Red and gold are the traditional colours so where I work Luna New Year decorations morph seamlessly annually into Valentines Day decorations minus the Chinese characters and some of the golf substituted with a few hearts!
Onto Easter- the hot cross buns were already out straight after new year and we still have over a month to go before Easter !
TBC with my next adventures!
Saturday 16th February 2019 - The Luna New Year Celebrations Continue!
Write a wish for the new year on a little tag and pop it into a slotted box to be included with everyone elses' wishes hung across above the wishing tree on level 2 of the QVB. From a distance the tree looks like a large pink cherry blossom tree but look closer and the blossoms on the tree are actually little stuffed pink piglets - hundreds of them! Rating 9/10 cute & clever art installation a must see.
Postscript : It is usually bad luck to reveal what you wished for and if you do your wishes may not come true. Now that Chinese New Year is well and truely over it is probably safe to reveal what I wished for.
It wasn't world peace as it is probably too late for that. On my tag I wished for the following
A new life
A new place to live
A new family
New friends
and
A new job.
Well almost a month later my life is beginning to change although very slowly.
I am working on a new place to live, I have made new friends, I am trying to find new family members but as for a new job have been unsucessful so far. My work hours have been cut yet again and the only job I have got is on polling day at the next state elections.
Meanwhile back at Chatswood I got caught up in the Luna New Year Twilight Parade which I thought was Chinese just propaganda - I just wanted to get on a bus and go home but there were no buses so I walked with I estimated was 20 kg of groceries all the way home from Chatswood Station - also there were no trains this weekend due to trackwork again so I took a bus from the city to Chatswood Station.
Photos attached ( apologies for the blurry photos I had to be quick in snapping away - too many people around and camera was slow to focus)
Traditional costumes
The mayor of Chatswoid was out and about mingling with the community
Characters from Monkey Magic
The twilight parade along Victoria Ave Chatswood
Sunday 17th Februry 2019 - Tomato Festival Sydney @ Royal Botanic Gardens
I got up earlier this morning to attend the Tomato Festival but still managed to miss ( by half an hour) the free hour long guided tour of the gardens from 10.30 am - 11.30 am.
It is a stinking hot day again with temperatures forecasted to reach upto 30 degrees again today therefore I made sure I packed a picnic lunch and plenty of cold water. Hat sunglasses sunscreen lip balm with spf and a cooling towel and umbrella a must to protect you from the harsh sunshine.
Arrived at the Tomato Festival around 11 am - I stopped off at woolworths for some bits and pieces to make up my picnic lunch a cherry ripe chocolate bar some sapphire grapes some champagne ham a small block of pickled onion cheese some lime and chilli humous and crackers some baby cucumbers and some rocket leaves. I was going to add some figs as well but I have been eating them all week so left them out. At the festival the firt thing I did was took some photos of this year's tomato Mandala then wlk around and taking photos of the tomato festival stalls.
I found a few chairs and decided to sit down and have my picnic. After the picnic it was time to head to the tomato tasting tent to taste upto 10 varieties of tomatos. My favourites this year Lemon Drop (yellow vriety) followed by Cupid(red variety).
Onto sampling some bread and bush tomato relish followed by a purchase of an olive roll ( very popular but heaps for everyone - baguettes sold out) and a sour lemon cane juice.
Sat in the Cooking and Learning Hub tent and wsited for the next cooking demonstration Sweet & Savoury Incorporating Native Australian Ingredients with Aunty Beryl Van- Oploo - Yaama Catering - she cooked up a stir fry marinated kangaroo dish using a bush tomato relish. We were invited to samples at the end of her demonstration along with an information sheet on native Australian food. I hestitated before eating the kangaroo - poor Skippy, It's just not right eating one of your national emblems! In my head I was saying sorry Skippy before putting the smallest sample of the kangaroo sample I could find into my mouth. It was so tasty - just like a well done piece of beef ( and I no longer eat beef). - so masny flies we needed some venus fly traps in the Cooking and Learning Hub tent!
Costa!
More photos of the festival and of the Longest Tomato Lunch between 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm (which I opted not to buy tickets to attend) before walking to The Calyx to see the free Plants With Bite display. My favourite venue in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Nice and cool I have decided to stay inside the Calyx until a little later in the afternoon when it is not so hot. Here there is not only the Plants With Bite display but seats snacks to purchase and toliets. It really is nice to hang out here and learn something or just catch up on my blogging . Great family hang out - poor little boy watching the videos became distressed started crying and had to be comforted by his mum when several insects in the video were swallowed up in the venus fly traps.
Photos of Plants With Bite @ The Calyx below Rating 8/10 enjoyable 2 day event although I spent more time indoors at The Calyx as it was so hot!
Very cute!
Tuesday 19th February 2019 - Which Chinese Zodiac sign are you?
Hopefully today is the last day of Luna New Year celebrations in Chatswood. The lanterns are still hanging from the ceilings of shopping centres and Westfield has a display of Zodiac signs featuring famous personalities of each Zodiac.
Photos below of the 12 Zodiac signs. Which one is yours?
No comments:
Post a Comment