Traditions

Well, Easter Sunday has come and gone. We had a lovely 4-day weekend - Good Friday through Easter Monday. We were delighted to visit a new church just a couple of blocks away, and spent time with Linda & Bernie, Adrian's parents and sister, and even briefly with Heidi as we just managed to catch her heading off for nursing duty. Both Adrian and Michael were away on weekend trips.

Andrew & I discovered that the Easter Bunny, like Santa, travels around the globe. Delightfully, there is also an Easter Bilby -- an endearing little creature, which happens to be on the endangered list (scroll down to see what an actual bilby would look like if it were made of chocolate and covered in foil).

Heidi surpised everyone (including Adrian, good job there) with ostrich-sized chocolate eggs. Andrew even surprised me with chocolate bunny. I suppose we've got some new traditions going -- a chocolate egg large enough to house small chocolate critters.

Old traditions can also prove to be the best, such as the chocolate bunny with hearing problems...if you check with all my siblings, I think you'll find they've adopted some of these hapless creatures as well. I can't remember who in the family actually ate the ears off the bunnies, but Dad has certainly perfected the gag. Thanks to everyone for a lovely Eastertide.

Holidays Around The World

Last week we had Labour Day here in Victoria. There aren't as many states in Australia as in the US, but they seem to have greater autonomy in celebrating various dates, such as the Queen's Birthday (who else gets to have multiple celebrations?), Labour Day, and others. This week, of course, is Good Friday, Easter and Easter Monday. Everyone is looking forward to a 4-day weekend (or in my case 3-plus-one-workday). I'm looking forward to going to church as well, since my schedule usually leaves me too tired on a Sunday morning.

We were surprised at the lack of green on Monday, however. Apparently, St Patrick's Day is not that widely celebrated by Melbournians. There wasn't even an Irish pub close by, so Andrew & I greatly missed Mom's corned beef & cabbage dinner. I did proudly sport my Sullivan pin and Andrew donned a shamrock, as well. Perhaps we can get enough clan members over here to lobby for St. Paddy's Day as a national holiday.

Now, for the most important remembrance -- may each of you have a blessed Easter as we celebrate Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection!

Labourious Spelling

Monday is Labour Day here in Australia. Fortunately, growing up in world where we could get books printed in Britain, I'm familiar with the concept of extra letters in the words. On the other hand, the rest of the English-speaking world wonders why Americans shorten everything by dropping a vowel.

There's a lot of things the U.S. does differently. While everyone else has adopted decimal measurements, the U.S. still uses miles and pounds. Interstingly enough, the currency is decimal-based, and that was introduced in the 17-somethings.

In any case, according to the metric system, I actually walked four and half kilometers the other day. Part of the reason was that I missed my bus, and the trip to work became, well, interesting. I just started walking in the direction of work and figured I'd eventually find enough buses and/or trains to get me there. It worked, and I got a bit of additional exercise as well. Four and a half kilometres sounds impressive, but I don't want to spoil it by checking how many miles that is, in case it the numbers go down.

Cuppa A Day

There's some things about Melbourne that I really like. Take the Melbourne Cup Day. Any state that shuts down business for a horse event certainly has it's priorities together. The Melbourne Cup is the equivalent of the Kentucky Derby, only it is always held on a Tuesday, and usually turns into a 4-day weekend. Very nice.

And, I hate to admit it, but Melbourne's got the edge on metro NY when it comes to coffee. The cappucino and latte and various styles exist here as well as New York, but here, your "flat white" (coffee with milk) comes frothed! Your latte is frothed! Your cappucino is even more frothed! Being a barista is an intensively trained, highly regarded position. They do a good cuppa here.

The fast food is pretty amazing well. Of course, they've got the usual world-reknowned heart-attacks-on-a-bun brands, as well as a few british heritage foods of their own, such the beloved meat pie, sausage roll and fish & chips. On the other side of the coin, they've got some amazing choices. In food courts everywhere you see souvlaki, indian food, chinese food, vegie wraps, sushi, noodle bars, stews, tappas -- all ready to be served up instantly.

Some things are different from what you expect. The pepperoni is different from Italian pepperoni I know. The greek style yoghurt is not like the yoghurt from Greece that I loved so much. Some things you have to keep hunting for until you find them, other things you do without. I did find Domino's Pizza, and I'm hoping the pepperoni is "normal"!