Tag Archives: australian

30 Days list

Posted on June 17, 2014 | 6 comments

How many times has it happened to you that you buy something and as soon as you come home you realise that you don’t like it or you don’t need it. Sometimes you can return them but others you are stuck with. It happens to me a lot and I get annoyed for not being smarter with my buying.

I like something in the shop after trying it on and checking it properly so I happily give my credit card only to be disappointed in it after I come home.

So I and AS made a pact, if we are spending more than $100 items doesn’t matter what it is, we will keep them in our 30 days list. After 30 days if we still feel like we want that item then we will go and buy it.

We read it somewhere and thought it might work out for us and save us some money in the process.

I have a few items in the list already and waiting for the 30 days to pass.

Looks like I might buy one of the item but the others I can easily give them a pass.

What do you think of our 30 days list idea? What do you do to stop yourself buying things on impulse? Please share your ideas here.

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

6 Comments

Posted in Personal

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The Final 10,000 steps

Posted on June 17, 2014 | 5 comments

Yesterday was the last day of our 10,000 steps competition. For the whole month I had done 391,176 steps with an average of 13,489 steps per day.

steps

Our team has five people and we managed to rack up 1,762,967 steps.

However, we are not the team with the most steps as some other team has as many as 2,898,329.

Here is the graph for my last week.

graph

It has been a great experience and like in past winters, I have not put on any weight, instead I feel better and have more energy most of the days. My best days are when I swim in the afternoon which makes me feel refreshed every time.I love my weekend yoga session as well 🙂

myoga

Even though the competition is over, I am planning to keep counting my steps so I know how much exercise I do every day. If I see it go too low, it encourages me to do something after I get home.

Keep exercising everyone.

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

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Posted in General

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Australia won the World Cup and the weekend update

Posted on June 16, 2014 | Leave a comment

I know FIFA World Cups is still underway (I am not crazy :P) and I know that Australia lost its first match against Chile but that is not what I am talking about here.

Australia is the world champions once again, defending their Hockey World Cup title with a 6-1 demolition of the Netherlands. 😀 😀 😀

Australian hockey team also known as the Kookaburras played the most dominant performance of the tournament and gave Australians a reason to celebrate :).

Now back to the soccer world cup, I enjoyed heaps of soccer last weekend. It was great to be home and watch the games. Saturday started early for us as there were a few games on but the very important one at 8am was Chile vs Australia.

It was so disappointing to watch 2 goals from Chile in the first 15 minutes. Seriously, every goal was so painful but Australia did still really push them hard. Then the magic happened, Tim Cahill’s goal with a brilliant header gave some hope back to the Aussies.

There were a few opportunities for Australia in the second half like Cahill (twice) and Mathew Leckie, both headed over during the second half, while Mark Bresciano struck a sweet far-post half-volley that was saved by Claudio Bravo.

Australia went down to Chile 3-1 and I am sad because Australia played really well. We will take on the Netherlands next on Thursday morning. I know Netherlands are good after watching their game with Spain but there is still some hope.

After the game on Saturday, I made a big breakfast with bacon, hash browns, beans, mushroom, eggs, bread and tea. It was more like a brunch than a breakfast and it kept us full for a long time.

big breakfast

The plan for the rest of the afternoon was to clean the house but our friends called to check if we were interested to go to eat Newari food for lunch. We couldn’t resist so we went to Bhancha to enjoy lunch with them. We ordered Fokso fry, Nhyapu (brain fry), jhol momo, choila and chatamari. The food was yummy and I had fun with their daughter.

cholia Fokso fry jhol momo

After a very satisfying lunch, we went to the beach again. We wanted to give our failed walk from last weekend another try and this time there was no rain.

me

It took us over 90 minutes (over 10,000 steps) to do that walk but it was one of the best things we did for the weekend. The sunset was just beautiful and AS and I talked the whole time.

sunset

As the lunch was so filling, AS had salad for dinner and I had some fruits and that was the end of Saturday.

Sunday was planned as a lazy Sunday so we had late breakfast and caught up on some TV shows. I have to admit I wasted many hours watching mindless things on YouTube instead of cleaning the house. So it was already 2pm when I went to the kitchen to make lunch for the day and for the following day. I made an easy chicken couscous, which turned out nice.

couscous (8)

After that we Skyped with our parents; it is always nice to catch up with them. By the time we were done with both the family, it was almost the end of the weekend.

Of course, we watched more soccer this morning. Go Argentina 🙂

How was your weekend? Hope you had heaps of fun too.

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

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Posted in Australia, Personal, Sports

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Simple chicken couscous

Posted on June 15, 2014 | 9 comments

These days I am after recipes that are easy, quick and healthy. This is one pot wonder.

Serves: Four

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 onion, thinly sliced
  • 200g chicken breasts, diced
  • 1 inch fresh ginger, grated
  • 1-2 tablespoons harissa paste (use chilli paste if you don’t have harissa)
  • 2 teaspoon cumin powder
  • 10 dried apricots
  • 220g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 200 gm char grilled red capsicum sliced
  • 200g couscous
  • 200ml hot chicken stock
  • Salt to taste

couscous (1)couscous (2)

Method

  • Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion for 1-2 mins until the onions turn golden.
  • Add grated ginger and fry for a few minutes.
  • Now add the chicken and fry for 5 mins until cooked through

couscous (3)

  • Add cumin powder, salt and stir through the harissa to coat everything and cook for 1 min more.
  • Add in the apricots, red capsicum, chickpeas and couscous, then pour over the stock and stir once.

couscous (4)couscous (5)

  • Cover with a lid and leave for about 5 mins until the couscous has soaked up all the stock and is soft.

couscous (6)

  • Fluff up the couscous with a fork and serve with yogurt, if you like.

couscous (8)couscous (7)

  • Enjoy!!!

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

9 Comments

Posted in Foodie, Recipe

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Dakshinkali Temple

Posted on June 14, 2014 | 5 comments

Dakshinkali Temple is located 22 kilometres outside Kathmandu and the last time when I was in Nepal, I went there with my parents.

Dakshinkali Temple is one of the most famous and popular Hindu shrines dedicated to Goddess Kali, “The Black One”. Scowling and emaciated, with protruding tongue and red eyes, decked with a necklace of skulls, Kali is just another form of the great goddess Durga. Kali is believed to be extremely powerful and accomplished. In Hindus holy Vedas and Purans, it is written that she has a blue body with three eyes, each eye is made up of the Sun, the Moon and fire respectively.

The drive from our place to the temple was very scenic once we crossed the ring road area. The roads were windy but I loved the view of old houses and wide green fields.

Legend has it that Daksinkali came into existence after goddess Kali herself appeared in the dream of a Malla king, the ruler of 14th century Nepal. Goddess Kali then commanded the king to build a temple dedicated to her in a very unknown and strange place. As the command was about to be followed, a person said that he already had a stone image of the goddess kali in the same place where the goddess  commanded the king to build the temple. The idol was then left open to the elements as she had commanded and over her head a gilded canopy was erected with four golden serpents. Also images of lord Ganesh, seven Asthamatrikas and a stone Bhairav were erected near her image.

Dakshinkali (2)

Dakshinkali temple is of great importance among those who need her blessing and also among the blessed ones. There is a strong belief in the ability of the goddess to make wishes come true.

Dakshinkali (3)

To satisfy the blood-lust of the goddess, pilgrims take a menagerie of chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, pigs and even the occasional buffalo up the path to the temple to be beheaded and transformed into cuts of meat by the temple priests, who are also skilled butchers.

Dakshinkali (1)

We went there on the weekdays so it was not busy. It took us 10 minutes for our puja and from there we went to another temple on the top of the hill which is called the Mata temple.

Dakshinkali (4)

After puja, we went to one of the local restaurants and had tea and freshly prepared sel, jeri, and malpuwa. Just writing about it, I am salivating as it was really good.

Dakshinkali (5)Dakshinkali (6) Dakshinkali (7) Dakshinkali (8) Dakshinkali (10)

After that my mum did a quick shopping at the local market there as they were selling gundruk, kafal and other items.

Dakshinkali (9)

On the way back home, we also stopped at the Sheka Narayan.

Dakshinkali (12)Dakshinkali (11)Dakshinkali (15)

There is temple on the top and a pond filled with crystal clear water. The pond has different types of fishes swimming around. There was a guy selling a bag of bread to feed the fish. It was a really nice and quiet place compared to Dakshinkali Temple.

Dakshinkali (13) Dakshinkali (14)

Every time I visit places like this, I feel really happy to see all the old Nepali architecture and idols of god which has been preserved from ages past. If you are in Kathmandu, it is a nice place to go for a day trip.

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

5 Comments

Posted in Kathmandu, Nepal, Nepal 2014

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