Little Wandering Wren …. chats!

We were given some gorgeous woven and hand stitched gifts from Bangladesh last week.  The placemats and napkins are hand woven, the shopping bag has been hand-stiched.  The work that has gone into these gifts is phenomenal.  Don't you think they are beautiful?  They were chosen for us from a shop called  Aarong ,   a Bengali word meaning village fair.  Aarong  is a social enterprise which creates livelihoods for rural women.  Aarong is dedicated to bringing positive change to lives of disadvantaged artisans,  85% of whom are women I have never been to Bangladesh,  and I Iove having a touch of Bangladesh in our home this week!  The nearest I have been to Bangladesh was earlier this year  when we visited the neighbouring country of Myanmar.  The sweet gifts reminded me of a visit we made to the lotus weavers at Inle lake. loom at Inle Lake, Myanmar At Inle Lake we watc...

It was bye, bye America Hello Japan here last week! I hardly had time to wash the sheets! We had three lovely lasses from Japan move in. Staying with us for nearly a month studying English. Welcome to the madhouse  your new Aussie family! I love having the Japanese girls to stay! This is the 7th year we've had students from this  particular Tokyo l adies college.  They are always a DELIGHT. I do love hosting overseas students on their first visit  Down Under . I see Melbourne anew through their eyes. They are full of WONDER at everything. I mean let's face it, even a tub of yoghurt  from another country can look exotic.  What do you think? Yoghurt and fruit with Japanese green tea lollies and KitKat! A few things are a tad "awks" as the kids would say. I gave up my Mother Wren, bear hug of a Aussie greeting many students ago... Yes, we've had over thirty Japanese students over the years. Did I say I ...

We're celebrating all things Asian at our house at the moment!   We're in the middle of our Melbourne Chinese New Year festivities and our Docklands has a humongous dragon to celebrate. It is over a 100 metres long and the head is 10 metres high. It is illuminated by 2000 light globes every night and cost $140,000 AUD.  Last week we had three Japanese students move in for a month. A gaggle of teenage girls, all nervous smiles and bright suitcases. None of them had been to Australia before and so we are keen to show Melbourne off in it's best light. We reckon a couple of thousand light globes should do it, and we encourage them to take a look! Docklands Dragon Corner of Bourke Street and Harbour Esplanade, Melbourne The dragon is certainly a colourful talking point in the Docklands area, snaking along with six arches each 6m high. We spot the dragon from our friend's Dockland rooftop garden and rather bemused they explain it wasn't finished when the Lo...