Chapter 26 - Easter Hols

In which our hero has a nice lie-in .... and also another most welcome discovery ... and chocolate bunnies ...

Greetings, dear reader.  It's been about a week, methinks.  Not too much exciting has happened.

On Wednesday, which is a one hour day every other week (when there's no lab), we finished our lecture early.  My "one hour day" was only 35 mins.  I hung around for a bit, doing some homeworks, etc.  There was a meeting for the Vegetarian Club at 4, which I joined in hopes of improving my veggie skills/knowledge.  Afterwards I'd arranged to meet my friend from Denmark (you remember her, right, from O-Week?)  to go to the night market in Surfer's Paradise.  Turns out we'd slightly miscommunicated and she meant for me not to meet her till after like 7 or something.  So I ended up going 'round her place, in an area called Main Beach, and having some dinner before we went.  It was a very nice area.  Very quiet.  Also apparently very expensive.  There's three of them in the apartment though, so it comes out to something reasonable.  Anyway.  It was nice.  Had a good dinner.  Watched some Arrested Development.  Apparently there's going to be another season soon that will be released all at once on Netflix, because it doesn't matter what order you watch them in.  That'll be fun.  It replaces the movie that's been in the works for like five years though.

So after dinner we headed down to Surfer's Paradise to browse the night market.  It was basically like the stalls at Sunfest, except not as many.  Interesting, though.  There was also several places with foodstuffs, like beef jerky or chocolate thingies, that were doing free samples, so we tried several of those.  There was one with macadamia nut products, and there was some fresh ones that you could crack open and eat.  They were very good.  The nut part was sort of soft, and it tasted kind of like fresh coconut.  Normally I don't like macadamia nuts, I don't think, but this one was good.  Or rather, not so much "don't like" as "can take or leave".  There was one of the chocolate thingies that was dark chocolate and cherry.  That was the best one.  There was also a flavoured popcorn vendor, from which I sampled the Sweet & Salty popcorn, which reminded me of Grandma, because she used to love microwave kettlecorn.

I saw these interesting candles, which I think you should do, Dad.  They'd be far classier than being made in beer cans.  You could get some 99c tea cups from Goodwill.

I also found another of the koala statues.  There was no artist's statement that I could see, as there was with the other one.

Now really, I haven't been in too much of a hurry to see Surfer's Paradise.  It's kind of party central.  Night clubs and tourists and crowds and madness.  This was OK, though.  I think I should go back in the day time to get the full effect.  The only reason I wanted to go was to say I'd been, and also cuz it has a cool name.  After wandering around the market for a bit, we got a 30c ice cream cone at Macca's (that's McDonalds, to those not in the know) and headed home. I got home at like 11:15, I think.  That was Wednesday night.  Thursday is an early day for me -- up at 6.  Needless to say I was quite sleepy.  Thursday night the kids had some friends over, so they occupied each other and I was able to just sit and relax.  Then they wanted to watch a movie, and I don't know if they watched one or two, but I was asleep before it was over.  I was just listening a bit from my room.  The first one was Harry Potter, but after a while it didn't sound like Harry Potter anymore, but it doesn't really matter.

The two friends that were over stayed over night, so there was a big crowd in the morning to discover that THE EASTER BUNNY HAD COME EARLY!  It was very exciting.  I was naturally woken up by the excited loud voices, but by the time I got up and got dressed all the eggs had been found.  Before 7 a.m.  I was still pretty sleepy.  I didn't do too much that day.  Bit of reading and maths review.  Painted my finger and toe nails all different colours.

Tried to do a few on #3, at her request, but most of them got smeared, and some got on her sweater, and a bit on my leg, because she wouldn't sit still to let them dry.  She's only 2, after all.

Anyway.  I'm pretty sure all my chocolate eggs were gone by noon.  Which is OK, because the Easter Bunny came again on Sunday morning, just for me...

On Friday afternoon the munchkins left to be with their dad for the weekend, so it's been very quiet.  I haven't done nearly as much work as I should have, but I have by no means done nothing either.  I think I've organized all the notes on ordinary differential equations, and should be totally on top of it, I just need to do lots of practice.  And I've read a lot about mass spectrometers.

Now, for a brief interval, here's some things I saw at the shops.  Probably K-Mart again.

I don't know what this magical land is that I've stumbled in to.  Must be Narnia, where everything is made of Turkish Delight.

Mmmmm.... Easter eggs ....

A "Where's Wally" Easter Egg Hunt kit.

Now, on Saturday Sarah was off to Bluesfest in Byron Bay, so the house was all mine.  If you'll remember, I was still quite sleepy on Friday, having not rested properly or long enough.  On Saturday I slept till 12.  It was great.  By the time I got up and made some brekkie and whatnot, it was 2:30.  I had a sort of plan to go out to the Easter Vigil in Southport (near my uni) for 6, which meant I had to leave here at 4:30, to get a bus at 4:45, to get to the church at 5:30.  It all went swimmingly.  I walked from Griffith to the church, and it was only 20 mins.  It started with everyone gathering outside, and then after the lighting of the big fire everyone moved inside.  While waiting outside I ran into one of my classmate (the one from O-Week who lives in Southport), and he offered me a lift home afterward, so at the moment my bike is still at the station.  When I got home I watched "Tomorrow, When The War Began", which had started at 8:30, then "Mr. & Mrs. Murder", which is fun, then I was too tired to even read a whole chapter of A Dance With Dragons.

Sunday I was up early-ish.  8:30 I think.  Got some reading done.  Went down to Nana and Grandpa's for a cup of tea with Sarah.  Came back.  More reading.  This was my first time inside their house.  The first thing I saw was the doorstop holding open the front door.  You'll never guess what it was.  So I'll tell you.  It was a cast-iron cricket thing.  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of it. I was to much in shock, I suppose.  Maybe next time.  They also had some of those brass medallion thingies on leather straps, that I think are part of a horse's harness.  They have about three times as many as Gran and Grandpa did, though.  Made it feel like a proper grandparents house, although they're actually not much older than my parents.

Later on Sarah and her friend and I went out to the Tavern for a drink, and to listen to the band that was playing.  The music part was good, but the singing wasn't so hot.  Bit flat, I think.  Anyway.  Then we got some Vietnamese take away to bring home, which was lovely as always.  Then it was time for Doctor Who! So exciting! I'm so glad it's on here! And on ABC 1, as well, which has no commercials during the show! Don't read the next sentence if you're as sensitive as I am about spoilers.  It was awesome.  After I watched a thing called 'Underground: The Julian Assange Story', about his early life and first arrest for hacking the US Military.  It was very interesting.  You could definitely see where the whole Wikileaks thing came from.  Apparently he knew about Desert Storm before hand, and tried to tell some reporters, but they didn't do anything.  He was only a 17 year old kid at the time.  Like I said, very interesting.

Then there was a thing where David Tennant was talking about Hamlet, and how it seems to speak to every generation, and how it's such a major thing for an actor, and so involving, and he loved it but he'd never do it again.  So naturally I watched it, because it was David Tennant.  Then I was very tired and went to bed.  Well.  Read two chapters then went to bed.

Lastly, there's a classic car show on at the Parklands (across from uni).  I didn't go, but here's some pics of cars I saw while waiting for the bus over the past few days.

Also, here's the broken cricket bat from the other week.  I finally found it.

Also, actually lastly, on Saturday night I locked up the chooks (chickens in Australia speak) because Sarah was away.  I wore some gumboots, and brought a flashlight, and approached very slowly, but there was no snakes.  Which was awesome.

Also, 'hols' means holidays.  I've got a week off school.  It's great.