Introduction

Dear Reader, 

I hope you had a good week. Mine was reasonably busy.

I don’t have a recipe this week. I spent the weekend in Brisbane for my annual visit to “The Ekka” or “The Show” as we knew it as kids.

The Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland hosts the Royal Queensland Show.

I took my daughters plus my eldest daughter’s partner and his nephew. It was the young fella’s first Ekka experience. We all wanted to make it special for him.

It was a glorious day. The sky was clear for most for the day, the sunshine was bright and brilliant, and there was little to no wind. It reached a maximum of 28 °C and it was a perfect day to convert cholesterol to vitamin D.

One of my favourite things about The Ekka is the wood chopping competitions. We sat and watched a few events including some amazing axe men and women at the standing cut, underhand, and team sawing. The sawing event was mind blowing. Those saws are so sharp.

What have I been reading?

I elected not to tackle any new books this week. I caught up on some podcasts and read work-related journal articles.

A couple nutrition-related pieces caught my eye.

Obesity may get a new name. It’s not clear at this stage what name might be chosen because there is debate about obesity as a disease. It could simply be clinical obesity rather than obesity. Many people object to obesity being classified as a disease rather than a symptom of other diseases. The article is a simple read.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has a new name. I don’t know that I’ll remember metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). It doesn’t roll off my tongue like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. I understand the words “alcoholic” and “fatty” cause stigma for some people. The new name does convey an accurate physiological process.

What did I eat?

I declined food on the flight between Canberra and Brisbane. I noticed the other passengers were eating hot pies. Everyone had smiles on their faces. I drank mineral water.

On Saturday morning, I ventured to the local mall and sat down to beef, pork, lamb, chicken, and fungi in the form of a steak, bacon, liver, eggs, and mushrooms. There were also four packets of Lurpak® butter too.

While I was at The Ekka we did the usual visits to all the food stalls, especially in the Food Pavilion where there are often samples available to taste and try.

I enjoyed a couple of yummy olives. One had a Sichuan chilli flavour and was delicious.

I elected not to eat lunch, I wasn’t hungry, so I waited until later in the afternoon when everyone was keen to enjoy a strawberry sundae. The Ekka’s strawberry sundaes are a tradition and worth a momentary departure from my low carbohydrate, healthy fat eating lifestyle.

I savoured every lick as I moved my tongue and lips across the rich creamy ice cream and whipped cream. I slowly allowed the sweetness of the strawberries and ice cream to coat my tongue and buccal cavity. I explored the cone with the tip of my tongue making the most of every new exposure to the ice cream and strawberries. It was worth it.

I know some readers are critical of foods like ice cream, I understand why. The amount of sugar and processed chemicals is obscene. The delight it gave my daughters to sit with me and for us to each enjoy an Ekka strawberry sundae in the sunshine next to the main arena of the RNA Showgrounds while some magnificent cattle were on show was worth every gram of sucrose.

At about five o’clock we made our way to Machinery Hill to find a piece of concrete to establish a position for EkkaNITES. We took it in turns to mind our spot and bags while we foraged for something to eat for dinner. I found some roast beef while my daughters found dumplings, baos, and toasties. The young fella had his first Dagwood dog experience, and he almost inhaled it. I think we’ve turned on a love for deep fried battered pork sausage.

On Sunday morning, I found a place and enjoyed poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, bacon, and pork belly.

EkkaNITES

I love EkkaNITES which is the evening entertainment program at The Ekka. This one was pretty special. The Queensland Governor and her husband, both of whom I know personally opened the Royal Queensland Show because it was the first night of The Ekka. The Governor’s husband was my boss for three years when I was a pathology trainee. It was a little weird standing to attention in honour of Her Excellency and her husband as she inspected the Royal Queensland Show guard which comprised ninety-nine ADF members from all three services. Her personal guard consists of mounted Queensland Police. I didn’t know this, but QPOL buys former thoroughbred racehorses for the mounted police.

The other interesting aspect of the opening was praying with an Anglican Priest as he blessed the plough. This is part of Ekka tradition and is a good demonstration of the RNA’s roots in agriculture and primary production. I was surprised by the priest’s prayer, because, as a diocese, Brisbane is not regarded as evangelical which is code for the priests don’t believe the bible is the inspired Word of God. The prayer however had words I could really get behind and it made the day even better as we communed with God. Maybe the Brisbane-based priest understood that rural Queenslanders are a bit different.

The entertainment consists of a wide variety of parts, and it culminates in fireworks. The horse-work this year involved Texas Longhorn steers and a small herd of bison being mustered by stockpersons. There were some other parts which involved singing, dancing, and circus performers. This is all good stuff for those that like that sort of thing. I loved the V8 utes doing circle-work and racing around the arena. The freestyle motocross part was fantastic. Each time one of the young riders was in the air pulling and twisting his motorcycle around in what seemed to be impossible situations I was praying God would keep the rider safe on landing. It’s hard to beat the noise of V8 and motorcycle engines and the smell of ignited petrol. Give me internal combustion engines any day. They bring so much joy.

You may wonder why the horse-work involved North American bovines. The show featured a competition between an Australian stockman and an American cowboy.

EkkaNITES ends with fireworks. Each year the show seems to get better. I love fireworks and The Ekka never disappoints. The whole arena is used and the choreographed work with fire dancers, motorcyclists, scooter riders all trailing sparks and flames from back packs as they speed around and across the arena is fantastic. The music is loud. The engine noise is loud. The smell of smoke and exploding fireworks along with ICE exhaust fills the nostrils. It’s a fitting climax to what was a fantastic day. I was spent afterwards and slept well.

Airport drama

I’m posting this from Brisbane airport. My flight home has been cancelled so I’m waiting to see what might be available later tonight.

Flying this weekend hasn’t been good. My flight from Canberra to Brisbane was delayed by three hours.

I don’t know what time I’ll be home tonight.

Have a good week.