For those who don’t go away, Easter must be a time when people “get things done”.

After going to his niece’s wedding in Canberra, my friend Graeme returned to a mountain of washing. He was up to seven loads at last count.

Judging by the returns chute at Surry Hills Library, it must also be a time when people decide to return overdue books.

As I’m not one for “going away”, Easter isn’t normally my favourite time of year. It’s normally when I spend several days at home not doing much, aside from the occasional dinner, lunch or drinks with friends.

This year it wasn’t so bad, as I recovered from my overseas holiday. It’s Monday night, and there are still elements of “jetlag” – I woke at five this morning again – though I’m not feeling so bad.

I’m back to work tomorrow, though I got an “early call” today to locate something important which had temporarily gone missing. “How would I know?”, I said to a colleague on the phone. “I’ve been overseas for a month”. Minutes away from arriving at work, the lost item was found.

But I went in anyway, and chatted with a few colleagues. “You’ve lost a lot of weight”, I was told by a colleague. “It looks like you’ve lost a stone”, she added, making me feel really good. Yes, I think I have lost weight on this trip through the simple combination of sensible eating and exercise. Who would have thought? Since arriving back I’ve been trying to do the same. I’m experimenting again with vegetarianism. And I’ve been walking everywhere, though I did feel a slight sense of frustration this morning when I tried to catch a Sydney bus. How difficult can it really be to have an integrated transport system?

Going into work was also good, as I had the opportunity to see the Bald Archys, the annual satirical art exhibition which opened while I was away. There were far too many paintings of Tony Abbott in speedos I thought (even though he looks good in speedos), with the one featuring him in a mankini being the only significant contribution to the genre. I loved the winner, the painting of Bert Newton, but was also impressed with the Obama-inspired piece about NSW politics.

On the way home I walked via Oxford Street and had a beer with a couple of friends, which was nice.

And tonight has been spent relaxing, doing not much at all.

Work tomorrow. Back to life, back to reality.