The glamour of Alpaca fleece judging... Alpaka show Ost

All an alpaca fleece judge needs is a big warm room, nice high table, detailed preparation, good organisation, a good scribe. Throw her a bun regular  and she can keep herself amused for hours. Does she care that we are in the beautiful town of Burgstadt in Germany? Not a jot. The world could end at noon and she'd not notice until the last fleece is scored and done.

Saturday and Sunday in the halter classes will be a different matter entirely Mrs Toft Alpaca Judge has 180 alpacas to judge in one and a half days. She is already behind before she starts at midday tomorrow but there's no rescheduling the ancillary events. It turns out she is also sharing the ring with a fashion show, fleece talks and various other presentations and alpaca attractions. The girl will have to get her skates on early doors to ensure the prizes are not awarded under floodlights on Sunday.

Nice big hall for the halter- the hut in the middle is the association office. It arrived first and the rest is set up around it. Nice scorecards too with the show branding. If the alpacas are as nice as the people it should be a great weekend.There is a lot more alpaca show here than I thought there was going to be and the enthusiasm and commitment is tangible - love it. Can't wait for the alpacas to arrive and the show to start. Somewhere on site this weekend there will be camel riding- what me? No I don't think so. I'll look like a bad version of Oliver Reed in Gladiator.