Carnival

I spent most of Saturday at the chicas school carnival and have to say this sort of event is not my idea of fun. Loud music, fun fair rides, crying children and over priced fast food which has been exposed to the air far too long is not my favourite way to pass an afternoon. It's not that I am beyond doing my bit for fund raising I'd just rather do it with less noise. That said I did get a kick people watching. I volunteered to assit on the Tombola and got to wear a lovely pinafore with two pockets to store my tickets (no cash passed hands) and the raffle tickets produced for prizes.
Adults and children were pushing one another aside in a bid to get my attention to purchase raffle tickets. Wails of "over here", "I was here first", "me next", flew over my head as I tried to be fair in my ticket retrieval and collecting the prizes they had won. Many tried to cheat and look in to the receptacle containing the winning tickets, take more than they had paid for or return ones they didn't want. The queue for the tombola tent was 5 deep all afternoon and what were these lovely folks trying so hard to win?

As far as I could tell a lot of tat and freebies that companies had donated( free advertising). I can understand the kids but adults please how many baseball hats, beach towels, t-shirts and bags of biscuits does one family need? Of course there were other treasures to be had a microwave ( I assume it worked and was a duplicated wedding gift), childs bike, gift certificates to salons and baskets full of toiletries.
I don't doubt they were all keen to support the school and raise money for the new theatre but wouldn't it be easier to just write a cheque to the building fund?
Perhaps I am missing the point about the taking part/all for a good cause/support the community and the excitement of winning. It really did make me smile to see so many so eager to win. I suppose this is why we all buy raffle tickets as we all like to win something big for very little out lay.

For me a real Carnival is all about wearing an outrageous/skimpy/revealing costume you would normally never dare venture outside in, drinking early in the day to give you enough courage to wear said costume, dancing in the streets with friends and strangers and pretending to be accustomed to a such a hedonistic activity!