Diwali pictures

Flowers ready for house Diwali decoration

S helping Priya with rangoli

The finished product

Diwali party drums

S with her friends - Priya, Sheela and Anil



Diwali dancing

S giving it a crack



Pretty pumped with best dressed

Hitting the dancefloor



Time to decorate



All ready!

Happy Diwali x

AFL comes to Delhi (in mini)

It was all about AFL at Nehru Park, Chanakyapuri last Sunday morning. The sun was shining and the weather was mild so about a dozen little kids from Australia, and a couple from the States, headed to the park to work on their handballs and kicks.

It was a great morning with many bemused Indians looking on at the kids playing with a very strange shaped ball.

 

Going through the drills with the Coach!

Focus kids....

Other little kids were a bit more interested in the snacks on offer....

Lights, camera, action .... me

So as you have just read we had the Melbourne Cup here on Tuesday and this also involved an after party, this also involved too much champagne and over excitement at being asked to be an extra in a Hollywood film that has made its way to Delhi.

Some crew from The Reluctant Fundamentalist came to Olive Beach and starting asking around for people to be in their movie. Of course, I say, here's my number call me........ expecting to hear nothing of it, although I am also informed by my friends that being an extra in a film is almost an expat right of passage.

Wednesday I receive a call to go to an orphanage near Connaught Place on Thursday morning at 6 am and you will possibly be required until 4 pm. I say yes I'll see you there. Oh god, what have I done....  I then rethink it all and decide it's really not for me and pull out late that night.

Then at 12 noon I get the call that I really must come, we really need you..... (of course you do!!!) So I go down to CP and run into some friends who have been there since 6am and have had very little to do with the film (bar one girl who got to shake Keifer Sutherland's hand in a scene).

It's 1.30pm..... and nothing, the 4 of us sit around and wait and wait and wait and wait in a bare little room upstairs away from the action.

Movie set

Nothing much going on here....

At 4 pm we are called to the cafe scene and take our seats behind the stars of the show and sit, pretend talk, pretend eat and just be until they were finished with the scene. I am sure to make it big after this!!!

God knows if you will get to see my pretty little face on the big screen but keep an eye out for me.

So what do I get for 4 hours of my life ....

and the glory.....

And they're off and racing.... in Delhi

Melbourne came to Delhi this week with the Australian New Zealand Association (ANZA) Melbourne Cup Charity Brunch. This event happens every year, although this is the first one I have attended and helped to organise. I have organised a number of events at home, so I am not completely inexperienced, but organising events here throws up a whole new set of challenges and we got our fair share of curve balls (including holidays around Diwali) but I think we came out on top.

As you probably know, The Melbourne Cup is held on the first Tuesday of November every year at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. I used to live in Melbourne and loved the spring carnival so was more than happy to partake in a little celebration here. Only problem being the 5.5 hours time difference which meant the big race was all done and dusted by 9.30am Delhi time (and we nearly missed it). The early race meant an early start, the team had to be up and going at about 5.30am, yes still dark and quite chilly (yes it does get cold here). We had a great group together running gift bags from here to there, setting up tables, checking the layout, chilling the sparkling and setting up the banners of all our generous sponsors.

The event commenced on the Australian High Commission lawn at 8.30am and it looked pretty stunning. Yellow and pink were the colours of the day and they were hard to miss!



The tent!

The Hyatt Regency did some excellent catering and a small team of us proud Aussies organised the rest with the main point of the day being to raise some money for Delhi charities.

To raise money there was a raffle, tombola and a silent art auction with some great pieces to buy.

The prizes were pretty amazing - people won flights, hotel accommy, jewellery, art, champagne - heaps of wonderful stuff. I won nothing!

It was a great day, everyone looked beautiful - hats, fascinators, smart suits and cute summer dresses. There was the not so serious 'Fashion on the Field' that showed off the lovely fillies and stallions. Four categories were represented - best dressed lady, best dressed man, best hat and best couple - all escorted by the very fine expat Cricket Club.

The 'Viceroys' expat Cricket Club

Best hat winner

Of course there was also the reason we were all there, the 'race that stops a nation' - I pulled the horse in the sweep that came last, but on the bright side I got my money back with that little beauty!

So all in all a super fun day and an after party at Olive Beach Chanakyapuri to match.... I almost felt like I was at the racetrack by the end of the day - too much champagne, sore feet and a very droopy fascinator!

Here are some more pictures of the day.

Chefs ready for action



The happy crowd