendly family blog without ‘compromising your content.’ But if you’re thinking only in keywords and only appealing to a search engine, you’re missing the entire point of having a blog. For instance, an SEO company would never understand why anyone would put shoes on a blogroll, upload a random video of their daughter rock climbing, or post a Pregnancy FAQs joke on a site that has commercial aspirations.
Entertain your kids at the Little Day Out biggest indoor fun park in the West
Escape the winter blues by attending WA’s biggest indoor fun park without blowing the budget. The Sunday Times Little Day Out is located inside 3 huge inter-connecting pavilions, the one low entry price gives you unlimited rides, entertainment and activities.
The Little Day Out has over 40 rides including laser skirmish, rocking tub, mini-twisters, traffic jam, storm, cup & saucer, baja buggy, dragon wagon roller coaster, big truck convoy, taxi jets, dumbo the elephant, sama balloon ride merry-go-rounds, mini ferris wheels, red barron, simulators, climbing wall, trampolines, bouncy castles, slides and more!
For younger kids there animal nurseries, pony rides, gymbus, balloon twisters, face painters and displays.
Come along and meet SpongeBob SquarePants plus enjoy stage performances by The Lulus, ABBR, Kangaroo Creek Gang, Scitech, Drippy the Dragon and Zap Circus.
Little Day Out
Claremont Showgrounds Pavilions
Sunday July 11 2010
9am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm
Tickets at $25 each, which includes all rides
The event, sponsored by The Sunday Times and supported by Toyworld, will raise much needed funds for Variety WA, which is celebrating 30 years of caring for WA kids.
Limited tickets are available so parents are being urged to book online.
A Day in Pompeii Exhibition
Western Australian Museum – Perth
21st May to 5th September 2010
In Pompeii, Robert Harris’s novel, you can feel the heat of summer, the stench from the fish market, and the anxiety when the World’s geatest aqueduct- the Aqua Augusta – has suddenly ceased to flow.
Pompeii by Robert Harris
The novel is a dramatization of a society that not only is on the brink of disaster, but is in the throes of moral decay. You see the story unfolding through the eyes of four characters – a young engineer, an adolescent girl, a corrupt millionaire, and an elderly scientist. It is the most humanizing portrayal of a place better associated with whole body castings of people preserved at the moment they realise the volcanish ash is their doom.
Body Shapes Displayed at Pompeii
We visited Pompeii summer of 2008, at a similar time to when that volcano blew in A.D.79. It was eerie to see such a strong echo of a civilisation that existed unchanged for 2000 years.
Pompeii Foro
If I’m not wrong, this picture was taken at the Forum, close to the building of administration, and the Temple of Apollo. It was sweltering and as you can see, some tourists can’t take pictures to save their lives!!!
Bread Carbonized and Preserved in Oven, and Bethany4
We sometimes find closest association with the smallest of things. I had the chills when I saw bread preserved as carbonized fossils still in the oven … just waiting to be eaten covered with volcanic ash.
View of Mt Vesuvius
Any complaints here? This was the best view of Mt Vesuvius from Sorrento Hilton. At this distance we would just be out of range of the explosion in A.D.79. Of course we may be unlucky and be taken out by some flying rock. But at least we won’t be buried alive!
A Day in Pompeii exhibition would be a good opportunity to once again share history with the children. But not so much as, “Hey kids, come check out some dead bodies.” This time I would be able to share with them an insight of how their lives were just before the end. How their water started failing. Of the riots around the water rationing zones. Of the mobilisation of the military. Of how engineers were trying to unravel the disruption of their water supply. Whilst the book covers the last four days of fear and uncertainty and is a fictionalised portrayal, it still does well to represent the human condition …
History is not a story of what has gone before, it is a prelude to what will again happen. Sharing this perspective with children will help them gain wisdom and insight as they grow. You don’t have to wait for a major holiday to do this. You can share with them snippets of your own life and lessons learned every night. Use your own life to inspire some bedtime stories. This is what I do for my children every night. I’ve covered many things, some funny, some painful, but always very enjoyable for the kids.
What stories can you come up with that will help the children learn more about your history? Their history?
Just when I thought I was done looking for more video to put on the Child Safety on Escalators post, I found myself staring at a parent who was going up the escalators with her child on her shoulders. And was it true? YES, she wasn’t holding on to the handrails! It was a perfect opportunity for some covert video capture. I couldn’t help but reach for my phone.
In this first video, you see a side on view of said parent going up the escalators balancing child on her shoulders, unaware that she was being busted by a member of The League of SuperParents.
In this next video, you see a view from the back of said parent, and while it isn’t very clear, she is not holding on to the handrails. Tsk, tsk tsk. The Orignal SuperParent sees you!
What chance does child have if the escalator jerks forward or stops altogether? Child safety at an altitude of 5 feet on unsteady feet makes me just want to shake my head and wag my finger! Do you think this parent can recover fast enough, grab on to the handrail and then grab on to her child? I doubt it.
Personally, I’ve never seen an example of this before, and don’t think it’s a very big problem. But it made for some light entertainment on a Sunday morning.
How would you like to tumble several body lengths down a slope covered with sharp jagged metal ridges and teeth? Your head collides with the ground, your skin is punctured, your world is literally turned upside down, and the worst is, when you eventually stop, a massive weight several times heavier than yourself lands on you. Welcome to Perth, bro!
I was on an overseas trip to Singapore last week, and took the opportunity of catching an example of What-Not-To-Do-For-Child-Safety Extreme Parenting (TM) on video. I drew a few stares, but braved it for the sake of this blog!
Take a look at the clip, it shows a parent holding on to a pram and riding down the escalator. While she’s backed up all the way on her step, she’s bending forward to balance the pram which has its back wheel on the next lower step. Her child is playing with the side of the escalator, and you can see that the pram has been literally stacked to the hilt with additional shopping.
Have you been on an escalator which has suddenly stopped? Your knees bend so you can naturally take a step and stop yourself. You grab onto the side rail. And you lean back to brace yourself from the forward momentum. It’s scary!
This woman however, has her centre of gravity in front of her feet rather than centred between her feet if she was standing up. Her knees are no longer responsive as she’s flexing them back whilst balancing the pram. Her hands, busied with holding the pram will never meet the side rail in time. If the escalator stops, the weighted pram will lurch forward and she will try to press down, step forward and brace herself from falling forward. If she’s not successful, she’s going to keep clutching the pram whilst falling flat on her hands/face. This means she’s going to bring the pram backwards, slamming the baby back into the steps. If the baby is lucky, the pram will roll down the escalator steps in this manner. If the baby is unlucky, the pram hits the steps backward and bounces forward, sending the baby face first, tumbling down the stairs.
The worst thing is that I’ve seen many examples of parents going down escalators with prams all over the world. This is not only in Singapore, where the video was taken, it’s definitely occurring here in Perth too. Don’t parents in Perth see that the front wheel of that pram is literally dangling one foot in the air???? Holy crap.
If you are vaguely interested in Child Safety whilst on an escalator with a pram in tow, and you are insisting on using the escalator rather than the lift, repeat after me …
CHILD SAFETY REQUIRES YOU TO
GO DOWN THE ESCALATOR BACKWARDS
Going down backwards requires you to hold the pram up but allows you to push the front wheel of the pram into the crevice of the escalator step. This means your centre of gravity is firmly between the pram and the fall. This is as opposed to the escalator surfing parent above who had her COG behind the pram, potentially accelerating the baby into sudden death.
Going down backwards also allows you to stand on two escalator stairs, making your stance wide and more stable in a linear direction. Congratulations – you’ve just learned a white belt lesson in Karate, and your baby will appreciate you more for it.
Anyone would like to provide any comment on child safety on escalators? Who wants to start with Crocs? Want to hear my story of falling and gashing my shin on the escalator as a young boy? Go check out Child Safety on Escalators Part 2.
