Category Archives: Australia

My life in Australia

Counting down

Posted on December 9, 2013 | 20 comments

As I mentioned before, we will be going on a Cruise to New Caledonia soon and I am counting down the days until the day arrives. This year has been really long and I am glad holiday time is almost here so I can relax and enjoy the remaining days of this year. We will be spending Christmas on board so it will be a different experience.

I have to say I am a bit anxious about this particular holiday because I will be spending most of the time in the ship. This is our first cruise and being first time cruisers we were a little bit apprehensive and are doing a lot of research. I have sailed before but never been on a cruise so I am having mixed feeling. I am busy doing my research to make sure I don’t make any mistakes and reading everyone’s’ experience I can see that most of them really enjoyed it so I am hoping to come back and report that I had a fun holiday.

The most worrying part for me is seasickness. I normally don’t get sea sick and I am going to take heaps of medications as well to help me be normal but sometimes you can plan all you want and still things may not work out so a bit worried about it.

Most of the holidays we go to, I have full day plan for nearly all days so I know what I am doing and in control of everything but this holiday we are going to have few sea days and I have no idea how we should spend those. I have been doing my research and there seems to be heaps of things to do in Carnival like going on water ride, golfing, swimming or just relaxing but still not having a proper plan is making me worried a bit.

Apart from that, I think most of the things should go smoothly. I will spend 2 weeks with my loving husband by my side just relaxing, swimming, snorkeling, eating and enjoying ourselves. Can’t thank him enough for make my birthday so special and making me so happy with the cruise as a birthday gift.

If anyone has been on Carnival Spirit before, your suggestions will be highly valuable.

I am very excited about our destination. I have heard a lot about New Caledonia for years now and always wanted to go there and now we will be stopping there in less than a months’ time. I always love tropical holidays with lots of sun, sand and sea and this one is going to be one like that too. As all of you know, I am a summer person and tropical holiday is my cup of tea 🙂

One of the stop for us is Isle of Pines and I have seen so many amazing photos from this place. Isle of Pines was dramatically formed by a series of volcanic upheavals and is truly beautiful.

Another stop is Lifou which is within the Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia and known for their coral reefs and limestone caves.

Hope this holiday will be exciting and fun so we can book more cruise holidays in the future too.

See you with my next post soon.

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

20 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Holidays, New Caledonia, Travel

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Our new garden

Posted on November 19, 2013 | 21 comments

Remember, a while ago we moved into a new apartment. We had a choice of getting a house or an apartment at that stage.

A house meant we could have backyard and frontyard but we would need to travel longer for work. We chose to stay closer to the city and our work hence we ended up buying an apartment.

So far, we are loving our new place and happy about our choice. Now we have one more reason to love our place, we have our own garden.

rr

Before we even moved into this place, AS had this crazy idea to have a synthetic grass on the balcony and convert it into a garden. I was not thrilled about the idea in the beginning as synthetic grass is really expensive and I wasn’t not sure how it would turn out.

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However, when we moved to our new place, we have a big balcony. Actually the balcony is bigger than two of the bedrooms we have.So finally, we decided that it would be a good idea and had laid the fake grass and we are quite pleased with the end result.

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We bought outdoor furniture and a few plants and pots and finally the garden is done. Of course how can an Aussie garden be complete without a barbeque :), so we have a gas barbecue.

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The garden is now an extra place where we relax, enjoy our breakfast in the weekends and also entertain guests. It has also been a place for me to just lie down and watch the sky or just unwind.

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All our family and friends are impressed with our idea and they loved it. I have to thank AS for his creative thinking in using the synthetic grass. 🙂

21 Comments

Posted in Australia, Personal

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Sculpture by the sea 2013

Posted on November 13, 2013 | 9 comments

Like every year, hubby and I decided to go for a walk to see sculpture by the sea. However, this year, we decided to go for a sunrise instead of in the afternoon.

The night before, we went to bed early to wake up at 4.00am. AS woke up and tried to wake me up but I couldn’t. Instead, I woke up at 5 am and realise that we are goona miss the sunrise. Anyway, we got ready and reached Bondi beach. I thought it would be easy to get parking so early in the morning but to our dismay, we have to park farther away from the beach as we couldn’t find one nearby.

When we got there we realise that it was so cloudy, the sun had decided to hide behind the clouds so even though we had been there at 5:40am, we would still have missed the sunrise. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the walk. I’m sharing some of the photos from the day.

Sculpture by the Sea is staged along the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk. The coastal walk begins at the bottom of Notts Avenue, which runs off Campbell Parade, Bondi. The coastal walk can also be accessed by stairs at various points along the exhibition route at Hunter Park, Gaerloch Avenue and Pacific Avenue. The exhibition finishes at Tamarama Park, Marine Drive, Tamarama.

Like every year, they had some amazing ones and some fun ones and some weird ones.  Enjoy the photos.

Sculpture by the sea (1) Sculpture by the sea (3) Sculpture by the sea (4) Sculpture by the sea (5) Sculpture by the sea (6) Sculpture by the sea (7)

P.S: Do not forget to nominate  your favorite blog .

Nominations open for NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2013

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Posted in Australia, NSW - Australia

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My long weekend in picture

Posted on October 9, 2013 | 12 comments

Last weekend, we had a long weekend as it was Labour Day on Monday. There is so much happening in Sydney right now that we had busy weekend. I am so tired now but glad I managed to do so much. Here are some of the photos from the weekend.

On Saturday, it was the start of Dashain, our biggest festival (for details click here). So in the morning I had to plant my Jamara to start the festival. To learn how to plant your own Jamara, please click here.

Jamara

Around 10am, we headed to Wattamolla Beach to enjoy picnic with family and friends. Wattamolla Beach is located within the Royal National Park and have nice beach perfect to go with family. It was awesome sunny day and we had heaps of fun in water.

Wattamolla Beach (4)Wattamolla Beach (3)Wattamolla Beach (1)Wattamolla Beach (5)Wattamolla Beach (7)Wattamolla Beach (6)Wattamolla Beach (8)

On Sunday, we went to Helensburgh temple (details here) as it is Dashain now and it seemed like a great idea.. We went there with some of our friends and his family. As always, we had breakfast there, yummy vegetarian South Indian dishes.

temple

From there we drove for over an hour and was in Parramatta, enjoying Parramasala (details here). Like every year, it was fun with lots of food and music.

Parramasala (1)Parramasala (5)Parramasala (4)Parramasala (7) Parramasala (12) Parramasala (11) Parramasala (10) Parramasala (9) Parramasala (8)

On Monday, we went and saw the war ship at International Fleet Review. The review is a celebration marking 100 years since the Royal Australian Navy fleet first entered Sydney Harbour. It was worth the visit as we got to see so many navy ship from many different countries.

International Fleet Review (1) International Fleet Review (20) International Fleet Review (18) International Fleet Review (17) International Fleet Review (16) International Fleet Review (14) International Fleet Review (13)

You may also like :

*Sculpture by the sea *Easter Long weekend trip *Snowy Mountains: Australia

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Posted in Australia, Celebrations, Nepali Festivals

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City2Surf 2013 – 14km fun run

Posted on August 13, 2013 | 18 comments

As I mentioned in my last post, we went for the City2surf 14km fun run on Sunday. Luckily, this year, unlike last few years, the weather was fine and sunny and it definitely made the run better.

City2Surf (2)

Since 1971, Sydneysiders have been joined by participants from all over the world, elite athletes rubbing shoulders with locals to run, walk, or watch the 14km race from Hyde Park in Sydney’s CBD to the finish at Bondi Beach.

We normally register for the race in April. I like to think ourselves as healthy people so once we register, we go and make a plan for exercise and diet. We both are so excited and start our regime but after a few months we slack off a bit. As it is winter in June/July our enthusiasm slows down a bit. But we have managed to successful complete the run for the last few years.

The run starts from the city centre and passes through the suburbs of East Sydney, Kings Cross, Rushcutters Bay, Double Bay, Rose Bay, Vaucluse, Dover Heights and ends at Bondi Beach. The most difficult part of the course is “Heartbreak Hill” at the halfway mark, a 2 km long steep ascent from Rose Bay to Vaucluse along New South Head Road.

This year we ran in the blue group as we  able to register quickly. So our run was to start at 8.30 am. We caught a train to city and joined 85,000 other runners.

Like every year, just before the start of the race everyone throws their jumper so charity can collect it. It is a great idea as the runners become hot during the run but they need a jumper before they start the run. Look at some of the jumpers that landed on the trees looking like they grew on them.

city2surf (1) city2surf (6)

When the gun when off me and AS along with everyone else took our pace. This year we decided to pace ourselves so we are not too tired half way through. Therefore, we ran and walked alternatively. It really helped as I didn’t feel too tired at any stage at all. I have to thank AS for that as he knew we need some planning to complete the run easily.

As every year, there were people dressing up for charities as ballerinas, smurfs, Spiderman, flash, wonder women, a pie (seriously) and people in onesies . We also had opposition leader Mr Tony Abbot running the race as the support runner for blind runner Nathan Johnston, with the pair crossing the finishing line in 1 hour 21.16 seconds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Like every year, there were many people cheering along the way as well as many water and Gatorade stations. There were lots of live bands and mascots as well.

As it was a warm day and there were a few people hosing down runners to keep them cool. Also there were people giving away oranges, chips, lollies etc. Isn’t that nice and what a spirit to join the race.

This year I felt a lot better about the run. With AS’s plan I was never too tried to have to stop. We did really well until the last 500m when AS’s leg started to cramp. But I am just proud to say that we both finished the race.

City2Surf (5)

It was a good feeling when we crossed the finish line and knew that it was done for one more year.

City2Surf (4)

After the run, we went straight in to a Cancer council tent for a massage. For $10 for charity, they were giving 10 minutes massage and it was a great idea. Last year we missed out because we didn’t have cash but this year we made to carry cash for this. The people offering massage were university students studying to be chiropractor.

City2Surf (3)

After the massage, we jumped on the queue in the first food stall and had bacon and egg sandwich. We were just happy not to have to wait too long for the food. It was time to go home after the food.

I have to admit, I am less sore this year than the last year and the year before. I guess the massage and AS’s techniques definitely worked for us.

So official results for the City2Surf are in and I can be proud to say that I have beaten my last year record. I managed a time of 1:47:32, which I think is pretty decent with great experience and can’t wait to do it again next year.

Do you run long distance? Share tips if you have any to become a better runner.

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralia

XOXO

You may also like :

*Healthy eating *Benefits of wheat grass Juice
 *Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea

18 Comments

Posted in Australia, Health, Personal

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