Here we go again....

Like most things in a calendar year, April comes around every twelve months or so. And yep, here it comes again.
I love April. I always have, but year after year, my love of this fourth month grows.

As a kid it was the fact that it pretty much meant Easter holidays - chocolate, Easter Showbags, chocolate, crisp mornings and weekend barbeque's. Basketball tournaments where I could run around with the other basketball brats, making prank phone calls from the stadium office and sausage sizzles for breakfast when my parents were manning the deck.

As an adult it started becoming that month when I began really feeling the effects of seasonal change. Those crisp mornings started bringing on nostalgic memories - and you knew the year was well and truly underway. With summer dimming rapidly out of daylight savings time, it meant time to roll up the sleeves and get down to work.

Then April, and its Easter counterpart, brought with it the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival. I only managed a few of these before the soon to be discussed Comedy Festival took precedence, but this festival of music and food and all round loving up is still my favourite of all the festivals and has secured it place in my heart with memories of old friends waiting in the "shower train" and eating slices of pizza while dancing in a field to our first taste of Ozomatli or Michael Franti. We would sit up late playing more music back in our rented house, drinking wine, playing cards or backgammon and laughing with such warmth and familiarity that even now, fills me with pure joy.

But suddenly came The Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This year will be my fourth and from January onwards, friends and fellow performers start counting down.... how many months, weeks, days, hours till opening night. There is all the prep work - the idea, the writing (I usually leave this up to others:) the meetings, the rehearsals, the budgeting, the advertising, the anticipation!!!! And suddenly, you have four more sleeps and its Tullamarine here you come!
Its more than the festival itself though - its reuniting with people you met last year, hung out with, got to know, actually became buddies with and you all said "see you next year" and you genuinely hoped you would.
Also, its a month in Melbourne. Not just a stolen weekend, a fly by Friday night see you Sunday afternoon thing. Its four whole weeks....and the chance to catch up nice and proper with the city. And maybe someone you might just have a crush on. Yeah, that's probably the best part. The real reason I love April so much.

Oh yeah, and there is still chocolate right?