I’ve been in Melbourne for nearly 6 years now and I never realised the significance of Good Friday and Easter Sunday to the locals. Heh, to me, it was another holiday and an opportunity to go camping or have fun somewhere else. Only just recently did I find out that people eat fish on Good Friday, because of the story that Jesus fed thousands with fish and bread from a little basket (at least, that’s what I think it is).

Business was bustling at my shop today and the previous day was spent in preparation. Well, it wasn’t as frantic as Christmas was, but it was definitely much busier than it had been for the past 3 months. The staff were not seasoned now, and at least people bought stuff in manageable quantities, no more filling 2kgs of frozen prawns that prick your fingers everytime you’re not careful. Heh, after so many months at the fish shop, I’ve learnt to handle all seafood like broken glass. You just have to be careful not to exert too much strength and to always follow the flow of the fish/prawn.

Learnt that Shetland Cod (some smoked cod from Scotland I think) was a common dish served on Good Friday. It’s cause I’ve never seen it prior to today.

It was a long day, but pretty good for business. By the end of it, my boss had already filleted more than 30 fish, 2/3 of which were salmon. Heh, his hands would cramp occasionally from all the cold running water and exertion of strength cutting the fish up. Heh, it’s really very different from how the Chinese eat fish. We usually steam or fry the whole fish, and pick it clean afterwards. Westerners prefer their fish filleted, and most would prefer to have no bones in them, which makes our job a little tougher as a lot of effort is put into cleaning and filleting the fish. Not to mention a lot of meat is wasted in the process.

Heh, at least it’s a long weekend for most people. Good Friday is a holiday for obvious reasons, most people don’t work Saturdays, and since Sunday is already a weekend, Monday is declared a public holiday. There aren’t many holidays to go round in Australia, and Easter is the only long break besides Christmas, and most universities have a mid semester break around now. Unfortunately these events do not apply to me, as I still need to work on Saturday and Monday. Oh well, I need the cash anyway.