Nominations open for NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2017

Posted on September 23, 2017 | 28 comments

Like very year, I am hosting Nepaliaustralian’s Blog Award.

Nepaliaustralian’s Blog Awards celebrates the best in blogging with 8 winners being announced at Jan 2018.

Every year many blogs are created to express thoughts and emotions. Some are really interesting while others are funny. While some choose to share about their life or relationship others share their skills and passion like cooking, photography or fashion. No matter what field the blog belongs to, if it is good, it needs to be recognized and more and more people should be able to reach these blogs.

Please nominate your favorite blogs in following the categories.

  1. Best Blog 2017
  2. Best Photo Blog 2017
  3. Best Food Blog 2017
  4. Best Travel Blog 2017
  5. Best Fashion Blog 2017
  6. Best Personal Blog 2017
  7. Most Diverse Blog 2017
  8. Best New Blog 2017 (Blog must be started in 2017)

 The rules:

  • Any pages with dated entries that existed at some point during the year 2017 are eligible.
  • Only one nomination from one person per category. You can nominate the same blog for multiple categories. Please leave  comments with your nominations as below. Your comments won’t be visible to anyone.

Award category                               Blog name                        Blog/Post URL

  • You can nominate your own blog .
  • Nominations close on 10 December 2017.
  • After nominations close, I will post the top 5 blogs in each category and you can vote for them. The Blog Award will be announced in Jan 2018.
  • E-mail addresses or blog addresses are required to vote.

Please write a post in your blog about this award or reblog this post so your readers can nominate you for the award. There are buttons at the end of this post for you to share or you can use the link below.

Nominations open for NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2017

Also add the image below with the link on the side bar of your blog so your readers can click there and reach this post to nominate you.

You can Facebook or Tweet this post so that more people become aware of your blog and this blog award.

Good luck everyone!!!

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

 

 

28 Comments

Posted in Nepaliaustralian Blog Awards

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Dashain and Kite Festival

Posted on September 21, 2017 | 11 comments

Today, 21st September is Ghatasthapana, the first day of Dashain and in Sydney the celebration has already started. Last Saturday, like every year, Guthi Australia organised a free event to celebrate the Dashain in the Rockdale Bicentenary Park.

They have been organising this event for the last few years and I really like it as it is a perfect place to catch up with friends and family. They try to bring the Dashain vibe to Sydney as much as possible by organising lots of cultural and traditional programs during this auspicious time of the year.

We went there around lunch time and headed straight to food stalls. We had momos and Sel roti.

As we sat to eat, we started encountering many friends and family. After the quick bite, we went and tried out our hand at flying a kite.

My attempt was unsuccessful with my nephew as it didn’t go very high but there were some pro kite flyers who were doing a really good job.

The main highlights of the event for me were the Rath (Charito), Kumari, Lakhe dance, Pulu kisi and colourful kites in the sky.

There was a little girl dresses up as Kumari, the only living Goddess in the world worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal.

We also enjoyed the Lakhe dance and the Pulu kisi (elephant) dance.

Lakhe is a demon in Nepalese folklore with a ferocious face with protruding fangs and mane of red or black hair, who protects the people.

Pulu Kisi is believed to be the carrier of Indra himself. People view the masked creature with a roar of excitement and laughter. From time to time it does naughty and mischievous things by running through the street knocking anyone that comes in its path and swinging its tail.

Chhori had a great time as well running around, playing on the swing in the park and enjoying the food. We had a great time mingling with friends and family .

Wishing you all a very Happy Dashain!!!

Here are the posts I have written regarding Dashian over the years .

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

11 Comments

Posted in Australia, Celebrations, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals

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Nepaliaustralian turns 6!!!

Posted on September 13, 2017 | 13 comments

I can’t believe that nepaliaustralian is turning 6 already. It is so much older than Chhori and this blog is like my second child. 🙂

September 13 will always remain a special day for me and the fact that I am still blogging and writing this post to celebrate the amazing journey I have had through this blog, I couldn’t be any happier.

This blog was not a something I planned. I was just following many blogs and commenting my on them. Then I realised that some of the fellow bloggers were interested in my comments and we sometimes had a chat on a blog post with ideas and views. That made me realise that maybe some people might be interested in what I have to share and the blog just followed from that realization.

I know many of my blogger friends from when I started have moved on to different phases of their life but I am so glad to know them via their blogs online or even offline. I have even met a few of these wonderful people and without this blog, it won’t have been possible at all.

Today the blog has 974 posts, 78 pages, 10,135 comments with 1,604,274 page views, 4377 followers and 981,658 readers from 222 countries visiting my blog :).

As I kept on writing, I have met and known so many wonderful people in this last 6 years and today I want to take the opportunity to thank them. You know who you are and I value your presence in my life. Thank you for encouraging me, reading my rants and giving so much love to me, AS and Chhori.

Thank you for liking my posts as well as providing comments on my posts.  Thank you to those who email me with words of encouragement and making me realise that my blog has helped them in some way. I feel blessed to be in the company of all the wonderful human beings who have helped to make my blog what it is today. Your support always encourages me to write more.

I have a virtual cake for all to hand around! Cheers!!!

P.S: To celebrate the occasion like every year, I will be opening the nominations for Nepaliaustralian’s Blog Award 2017 so watch out for my future post.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

 

13 Comments

Posted in Celebrations

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Wait 5 minutes please

Posted on September 9, 2017 | 4 comments

As usual I am learning a lot of new lessons in being a parent. I have heard a million times from parents to never say any secret or embarrassing stuff in front of your child because they will repeat it at the most awkward of times.

So we try to be very careful about what we say in front of Chhori. Now that she has started to speak more she tends to repeat whatever we say.

The other day AS was joking and said, “Sexy mama” and immediately Chorri said, “Sexy Sexy Sexy”. When I told to her not to say it she was even more amused and repeated it another few times. We could not help but laugh. Our daughter is definitely growing up.

So I learned that, not only do they learn and repeat embarrassing stuff easily, they also learn everything.

The other day when we were in a department store I told Chhori, “Lets go” and she said, “5 minutes please”. At first I couldn’t believe what she had said so I repeated myself and she did too and that was exactly what she had said. AS was just around the corner and hadn’t hear our conversation. I told him what Chhori said and he didn’t believe me at first but when we tried to leave, Chhori clearly said again, “5 minutes please”.

We used to use that phrase a lot with her when she asked for something and we were in the middle of something so now she has started to do it a lot more now.

“Chhori come out, lunch is ready”

“5 minutes please”

“We are going out now, put on your shoes”

“5 minutes please ”

So you get the idea. Now our life revolves around her 5 minutes 😊😊😊

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Take care.

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

4 Comments

Posted in General

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Diamond Head Hike with 2 year toddler

Posted on September 7, 2017 | 4 comments

While in Hawaii, we decided to go and do the famous Diamond Head hike.

Diamond Head Crater is the remains of an extinct volcano with the highest point of the hike being 760 feet. Diamond Head’s Hawaiian name is Le’ahi. After the Pearl Harbor attacks, the military used it as a lookout post installing pillboxes and foxholes to prevent Hawaii from future attacks.

The trail is around 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) with almost 200 steps and a steep uphill tunnel.

Initially, we were not sure if we would be able to do it as there were mixed reviews of the kid friendliness of the hike but after doing lots of research, we decided that we would do it with the worst case scenario being returning in the middle if it was not doable.

As suggested by many people, we wanted to start the hike early in the morning so got there by 8am. It was around 15 minutes’ drive from our apartment. We drove through Kapiolani Park (located at the end of Waikiki) headed towards Diamond Head on Kalakaua Boulevard. It was a beautiful drive that turns into Poni Moi Road and follows the Diamond Head Road going through a tunnel that leads to the center of the Diamond Head Crater where the hike begins.

We thought we beat the traffic and would be the first few people but we were so wrong.

Once we got to the car park, we found that the car park was already full and they asked us to come back later.

We were so disappointed and returned the carpark outside the tunnel which was full as well. We waited for a few minutes there and decided to go back and check again. Luckily the carpark was open and we were allowed to go in after paying $5.

We put our on sunscreens and started our hike. At the start of the hike, there is a sign that said most people take 1.5 – 2 hours to hike to the summit and back.

Chhori started to walk with us but after 5 minutes she wanted us to carry her.  I and AS looked at each other and wondered if we were going to be able to hike or not.

AS decided to carry her first and did the first part of the hike. First half is not very bad at all and we saw lots of kids, older people going or returning from the hike. There were so many people on the trail and we saw parents carrying babies in baby carriers as well.

After around 30 minutes of the hike, I took Chhori and continued our walk. I really enjoyed the hike despite feeling a little hot.

Then came the famous and very steep 99 steps. I told AS I am going to climb the steps in one go carrying Chhori.

AS was worried that I might have to stop and take it slow but me and Chhori counted each step and made it to the top in one go.

Once we climbed the steps, I was tired and waited for AS and my friend to catch up before making our way through another tunnel and up a staircase to the summit.

It was so good to see the wonderful view from top of the crater. We took heaps of photos and rested for a while before trekking down which was much easier than climbing up.

 

Overall we had a great day and an amazing experience.

Few things to remember if you are going for this hike

·         Make sure you carry enough water and sunscreen

·         Go as early as possible to escape the heat and parking drama

·         Make sure to wear comfortable shoes

·         It is possible to do this hike with kids but be prepared to carry them or turn back if needed

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

 

 

4 Comments

Posted in Holidays, USA - Hawaii

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