Tag Archives: Nepaliaustralian

A walk in wardrobe: Dream come true

I know every girl dreams of having a walk-in wardrobe like Carrie Bradshaw’s from Sex and the City movie but not everyone can have Mr Big in her life who will surprise her with a wardrobe as big as a one bedroom apartment.

Actually, it may not be only a woman’s dream to have a walk-in wardrobe, what about the sneakers wardrobe of Turtle from Entourage. BTW, Entourage is one of my favourite series  :).

I am sure in many of my previous posts I have mentioned how I would love to have a walk-in wardrobe. The fasionista inside me always dreamed of opening a door and seeing all her clothes and shoes nicely hanging from floor to ceiling in a walk in wardrobe.

As you, all know, I have moved recently to a bigger place and one of the things I got in this new place is a walk-in wardrobe. 😀 Initially, it was just a storeroom which was meant to be a storage or study but from the first time I saw this place, I knew what I wanted to do in that space, a walk-in wardrobe.

My hubby was nice enough to let me have my dream so we designed the space and bought wardrobes and finally I have a walk in wardrobe.

I am sure all of us have seen big fancy walk-in wardrobes on TV. Mine is definitely nothing like that so don’t be disappointed when you see it. It’s not the biggest walk-in closet ever or the prettiest of all but it’s certainly my little heaven. Here is a peak.

walk in robe

walk in (2)

walk in (3)

You can imagine my excitement when I walk in every morning to pick my dress and shoes to go to work. It feels like I am shopping from my closet. Before, this wardrobe, I had my clothes overflowing everywhere but now everything is in one place and the feeling is just awesome.   To make it fair, my hubby is getting the whole wardrobe in our main bedroom and I had this slice of heaven to myself. As I said, it is not very big but has enough space for my dresses, shoes, bags and accessories. It took me a while but I have arranged the entire wardrobe.

I have my work clothes in one section while my daily dresses at one end, parties and formal dresses are on one rack and summer dresses on another.

walk in wardrobe (8)

Then all my shoes are nicely displayed in two cupboards so I know what I have. I have talked about my obsession for shoes here and here so you know that I have many pairs of shoes. Now as they are all visible, I know my options upfront. I made sure all the black ones are at one area and all closed shoes are on another. It feels so good to know that I have so many pairs of shoes. Before, most of them were in boxes so I had no idea what I owe.

walk in wardrobe (11)

walk in wardrobe (19)

I also have enough room for my accessories like earrings, belts, hats etc.

walk in wardrobe (15) walk in wardrobe (10)

Except my winter clothes, everything is in this room.

walk in wardrobe (2)

For my winter stuffs, I used the wardrobe in the second bedroom where I have jackets, coats hanging while all my jumpers and sweaters are neatly folded on the shelves. Then I have scarves, gloves, stockings and beanies in drawers.

walk in wardrobe (1)

All my saris and traditional outfits are not used so often so they are in my suitcases. I can’t believe I have so many saris and kurta surwals. Most of them are from my wedding.

walk in wardrobe (14)For my makeup and other accessories, I have a slim boy. Each shelf has different items and now I can match my outfit to different accessories like rings, sun glasses, necklace and lip gloss more quickly.

walk in

I still want to do some more in this room like having a nice carpet and a small ottoman. But for now, I am very happy with what I have.

 “I like my money right where I can see it…hanging in my closet.” —Carrie Bradshaw

So tell me about your wardrobe. What you wish you have?

XOXO

M from Nepaliaustralian

You may also like :

*Spring Cleaning and Shopaholic *A guide to culling your closet

*

Apungo and halwa

Last week I had puja at home so I needed to learn how to make apungo and halwa for puja. I had never tried to make it before but I had no choice but to learn this time around. So here I am sharing the recipe. It turned out really well and I was surprised how easy it was.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup ghee (clarified butter)
  • 3 cups plain flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water

Steps

  1. Take a thick pan and pour ¾ cup ghee in the pan.
  2. halwa (2)When ghee starts to melt, add plain flour and fry  it stirring continuously. Make sure, the flour doesn’t turn brown.
  3. halwa (3)After a while when the flour is cooked, it should smell really good.
  4. halwa (4)Once it is cooked, take out half of the fried flour and set it aside on a plate.
  5. halwa (5)Add 2 table spoons of sugar to the plate and mix well.
  6. Apungo is now ready.
  7. With the remaining flour, fry it some more until it is light brown in colour.
  8. halwa (6)Add the rest of the sugar and then add the water and keep stirring.
  9. halwa (7)When the water and flour is mixed well and ghee starts showing on the top, add the rest of the ghee and Halwa is now ready too.
  10. halwa (8) halwa (9)If you are making halwa only skip step 5, 6, and 7.

halwa (11)

 Enjoy!!!

You may also like:

*Seviya kheer (vermicelli kheer) *Kheer(Rice pudding) *Gundruk Aloo Bhatmas Curry

Our Story : First date – Part 12

This is a continuation of my previous post. Please read the previous posts here, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 , Part 6 , Part 7 ,Part 8 ,Part 9 , Part 10 and Part 11.

When we finally met, I could barely contain my happiness, as my first thought was, finally we are together. After the initial meeting at the airport, AS insisted that he would drop me home even though his home would come before mine did when coming from the airport. I felt really happy about this gesture and was happy to spend a few minutes more with him. So he dropped me home and promised to call once he got home. I couldn’t wait for him to call me and talk to me.

But I knew it would be a while. He had come home after a few years so he would need to spend some time with his family, take some rest and then may be call me. I promised myself that no matter how much I wanted to talk with him, I wouldn’t call him. I wanted him to have his time with his family. So I had lunch and was surfing the internet when he called. I was just pleased that he did. He told me that he was going to take a shower, have his lunch and spend some time with family. He would call me again whenever he could but we were meeting tomorrow for sure.

That day we had a very short talk in the evening but I was excited waiting for the next day. It was going to be our official first date.

As he had his birthday a few days ago, we had celebrated over Skype. I had a muffin with a candle and gave it to him online. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to eat his cake but he was glad that I was there to celebrate his birthday.

our story (1)I had got a gift and a card for him as well which I wanted to give it to him. I was eagerly waiting for him to open that. So the plan was to meet for lunch and after lunch, my parents were to meet him.

I had millions of thoughts in my mind when I went to bed that night; excited, scared, happy, worried and loved.

The next morning I work up early and helped my mum clean up. I think my parents were more excited to meet AS than I was. My mum was going to prepare some nice lunch and she was busy giving my dad her shopping list. I told them that he would be full as we were meeting for lunch first but as you know how it is with all mums, they love to feed.

Anyway, I had shower and was thinking hard on what to wear. Normally, I would just slip on a dress but it was winter so my choice was to wear jeans or be traditional and wear Kurta. I decided on jeans and a jacket. I wore a scarf and checked to make sure I looked all right before going out. We were to meet at a cafe midway between both our places and it was a date.

I had known him for years now but he was my boyfriend for only a few weeks so I had millions of questions on my mind I needed answers to. I really didn’t know where we were heading and what would happen when I went back to Australia and he to USA. As I was leaving the house, he called me asking me not to leave yet. He decided to pick up me so I waited until he came. He called me from outside and we went to the restaurant.

We reached the restaurant and ordered coffee and some lunch. I really wanted to hug him and hold him but in Nepal, it is a big no no to public display of affection . So the only thing I could do was hold his hand. We talked for a while when I told him I needed to use the ladies. Then I went around to the café area to check if they had any cakes as I wanted him to have his birthday cake but unfortunately, they didn’t have any big cakes except muffins. I thought they would definitely have one so hadn’t organised anything beforehand. Anyway, I told them to bring a muffin with candle lit on it after we had finished our lunch.

When I was back, lunch was already served and we had our food. I seriously didn’t care about the food at all as it was so good to have him next to me. All I wanted was to look at him and just listen to him talk. We talked about so many things including what we were gonna do and what both families were hoping for.

our story (6) our story (7)Once the lunch was over, the waiter came with his birthday cake, a muffin with candle on it. He was totally surprised and I was really pleased to see his expression. I gave his card and gift. He kept on saying thank you and I was just happy that I was able to make him happy.

First, he opened the card and it read,

our story (2)

For you Dear friend and love

Friends like flowers,

grow on the way

on the path we

travel from

day to day.

Some are fair-weather flowers

that fade before long,

but some of them

bloom even when

things go wrong.

And friend like you

are the flowers, that grow  in

beauty with the showers.

Our friendship

has bloomed through

the wind and rain,

it has blossomed

brighter through

trouble and pain,

that’s why your birthday,

I want to promise you…

I will always be there for you.

to stand by you

always and to be

your friend all life through

YOU MEAN A LOT TO ME.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

DEAR FRIEND!

I promise to be there

every birthday

for rest of our life.

He read it carefully and just hugged me and said, “I love You M.” Then he opened the gift.

our story (3) our story (4)It was a clock with a heart on it. I had been so confused as to what to buy and finally settled on the clock. I wanted to tell him that my heart ticked because of him and how much I am in love with him and every minute of my life is meant to be spent with him from now on.

I also bought him a love heart key ring, I know it is a bit cheesy but I loved it. I bought a pair, which made a whole heart, and when broken into two, each key ring would have half a heart.

our story (5)I really liked the idea so I bought them for us. (Both of us still have them in our key ring 🙂 ). When he saw that, he was touched and told me that he will never break my heart like the one he was holding.

He said it was one of the best birthday celebrations he ever had as he was spending it with me. Isn’t that just sweet? I couldn’t be happier hearing those words.

Then he said he had something for me too. I was seriously not hoping to get anything from him but was happy he thought of me while we were apart. He took out something from his bag. The first one was an Oscar statue which said “Best Sweetheart.”

our story (8)I was touched that he thought of me and bought such a significant gift. It meant a lot to me. I told him that I was ecstatic with the gift. Then he said he wasn’t done yet and took something else out of the bag. It was a red square box and had a white gift bow around it.  I really didn’t know that he made such an effort to look for something for me. I opened it and it was a pair of pearl earrings. It was just perfect and I couldn’t hold my happiness.

our story (1)AS: I hope you like them. I didn’t know what to buy but I thought this will be nice on you.

Me: It is just perfect. Thanks love. I wasn’t hoping to get anything from you at all.

AS: I am just glad you love them. I wasn’t too sure what to buy but when I was in LA, when I saw the statue. I knew that it would be a perfect gift for my sweetheart.

Me: Ohoo, thank you so much. And I love the pearl too. I promise to keep it safe and wear it all the time  🙂

AS: I am glad you did 🙂 (big grin on his face)

We spent some more time in the café and then left to go to my home. It was his turn to meet my parents that day and the next day would be mine. I warned him that my mum had cooked a big lunch for him.

This is it for now but will write soon about our experience meeting the parents next.

Please share your first date story. What were you feeling and how do you feel now after many year? Love to hear.

Take care everyone!

XOXO

M from nepaliaustralian

Go to Part 13

You may also like:

*10 Questions from Yatin on my “Our Story “post *Our Story: Back to Sydney – Part 3 *Our Story: Good friends again – Part 4

 

Guest Post : The Ancient City

One of my reader, Nadia Islam Nitul , visited Nepal recently and captured some amazing pictures. Thank you for sharing them here.

In the year 2012, I went to visit Nepal on a youth project of RYS( Religious Youth Service) . That time, I went to visit the ancient city in Kathmandu Valley:  Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

Bhaktapur also Bhadgaon or Khwopa, is an ancient Newar town in the east corner of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. It is located in Bhaktapur District in the Bagmati Zone. It is the third largest city in Kathmandu valley and was once the capital of Nepal during the great Malla Kingdom until the second half of the 15th century.

Bhaktapur is listed as a World Heritage by UNESCO for its rich culture, temples, and wood, metal and stone artwork. It is the home of traditional art and architecture, historical monuments and craft works, magnificent windows, pottery and weaving industries, excellent temples, beautiful ponds, rich local customs, culture, religion, festivals, musical mystic and so on. Bhaktapur is still an untouched as well as preserved ancient city that is itself a world to explore for tourists.

Here are some photos from Kathmandu Valley.

Nepal (9) Nepal (10) Nepal (11) Nepal (12) Nepal (13) Nepal (14) Nepal (15) Nepal (16) Nepal (17) Nepal (18) Nepal (19) Nepal (20) Nepal (21) Nepal (22) Nepal01 (1) Nepal01 (2) Nepal01 (3) Nepal01 (4) Nepal01 (5) Nepal01 (6) Nepal01 (7) Nepal01 (8)

Please click here if you are interested to write a guest post for me.

Chicken gravy means chicken gravy only, no chicken please

I know the title is very confusing but I will try to explain it.

Last night, AS and I were out and so we decided to eat out. We were discussing what to eat when we saw this South Indian restaurant. I like Indian food so it looked like a good choice to both of us.

We went inside and were given a six sitter table as they didn’t have any empty table for two. I didn’t know much about South Indian dishes expect Dosa so I asked AS as he had spent 5 years in South India.

Anyway, finally we decided to eat Chicken 65 and set meals. AS ordered Anjappar popular non veg  meal which comes with Chappati, rice, chettinad chicken, mutton gravy, fish gravy, rasam, kootu, poriyal , curd and appalam.  For me, I decided to go with Anjappar regular meals that comes with rice, chicken gravy, mutton gravy, fish gravy, rasam, kootu, poriyal , curd and appalam. I knew I couldn’t finish all that but I wanted to try the meal. We got extra chicken as AS told me, from his experience in India, that the meal would have only a few small pieces of meat.

While we are waiting for our food, one of the waiters came and asked if they could sit some other customers on our table too. Don’t get me wrong, I am all up for socialising but not when I am out with my husband trying to enjoy dinner together, I really didn’t want a total stranger on the same table sitting next to us listening to our conversation. So we said Sorry but we wouldn’t be comfortable to have others on the same table. I know it seems rude but they still had tables available in the restaurant but it seemed they didn’t want to use another six sitter table for just three people.

I was actually shocked to see that they even asked about it but AS told, me that it is common in dhabas in India but not in a proper restaurant.

I have eaten North Indian meals before so I was thinking this would be similar but I was so wrong. Firstly, the food was so spicy that I knew I couldn’t eat it all and to top it off, the chicken gravy, fish gravy and goat gravy were just that, gravy, no meat. When I was reading the menu, I had thought it meant chicken with gravy but, no it actually meant just gravy.  I am sure I am not the only one who would be confused by the menu. It seemed quite funny to both me and AS. I was just glad that we had ordered a separate chicken dish which was good but quite spicy.

During the meal, one of the waiters came and tried to put some more dishes on the table. We told him that we hadn’t ordered any more food and he left. He was going around the restaurant and had no clue which table the food he was carrying was for. The tables had numbers but I guess because they put more than one customer in one table, the waiters were getting confused.

Seriously, they are running a nice looking restaurant in Sydney but it was a bit chaotic. AS was telling me that he felt like he was in India with loud South Indian music from the TV, the Bollywood music from speakers and waiters running around in every direction.  But even if their idea was to create an authentic South Indian restaurant environment, they should have given a customer like me a choice to go for a medium spicy meal so that I could at least eat my food. Or maybe I am asking too much from them. I guess I will stick with my favourite dosa when I visit a South Indian restaurant. Anyway I ended up eating only around 1/3 of my meal as it was too spicy. I do eat spicy food but this was super spicy.

The other thing I observed while having dinner was the waiters. I saw one waiter dressed so inappropriately. Sorry I do not want to make fun of him but he is in a customer service business and he was wearing a Wallaby hat (bright yellow), multi coloured jacket and a sunnies while he served and the other waiter was wearing a black shirt with sequence embroidery as if he was going to a club. I seriously think they need a dress code so that the customer can identify the wait staff. I am not really judging people but the business definitely could have used some rules in place.

Please let me know what are some good South Indian dishes (not too spicy though), if you know any. I am always up for trying new food  🙂

Please share you different experience trying new food.

Have a great weekend everyone

XOXO

M from nepaliaustralian

You may also like :

*Forster *Easter Long weekend trip *Snowy Mountains: Australia