Easter in England...

Easter was relatively light on the chocolate for me... my cousin Sam and I were discussing the fact that, when you're living 'overseas' from home, there are no chocolate eggs,christmas/b'day pressies often arrive late... (he launched into this tyrade after I'd just presented him with an egg, because it was the first he'd been given in 3 easters!) But he's right - my only choccy was eggs I bought myself

Choccy aside, it's interesting being somewhere where the easter traditions are obviously 'similar but different'. In Melbourne, Good Friday is one of the two sacrosanct public holidays each year, so I was all prepared for there to be no shops open, almost no pubs, and very little action on the streets. How wrong was I - from the hustle and bustle it seems it's not such a big deal here, although certainly all offices are closed (along with fully half the Tube system, for 'planned engineering works. Good sense, I guess, but a bugger if you're spending the weekend in London).

Sunday was an interesting experience too, as I took myself off to see Christy Moore (!!!) Brixton is probably best known for its vibrant black community (who have come a long way in their standing in England since the riots that were 25 years ago this week). Easter Sunday was party time in this part of town - the streets were full of kids on easter bunny hunts, seemingly impromptu street parties broke out everywhere, with chatter and music and lots of noise. And everywhere were parents and kids, hair immaculately wound, woven and lacquered into place, dressed in their Sunday best, for church or play I'll never know. But Brixton rocked for all the right reasons today, and it was lovely.