Rum & Dal

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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8 years today and still going strong.  Having fun in Australia, we went out for a meal after soccer with our mate Luke.  Had a few drinks as usual and got home at a reasonable hour! We’ll celebrate more on the weekend and will let you know how it goes, but I am sure you all know the drill by now

We did it, one whole year and what a fantastic year it has been.  Managed to get good jobs within weeks of landing made some good friends and our house is well under construction.

Yes that’s right; we have been here for one year today. The year has sailed past with no major glitches.  There have been high points and low point, but not so many of the low.  Many of you thought we would be back in six months and I bet you thought we were back for good when we turned up last Christmas, but that only encouraged us and made us stronger, we truly believe we made the right decision.  Though we miss everyone back in the UK the webcam is only a switch away.  Will we ever come back home, who knows; the adventure has only just begun.

We have been lucky enough to make some great friends, friends from Japan, Malaysia, Russia, Germany, Philippines, China, and many more; sharing their stories, culture and food.

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Its Sunday morning and Dal and I are a bit worse for wear. Well what do you expect? We went on a bender the night before. The occasion? Was there one? We just need an excuse these days. Oh yeah… we went to Kate’s birthday bash, her Hen night and Gerald’s Stag. These two love birds are getting hitched sometime soon. However the guest of honour was James, Gerald’s best friend from London. Many jokes were told, piss was taken out of others and pints went down smooth in the 35°C heat. Plenty of fun was to be had and it felt like we were home with our British/English friends and mostly the British sense of humour was on form.  Sitting in the Riverland pub on the edge of the Yaara River

Grand Prix morning, Dal and I met up with G and James, at the Transport pub at Federation Square… but where else. It’s about two in the afternoon and the sun is steaming and baking us in 41°C  this is one of those times you wish you brought a spare pair of undies. The crack of my ass was steaming.

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Took a trip to the Royal Melbourne Zoo on the weekend as it was a bank holiday and the sun was out.  In fact it was around 35°C and we were worried that the animals might not be moving around much.  How we were wrong, they were shagging and all sorts…  nah nah just kidding.  The lions were roaming; one was chomping on a piece of meat while another just continued to roar. There was a Puma that just continued to walk around in the same circle, over and over… made you dizzy just looking at him.  The monkeys were fun, one Orangutan looked like he was about to throw up over the side while the other had wet a towel, draped it over his head and was sound asleep under the burning sun.  Still haven’t seen a Koala yet, it was just too hot for the little guys I think.  The kangaroos were sitting under trees enjoying a cool drink.

Watched a young lady get over excited at the site of a peacock, she wouldn’t leave the poor thing alone, the peacock was to fast for her and she never got her photograph.  It was fun to watch her chase the peacock around the park and shouting to her friends to quickly take a picture, at least that is what I think she was shouting.  Classic photo time incident.

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Hi everyone.

If your looking for the activation code for your ford stereo then you’ve come to the right place.  You will need the code for your stereo if  you are reinstalling it or if you had a flat battery.

Ford service centres are more than happy to help, oh! and they will charge you for your code.

I wasn’t about to do that, so I searched the net but to no avail.  Finally I came across a little program that calculates your stereo code once you have popped in your radio serial number.  This program worked for me, I hope it works for you guys too.

I only have the software for A, L, C and M series stereos and I have only used the M series software and instructions .

PLEASE DOWNLOAD THE SOFTWARE AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS TO FIND YOUR CODE.  ENJOY