~ Curious Charlie ~

A Street Festival, Market and Butter Chicken @ Sunday, November 11, 2012

Meant to be posted Sunday 21st Oct.

Went to the Spring Fling Street Festival in North Melbourne today, the weather was sunny and it was very windy half the time, in the afternoon it drizzled for a bit, but we had finished by then fortunately. I was working the the Treasure Hunt, which is where kids go around and do a bunch of activities, after that they get an entry into the raffle to win one of three $20 giftcards to ToyWorld. Two kids entered :P

Activities: Colour in a Monkey & Chopstick Sorting

Top right picture, unedited lighting. That's how bright it was outside.

The table I was at was the starting point, where the kids had to colour in a monkey, cut it out and wear it around their neck (no thanks... that ain't worth $20) and so others knew they were doing the treasure hunt. We also had two other activities, draw the state boarders for Australia and name the states. I still believe it was more fun to do the 50 states :P and did more than once call it America rather than Australia :P. The other activity was to sort 3 plates of jellies, marshmallows and malteaers (which melted all over the place) - using chopsticks. Please note that a certain child has dribbled all over the contents of the plates.

DIY Brooch - I knew that monkey looked familiar!

It's the loading icon on PicMonkey.

Something I really don't like is working with people who don't speak English, though if it's very short term it can be very amusing. For one of the activities we had chopsticks, a sirlanken looking woman wanted to take a handful, I said no, she tried to take them anyway. Nice try, she didn't get them. And then she took the jellies from the plates (yes the ones that a kid dribbled all over, and everyone else touched it before that slobber) and gave it to her kid. I pointed out that at least six people have touched that. Nope she didn't stop. Said it was poison and she dropped it like a bomb XD. I don't believe she understood a single word I said, except for poison.

As I was working at the event I didn't see much, and by the time we finished, well we were packing up.

There were acrobats.

And jumping castle-esque things.

There was a Pottery Station, where you could make stuff.

It also happened to be a day that there was a Market on.

There was so much amazing stuff, like steampunk jewlery, hairpieces, etc. Like esty, lots of things you could replicate, but there was also craft items on a professional level. Unfortunately we didn't get many photos, as I think people don't allow photos, just in case people copy their designs, a majority of the stuff you could make though like anything that you could get the supplies from ebay, something that's very popular at the moment is organza/satin flower hair clips/brooches. Cut circles, burn to stop fraying, glue gun, establishments. I'll be doing a tutorial for that after exams.

Handmade by Jacinta

Absolutely amazing earrings display. I've seen it before, but only on a small scale.

The earring are lovely, though you could easily replicate that, look up cameo flowers on ebay.com

Check out these amazing pendents/earrings by Sandra

They're made out of aluminium. I love the way she displays her work.

After work we went to dinner at Red Pepper.

I love their Butter Chicken (12.90), great price, and it includes a big bowl of rice (unlike Tandoori Cottage). The best I've had. It's a bit more mild that anywhere else so do order a drink. Emily noted that there was many Indians dinning there - proof that Red Pepper does really good Indian food. ;) As always I order a Mango Lassi (4.00), it's strange and sad that none of my friends like it, other than Toby who introduced me to it (that winter I ended up making it at home about 8 times :P). We went here for our last bi-annual dinner (Jas, Fernando, Emily & I, the others couldn't make it), it's a great place, and quite popular. Great prices, serving size, and decent service. And not too many prams. ;)

Afterwards we went across the street to get some pictures. Parliament house is a great place for photos, and very popular on weekends with weddings and tourists. Managed to get a couple good photos, which was an achievement, as I don't normally ~~read: ever~~ take pictures of people. Emily was the model. A brave one, as most people run when I take out my camera :P.

Amanda said... on November 11, 2012 at 8:38 AM

Hi! I've been thinking about volunteering as I'm currently not working, I was just wondering if you might be able to point me in the right direction as who to volunteer with. Thank you in advance for your help!

Amanda

Charlie said... on November 11, 2012 at 11:14 AM

Hi Amanda,

What type of volunteer position are you after?

If it's causal then it's best to look up NFP organizations like Oxfam, Red Cross, Starlight.

But if you prefer annual events that just go for a for a day or two best to google them, I'm actually not sure how I find all these events O.o. But if you email me (just added contact button under 'about me') I'll email you a list. Most are Melbourne only, but there are events that are on in other states too.

- Charlie