Tag Archives: travel

Sydney Mardi Gras

Posted on March 2, 2012 | 5 comments

Tomorrow, 3rd of March, is  Sydney Mardi Gras which is a yearly parade for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, and intersex communities in Sydney, Australia. Every year there are lots of people who visit Sydney for this event and it is one of the biggest of its kind.

Normally this parade consists of tens of thousands of participants with lots of floats and loud music. Then there are thousands more who fill the streets of Sydney to get a glimpse of this magnificent event. It is also telecast on TV so there are thousands more who enjoy viewing the parade from their homes as well. 

This year for the first time, the parade will be broadcast to an international audience online.

 

In the 1970s, Sydney Mardi Gras started as a celebration following a morning protest march and commemoration of the Stonewall Riots where 500 people gathered on Oxford Street, calling for an end to discrimination against homosexuals in employment and housing . 

These days it has changed into a fun-filled parade with colorfully dressed men and women having a great time. There will be many floats with people dressing up as brides and grooms, cheerleaders, nuns, vampires etc. 

For the last few years each parade has a Chief of Parade like Rupert Everett (2007), Margaret Cho (2008), Matthew Mitcham (2009), Amanda Lepore (2010) and Lily Tomlin(2011), Peter Tatchell (2011) and I am so excited about this year’s Chief of Parade. She is no other than the famous Kyile Minogue, Australia’s pop queen. I am so excited to see her float after watching her spectacular show. I am sure it is going to be amazing and breath-taking. 

According to the news, Minogue’s song arrangements are completely tailor-made for the show, backed by 16 dancers, to be held in the Royal Hall of Industries at an unspecified time during the night. 

Diverse music styles and more performance art mark this year’s party, with ’90s sounds fashionably strong. Long, leggy drag singer RuPaul is confirmed to be there as well. 

I am looking forward to going and watching the parade this year. It will be AS’s first one too so I hope he will enjoy watching the fun and fabulous parade with some weird stuff mixed in. I will update all of you on this year’s parade soon. 

Enjoy some photos from last years Mardi Gras. 

5 Comments

Posted in Australia

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What’s in the name (Surname)?

Posted on September 22, 2011 | 9 comments

It has been exactly 90 days we have been married. 🙂

The day I announce my wedding at work, one of my colleague asked me “So you will change your surname, what’s it gonna be?” The question caught me off guard as I haven’t thought about it at all. Taking your husband’s name is the traditional option (especially in Nepal) but we never discuss it. I am sure both our family expect me to take it but I was in no rush. I have seen my friends change their surname in Facebook the day they got married (I am not sure if they have done legally too) or have used both surnames but I have always thought it can wait few years. Many women will say that their husbands/in-laws  wanted them to change their surname. So they did.

I am not against changing surname if you want to as I also want to do it before we have kids. I am planning to be MJS, mine surname followed by his.  My friend AS is the reason, I will defiantly do it before we have baby as I don’t want to go through the same path as hers.

AS decided not to change her surname when she married CJ (Nepali guy). When they have a baby girl, her mother in law came to visit her in hospital. While she was holding her new grand-daughter, she was shocked to see the tag called her, Baby S instead of Baby J. She made sure AS knows, she didn’t approve of that. But in the birth certificate, hospital wrote baby S as per mother’s surname as well. Because it was in birth certificate, they thought it will be easy to use the same surname in other official documents as well .Now the baby and mum have same surname and dad has different. It created lots of confusion in all the legal documents and I don’t want to go through that.

Back to my situation, I am planning to keep my surname until I can as I want to avoid the hassle of alerting everyone and going through all the paper work right now. Its not  easy to change the name on everything from your driver’s licence to your library card. I know I have to do it one day but mentally I am not ready right now. The most annoying change will be for my passport. I love my passport as it has so many stamps and visas I collected travelling over the years. It is like a story to me and has high sentimental value. Once I change my passport, I will lose all my memory.

All this question is coming right now because my in-laws made official document in Nepal(Relationship certificate) and they send us a copy in case we need it. In that document, they have my name as MS not MJ. My in-laws have never asked me to change it but I think they didn’t as by default in their mind, I am MS not MJ but I want to be MJS in future not MS. 

When I talk to AS about it, he thinks it is normal of his parents to think I am MS now as that in what happens in Nepal. I haven’t changed my Facebook name either (I know it is easy but …) I want to do it in my own pace and I hate it if anyone forces me to do it. He knows what I am planning and he is ok with that but of course he can’t control what his parents think.

Just want to put it out there” Am I allowed to wait until I am ready to change the surname or it is expected to change straight after marriage, especially in Nepali culture?”

9 Comments

Posted in Nepal, Nepali Culture, Relationship

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Travel Travel Travel

Posted on September 15, 2011 | 1 comment

Since I can remember I wanted to travel, but living in Nepal, it was just a dream which was hard to turn into reality. So I used to go to libraries and look at photos of all these beautiful palaces I wanted to go to and dream. I wished that when I grew up I would very rich and would travel all the time or I would have a career that would take me around the world. (Neither happened  )

Growing up watching channels like Travel and Living and Discovery made my dreams come alive. Not only could I see the picture perfect mountains, landscapes or cities, full of nice things to do, in pictures but I can see them move. I could see the most amazing sunrise but couldn’t feel the sun rays against my skin, could see these amazing sea creatures but couldn’t go swimming with them or I could see these small cafes next to the snow-capped mountains but couldn’t feel the fresh air. I think my inner travel demon became even more restless. Deep inside me, I always hoped that one day I would be able to go to these places.

When I came to Australia, I thought “I am a step closer to my dream.” I hdn’t seen an ocean until then but now I was swimming in it. I thought that at least I have come one step closer to becoming a world traveller, but being a student it was really hard to find time and money to travel. I still tried my best and travelled around Sydney whenever possible. The first time I went outside NSW was for my graduation which was held in Melbourne. I was so happy to make this trip because I knew this is the starting of what I wanted to do all my life.

After graduation the biggest reward I gave myself was a proper holiday. And that was FIJI. Ohooo it still feels so good as it was a dream come true.

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Posted in Travel

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