Easter Eggs

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It's been a bit quiet around here the past few days so not much to report until today except that I realized another odd thing about Australia while I was out for a jog this morning. The mailboxes are set into the front fenceline of all the houses (there isn't a house I have seen that does not have a fence around it) and the fence lines are set back from the road about 3 to 4 meters, so a mail truck can't just pull up and deposit the mail. Instead what I witnessed was a man on a very unofficial looking motor bike just pull up onto the grass in front of peoples houses and pull mail out of his pouches on the side of his bike. It is funny to just watch a guy drive on peoples front lawns basically to deliver mail. However the mailmen here only deposit mail, if you want to send anything, even a letter, you have to drive to a drop box, you can't just put it in your mailbox and expect it to be taken.

We went back to The Strand today, it was just the kids and I since the Easter Bunny need to do some more shopping for Easter! We had a wonderful time swimming, getting ice cream from the Cold Rock (I find this funny since we have the Cold Stone Creamery), and playing in the water park.

Easter is right around the corner and I had to bring the easter egg dye over with me in my carry on since they don't sell it here in Austraila. Here, Easter is all about the holidays (kids have 12 days off) and chocolate. The supermarkets are literally lined with easter bunnies and bilbies. The only problem with this is that since we are in the Tropics and not very many people have airconditioning in their homes the chocolate melts. If houses do have airconditioning it is really only on for a few hours in the evening and at night, no one has airconditioning in their kitchens. So the Easter Bunny has a hard time keeping the chocolate hidden from the kids in the fridge, but it would melt anywhere else.

Now with that said we are all traveling this weekend to a place near Cairns (a 4+ hour drive north of Townsville) called Chillagoe and we are all going caving! Simon has an honors student that I believe is going for her Ph.D and we have all been registered as official volunteers of the University, so we get to go help Simon and his student collect data on bats! (Simon is the head of the Biology and Ecology department at the University). Well. . the Easter Bunny has no idea how she is going to keep chocolate from melting on Easter in the midst of caving so we are taking a page from my Dad's book. . . .

After prompted about what my childhood easter traditions were I told everyone that Dad would hide money in the eggs before hiding them and we would go on a great hunt for candy and money! I think one year we had a $50 egg, but for the most part the highest prizes were the $20 eggs (which when you are little is like hitting the jackpot!). News of this tradition travelled back to Heathers parents who are good friends of my parents and it seemed like Dad was in trouble at one point! But as it turns out we are going to employ this tradition of my childhood (and adulthood if I were home for Easter) since we will likely be without refridgeration for Easter.

Easter is not all without chocolate as Simon and Heather let the kids have some of their easter chocolate today after dinner.

Today we dyed Easter Eggs with the Deregans! (and I got to pick Kieri Deregans brain since she just returned from backpacking around Europe for 8 weeks) It was great fun since the tradition here is to dye blown eggs. I had never actually blown an egg and then dyed it! I had always just hard boiled them and then dyed them. It was a little difficult at first but once I got the hang of it I thoroughly enjoyed blowing out the eggs and then just watching everyone else dye eggs, I think I only dyed 3 but prepared over a dozen. For those of you that don't know the process (like me earlier in the day), it is quite simple. You take a sewing needle and poke a hole in the top of the egg, then poke a hold in the bottom (slightly bigger) and then try to blow all of the insides of the egg out through the bottom hole. There are many methods and my favorite is to poke the yoke (or try to) with the needle and then blow a bit out then shake the egg to break it up all the insides. We all had a great time, Max dyed the most eggs (16 total, 3 of which were destroyed in the process) and Emily went for the more detailed approach and only dyed about 5 eggs but she put a lot of time and effort into them and was doing a great job of applying a leaf to the egg so it dyed around the leaf and the final piece was beautiful. Another interesting fact about Australia is almost all of their eggs are brown! Heather once drove 45 minutes out of town to buy white eggs. So for now we dye brown eggs and just know that the colors aren't going to be as vivid.

Probably one of the grossest things I have ever witnessed was having to pour out all of the 3 dozen yolks and whites of the eggs we had blown out, along with random streaks of dye, water, and spit, it was truly disgusting.

We are all getting ready and packed for the big caving trip! I am so excited! I will not be around another internet connection until Monday afternoon, and I will try to keep good notes so I can post quickly after I get back. From what I understand is that we will be crawling through tunnels in the cave and trudging through mud at the entrance, and we must watch out for the ever painful stinging tree. Should be interesting, wish me luck!

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Photos

Two of the Darrigans
Kieri (left) and Laura

This is how its done
. . . not pretty

Comments

[D Bop]

Egg Hunting Traditions
In my own defense, I enjoyed hiding the real and fake eggs for Marcus and Barrett to find on Easter morning. I took the time to evenly divide the prizes to all four corners of our property. The more valuable the contents, the more difficult I hid the egg. Up in trees, on the ground - but always in sight and not under or in something. The first time I did this I believe Marcus was 16 and Barrett was 9. As I recall I explained that the eggs were equally distributed in all four corners of the property and the more difficult the hiding place, then the greater the gain. Clear enough to me. In any case, we started the egg hunt and Marcus took off with Barrett in close pursuit. Marcus scooped up the eggs in front of Barrett, leaving the lesser prizes for his sister. This was not going as I had planned it! The straw that broke the camel's back was after Barrett complained about the lack of prizes, Marcus said something along the lines of "Nah, nah, - na, nah nah". "Whap!" went Barrett's Easster basket on the ground! Easter was now officially ruined. Anyway, that's the way I remember it. The following year it went better and no, I never bit the face off my kids' chocolate Easter bunnies. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

[Marcus Diehl]

Gifts
Life with out airconditioning makes me feel somewhat spoiled with having it. I know when living on Chincoteague I didn't really have it but still had a great time during the summers (went to bed many of nights with my head wet to help cool off). But talk about geting some fresh air. Always had the windows opening hoping to catch a cool breeze but would come home to a wet floor b/c some flash rainstorm would roll through while I was at work. But back to the title, gifts. I was about to mail off your travel gift I had gotten you when I realized that I could get something for Heather/Simon and faimly. It wouldn't be right for you to get a package that doesn't include somethign that could be shared by everyone. So I need a little help/suggestions. I have some thoughts/ideas which I've gotten by reading your blog. Like Space Icecream (it doesn't melt). Would be curious to know if Emily or Max have ever had it :) Also, when is the best time to talk to you via Skype? your nights or your mornings?

[Tiffany Heese]

Exciting!
That sounds exciting! When you get back we will have to go spelunking in Blacksburg, that is to say, "if" you come back...

[Mom]

Blown eggs
I am impressed. I never was successful at blowing eggs which is probably why you knew nothing about the process. Of course I didn't a pro, like Heather and her friends to show me how it was done. Have fun and stay away from the stinging tree.

[Nina McCoy]

Loved the story...
particularly of blowing out the eggs. Am anxious to hear about the cave trip. We miss you in spinning! Nina