A Gender Biased World

Walking into my little one's preschool today, a little boy looked at my girl and said "That's a boys' T-shirt!". To me, the T-shirt my girl was wearing had the Paw Patrol(TV Show) pups printed on it, that Tee looked very normal, any child could wear it.

I never could really understand why we live in a world which is very gender biased. Growing up you would have probably heard things like "Oh, you're not a boy, so you can't/Shouldn't....". And children pretty much grow up hearing that. It has been sowed into their little minds that men can or will dominate women. But I know in some families, like the one I grew up in, actually let the girls know that they have a mind of their own. We got to decide to what we wanted, given equal rights and know how to respect your elders and their choices in the process.

Do I have a problem with the gender biased clothing and toys? YES, I do. There is absolutely nothing wrong in a little girl wearing a T-shirt that has cars printed on it or if she plays with a dinosaur and ignores her Barbie dolls and kitchen set. I pretty much grew up that way. I remember running behind my dad and his tool box rather than play with my teddies. My father never discouraged me and I learnt my fair share of Auto- Info from him. It didn't stop me from experimenting with make-up or wanting to wear heels. Yeah, I still prefer my jeans, the first top I can pull out from the cupboard and a pair of flats over being neatly dressed and there are times when I can dress up just because I want to.

I never directed my child to grow up in my choices. But I know she loves cars. If you're wondering how, every Sunday driving back from church at one particular signal there are these beautiful old Beetles and a Pontiac for hire. My daughter would say "Look at those cars!". Today she pointed out to a "Small black car" which looked "beautiful' to her. And I taught her to say "Mini Cooper". I never discourage her wanting to watch Thomas Train or Paw Patrol just because she is girl. If you ever come to our house you would probably hear me say 'Mika, help me set the table' or ' Stand properly' only cause that is etiquette but you would also hear my husband teaching her 'If any one pushes you, you push them back or punch them back.'

Teach your girl that it is ok to wear a puppy t-shirt that is from a boys section and teach your boy that it is ok to play with a doll. Do not gender bias clothing or toys. Why should girls only wear a flowery Tee and boys get to wear cute TV characters printed on theirs? Teach a little girl that it is ok to say "Vvvrroom' and play with a car and a boy to play with a kitchen set. Your girl will need to know how to take care of her car when she is older and your boy will need to know how to cook when he leaves home.

Teach them NOT TO BE gender biased, start them young but don't forget to teach them their responsibilities either!

Amma's Modern Kitchen!

The promise to keep this blog up and running somehow felt very difficult to keep over the last few months. I'm not really sure on what to blame it on, should I blame it on my never ending house chores, maybe on my fur child or my little girl or maybe just blame it on the fact that I am lazy to sit down and get my brain to work.  Pushing all that aside I decided to start off with something simple, like a review of a random restaurant we walked into a few weekend nights back.

My family can never decide where to go for a weekend night out. Ever since we made a promise to eat out only once a week (Sundays after church dinner not included) the task of choosing a restaurant to go to has become difficult. If you are asking 'Why?' the answer to that I am not really sure. 

One weekend night that was exactly our problem. The question of where to go just kept going back and forth. After much musing and thinking about every place we haunt we decided to go to this place called Dish in Toongabie. Now this is our take away place and the food there is extremely yum. I must also add it is Sri Lankan cuisine. But we decided to give the Eat-in a try and so we got ready and went over. Reaching there we learnt they open up only at 7:30pm for dinner and Saturday nights was Seafood buffet. "Oh yum! shall we give it a try?" asked the husband to which I said "oh no! we have a toddler who won't wait until then." But before I proceed any further I must say that the food at Dish is really good and we got our daughter's birthday dinner catered from them. So if you want to check out their website, check it out here.

So we decided to walk around Portico Parade, Toongabie and found different Sri Lankan, Malaysian fusion restaurants. Since we had a hungry toddler in tow, we decided to walk into one and we stepped into this restaurant called Amma's Modern kitchen. From the menu we saw I would say it is a Malaysian/Sri-Lankan/Indian place. The atmosphere was a bit cramped up but we did manage to find a spot comfortable to seat a fidgety toddler and her family.

We decided to go with very simple dishes, so I got a Chicken Kothu, which is shredded parotta with chicken and veg, my husband ordered Maggi Goreng and we decided on Egg Roti for the little one. If you asked me how the food was, I would say mine was 3/10 but the Maggi Goreng and the Egg roti was really nice. Think it would rate a 7/10.  We got Teh tarik for the adults but there was nothing really special about it!

Chicken Kothu

Egg Roti. I didn't take a pic of the maggi goreng but trust me it was yum!

What I noticed about the place was everyone kept ordering Dosas and I remembered a friend from church saying they went to Amma's in Toongabie just for Dosas. So I am guessing this is the restaurant. If you would like to have a look at what they cook up then this is their website.

On the whole I would say the experience was alright, the staff were really friendly. Would we go there again? about that I am really not sure. But walking into a restaurant and giving it a try instead of the usual haunts was a refreshing change!

Unconditional Love, thy name is.....

So what has been it been like in the last one month that this blog has been inactive? It has been crazy busy caring for a new family member who came home on the 22nd of May. We brought home a little puppy wanting our little girl to have the same experience we, her parents, had while growing up. If you are wondering what caring for a little fur ball has been like, well, it has been crazy busy.

We had been juggling with the idea of bringing a pup home for the last six months and for some reason, after careful consideration of adopting one from the RSPCA, we came down to getting a Dalmatian but they seem to sell like hot cakes in Australia. Looking around online we came across a cute little beagle and decided to have a look at him before we could decide if we wanted to bring him home. It was love at first sight and so he did come a month later.

If you are wondering why I am writing this about us bringing a pup home it is because we dealt with a lot of negative reactions from friends and people outside family. Pets in general are known to bring out the best in kids or anyone for that matter. Why dogs? Well, they are man's best friend, they never judge you, they love you no matter how rude or foolish you are. They see you as their best friend. Unlike most pets, dogs rarely cause any allergies among children and puppies are great conversation strikers. I had quite a few people come up to me and strike a conversation at the vets' just so they could pet my little guy. And personally, I would trust a dog with my child than leave her with a human being since many of them, know them for years together, seem to be a little twisted!

Before you bring home a little paw (or any other animal) do your homework about the breed. As much as we wanted to adopt one, the dogs at the shelters were crossed with breeds that were not child friendly. So if you have a little one at home aim for a dog who would love and take care of your toddler. If you have much a older child(ren), then yes, your breed options are many. Also see what kind of breed is suitable for you, do you want an active one or the couch potato type. The owner pleasers or the ones who stand up to you when growing up(You might have to be ready to show who is boss to this kind of breed). The pack dogs or the one man dogs. I could go on about these guys but like I said do your homework before you bring your paw home.

We ended up with a beagle and I must say he is a clever clod. Not because he is my dog but only cause of the things he has achieved to do in the last one month he has been home. This little guy has managed to escape the pen by lifting the base off and so we sealed it. While we were out today our little 3 months old managed to jump out of his pen and found his way to our room. But yeah, he has been potty trained in a weeks time and learnt not to damage things in the house. Beagles are generally smart dogs but it still came as a surprise although I have been brought up with dogs and know a quite a bit about them and the breeds.

So before you bring a little paw friend home and make him/her part of your family make sure you are going to give the best for that little guy/girl. They may be just animals for you but you become their entire world for the next fifteen odd years. Till they turn a year old dogs are like babies and believe me there will be times when you think why you brought them home. But at the end of it all there is always something therapeutic about a wagging tail and puppy eyes always manage to tug at your lips for a smile. So do not give up on them during the early stages because they definitely would not give up on you! 

In our family's case, Unconditional love, thy name is Tesla Paul! 

Away to Melbourne We Went!

Last weekend was a long weekend here in Australia, and we decided to do something other than lazy our time away at home. We planned a trip to Melbourne, this was a city my husband spent his first few years in when he moved to Australia. We were looking forward to it, it was our getaway from the humdrum of routine that had built up. If you read my blog often and wondering why I am complaining as I just got back from one, keep in mind that one can never get enough days on a holiday.

This travelogue will account everything we have done, from booking our hotel, what our stay was like there right down to our flight back home. I promise to keep this post as small as possible!

Once we planned our trip to Melbourne, we went about our booking, of course, we wanted to keep our budget small, we booked our flight tickets and got down to investigating our hotel options. Looking around, we finally decided to have a look at the Last Minute website to see if we got a good deal, we found Vibe Savoy which is located in the CBD. The location was convenient as it was only a walk down from the train station and there was a tram station right opposite to the hotel. The hotel, although rated as a four star does not really feel like one but if you are planning to stay out the whole day and come in only to rest during the day and sleep in for the night then this is definitely what you are looking for. I must mention, the public transport is amazing, the trams work late into the night and it is free within the CBD, you could say it is like the London Hop-on Hop-off bus, to have a look around the city. But if your travelling outside the free zone you would have to get a Myki card which is available at all train stations and Seven Elevens. 

Candid as a tram went by near Little Collins St.

We visited the Crown Casino Plaza the first evening, it is located alongside the Yarra river. With a toddler in tow, the casino was not on our list, but we went to watch the fire display which goes off every hour and have dinner at the food court. There are other fine dining places if you want to go there. We watched the fire display at close range, but I would say watch it from the bridge near the tram station as it is a synchronized display. 

The fire display at close proximity

The next day we planned our trip to the Melbourne Zoo. We bought our Myki cards and hopped onto the Upfield train. It was a beautiful day, not too cold and just right for spending the day watching the animals. The Melbourne Zoo is far better than the one here in Sydney, if you are wondering why I complain you can read about it here. It is worth a day spend, but as we were short on time we tried to make it a half day visit. My personal favourite spot was the butterfly garden, it is a hot house with all these beautiful, different coloured and sized butterflies flying around, if you stay still for a few seconds you might be lucky to find one sitting on your head or hand.  We got to see the elephants, even the ones that had gone in for an examination, as the examination place has a viewing place, the lazy Lions who slept away, the Tiger, the Coatis, the Orangutans and all the other animals on the map. You do not see any zoo keeper around, the animals look happy and the work is done, a sign that it is a good zoo. 

Melbourne Zoo Map

In the evening we went to the Sky Deck. It is the highest viewing point in the southern hemisphere and you can view the city from the 88th floor. It is a sight worth seeing, we went towards dusk so we could see the city before the lights came on and after. The elevator taking you up goes in about 36 seconds and you can go out into the viewing gallery too.

Sunday morning we made our way to the Melbourne museum, the Jurassic World exhibit was on, you get to see most of the dinosaurs, especially T-Rex, and see how the set up of the movie was made. I heard the exhibit is on till October. The evening we made our way around the city on a horse drawn carriage from Swanston street. It is $100 for half an hour, but if you would like to know what it feels like to be on a horse drawn carriage, across the Yarra river, go around the Botanical Garden and see the Shrine of Remembrance. Each carriage seats six people.

Morning at the Museum 

The Horse Drawn Carriage ride experience

Although we had planned to visit the Queen Victoria market on Sunday morning it became about packing and leaving, Melbourne is definitely a place to visit. It is very tourist friendly and a must visit if you are coming to Australia. It needs more than a three day visit for sure. 

If you are wondering where we ate, Melbourne is the place to be for street food. Every street corner has different cuisines to offer. Our breakfasts were at the train station, at a cafe called Cafe Rojo, the food was good, the portions were big and the price was wallet friendly. Rest of the time we ate at my husband's old favourites or in restaurants we fancied.

Cafe Rojo, the one on the left is Bacon and eggs on toast(my Bfast) and the other is Banana Bread slice with butter(The toddler's)

I am looking forward to my next long visit destination. I hope everyone, if you had a long weekend off, had a good relaxing time like we did. Back to the routine again!

See you soon! :)

The Australian Brewery

Have you ever been in a situation where a friend has cancelled out at the last minute and luckily you have not started cooking but still have tons of cooking ingredients waiting to be diced, sliced and put over the stove to grace your lunch table? I should also mention that when the cancellation happens, the menu that you had in your head is no longer available and you are left with the question "What do I cook now?" That was exactly the situation I found myself in last Saturday! Lucky for me, we had not gone out for our weekly night out as a family, which meant we could go out for lunch instead. But having moved to our new house we are still in the process of finding restaurants in the new suburb(We are doing badly at the 'Discovering' bit). The question of "So, where would you like to go?" kept going back and forth. Both the husband and I did not want to drive all the way to our old favourites for lunch and back so came Google to the rescue and Ta-daaa! we found this brewery nearby and it looked pretty good.

So off we went to the Australian Brewery which was about a fifteen minute drive from our house. It's tucked away on a quiet road, makes you wonder if you are some where on farm land(For all you know it might once have been too!) when you are so close to busy suburbs which have stations and railway track lines under construction.

Walking in, the restaurant has such lovely interior, it has the quaint english pub interior, feels very warm and cozy! finding a place on Saturday at noon is never a problem as the crowd starts to come in much later. There is a children's area with tables for the adults. Once you decide on what you want to eat you place the order and get a buzzer that goes off so you can go collect your food. In the mean time, collect your cutlery, sauces and some activity sheets for the kids, do not forget the small talk bit too! I should also mention that the service was good and the staff are friendly.

Once the food arrived it looked so delish and every bite was like a party happening inside my mouth! IT WAS THAT GOOD! As I was not in the mood for beer that day although being at a brewery, I decided to get a Long Island Iced Tea which was a bit less on the cola. I must also say the portions are quite large and we ended up with a doggy bag. We did not try the beers but the description of every kind sounded yum(Yes, I know we we went to a brewery!!)

What we ordered clockwise from top Left: Chips(A staple diet for a toddler when eating outside), Meat Platter, Rigattoni Bolognese and Me with my Long Island.

That being said, I cannot wait to go back there to try all the other things on their menu and their different beers. This brewery might soon be on my 'Favourite places to eat' list.

If you would like to have a go then here is the address for you, Australian Hotel & Brewery, 350 Annangrove Rd, Rouse Hill NSW 2155.

Do go and try it out and I hope you enjoy yourself as much as I did!

The Zoo

My minion wanted to make a visit to the zoo and I on the other hand just did not want to go there. Just to make things clear- I love going to the zoo and seeing the animals, it would be one of the to- do things on my list. But this particular zoo just did not make it into that list. Before I go into details of which zoo this is and why I do not like to go there, I must say, just so you readers do not take me in the wrong way, that it is entirely based on my visits and my visits pre and post baby have just been disappointing!

So  here we go......

When you visit Sydney or start living here the first thing people ask is if you have visited the sights and sounds, the sights of course include a zoo called Taronga Zoo. Not wanting to say that I did not visit it, I made it a point to go after I came here in 2012. I must say the experience was not all that great as the day was hot and I did not get to see all the animals. Fast forward a year and my minion was born. The usual thing you would do with a child is take him/her to the zoo and that is exactly what we did and somehow our experience was very similar to the first even though we made it a point to go on a not so hot day. The next time I took my girl to the zoo was with a friend and her boys and somehow it felt just like the first two times and  I must say every other visit has been pretty much, well, disappointing!

Before you say anything, let me tell you again that this is based entirely on my visits to the zoo. You may have had a better experience and if you did, then thats great! 

Why did I have a bad experience every time? Well, when you go to the zoo, you would expect to see almost all the animals listed on the zoo map. In my case, that did not happen! In every visit, I saw giraffes, chimpanzees, a lone female elephant and the snakes. The koalas are like a diminishing population, every time we went there it looked like the numbers had reduced! So where did the other animals go? Should probably ask that to the Zoo staff!

The next disappointing thing about the zoo was the food, you would generally expect zoo food to be pretty decent but this definitely does not hit the spot! In all, its pricey and be prepared to be disappointed.

Is there anything good about making this trip, you ask? The bird and seal shows are pretty good. But go a good half hour early so that you get places to sit. The other thing is the journey to the zoo, take the ferry ride, it's got a beautiful view going and coming. You also get to view the Opera house and Darling Harbour Bridge from the African Safari Trail at the zoo which you cannot complain about.

The good things I mentioned above are not the reasons why anyone would visit a zoo, if ever we go there it's just so we can see the wild life which many of us cannot see in the wild. To top all this, the entry fee is way over what it should be priced at, I never understand why I pay all that money to see animals that I never really get to see.

So in all to sum it up Taronga Zoo does not make it into my list of 'Favourite zoos' although I know I will end up making a visit sometime sooner than later as I cannot keep evading a toddler's request to go to there!

The Start of School!

When your child turns two years the thought about sending her to school starts to kick in. It gets you thinking how she would react to the thought of leaving home for a few hours, would she make friends, will the other kids like her and would she be able to adjust to the school environment. What I was not prepared for was my feelings of letting her go for a few hours. After my little girl hit two and a half in November 2015, we decided to look around for a preschool before we left for our vacation in December. On visiting one such, they asked us to enrol our daughter in the Day Care so she would not have to go through the waiting list period. There kicked in my separation anxiety and I remember telling my husband "Do you think it's a little early to be enrolling her in preschool?"

Separation anxiety is something that I was definitely not prepared to feel, it made me feel so sad at the thought of leaving my daughter with someone else. Would they take good care of her? Will she miss me? Am I, as parent, rushing into this schooling stage for my child? Maybe I should just homeschool her!

I think a lot of parents go through this phase, just that they do not talk about it or admit it. I was one such parent 'cause I thought I would have more time to do things I needed to do around the house, not clean up much, not erase the marks off the walls/floors. What I did not realise was that I did all this so my child could have more fun. I basically did it all for the minion.

Anyway that being said, after a month long vacation in Sri Lanka with my in-laws, we headed to my parents' place in India and at the end of two weeks, the house became quiet as my nephew left. My minion had no company and I decided to enrol her in the play school here in Yercaud. She could interact with more kids, she would have fun and she could learn a few things.

To be honest, it is more a learning period for me to stay away from my child for a few hours, make use of the two hours and do something constructive 'cause on the first day of school and even now my minion waves out saying "Bye amma, see you soon....!" and walks away with her teacher into the classroom. Now, I think I am more prepared to let go of her and let her have fun, I realise the importance of letting her have a good time with children her age.

So when you get to this phase, before you think about how your child would manage in school, prepare yourself for the little one being away. Children usually manage well once they settle in, I think it is us parents who have a harder time being away!