Nearly all restaurants depend on weekend trade especially on Friday and Saturday nights being the main bulk of their trade activity for the week. This is here where you can conserve and perhaps convert that weekend surplus to cushion and cover for the other slacker and leaner odd weeknight’s trade But on a night such as the ‘Good Friday’ night and nights like Christmas Eve I know for a fact that most eateries will do Zilch or ‘bugger all’ trade as they said in Australia unless there are lots of tourists about.
If I let my calendar be dictated by the social events of the day I’ll very soon be paddling up the wrong creek.
When it comes to Easter I know for a fact my sisters abroad were being religious. They observe Ash Wednesday. Then they strictly observe Good Friday by attending masses fasting and abstaining from having meat.
And on Palm Sunday they will celebrate and rejoice over the Resurrection. About the only Easter eggs I have ever seen were their real hard boiled eggs that they painted in red colour. But that’s all I understood from my past.Over here in Australia it is quite different. It is perhaps particularly interesting to note that the trend nowadays is not to abstain from meat but to have a change in a choice of taste. They go for fish, seafood and vegetarian dish. Fishmongers and supermarkets over the place do make a brisking trade this week. Congregation do not count a lot. I once had a real estate salesperson that approached me for a sale of a disused church in West Hobart. Some brokers come to think of it will sell you anything ranging from grandmothers to a kitchen sink. What on earth would I make use of a church for? Another nightclub in the pipeline perhaps? That means I have to employ more bouncers. Or some town pad condominium. But the ceiling would be too high. Think of the next heating bill in a place like this.
For the children the hunt is for the Easter eggs and bugs bunny marshmallow and perhaps a bite or two of the hot cross buns. Usually the goods will be packaged on Saturday evening and hunting for them comes earnest on Sunday morning, by which time they have been mysteriously hidden all over the house and garden.
According to the children's stories, the eggs were hidden overnight and other treats delivered by the bunnies in an Easter basket which children find waiting for them when they wake up. The more grown ups will attend musical rock concerts and Royal agricultural shows. The parents will probably take a holiday in their holiday shacks or visit friends and relatives interstate. And others well, they will go fishing.
Yet there is another exciting hunt that is really going on in Tasmania. Rumours had it abound that Tassal Tasmania one of the big aquaculture type of Fishery company in nearby Dover southern suburb of Hobart that breeds live Atlantic Sea salmon had in place sizable stock earmarked for the markets over the Easter week. Before they’re ready for sale the stock has to be flushed with fresh water in their enclosed reservoir. But during the process of flushing the net enclosure became entangled and got ruptured on the adjoining reef and soon it was discovered that more than 50,000 of the company’s full-grown size Atlantic salmon had swam towards their freedom into the open seas.
Tasmania is an island state surrounded by water and it is estimated that nearly one out of every five householders have a boat or watercraft of some sorts and fishing has been such a popular hobby locally and especially this time of the year when the weather is still reasonable before the fall. But if fish is becoming more popular with Australians regularly purchasing a wide variety of fish species for consumption and as demand increases put pressure on wild fish stocks then whether inadvertently or not releasing of some fresh water stock may truly be a blessing. A sizeable catch indeed if the rumour is right then this Easter’s treasure hunt may well turn out to be more than a ‘finder’s keepers’ game by anyone’s judgement.
