Hoppy Easter

*We began with the markets. Well…that’s not entirely true. We began with milkshakes. Then, we continued with the markets. Every year, on the Saturday before Easter, the artists of Byron Bay get together and put on a seaside festival. One can find everything from homemade chocolate, to paintings, to carvings, to pretty much whatever takes your fancy.

~It was awesome. As the weatherman said, Australia’s missing summer has arrived. The day was perfect, in a hot sunny blue skies over the seaside way, and the market was enthralling. Byron puts itself on parade around Easter, as the holidays collide with Blues Fest and bring a huge swarm of people flood the town. The market was an exhibition of life and color, recycled art and fine handcrafts and delicious samples, including one marinade vendor who introduced us to the wonders of finger limes. Finger limes are small lime-colored tube-shaped citrus fruits whose insides are bursting with delightful caviar-like bubbles of citrusy intenseness. We were so excited about this that he gave us one of his decorative display limes!

*Eventually, after oohing and ahhing over many spectacular wares, we meandered our way back home. Then it was Karen off to work and me off for a run.  Time passed. Karen got home. The clock struck midnight.

~And so began the chocolate.

*Yes, so began the chocolate. The epic quantities of chocolate.

~ Easter Sunday. We began with double-coat TimTams. And then went to sleep.

~I was supposed to be off Sunday, and we had planned an epic day of sibling slouching. It was going to be great. Then one of my co-workers fell victim to that classic Byron foible, and suffered a surfing injury during one of the busiest weeks of the year. Valiantly and stupidly, he tried to work anyway, and made it worse, so everyone worked extra shifts. As one of the other guys said, “Yes, we hope he is better soon. Then we break his other foot.” So, sadly, I worked Sunday. But I was off until nine am, so we got up early and began our slouchy shenanigans in a motivated sort of way. Chocolate bunny ears were the first to go.

*Also, one of our lovely roommates had left us a couple bottles of beer in the fridge labeled “The Easter Bunny.” We decided immediately that dinner was to be beer and kebabs on the beach. But first we had some time before Karen had to take off and we spent it in the most wonderful and least productive fashion imaginable, sitting on the couch and watching the Big Bang Theory. After a couple episodes and many laughs, she had to go to work and I had some hiking to get to. Group shenanigans were temporarily postponed.

~The Easter Bunny was actually very clever; as well as leaving us fabulous bottles of Australian booze – The Beez NeeZ (my new favorite, a honey pale ale) and Fat Yak, he hid two Cadbury chocolate eggs in our eggs carton. This brought our Easter chocolate total to: two bunnies and two packages of TimTams that we bought each other, two bars of Lindt chocolate from our parents (mailed from the States), and two secret bunny eggs. A mighty task, but we proved ourselves more than equal.

~Work finished for the day (and my colleagues supportively telling me to run out and be free in the sun while there still was), I raced home. A bite of bunny, and it was Easter again. We headed up for a dip in the beach, then back home to prepare for dinner. This dinner, long in the planning, was actually a repeat of one of our favorite Australian dinners, an invention from our days at the Main Beach hostel. It consists of a giant block of Kraft tasty cheese (phenomenal), two kiwi fruits, a shared Kebab from AbraKebabra (home of “the Magic Kebab,” I swear, that’s what the sign says) with sweet chili sauce, and booze. Previously, it was a bottle of cider. Today, it was Australian Easter Bunny beer. (Get it? Hoppy Easter? Hehe.) The moon was nearly full and enormous and yellow as it hung low over the lighthouse and cast its warm light on the sea, reflecting off the shiny interior of the kebab wrappers. Our pocket knives carved up the kiwis over the sand, and it was perfect.

~Utterly happy, we washed kebab and kiwi juices from our blades and hands and went back home to finish slouching; we sprawled out with season three of The Big Bang Theory, a carton of Norco milk, and slaughtered a herd of TimTams. It was perfect.

Happy Easter, Everyone.