On Sunday (13th Nov) we ventured away from our mountain home and into the inner city to attend The Newtown Festival and then to the eastern suburbs to have a look at Sculptures by the Sea. Newtown Festival The Newtown Festival is organized by Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, and featured a range of activities including music stages, a kids and family zone, Writers Stage, Street Theatre and Art Spaces, the Newtown Festival Dog Show, a diverse mix of market stalls, food from around the globe and people watching opportunities aplenty. All money raised goes back to the Newtown Neighbourhood Centre, which supports services to the local community. According to the centre they provide services to the aged, people with disabilities, people with mental illness, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and people on low incomes. Sculptures ... read more

Background Eleven years ago, Lorenza and I decided to sponsor a child through Child Fund Australia. We contacted the organisation via the phone and within a few weeks we were sent the details of a child they had selected for us in Indonesia. The details they sent us included a lovely photo and the following details: “Maria Yensiana was born into a desperately poor family in East Nesu Tengarra. She lives with her parents, grandparents and one elder brother, in a small house with bad sanitation and no private bathroom. Her father tries hard to earn a living by working as a peasant, but he earns very little that it is impossible to meet the family’s needs. Her mother, although resourceful at trying to make the most of the little, cannot do much with her husband’s ... read more

17th to 20th October Bali was not high on our “places to visit” list for one reason or another. Denpassar just happens to be the transit point for flights to the island of Flores, where we intended to visit a child we sponsor. Our initial plan was to spend one night at Kuta, not too far form the airport and grab a flight to Ende the following day at 1.30pm. We had the morning to have a quick walk along the main drag of Kuta, which consists of bars, restaurants, shops, and lots of hawkers trying to rope you into all sorts of things, such as looking at time share bungalows, etc. All the shops sell the same T-Shirts, caps, glasses and flip flops. Where do all the billions of unsold T-Shirts in the world go ... read more

During our stay in Laos we were lucky to spend a lot of time with local friends and friends of friends. This gave us the chance to try a lot of different Lao food, from street food to higher end restaurant cuisine. Through this we also got an insight into Lao culture and family life. Our impressions of Lao food is that it is very fresh, simple, healthy, and very tasty. We also found out that Lao people spend a lot of time cooking and sharing food with family and friends. They also love to share a drink or maybe ten – during our visit the Beer Lao flowed in an almost endless, happy stream. We spent a lot of our time eating, drinking and chatting, in road side eateries, people’s gardens, during impromptu get togethers ... read more

The people we spent an afternoon chatting and drinking with a few days ago in Ban Hom invited us to join them in making a food offering to the monks at the temple in their village. The event was to mark the birthday of one of the group. A lot of Buddhist celebrate their birthday by making an offering at the temple. It was suggested that we should wear something appropriate, like the shirt that Sai’s mother gave me and top she gave Lorenza. Plus, they gave us a sash to wear across our left shoulders. Our fiends also prepared some baskets of food for us, including bananas, drinks, sticky rice and other delicacies. According to local custom we added some cash donations to this as well. We carried our offerings on special bowls used just ... read more