Snowflakes!

So...this weekend is the inaugural 'Snowflakes Festival' here in Stanthorpe. We moseyed on down just before lunch to see what was happening.The World and his wife had decided to turn up too and it was packed. It is good for businesses in the Stanthorpe area and apparently, like Bethlehem, long ago there is no room at the Inn.People had been drawn by the promise of ice skating, a snow field and a human snow globe but I do not think that the planners had anticipated the numbers that would turn up.There are people here, especially in Queensland, who would drive miles to see some snow even if it was created by a machine.It was $10 per adult and $5 for children to get in.The ice skating rink was smaller than the floor space in Frogknot and the queue to use it was massive and full of the most miserable looking people waiting to get their skates on.OK, so the snowfield was made of snow apart from the bits that had turned to slush. It was only, perhaps, twice as big as the ice rink and was very popular. It was hard packed snow with all the foot traffic over it but some people were frantically scraping it up to try and make mini snowmen and pose for pictures beside them. Dotted about the area were sad piles of trampled snow with sodden, half buried scarves and broken carrots. Slushy snowballs were flying hither and thither and luckily we all managed to cross the area without being hit by one."We have a lost child," came a voice over the tannoy, "We are looking for Riley who is wearing red pants and an orange top. Riley, if you can hear this come to the main stage."Princess Elsa from 'Frozen' was wandering amongst the crowd with a group of penguins. She was waving at the crowd. She had certainly aged from the Princess I remember from the film. This Elsa was going through the menopause.Everywhere we looked people were queuing, for chips, hot dogs, churros, pizza and pasta. The queue for the Human Snow globe was very long. The globe was basically an inflated plastic bubble with what looked like torn up pieces of newspaper in it."Mum, I want a go!" Will heard one child say."I'm not queuing for another 2 hours like we did for that bouncy castle," his Mother replied."We now have a lost husband," said the voice over the tannoy. "Alexander, please come to the main stage where your wife and sick child are waiting for you."'If you are having a good time why not give us a donation so that we can ensure future events' was a sign by collection boxes dotted all over the place. We'd paid $35 to get in. What were they going to do with that?We were hungry but couldn't be bothered to queue for anything so we left and came home to the peace and quiet of Frogknot.We had a wander from the house up to 'Cathedral Rock' this afternoon, our walk accompanied by the sound of our neighbours blasting Heaven knows what to Kingdom come with their shotguns. Even here at Frogknot the peace and quiet does not last forever.