Malaysia Festival 2014 Lah

So this is our first time to attend this festival. Why? Because usually it is on at the same time as the Burwood Festival, so we go to Burwood and skip this one, but this year they held it one week after the Burwood Festival, so yay, we finally checked it out.

Evan came over to Strathfield before, Mark, Lily, Kaylene and I caught the 11:31am train out to Town Hall. after a 5-10min Walk to Tumbalong Park, we came upon the Malaysian food and entertainment.

Malaysia Festival or MFest is the biggest annual Malaysian event held in Sydney aimed at introducing the rich cultures of Malaysia to the local and foreign community. It is run by the Malaysian students community in Sydney.This year marks the 24th year the event has been held since its humble beginnings on the walkway of the University of New South Wales.

Harimau Sang Tiger and Monyet Sang Monkey, mascots for the Malaysia Festival were out promoting the festival, so we took the opportunity to have our photos taken with them.

Famous Malaysian restaurants, such as Alice's Makan, Jackie M, Kampong Boy, Ipoh on York, Papparich, Mamak, Pop-Yeah, Mum's Recipe, Abang Sam and many more had food stalls available and the queues for these stalls were already building, so we chose Ipoh Town and Mamak. Lily and Kaylene lined up for Ipoh town to buy Nasi Lemak, Hainan Chicken, Ice Kacang and Ice Limau, while Evan and I lined up at Mamaks for Roti Canai $5.50, Roti Telur(with egg) $6.50 and Chicken Satay (12 sticks for $16).

Whilst waiting in line, Mare arrived, so she got Lily to buy her Hainan chicken rice too. Some of her relos were also there, but she hung with us. They also had the lion dance and eye dotting ceremony while we were in line, so I sent Evan off to take photos.

After getting our food we settled for the side of a shady footpath to eat our meal. It was too sunny to sit in the centre of the field. Felt truly Malaysian, eating our meal like that. A little bit of each and it was filling. Yummy in our tummy. While we were eating, Jeremy Yong (10yr old guitarist) and Adrien Nookadu (X-Factor contestant) were entertaining the crowds.

We then went back to check out the other tents, Lily finally gave in and bought a potato on a stick from Mum's Recipe, but somehow ended up with a too fried potato, which didn't look or taste too good, as compared to others who bought the same thing. Oh well, tuck in.

They had a Durian weight guessing competition, and also a Durian eating competition, although I couldn't smell it, the others complained about the whiffs of Durian they could smell. Not too many giveaways and not as many stalls selling goods.

We found a patch of grass and settled down to watch some youtube videos made by Malaysian Youtube sensation JinnboyTV. This duo consisting of Jin Lim and Reuben Kang showed 3 short funny videos.

The afternoon was still young, so we took a walk to Darling Harbour. Said our goodbyes to Mare, when the Chans were watching a breakdancing Japanese busker, and the continued to walk around Darling Harbour, over the Pyrmont Bridge and back pass the Cockle Bay restaurants for the benefit of Mark, who doesn't usually join us.

As we were heading back to Town Hall, Nathan was heading out to meet his friends, Jarrod and Matt. Got home around 5pm and continued our theme of Malaysian by having chicken satay at home. Evan decided he'd better be good and went home for dinner.

Burwood Festival 2014

21 September 2014

Burwood Festival

There’s nothing like the Burwood Festival for the best of the Inner West from award-winning food to taste and trial along to the quirky arts and crafts, carnival rides and goodie bags, fun interactive educational activities, spectacular entertainment and the classic car show making for an amazing variety of unique and memorable experience to enjoy with family and friends.



Celebrating 30 years of the Burwood Festival, this year there was a super hero theme. Although the only super hero we saw was Batman and his Batmobile.

We (Lily, Kaylene and I) had lunch before we walked down to the park, so we weren't tempted by the food offerings. Checked out the food stalls, the informational stalls.  Got free lolly giveaways from the Haribo stall, a free mug from the Burwood Plaza stall and lollipops from Club Burwood.

Popped in to say hi to the Library and Community Services stall and was happy to see Maria who had taken over the afternoon shift.

Lily then left us around 2pm to go play Mah Jong, so Kaylene and I checked out some more stalls, the fun rides and vintage cars, before buying some takoyaki (octopus and prawn balls 8 for $9), sitting down at a table near the main stage and just enjoying the entertainment for the afternoon.

Main stage performers included Mis Joelle: an Australian singer best known simply as Joelle and for competing in the fourth season of The X Factor Australia as part of the duo Good Question and in the fifth season as a solo singer. and The Collective: an Australian boy band consisting of members Trent Bell, Julian De Vizio, Jayden Sierra and Will Singe. They were formed during the fourth series of The X Factor Australia in 2012 and finished in third place.

Mark turned up and managed to find us, before leaving again to go visit his mum and do some shopping.

After watching Joelle and The Collective, we went back to Haribo to get more free lollies, before buying some food and drink to take back with us.

Festival of the Winds 2014

14 September 2014  Festival of the Winds

Waverley Council’s Festival of the Winds is here again! The spring skies will come alive with hundreds of colourful kites of all shapes and sizes from local and international kite-makers and flyers. Bring, buy or make a kite and join in for Australia’s largest and most exciting kite flying festival on beautiful Bondi Beach.

This year, Lily, Kaylene, Evan and I decided to train and bus it to Bondi Beach.  Evan caught the train from Hurstville, while we caught the train from Strathfield. The plan was to hop onto Evan's train at Town Hall, but somehow we managed to get on a later train, and so Evan had to wait for us at Bondi Junction. From Bondi Junction we went to catch the bus to Bondi Beach, along with a whole lot of other people.  The line up for the express bus was long, so we queued in the alternative non express bus line.  A few extra stops but at least we got a seat and didn't have to wait.

Got to Bondi Beach around 11.30am, so we went to get an early lunch at McDonalds before checking out the kites and avoiding the lunch crowds.

Every man and his dog seemed to be out at Bondi. Jam packed and busy like the City to Surf. We checked out the food stalls, the kid's corner and managed to score some free kites.

So with free kite in hand, it was down to the fly zone on the beach and see if I could get the kite in the air.  Managed to get some air time, but the wind was fickle and I seemed to be in a no draft zone.  Oh well, with my shoes full of sand, I joined Lily and Kaylene to watch the others fly their kites and waited for Evan to take his fill of photos.

We decided it was better to get out of Bondi earlier than later, but so did a few hundred other people.  The bus stop queues were forming and it was pick a line and wait.  We walked back up to the start of the bus stops, seeing that buses were being filled even before they reached the bus stops further down the beach.  After 2 buses, we managed to get on the third bus and also get a seat. Back to Bondi Junction where we checked out some of the shops and had a late snack of KFC before catching the train back home.

Justin's 25th Birthday

Justin's 25th Birthday

We went out to dinner at Tingha Restaurant, Sydney Markets to celebrate his milestone birthday on Friday night.

Mark chose the restaurant.  Mar Mar and Teresa also attended. Nathan was absent.

The restaurant apparently had 2 menus and not realising it, Mark and Lily ordered from the more expensive one, and only after they ordered did they have a look at the cheaper menu.

We ate so much that we couldn't fit the birthday cake, which Janet had so lovingly baked and decorated.

Not one to celebrate big style, Justin and Sophia organised a home bbq dinner. Fiona came out to help celebrate the next day, Saturday 13.

Sophia organised to make lamb kebabs, her family way.

We made the potato salad, garden salad, Evan and A. Cath provided the leb bread and garlic spread, Lily bought Costco roast chicken and quinoa and cous cous salad as well.

This time we could fit in the cake and ice cream.

Strathfield and Cabramatta Festivals 2014

7 September 2014

Two Festivals in One Day

Started by going to Strathfield Spring festival.  The rain was threatening.  The ground was waterlogged..so muddy.  We dropped by Mare's to drop off her containers, before heading to the park.  Parked at the back of the park, and it started to sprinkle so it was out with the umbrellas.  Lily and Kaylene shared a big umbrella and I had my own. Mare was going to join us, but got scared by the rain.

Managed to score some free giant storage bags.  Tasted some honey, bought some jewellery and leather wallets before checking out the main stage.  Listened to Johnny Ruffo: an Australian singer, songwriter, dancer, television presenter and actor (Home and Away), notable for being a finalist on the third series of The X Factor Australia in 2011. Got photos taken with some of the contestants on The Block.  Then bought some food to take home to eat for lunch.  Gozlemes (always tasty), korean wrap (surprisingly good) and paella (too salty and bland).

After lunch Mark drove us to Cabramatta for the Lunar Festival. We spent at least 30 minutes driving around looking for a parking spot.Lucky when we eventually found one it wasn't too far to walk.

Main street was chock full, just as bad as the Blue Mountains Festival, but full of Asians. We took our shopping trolley with us, so we could wheel our purchases, came in very handy.

Mark had to go to work, so we wandered around and took in the stalls. Saw some of the dragon/lion dancers parade.

Decided to have pho before catching the train back. Would have stayed to watch Dami Im, but she wasn't on stage until 7pm.

Australian Garden Show 2014

Friday 5 September

The second year and this time it was slightly bigger.  Bought early bird discounted tickets for $25 each and chose Friday, hoping that as it was the 2nd day, not too many people would show up and we could be lucky with parking.

Janet and I went to pick Aunty Cath (we gave her the ticket as a birthday present) up before heading to Centennial Park where we would meet up with Mare.  Managed to find unrestricted parking next to the duck pond, like last year.  Hoping the rain would stay away, we managed to walk to the entrance and locate the venue for the talk that Janet wanted to hear, before the heavens opened up.  Mare on the other hand was still in her car, even though she had got there before us.  We had assumed she had got tired of waiting for us and had gone in.  So she waited until the rain stopped before joining us at the garden talk where we learnt how to graft a bud.

Anyway, armed with umbrella, raincoat, poncho, the weather fined up and we didn't need any of them at all.  The week leading up to the show was awful and full of rain.

There were more outdoor displays and stalls.  Had lunch at the restaurant, 3 of us had fish and chips. Janet had a pizza - turned out to be rather large, but she ate more than half of it.

Planted some snapdragon seeds at the Yates stand, Janet and A. Cath planted some other plant. They are sprouting after 3 weeks.

Mare got her shears sharpened, but they were pretty warped.

Checked out the floral fashion parade, which turned out to be not so grand.  Didn't live up to it's name.

Dropped A. Cath home, before heading home for dinner.  Both Janet and I were still coughing, so thought better of staying.