What I did over Easter by Richard Watts (aged 38)

It occured to me as I was about to start this post, that writing about my Easter holiday activities is akin to writing an essay when you're in Grade Two or thereabouts. I could, of course, try and channel my eight-year old self to write this blog entry for me, but somehow I don't think that's either necessary or appropriate (after all, eight-year old me would probably drone on about his burning desire to be a zoolologist, and would also probably manifest fears about nuclear war instead of recounting the highlights of the weekend as he was told). You'll just have to put up with modern-me instead...

Thursday night's Q + A got the weekend off to a flying start - almost literally, as I felt rushed off my feet all night. It was an insanely busy night at A Bar Called Barry thanks to the public holiday the following day - we hit capacity only 45 minutes after opening, and had a queue of up to 400 people waiting to get in for much of the night. The last of the queue trailed off at about 2am. So yes, it was a mad night, complicated by an angry transvestite who likes high-kicking and pirouetting complaining to me that the place was too crowded to dance in properly; and a small army of straight boys turning up at the door and thinking that it was a regular Friday or Saturday night, only to freak out when they realised that they were trying to get into a gay club...

Fun times were had by all, and I ended up not getting to bed at all before I was due out in Northcote at 10am on Friday.

My friends Bec and Bob, whose wedding I went to in Glasgow last year, had the Australian leg of their wedding on the weekend, so myself and four friends - Ms Sam (from the excellent band The Mime Set); Craig (a former colleague and editor of Voiceworks); Adam and Anna (whose wedding I'm attending in Castlemaine in two weeks time) jumped in a car together and drove down to Venus Bay, on the South Gippsland coast, about two and a half hours out of Melbourne. We'd hired a holiday house for three nights, and spent much of the time simply lolling about and relaxing - although we also managed to squeeze in a DVD or two, including the truly terrible, utterly unredeemable Catwoman (and yes folks, it really is as bad as you've heard: everything in it stinks, from Halle Berry's acting, to the costuming, and even the special effects).

I'd taken work down with me which I ended up not even touching (funding applications for the consideration of Arts Victoria's Presentation panel, which I sit on) and consequently, by the time we got home yesterday, I felt utterly refreshed.

The wedding (held at Bec's parents' place, a rural hideaway next door to a national park) was wonderful, as was the reception, at the Tarwin Lower community hall, at which I MC'd and attempted to DJ on a stackable CD player with no headphones. Basically I just whacked on a few compilation CD's and walked away, after a frustrating halfhour or so trying to skip from track to track and CD to CD...

I also managed to catch a touring Melbourne band called Nervous Wreck at the Tarwin Lower pub, who I quite enjoyed (certainly I liked them more than the locals, who were calling out for them to play covers for half their set - 'Loveshack' for example... the horror, the horror...) and I also managed to get drunk and maudlin late on Saturday night; ie I got the red wine weepies and blubbered myself to sleep over the fact that I haven't had a boyfriend for six years. Apart from that, it was a great weekend!

To top it all off, I got home late yesterday afternoon in time to watch some of the footy, and saw the Pies absolutely thrash the Roos at Telstra Dome. Here's a photo of Bucks in action to celebrate...