Category Archives: Australia

My life in Australia

My Easter long weekend

Posted on April 11, 2012 | 9 comments

Even though I don’t celebrate Easter, it is one of the best times of the year to have fun. Every year there is an Easter breakfast at work with Easter buns and Easter eggs and after that, off we go for a 4 day long weekend.

This year after a long time, I spent my Easter long weekend in Sydney. Before, I have always tried to escape Sydney at this time of the year as it is the second longest holiday here after Christmas, but this year we have a holiday planned in May so we thought it was better to enjoy Easter in Sydney. And I was surprised how busy we were even in Sydney.

Over the four day period, we attended a family dinner, a baby shower, catch up with my friends for dinner, catch up with AS’s friends for dinner, catch-up with his family for  dinner, whew, even writing all that tired me out! I couldn’t believe that the time went so fast and I am back at work now.

As I mentioned before in my post , everyone around me is either pregnant or already has a baby. Our friend N and J are expecting their first baby soon, so I went for the baby shower. It was organised in a park and we had great fun with them and their guests. The most entertaining part of the day was the games they had organised. If anyone is planning a baby shower soon and looking for ideas for games, here are a few fun ones from the day.

  • Fill baby bottle with milk and have a competition on who can finish the milk from the baby bottle.
  • Have adults (blindfolded) taste baby food and ask what flavour it is.
  • Blindfold people and make them feel baby stuffs like pacifier, nappy, clothes and ask them what they are.
  • The best one out of all, in a baby nappy, put some baby food (like green spinach or yellow corn ones) which will look like poo and have a competition on who can lick them clean quickest. I know it sounds gross but it was fun to watch. 🙂

The next evening we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner, the food was amazing and the highlight of it was the fish we had. Tasty with a very spicy sauce.

Then one evening we went to AS’s friend’s place for dinner. There was so much food that by the end of the evening I was so stuffed that I could  barely walk.

On the last evening, we went for a BBQ and momo in AS’s cousin’s place. How can Nepali people party without a momo? I got to meet his side of the family and make momo. The sauce was really spicy and tasty.

Also Easter is the time to indulge with lots of chocolates as well so there was lots of exchange of chocolates at work as well as with friends. AS is a big fan of dark chocolates so I bought him handmade chocolates from Belle Fleur. It just melts in your mouth and tastes divine. They were in shape of bunny, Easter eggs and hot cross bun.

How was your Easter break?

Hope everyone had a great time.

9 Comments

Posted in Australia, Holidays

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Yumcha

Posted on March 27, 2012 | 12 comments

Living in Sydney, we get access to all type of the food from around the world. It feels really good to choose from hundreds of options when we decide to go out for lunch or dinner.

Last weekend, it was very wet and windy so we decided to go for some nice and warm Yumcha lunch at Dragon Boat Restaurant in Darling harbour.

Yum cha also know as Ban ming  is a Chinese style morning or afternoon tea, which involves drinking Chinese tea and eating dim sum dishes. Yum cha in Cantonese literally means “drink tea”, while ban ming is a more poetic “tasting of tea”.

To start of with, the place has an amazing view of the Darling harbour. It is one of the most happening places in Sydney so even on a wet day, the atmosphere was great. As we had gone there around mid day, the place was not busy but as the lunch time had started the place filled up quickly and most of the people were having warm food, probably due to the weather.

The place was excellently furnished with Chinese red wood furniture and we had an amazing view as we were given a window seat.

The place was a bit pricy for Yumcha compared to other places but we loved the Peking duck. We also had meat spring roll, Pancake, prawn dim sim, mixed fried dumpling, chicken leg, fried prawns and pork belly. I was very disappointed by dumplings and the worst part was, the waiters are so unfriendly. They try not to look at you as much as possible. We had to wait a long time for a glass of water.

Apart from that,I had a great time with my husband.I was happy to enjoy good company with nice food. I still love my Yumcha and will go back again but may be to a different restaurant.

12 Comments

Posted in Australia, Foodie

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International Women’s Day

Posted on March 8, 2012 | 10 comments

Today is International Women’s Day and it is a day to celebrate us, women, and have respect, appreciation and love towards us. Because everything starts from you and if you don’t respect, appreciate and love yourself, you can’t share that with the world.

There are many reasons why this day is celebrated but I want to celebrate it by listing all the good reasons why I rejoice being a woman.

  • Woman is a daughter, sister, wife, mother and a friend. I can’t imagine this world without them. Yes, that is who we are.
  • Women have so many choices. They can work or stay home. Be a nurse or a soldier.
  • How can I forget to mention the choices women have in fashion. One can choose to wear jeans or skirts or dress or shorts or Kurta or Sari or Omani or Kimono or Shalwar Kameez. Anything your heart desires.
  • Talking about fashion, how about high heels, they are my favourite and give women an instant boost in height and confidence or they can choose to wear a ballet flat or thongs and still look beautiful.
  • Make-up is a part of our daily regime and we can experiment with different, glamorous looks.
  • Doors are held open for us, chairs are pulled out for us.
  • We could dye our hair and get rid of the gray without being ridiculed.
  • We have the gift of female intuition which usually steers us in the right direction.
  • Women are great listeners and don’t always feel they need to fix things.
  • We can wear coloured nail polish to match the season, mood or our clothing.
  • Women can multi-task with ease.
  • Women are intelligent enough to know there is no such thing as a “Happy Period.”
  • Chances are in front of every awesome man is an awesome woman who made him that way

I think the song by Helen Reddy sums of everything I want to express right now. This is for all the ladies out there. Here is the video and lyrics if you haven’t heard it before.

I am woman, hear me roar

In numbers too big to ignore

And I know too much to go back an’ pretend

’cause I’ve heard it all before

And I’ve been down there on the floor

No one’s ever gonna keep me down again

CHORUS

Oh yes I am wise

But it’s wisdom born of pain

Yes, I’ve paid the price

But look how much I gained

If I have to, I can do anything

I am strong (strong)

I am invincible (invincible)

I am woman

You can bend but never break me

’cause it only serves to make me

More determined to achieve my final goal

And I come back even stronger

Not a novice any longer

’cause you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul

CHORUS

I am woman watch me grow

See me standing toe to toe

As I spread my lovin’ arms across the land

But I’m still an embryo

With a long long way to go

Until I make my brother understand

Oh yes I am wise

But it’s wisdom born of pain

Yes, I’ve paid the price

But look how much I gained

If I have to I can face anything

I am strong (strong)

I am invincible (invincible)

I am woman

Oh, I am woman

I am invincible

I am strong

FADE

I am woman

I am invincible

I am strong

I am woman

Also there is the song “ I enjoy being a girl”, which I love .

Saying this I don’t hate men. I think we complement each other, like wheels of a bike. It is just that I am happy and content to be a woman and I won’t have it any other way.

To the all the ladies out there, Happy International Women’s Day. Enjoy and be proud of being a woman.

10 Comments

Posted in Australia

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Update on Mardi Gras 2012

Posted on March 6, 2012 | 6 comments

 The weather didn’t cooperate with this year’s Mardi Gras as it was rainy and windy the whole day but it didn’t stop around 300,000 spectators from coming out in the aweful weather to watch the parade of 120 floats and almost 9000 participants. Here are some of the photos from the day.

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Posted in Australia

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Sydney Mardi Gras

Posted on March 2, 2012 | 5 comments

Tomorrow, 3rd of March, is  Sydney Mardi Gras which is a yearly parade for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, and intersex communities in Sydney, Australia. Every year there are lots of people who visit Sydney for this event and it is one of the biggest of its kind.

Normally this parade consists of tens of thousands of participants with lots of floats and loud music. Then there are thousands more who fill the streets of Sydney to get a glimpse of this magnificent event. It is also telecast on TV so there are thousands more who enjoy viewing the parade from their homes as well. 

This year for the first time, the parade will be broadcast to an international audience online.

 

In the 1970s, Sydney Mardi Gras started as a celebration following a morning protest march and commemoration of the Stonewall Riots where 500 people gathered on Oxford Street, calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals in employment and housing . 

These days it has changed into a fun-filled parade with colorfully dressed men and women having a great time. There will be many floats with people dressing up as brides and grooms, cheerleaders, nuns, vampires etc. 

For the last few years each parade has a Chief of Parade like Rupert Everett (2007), Margaret Cho (2008), Matthew Mitcham (2009), Amanda Lepore (2010) and Lily Tomlin(2011), Peter Tatchell (2011) and I am so excited about this year’s Chief of Parade. She is no other than the famous Kyile Minogue, Australia’s pop queen. I am so excited to see her float after watching her spectacular show. I am sure it is going to be amazing and breath-taking. 

According to the news, Minogue’s song arrangements are completely tailor-made for the show, backed by 16 dancers, to be held in the Royal Hall of Industries at an unspecified time during the night. 

Diverse music styles and more performance art mark this year’s party, with ’90s sounds fashionably strong. Long, leggy drag singer RuPaul is confirmed to be there as well. 

I am looking forward to going and watching the parade this year. It will be AS’s first one too so I hope he will enjoy watching the fun and fabulous parade with some weird stuff mixed in. I will update all of you on this year’s parade soon. 

Enjoy some photos from last years Mardi Gras. 

5 Comments

Posted in Australia

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