Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! It's the annual four day weekend here in Australia as Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays. Today I got invited over to Danny and Ruth's for hot cross buns and an Easter egg hunt. Hot cross buns are big business here in Australia and we had some very yummy ones from the Flour Mill on Sydney Road. I am having a quiet weekend and enjoying relaxing while trying not to eat too much chocolate.

Update

I hope you all had a good Easter/Passover. In the great Aussie tradition, we had a four day weekend- Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays. People at work even lamented that they don't get Easter Tuesday off anymore. I just laughed and told them to be happy to get any days off. It was great to have the long weekend to relax. I was a good Catholic and went to mass on Easter Sunday. I was shocked at the lack of effort in the dressing appropriately department for a large part of the congregation. Why on Earth would you wear shorts and flip flops to church, let alone on Easter? The other big thing in Australia over Easter is this weird obsession with the national Easter road toll. Victoria lead the way this year with nine deaths, which we're supposed to feel ashamed about (I wasn't out there speeding). For Tuesday night trivia we named our team "Easter Road Toll Shame." Unfortunately we lost by two points.

Work is getting interesting. The Department of Education is currently undergoing a restructure, which will go into effect at the start of May. No one is losing their jobs- it's a realignment of people to meet the newly elected government's priorities. They have renamed the four offices and each one has a different focus area. Most divisions and branches are moving as whole chunks, but our branch will be split up between two offices. My boss is becoming the general manager of student learning programs, which means I will now be higher up in administrative responsibilities for her (more involvement with the ministers' office and briefings). It should be a good shake up and ultimately I hope it means that some senior policy/project officer positions will open up so that I can advance in the Department. I want to get involved with the policy research side of things, which will be in a different office to the one we are moving to.

The Australian Rules Football season has begun, and Essendon are doing much better than last year. We won our first two matches against Adelaide and Fremantle. However, yesterday's game killed me because despite having a 48 point lead over Carlton in the second quarter, we lost by 3 points! So utterly depressing and it should never have happened.

Happy Easter!

I hope you had a very happy Easter/Passover weekend. Here in Australia, Easter Sunday just isn't enough, so both Good Friday and Monday are public holidays. They would never get away with that in the States. I think Good Friday was considered more "holy" than Easter in some eyes just based on the open hours at my gym. In Victoria they have the Good Friday Appeal for the Royal Children's Hospital- sort of like the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. They raised over $10 million this year. Chocolate is big here, but hot cross buns seem to be the food of choice. I didn't see any Peeps in the stores- they may just be an American phenomenon.

As for my weekend, it was pretty relaxed. I went to mass at St. Ambrose's Church on Easter Sunday, and have been enjoying marathons on tv for Australia's Next Top Model (first season) and The O.C. (first and second seasons). There's not much else to do when most things are closed. Thank goodness I have Foxtel digital cable. Hopefully my Easter package from the family will arrive this week- a casualty of the four day weekend.

Thanks for my See's Candies Mom!