Category Archives: Personal

City2Surf 2016

Posted on August 25, 2016 | 8 comments

Hello everyone, I am back. It has been a crazy few weeks for me. The holiday to New Zealand was amazing and we had fun. I will post more details on it soon.

Queenstown (4)

Since being back, we ran the City2Surf and I am glad it is over now. As you may have known, before Chhori, AS and I used to run the 14km every year and it was one of our default routines.

city2surf 2012

But for the last two years, we didn’t sign up for it as the first year, I was pregnant and the year after Chhori was too small.

This year we decided it was time to get back to running again. Having my parents here has allowed us to leave Chhori with them. Our aim this year was to do better than previous years and we were mentally ready.

city2surf 2012

During training, AS was very motivated and pushing himself very hard. Unfortunately, he hurt his knee during the process and had to take some medication so AS was not sure at all if he could run or not. On the other hand, I was determined to run.

city2surf (1)

I was training well in the beginning but it went pear shaped a few weeks before due to the rainy weather and the holiday to New Zealand.

To cut a long story short, on the race day AS was okay to run and we did a run and walk so the we don’t hurt his knee.

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I am so glad we did it as it was a beautiful day with thousands of fellow runners. The atmosphere was just beautiful and we had fun all along. Also while we walked we had our Pokémon Go app on so we managed to catch a few Pokémon too :).

We didn’t better our timing from previous years but were very close so I am happy with the outcome.

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I hope to do better next year. I am also looking forward to Chhori growing up so she will go with us as well.

Spring is almost here for us so I am very excited and looking forward to beautify Sydney days.

How have you all been?

Take care everyone.

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

 

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We are “Pokémon Go” family

Posted on July 18, 2016 | 5 comments

I went back and forth on whether or not to write about this, but decided to go ahead as it is my personal blog where I share what is happening in my life and Pokémon Go is definitely happening at this stage.

I am sure everyone is aware of Pokémon GO, which has been dominating the news for the last few weeks. Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you must have read or heard about the about this game around the world. I found out about Pokémon GO the same way too and it got me curious.

I didn’t know much about Pokémon at all expect the cute Pikachu before last week. For anyone who is not aware of it, Pokémon Go is a new mobile game released recently which is taking over the world. It is a game that uses GPS and to go to locations as a means of actually ‘Checking In’ at nearby stores, businesses or weird graffiti on the wall.

So I decided to download the game just to find out what it is all about. That evening I mentioned it to AS because normally he is very into things like this. He used to play Ingress (a similar game created by the same people) religiously a few years ago. Not to my surprise at all, he was already playing the game for the last 24 hours. He insisted that I start playing it as well but I told him, I will wait until the weekend so I have time to actually play.

But I didn’t sign up for a few days. One day, a colleague’s daughters (9 and 11) came to visits us at work. They were playing Pokémon GO and I took them for a walk to the nearby shopping center so they could catch some Pokémons. Anyway watching them so excited, I thought I needed to start playing it as well.

chhori (1)

So finally on the weekend we went to the parks and places around our area to play the game, I saw signs around my neighbourhood that I never knew even existed. I also saw many people playing the games, couples with young kids, family with older kids and just teenagers.

I am glad Chhori was so happy to be out and about and AS was happy to be playing the game. I enjoyed it too and I am on Level 7 now 🙂

chhori (2)

I have to admit I am not as crazy as many around the world or even as AS but I find the game very interesting to play if you have some free time.

It definitely makes you walk around and search for Pokémons. making you active but like we have heard so much on the news these days, you need to be aware of your surroundings so you don’t have an accident or worse, get mugged.

So far it has been only 78 hours of Pokémon for me and we have become a Pokémon family for sure. Let’s see how I go in the future.

So are you playing the game yet? Do share some fun stories about it.

Happy Monday.

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

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Becoming a mentor

Posted on July 5, 2016 | 2 comments

My workplace recently started a school based mentoring program to empower and support young people who are secondary students, to keep them engaged and introduce them to an alternate learning environment.

Image Source : http://www.med.emory.edu

I have always been interested to work with and help out young adults. Before this job, I used to be an IT teacher for students in diploma and advance diploma in a university. So when I saw the email floating around for mentoring, I signed up for it. The best thing about it is that most of the program happens during the lunch time which means I don’t need to compromise with the time I get to spend with Chhori.

Once I applied for the program I got a call for an interview. I was nervous about the process but it went quite smoothly and I was selected by the panel.

The program started 10 weeks ago and it was a great start. We met the girls we are going to mentor and had a few activities to get to know them better and vice versa.

From the first week, we have been meeting with them every Tuesday afternoon at lunch time and doing different activates.

I can’t believe that the weeks have just flow by and we have done cultural cooking, craft class, laser tag, self-defence class, speech class, African drumming class, sushi making class, yoga class and all in a fun environment.

Most of the girls picked for this program are average students who are a bit shy at first. As we got to know them slowly and they opened up and now they are really comfortable with us.

On the cultural cooking day, I made chicken momo and taught them how to wrap up the momo. I was surprised that they learned it so quickly and did a great job. Other mentors made pizza, frittata, calamari haloumi and scones and it was and awesome session.

Last week, we went out for lunch with them before their 2 weeks break and we will start the program again for another 10 weeks.

I am so happy that I signed up and am a part of such a great program to get involved with young people.

Have you done anything similar? Please share other ideas you have to get young people involved so we can use that for our next session.

Thank you everyone and take care.

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

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Good bye my Little Red Car…Hello my Big Red Car

Posted on July 29, 2015 | 12 comments

I am sure you have seen photos of my little red car on many occasions in this blog. I had an accident in that car and had done pujas on it during Dashain festival all of which I’ve blogged about.

Dashain (2)

That car is not my first car but I bought it brand new and it was with me even before AS arrived in Australia. I had it for a long time and I remember the first time I got a scratch on it, I was so upset with myself that I nearly cried.

I guess when you possess something for a while you do really love it.

While I was on maternity leave and staying home, AS was driving it around.

A few weeks ago, Sydney was drenched in rain for a few days and it was cold and wet and miserable.

One day, AS called me and asked me to give him details about our insurance as the car was registered in my name. He told me that the car was flooded while it was parked. I really didn’t think much about it then and gave him the details and waited for him to come home.

car (1) car (2)

But I realised later that the car was not coming home at all looking at the photos. Yes, that red one is my car and the one with the umbrella is AS. It looked like the car was in the middle of river, not on the side of the road.

The insurance company wrote it off stating unfit to repair and gave us its money. I was really sad for it go, I know AS was sorry that he was the one responsible for the incident. I am sure he didn’t mean it.

But as they say, “Everything happens for a reason” and I believe in that. Now I got a bigger car and it is red again. We were already thinking of getting a bigger car for me as Chhori’s pram and other stuff would not fit in my old car. But I still do miss my little red car as it was so easy to drive around.

Have a great week everyone.

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

12 Comments

Posted in General, Personal

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Nwaran for Chhori

Posted on March 25, 2015 | 18 comments

I know I am posting this late because Chhori is already a month now.

Nwaran (19)

Nwaran was performed when she was 11 days old.

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Nwaran ceremony is also known as Machabu Byakegu in Newari. This ceremony is performed to give a birth name to a child according to his/her lunar horoscope; this is usually not the name by which he/she will be known. This ceremony is normally small and celebrated amongst close family.

Typically, a priest is invited to perform the ceremony at home, and divines the child’s lunar horoscope from his birth details, as the mother is still recovering at home with the child. Until the mother and child are ‘purified’ (from past birth etc. in the religious sense), they should not visit the temple.

For the occasion, I wore a red sari which was specially brought from Nepal by my mum for the occasion. It was a cotton sari which is what new mums are supposed to wear for the occasion.

As soon as Chhori was born, we booked a priest for the ceremony and he gave us a list of things that are required for the day and everything was ready when he arrived at my place at 8.30 am on the day of the ceremony.

Nwaran (1)

The main ceremony was conducted in the balcony of our apartment.  Before the priest arrived we had cleaned and mopped the place. So, when he arrived, he started making a Mandap on the balcony. Once it was ready he asked AS to come and join him for the Puja.

Nwaran (2) Nwaran (3)

He had all his books of mantras and it took more than an hour for the first phase of the Puja to finish. It involved lots of mantra reciting from the books and lots of different Pujas to God, with candles on the Mandap.

Nwaran (4) Nwaran (5)

Then he asked me and Chhori to join the Puja. He chanted more mantras from the book. Then he asked me to perform Puja to the sun. Then he put tika on Chhori’s forehead and gave him a piece of paper which had details required to make her Jaata (lunar horoscope chart).

Nwaran (6) Nwaran (8) Nwaran (7)

Then my SIL took Chhori for Surya Darshan, i.e. to let the sunray fall on her as a blessing. Then the priest put Tika on AS, me and rest of the family. He also put Janai (holy string) around our wrists.

Nwaran (11)

After the ceremony, the priest left and the family function started. My parents, with the help of my brother and SIL, had prepared lots of trays of gifts for us and Chhori. It included sari and other gifts for me, clothes for AS and lots of clothes, toys, and manchester for Chhori as well as trays of sweets and fruits.

Nwaran (12) Nwaran (13) Nwaran (15)

The special thing required was special sliver bowl and spoon which my mum has got from Nepal.

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My parents put tika for AS, me and Chhori and gave us blessing and gifts. It was really nice and special to have all my family here for the occasion.

Nwaran (16) Nwaran (17) Nwaran (18)

Till  next post take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

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Posted in Nepali Culture, Newari Culture, Our daughter, Personal

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