Monthly Archives: November 2011

Black nail polish

Posted on November 9, 2011 | 6 comments

I was talking to one of my older relatives a while ago regarding how my Dashain went. She told me that she saw my Dashain photos in Facebook and really liked the fact that I was traditional and wore sari while doing Puja and even made an effort to grow Jamara. She was happy that I was holding on to my Nepali roots. Then she said everything was perfect but…

I wasn’t sure what was coming next but she said, “Everything was perfect but you were wearing a black nail polish. Red would have been 100% perfect.”

Seriously I didn’t even notice what nail polish I was wearing until I talked with her.  I know I was wearing a Red sari and all the traditional jewellery but it didn’t occur to me to change my polish according to my sari.

Anyway I love black nail polish. I have been wearing them for a decade now. I find is easy to maintain and goes with everything I wear. I have never have Goth look but I find it looks great with short filed nails. And these days there are so many companies that are doing black nail polish with different shade and glitters. I had Chanel black nail polish which was the best so far as it was used to last so long that I didn’t have to maintain for weeks.

Different people have their own opinion on black nail polish. Few years ago, one of my male friends told me that if you see a girl with black nail polish in a night club it means that the girl is ready to mingle. Then I have few friends who see black nail polis as bad omen but for me I like the way it looks on my hand.

I am definitely not wearing the polish to mingle with anyone nor do I believe in bad omens. I know we have all seen them on witches or vampires in horror movie but that is just movies. After all, we haven’t stopped eating apple pie after watch American pie!

I have seen lots of celebrities wearing black polish and in every fashion magazine I have read, they think black polish are so in so I don’t care what people say I am not going to give up on my black nail polish. Also I think 100% perfect is boring, you need to have

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Donate blood, save life

Posted on November 7, 2011 | 8 comments

Did you know 1 in 3 people need blood? But despite this only 1 in 30 people will donate blood.

–         Australian Red Cross Blood Service

The first time I went to donate blood, they weighed me and said “You are underweight to donate blood.” 

It was a bit embarrassing but I couldn’t do anything about it then. 

After a few years, I tried again and yeeepiii, I was eligible to donate blood. 

Since then I have been donating blood nearly every three months if I am in Sydney and AS has been donating blood since he came here. He used to do it before as well but not in a regular basis but now both of us do it regularly. 

 I just got an email and my next donation is next Monday. I am looking forward to it as it feels good that I am doing my small bit to help someone who needs blood to be alive.

For those of you who have never given blood, you should consider it as it is not difficult or even painful. All you have to do is go to a collection location which can be easily found on the Red Cross websites. Make sure you have a good meal and plenty of water before you go. You need to go there with a form of identification and they will give you a questionnaire to fill up. Once you have filled it up, they will interview you regarding your general health, check haemoglobin levels and blood pressure to ensure you are eligible to donate blood.

 Then you lie down on a bed, they will put a needle in the vein (believe me it is not painful, you won’t even feel it) and take out about 470 ml of the blood and all done.

 They even provide snacks after you give blood. Normally it is a piece of fruit, some chocolates and water so once you are done you sit down in the waiting area for 15 minutes, have the snacks, make sure you are ready and fit to go back.

The whole process takes around 60 minutes for the first time and if you donate regularly, it will take around 30 minutes as you don’t have to do the long interviews again when you have a Donor card.

My blood donor card

 Here are the few facts from Red  Cross Australia website 

Who can give blood ?

 Most people are able to give blood if they:

  • are fit, healthy and not suffering from a cold, flu or other illness at the time of donation or in the previous 7 days
  • are aged between 16-70 years (in QLD and WA 16-17 year olds require parental consent)
  • weigh more than 45kg (16-17 year olds need to weigh more than 50kg)
  • are prepared by having plenty of liquid the day before donation, especially in warm weather. In addition, in the 3 hours before donating, please drink at least 3 good-sized glasses of water/juice.
  • eat something in the 3 hours before donating
  • bring ID. Please bring at least one form of photo identification.

 And here are some more interesting facts

  • negative blood is universal and can be given to anyone
  • Platelets have a shelf life of only 5 days
  • 470ml of blood is collected when you donate blood
  • Australia has one of the safest blood supplies in the world
  • Within 24-48 hours of giving blood, your blood volume is completely restored
  • You can donate double platelets- helping twice as many people

Hope you will consider giving blood and save 3 more life. 

 

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Posted in Personal

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Ta, Timi, Tapai and Hajoor

Posted on November 6, 2011 | 11 comments

Compared to English, I think, Nepali is a very complicated language. Just to say “You” there are so many ways in Nepali. In English “You” is a second person pronoun of both singular and plural but in Nepali it is a totally different story.

Ta – used for someone younger than you, as well as for someone of lesser stature or when you are trying to dominate someone. You also find that friends use it casually among themselves as it can also show closeness among friends. (If not among friends, Ta is considered rude.)

Timi – used for a person younger than you or of similar age/ stature.

Tapai – for a person older than you and to anyone who you respect/ of higher stature

Hajoor – Mostly used by Brahmins and Chhetris for addressing older people and to show lots of respect to people of higher statute. Other ethnic groups don’t use Hajoor but use Tapai instead.

The reason I am writing this post is how these words have affected my life after my wedding.

Before our wedding, I had known AS for almost 12 years and we were friends. So I used to address him as “Timi” and he used the same for me. It was perfectly fine and there were no issues.

After we got engaged, my mum heard me talking to AS using “Timi’ so she told me not to use “Timi” but use “Tapai”. I ignored her suggestion and kept using “Timi”. I felt more comfortable and I was used to it anyway. I also felt bad that he was allowed to call me “Timi’ but I had to change to “Tapai”.

Before the wedding, I had to go and meet my MIL for shopping. AS was in Australia then, so it was just me and her. In that meeting she told me, try to use “Tapai’ for AS when there are people around us but “Timi” is fine when we are alone. I understood her point. She didn’t want other relatives to talk about me being disrespectful of my husband just because I didn’t live in Nepal. So after our wedding when I was in AS’s house, I switched from using “Timi’ to “Tapai” all the time. It was easy for me to follow just one way of addressing him and not changing it depending on whether someone was near us or not and because it was just too confusing otherwise.

When we came back to Australia, I didn’t realise that I was calling him “Tapai” all the time. I got used to it and I know he liked it so I didn’t bother to go back. Also I didn’t want to say “Tapai” only when we were Skyping with our parents.

Now, some of my friends tease me saying that I am being “a good Bhuhari” and some say I am acting weird after the wedding. I have many married couples around me but apart from my cousin K, who was married in Nepal and lived there two years before coming to Australia, no one addresses their husband as “Tapai’. They all use “Timi” and they find it odd that I use “Tapai”. I am sure they must have gotten used to this by now but I still feel that a lot of times, people look at things I do in a negative way even when I do the right thing. It would have been perfectly fine if I had been a Nepali Bhuari but people find it hard to believe I use “Tapai’ as I am an Australian Bhuari.

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How to make Lal Mohan with instant mix

Posted on November 4, 2011 | 13 comments

Lal Mohan is a sweet made from flour into balls and dipped in sugar syrup. It is called Gulab Jamun in India. 

This is one of the dishes I had made for Tihar. I made it for the first time and it turned out to be quite yummy. It is one of the easiest sweets I have made. 

AS, my brothers, my colleagues at work all loved it so I am sharing the recipe here for anyone who wants to try it. 

Ingredients

  • 1 Lal Mohan Mix (Gulab Jamun Mix)
  • 1 kg Sugar
  • Water
  • Oil to fry 

Steps

  • Add around 250ml water to the content of the pack. I used Priya mix which was 500g. Check the pack for other brands.
  • Mix it slowly until there are no lumps left. It will be very mushy and sticky but don’t worry. That is how it is supposed to be.
  • Make sure you don’t knead the dough.
  • Leave the dough for a while (5 – 10 mins). In this time make the sugar syrup.
  • In a big container, add 5 cups of sugar and 5 cups of water. Let it heat for 10 -15 minutes on medium heat.
  • Do not overheat as that will caramelize the sugar and we don’t want that.
  • Back to the dough. Lightly coat your hands with some oil, take a bit of the dough and make small balls of about 1 inch or 1 ½ inches.
  • Try to make all the dough into balls and leave them on the tray. Cover with a kitchen towel which is a bit damp.
  • Heat some oil in a deep pan. The oil must be enough to cover the dough balls.
  • To test the temperature of the oil, add a small ball. If the ball rises slowly to the surface from the bottom then the oil is ready.
  • Add the balls and fry them very slowly under medium temperatures
  • You have to constantly move the balls so it doesn’t stick and cooks all the way through and are brown evenly all around.
  • Once the balls are brown, take them out of the pan and put them on a kitchen paper to soak the excess oil.
  • Now drop the balls in the warm sugar syrup and leave it for an hour. Make sure you use a large container as these balls will expand as they absorb the syrup.
  • Your Lal Mohan is ready. Enjoy !!! 

 

 

 

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My love for shoes

Posted on November 3, 2011 | 15 comments

After we got engaged, and AS was coming here, he went to see my parents. One of the things my mum warned him about was how many pairs of shoes I have. I know it’s funny, out of all the things my mum could have said to him; she remembered to mention my shoes.

Every time my parents visit me here in Sydney, I try to clean up my wardrobe and the shoe racks. So my mum hasn’t actually seen all my shoes but she still thinks I have too many of them.

I might be highly inspired by character like Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City or Rebecca Bloomwood from Confessions of a Shopaholic but I know I live in the real world. I don’t have 100s of pairs of Jimmy Choos or Manolo-Blahniks. Neither will I buy the latest issue of Vogue instead of buying dinner, max out my credit card while shopping or become a shoe lady .But I just love shoes.

I think I started buying lots of shoes when I started wearing dresses. I thought it would be cool to have matching shoes and handbag like in the movies. So every time I go shopping I buy a pair or two. Thus started my shoe collection.

Once I started going on holidays overseas, my collection boomed. When I went to the US, I saw that all the shoes we buy here were 50% or even cheaper in the US so I had to buy as much as I could carry. And it was the same with my holidays to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India and Nepal.

I love going through the shoe sections of a magaine and checking out what is on this season. The best part is to see a shoe similar to mine in the magazine.

I had never counted the number of shoes in my collection. When we were moving the last time, AS was really curious as to how many pair of shoes I owned so he stared counting them but he stopped when it reached 100. He said “I give up now!”. So now I know that I own more than 100 pairs of shoes.

I own all types of shoes: High Heels, Ballet Flats, Wedges, Ankle Boots, Tall Boots , Open Toe Dress Heels, Low Heel Pumps, Summer Sandals, Evening Shoes, T-straps, Ankle-Straps, Sneakers and even Sports Shoes for workouts. I have shoes in every color of the rainbow and even shades in between.

It really feels good when I open my shoe rack and find the shoes that goes perfectly with my outfit. That always makes me smile.

I think I will never stop buying shoes as there will always be new models and new styles on the market but I have slowed down a bit after my wedding.

If you have watched the movie Sex and the City and remember the scene where Mr Big takes Carrie to their new penthouse and shows her the new walk-in wardrobe, that’s the moment my heart nearly stopped because that is exactly what I want. To have a walk-in wardrobe with one whole wall just for my shoes.

 I hope one day my dream will come true.

Till then – “If the shoe fits… buy it in every color.”

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