Rum & Dal

A big Happy Birthday to Pal and Surj

Today Pal is celebrating his 25th Birthday with his whiskey bottle and Little Surj, who is barely off the starting line, is celebrating his 3rd with no doubt his own favourite bottle.  Cheers to you both have a good one, wishing we were there for the fun.

Happy Birthday Dal

Not quite the same when you not at home in the UK, having a few drinks and home made somosa.

However Dal celebrated her birthday at work.  As you can see from the grin I think she ate most of the cake.  Thanks Mae for making a lovely cake.

All the best for the future

Raksha Bandhan is the celebration of brother sister relationship. The sibling relationship is nowhere so celebrated as in India. The day when the siblings pray for each others’ well being and wish for each others’ happiness and goodwill. As the name ‘Raksha Bandhan’ suggests, ‘a bond of protection’, Raksha Bandhan is a pledge from brothers to protect the sister from all harms and troubles and a prayer from the sister to protect the brother from all evil. The festival falls on the Shravan Purnima (full moon day of shravan month) which comes generally in the month of August. The sisters tie the silk thread called rakhi on their brother’s wrist and pray for their well being and brothers promise to take care of their sisters. The festival is unique to India creates a feeling of belongingness and oneness amongst the family. Though now it is considered as a brother and sister festival, it was not always so. There have been examples in history where in rakhi has just been a raksha or protection. It could be tied by wife, a daughter or mother. The Rishis tied rakhi to the people who came seeking their blessings. The sages tied the sacred thread to themselves to safe guard them from the evil. It is by all means the ‘Papa Todak, Punya Pradayak Parva’ or the day that bestows boons and end all sins as it is mentioned in the scriptures. Rakhi for many centuries encompassed the warmth shared between the siblings but now it goes way beyond it.

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Well I think you all already know its Rum’s birthday as your well wishes are already coming in.  Rum has turned 32,  he doesn’t look a day over 20.  Some special gene that you Dhaliwals have, you all look younger than you are!  Bal, Manjit, Rum to name but a few.  Oh and you guys also have the sweet tooth gene, those of you who have it really bad are Rum, Pally, Ranbir, Kin and most of all Jassy!  

We aren’t planning anything special just another quiet night in, not found any drinking partners yet! We will be thinking of the bottles we could have been sharing with Dav!  Yeah, Happy birthday to Davinder too… 25 today, marriage is looking imminent!  All of you have a couple of glassi’s from us and thanks for all the birthday wishes… maybe next year we’ll be together???

 

happy birthday to our loving mother
without you, we would not be here
we are forever grateful for your love
thank you for always being there
we are who we are because of your kindness
Mum we love you dearly
there will always be a special place in our hearts for you.

thank you mother for everything
it must have been hard letting us go
for that we thank you
happy birthday to our loving mother

lots of love respect and admiration

your children and grandchildren

A huge thank you to all of you who sent me your wishes on my 31st  birthday.  I had a lovely weekend, was a little hung over from the nights before but “that’s nothing new” I hear you all say! The weather has really picked up in Melbourne so we went to the beach for the first time.  Clear water, beautiful sunshine, only a handful of people around and no donkeys on the beach.  No fish and chips either, haven’t found anywhere that does good British style fish n’chips! 

Went shopping to Chadstone which is apparently the largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere… hmmmm not much bigger than Merry Hill if you ask me.  Its the closest thing we’ve seen to a good shopping centre here in Oz, even though the prices are still sky high, I managed to find some shoes for work.

Went out to the Lion Pub (very British!) and sat and drank cocktails and watched others drinking some crazy stuff… tried some Sambuca but it didn’t quite knock us out as we had expected.  Great 80’s music all night.

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