Monday Mural - The face of violence

If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you; just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you find murals everywhere.  Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters.  Looking forward to your mural finds posted this week.  Thanks.

Sadly even in a rich and country like Australia a lot of women suffer domestic violence.
While walking to the suburb of "The Rocks" during my visit to Sydney in February, I came across this gigantic mural on the side of a building in George Street.
The 6 x 10 metre mural was commissioned by American Express, Deliveroo and Two Good Co. who have partnered to donate 20,000 meals to women in domestic violence shelters. 

Launched in October 2017 during the "Love shouldn't hurt" campaign, the artwork was created by the artist, Noula Diamantopoulos and the face of the project is former domestic abuse victim and advocate Felicity Cook, and it was made using 20 thousand jar lids supplied by Two Good Co., a meal delivery service that provides chef-designed meals in a jar to offices. 

I'm glad I managed to see this mural as the building is earmarked to be demolished sometime this year to give way to the Circular Quay Tower. Hopefully  this panel can be moved and displayed somewhere else so that conversations around domestic violence carry on.

You can see how the mural was created in this video:

https://www.qt.com.au/news/video-mural-puts-face-family-violence-campaign/3232728/  (video)

Family birthdays

During the month of March there are quite a few birthdays and wedding anniversaries in my family, as well as a few friends celebrate in March too - all wonderful Pisceans.

My birthday was on Friday, 2nd March, but I didn't do anything special on the day as my husband was only arriving from Sydney that evening, to spend the birthday weekend with me.
On Saturday we had a group of friends over for afternoon snacks and drinks and it was a fun day.
I received quite a few lovely gifts and about 5 or 6 bunches of flowers that are now spread around the house.

Flowers galore and other gifts

On Sunday, my husband just wanted to have a quiet day at home, so we watched movies and chatted about our forthcoming trip at the end of the month. I left Jose at the airport just after midnight as he was flying on the (Monday) 1a.m. flight, which he has informed me he won't do again as he's no longer 20 years old and can't go the night with hardly any sleep...

I know it's not a very pleasant flight but because they didn't have a public holiday on Monday like we did in Western Australia he wanted to fly back on Sunday so as not to miss work, as well as it was a much cheaper flight.

Luckily for me Monday was a public holiday in Western Australia - Labour day - so I could sleep late. Later I caught up on blogs, read, put paperwork in order and never even set foot outside as it was pretty hot (37C) and humid.


On Thursday 8th of March - International Women's Day - is my daughter's 33rd birthday.
Karina has become such a wonderful young woman - friendly, confident, respectful, hard-worker, ambitious (is this a quality?)...and I'm extremely proud of her achievements in her short life. She 's conquering the world a smile at a time!

From a happy baby to a happy woman

She started travelling the world at 3 months of age, when we flew from Germany to South Africa. We lived in Germany until she was about 6 years old, so she also traveled a lot all over Europe when young. 

Today she still loves to travel and is lucky that her job takes her to many places.

She has lived in a lot more places that I have - Germany, South Africa, Portugal, France, Holland and is soon moving to The Philippines.  

Celebrating Karina's 30th in Portugal

Left to Right - In Perth, Disneyland Florida, Madurodam in The Hage, South Africa, Paris, Turkey, Monaco, Barcelona, Spain.

And...on Sunday 11th March is my Dad's 85th birthday.

It's so great that he has reached this wonderful age in relatively good health.

My Mom is planning a surprise birthday party (don't worry, he doesn't read the blog), with my sister who lives in Portugal and all his nephews and nieces are invited. 

My Dad was the youngest of 5 brothers and sisters, he was 10 years younger that the next brother, and he's the only one alive.

Just like my Mom, he also attends Third Age University, started learning how to paint a decade ago, took up photography also a few years ago and always carries his camera with him just in case... He enjoys singing, he used to sing on the Radio before he met my Mom, and if asked he will still perform at parties - old fashioned romantic ballads are his specialty.

Dad and Mom, photo from 2017

Mom and Dad, in the middle of the whole family in Aug 2017, a young Dad and Mom, the photographer being photographed, singing at a party.

Happy birthday to all the March people!

Monday Murals - Lisbon Zoo

Under one of the overpasses near Lisbon Zoo which was founded in 1884, I spotted this long line of animals on each side of the road supports, which were done with painted tiles.

We were on our way to deliver a parcel to be transported to the Algarve in the south of Portugal and my husband did a pit stop so I could snap a few photos, reason why some of them aren't too good.

If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you; just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you find murals everywhere.  
Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters.  Looking forward to your mural finds posted this week.  Thanks.

Year of the Dog Festivities

On the 16th of February Chinese New Year was celebrated with festivities taking place a couple of weeks on either side of this date.
It's the Year of the Dog, one of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs, and people born in 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982 and 1994 and 2006 were born under this sign.

In Australia there is a high percentage of Chinese immigrants, so these special dates are celebrated in all the capitals. On Sunday 25th of February my local shopping centre - Westfield Carousel, presented the traditional Lion Dance performed by the Yaolin Kung Fu Association to celebrate the New Year.

They started at one end of the shopping and walked until the other end with some people following them. It started at 11am just when the shopping opened which meant there weren't that many people there yet.

They spread some mandarins on the floor which the "lions" would eventually "eat".

  One of the leaders also handed out small red envelopes to those that wanted to give some money and they the lions would come and "swallow" the envelope.
Half an hour later the dance was finished, they got an ovation and walked back to the entrance where they had arrived.

I have to say that I preferred last year's show which was more centred on the fabulous drum players and less lion dancing. Those drummers were fantastic!








Even the displays in the shopping aisles had a touch of the red to celebrate the Chinese  New  Year.

* * * * * * * * * * * * 

This tree with the red lanterns was at the Watertown Outlet Centre in Wellington street, Perth, and I took these photos when we went to our Citizenship test on Tuesday 20th, at the Immigration building (which can be seen on the top left photo) which is next to the Outlet shopping.

I'm glad to report that both my husband and I achieved 100%!  

Now we'll have to wait for a letter from our Council to advise when the next Citizenship ceremony will be held and once we get our certificate we will be Australians. We have been told this could take from 2 to 6 months depending on the Councils.

Tree with Chinese lanterns at Watertown Outlet Centre

And this is a photo my husband sent me from Sydney of a huge "Dog" in Circular Quay, one of many statues  located there for Chinese New Year.

Monday Mural - Looking into the future

I found this mural on a very long wall on "24th of July Avenue", Lisbon,  when we were on our way to lunch at the popular indoor food market - Mercado da Ribeira in September 2017.  

The mural was painted in 2017 by Styler, a.k.a. João Cavalheiro, a Portuguese artist born in France in the 90's.

 Some sort of construction was going on behind the mural wall with AM48 being the selling agents.


If you like murals or have a mural you'd like to post, this meme is for you; just follow the Linky steps below.  Once you start looking you find murals everywhere.  Be sure to link back to this blog and visit your fellow posters.  Looking forward to your mural finds posted this week.  Thanks.