Category Archives: Personal

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.

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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 🙂

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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

5 Comments

Posted in Personal

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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

2 Comments

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Till  next post take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

18 Comments

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

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Introducing our beautiful daughter (Chhori)

Posted on March 4, 2015 | 84 comments

After writing so much about my pregnancy, sorry I disappeared. As many of you might have guessed, I was a bit busy lately.

It is AS and my absolute pleasure to introduce our beautiful daughter, Little M. Our lives have been enriched by the arrival of our beautiful girl and I look forward to sharing many more posts with you in the coming weeks, months, years.

In this blog, I will refer her as Chhori from now on which means daughter in Nepali language.

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Chhori was born on Friday 20 February, 2 weeks before her due date. She came in her own way, on her own time, and turned our lives over in the meantime.

Like every mother I am biased but I think she is an absolute stunner and we feel truly blessed to have her in our life.

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Adjusting to our new life has not been easy but I am so glad to have my lovely husband and amazing mum to help me with Chhori. I know we are only 12 days in but I am loving every minute of motherhood and I know there will be a lot more to in the future. AS and I are truly struggling to find the words to describe how life has changed for us. No matter how prepared you try to be, you can’t really understand how it will feel, what will change, what you will accept and what you will struggle with; until you hold your baby in your arms.  And even then, we are still at a loss for words.

We have had busy days since her birth, with lots of visitors and she has been spoiled by friends and family.

I will try my best to blog whenever I can or I should say when my new boss allow me some spare time. Till then,

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

84 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Our daughter, Personal

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