Sydney Stories - Week 43

Hello,

The holiday mood is slowly settling in at work with the desks getting decorated with the red and green stuff. The week went by quickly as usual with all the fun stuff at work.

Our anniversary was celebrated by me doing a WFH (working from home). In the evening went to a Murugan temple in Westmead. It is run by Sri Lankan tamils and the day we went was Surasamharam I believe. It was interesting to see the crowd there. The men were wearing the dhoti in a very unique way with the borders (paettu) displayed in 3 different layers. Later in the evening went to a North Indian restuarant called Haveli. Had a nice "banquet" dinner. It was supposed to be like a thali meal with unlimited supply of curry and naans. They had a simple rule, we can ask for as many repeats we want, but we can't take home anything if it was requested for a repeat. However we couldn't even finish the 1st rounds. 

Weekend was quite hectic as well. Finally made a visit to THE Bondi beach of Sydney. Some of my clients and colleagues had planned on a 2 km walk along the beach where there were some sculpture exhibits. I had foolishly signed up for it thinking we can still manage with the 2 vaandus in strollers. Thankfully we got delayed with yet another commitment en route. Must've been a pretty scenic walk but would've been treacherous to attempt with kids. We finally caught up with the gang for lunch in a beach side cafe. Nandhitha had some fun later at the beach. And yes, finding a parking spot was a nightmare. Spent about half an hour just roaming around to find a parking spot. Lesson learned, never ever try to drive to Bondi again. Bondi beach can be considered the Miami or Santa Monica of Australia. It was the most happening place. In fact right when I was searching for parking there was some arrest happening and a  TV crew was interviewing some life guard. 

Slowly getting used to the road ways in Sydney. What is called as "car pool" or heavy occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane in US  is called as a "T2" or "T3" lane which mandates a minimum of 2 or 3 passengers to be travelling in the vehicle. Continuing to be learning lessons not to rely on the GPS 100%. 

On Sunday went to the Helensburgh temple where my uncle had organized a Kanda Shasti pooja which apparently they do every year. If not for anything temples are a good source for socializing. Was fortunate to meet a  senior person in the IT industry. It was a bit unnerving to see Indian women visiting the temple in shorts and minis. Not sure if they were visiting the temple for religious or touristy purposes. I understand the foreigners (or should I say the locals) coming like that, but Indians? Oh well...let me not be judgemental. ;-)

Went to our neighbour's son's b'day party in the evening at Hungry Jacks. Hungry Jacks is the equivalent of Burger King (everywhere else in the world). For the first time in my life had a veggie burger (outside India) on recommendation from my neighbour. Was pleasantly surprised by the taste. Didn't expect to enjoy a veggie patty. 

The lifts in our apartment stopped working again. :-( Apparently some major fault due to some water leakage somewhere. Not fun to go up and down 5 floors with 2 kids.

Oki doki. Have a good rest of the week.

Chetty