5 Miles Milestone; Walk for Nepal, London 2014

Hello there,

Tried to paint my nails as Nepalese flag! 

Greetings to my readers. A sunny and warm welcome in this sunny July. Yesterday, 26th July 2014 was a well spent day for me. I had the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. As planned, I set out early morning from home and headed towards one of my most favourite park Richmond Park, Surrey. This time I was going there for a purpose; a good purpose for my country Nepal and its people. The Walkathone was organised by GMIN UK. This was the second programme so far I suppose. The registration fee was £10 and I had done it in advance. I thank Pratikshya for the FB invitation. There were 4 more charities involved: YouthNepal, Helpnepal.net, Live for Change (I raised a mere £25 for them, thank you for my contributors) and Nepalese Nursing Association UK.

We reached Richmond Park on time but it was difficult to find the right location where the bandstand was, unable to get the right direction, me and my sister roamed around the big park. We already walked 2 km by then. Late but not left out, there were still people who were lost and just got there. I was happy to see there are still people who were going to do the walk. A leader called Peter lead our group and we started our journey. There were children, women and men who were so determined to do the charity walk. I met members of helpnepal.net. It was pleasant talking to them and we shared a lot of information. After the completion of less than one third of the journey I came to find out that the whole walkathone was 5 miles not 5 kilometer. Adrenaline rushed through my veins. Its not the feeling that I cannot do it, its just that my mind was not ready for it. I decided to continue anyway because it was not a good idea to leave things incomplete. There were little children walking faster than me how can I just quit.

Love for Nepal

We all tried to stick together and walk in a group. The sun was really in favour of us, may be too much in favour. It was really hot. At times I felt like I was walking in the roads of Kathmandu. The leader, I thought who was responsible for all of us was not actually a leader. He told me he came there just as us, interested to do charity walk. He did had the right map and he did try to encourage us when we were tired and all. I could see everyone walking with smile on their face and determined to complete the charity walk, may be it is the love for our country and its people. We might not change the whole country but atleast we tried to do a little change. We did raise the money for chairty which helps Nepalese people. 

We reached the point where we started our walk and concluded our journey. It was a great feeling of achievement and accomplishment to get the certificate and complimentary sandwich hehe. 

I congratulate everyone who completed the walk and contributed something for our country. Hip, hip, hurray!!! We are all winners. I hope the money raised for this good cause goes to the right people and change their lives forever for good. If I can change atleast one life, I feel happy that I have done something. I am not a leader or socialist or billionaire; I am just a simple girl who is trying to bring a small change in someone's life through this charity walk.

Lastly, I would like to thank the organisers, the contributers who donated for me, the people who walked with me and my sister for supporting me. Ofcourse, there were many tweet people, instagram friends and my friends and colleagues at work wished me luck and gave me advices which helped me a lot. I need the same support and encouragement for another walk 10K in September. Till then cheerio.

Thank you for reading.

limshaku :)

Mouth Cancer 10 K Walk

I am very glad to say that I was able to participate in 10 K Mouth Cancer Walk organised by Mouth Cancer Foundation. Me along with my friends Sweetie, Yam K, Kanchan, Rupa, Jyoti and Pabel sis and many many people will be walking foot by foot to fight for something which is affecting all of us direct or indirect way. I heard from the speaker that 50% of oral cancer are diagnosed late and among those diagnosed 50% die. It is a sad to hear that.

It was a proud feeling of wearing the Mouth Cancer sponsored t-shirt and then walk along Hyde Park. All people were cheering us and then staring as well. Most annoying thing is you feel like you have walked a long way but the sign only says 2KM. Arrgghhh. Then after we crossed 7 KM I felt really fresh all of  a sudden. I was rejuvenated by the surrounding music I guess. Hyde Park looked even beautiful yesterday cause of lovely weather.

Doing something for charity is a good feeling. I did raceforlife 5K run few months ago at the same place. This time the number of people attending were around 800 but still it was nice to see so many people who came. All of us had the same reason and same motive to be there, 'Fight Against Mouth Cancer'.

Review of Opening Ceremony London2012

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Hello all,

I've been lazy to blog recently. On Friday 27th July 2012 I watched Opening Ceremony of London 2012 Olympics, the most awaited event. Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle presented the Opening Ceremony of £27 million. I gathered up with friends and close people to watch the programme. Here is what I thought of the ceremony, lets just call it solely 'My Review'.

The first thing I liked was 'The Countdown' of 1 minutes which covered many things already. 10 Downing Street, No.9 bus which runs in Central London and many more. The start of the River Thames for me was awesome.

The 'Isles of Wonder', showed by Danny was so nice. I actually liked the theme of the ceremony. I think he tried to show typical English countryside. I was wondering about so many things and why it was there. I wondered where are the athletes of all over the world going to stand cause there was grass all over there. Why there is a little uphill there. and more questions followed later on. Even living 10 years in Britain I was still confused. Then slowly I got the hang of it. I somehow related to the things that Danny might want to show.

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The view of countryside, people farming, playing, singing happily was spectacular. Then followed the invasion of industrial revolution and the big chimneys and dark era. The class difference, the Suffragettes, the greenlands disappearing, labourers, world war, women working in the world war in different fields when all men went to war front, the people migrating from the Caribbean, Uganda and other countries, foundation of NHS (National Health Service) and Great Ormond Street Hospital. More followed as British singing legends and their songs, Film industry and current James Bond and ofcourse the Queen. I very much liked David Beckham's part. He looked cool. Harry Potter theme was shown. Everything that Britain is proud of was demonstrated in a very superb way. I loved luminous lights (Blue is my favourite colour), the effects and danced sequence.

I waited whole night just to see Nepalese participants and them calling out my country's name. Thank god atleast someone was there to represent my country. I was wondering when each country appeared and walked the march past. The volunteers were carrying something in their hand. Later on I realise the flag was suppose to go on the little hill there, the thing those volunteers were carrying was actually the head of the Olympics torch which they lighten in the end. It was like a flower and it all came together to form a flames of all participating countries. The Olympic flame was lighten by young generation. Closing up with Paul McCartney was epic act. Though his voice wasn't that great seeing him was enough for me.

Shreya Dhital :)

google image, Olympic flame

The most of all. I loved the Fireworks in the end. It was marvellous.

Everything was very good. But I must say there few things that people criticised and yes I am also doing it. I am not saying bad things just some points which I felt like expressing here.

Trying show every special thing that Britain has and is proud of in such a good way was impressive but a lot of people around the world might have very few knowledge of what was going on. I read 'Life in UK' book few months ago so I was able to understand what was going on though I think I might have miss out on something as well. Not a lot of people knows what is NHS. People compared this opening ceremony with Beijing Olympics and said it was less interesting, but I do not agree with that fully. All those great music is not recognisable by everyone. For me being a Nepalese and if I was in Nepal, I wouldn't have known many things. Danny Boyle did try to make it interesting for all age group. He included children, youngsters, middle aged and all people. The whole point of this post is that I loved what he did and how he managed such a big event so beautifully but I guess most of the people around the world might have understand only half of what was going on.

I loved being here in the City hosting London 2012 Olympics. I never thought in my childhood that I will end up here in future. I was lucky enough to get tickets to Badminton and I thoroughly enjoyed watching World Champions of Badminton. I even went to see Olympic village but didn't had ticket to get in.

I look forward to see how the Closing Ceremony will be. Although I didn't get chance to volunteer I just hope they do well. Wishing them luck.

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crowd watching Badminton

Badminton

London

Topic of the day in London

Hello all my readers out there,

How was  your day?

 Well my day went normal and everything was fine. But in the UK today many things were happening because public sector workers went to STRIKE. The union leaders and the government couldn't make a decisions and disruptions were all over the country. Schools were closed, hospitals, emergency services, airports and many places had many difficulties. Since I work for a private owner there is no way I'm going for a strike with my boss. I am quite happy and comfortable working the way I am at the moment. Sometimes money is not everything in life and job satisfaction is the first priority. I sometimes say this to console my heart as well but most of the time this is the fact that I love my job and respect my employer even if he could not afford to pay me more. I am lucky enough to have job in this time of recession, job cuts and people going into claiming government benefits.

I don't know the real reason and cause behind this strike and honestly speaking I don't really want to know as well. I'm sure they must have had reasonable causes to cause this much disruptions but in my point of view STRIKES make general people like me a big-time sufferer. This was the biggest strike ever in the UK so far in 30 years. I can understand government is also pushing it to the edge and trying hard to change the system. Things just don't get accepted so easily in this coalition government.

I think this phase of life is to struggle and make my way towards achieving my goal. I have certain aim, goal or lets say dreams to fulfill and I am working towards it. I come from a small South Asian country where to find a job with pension scheme is almost impossible. Only government jobs like government school, government offices and government works (army, police, hospitals,etc) or any jobs related to government can get pension as far as I know of. The pay is comparatively less and pension is also not that much high. To get a position in government work is again like reaching out for stars. You can't really get into those kind of jobs. We have learnt to live like that and we know how to survive even without pension in an old age. But here in this sophisticated country, the most advanced and developed country in the world people are still doing strikes over pay and pensions when recession is at its highest peak and there is also biggest chance of losing your job. Sometimes I wonder aren't they just lucky to have their job in this period where people's jobs have been snatched from them, early redundancy is widespread. More than 100 RAF pilots have been informed of their redundancy through emails. I meet a lot of people saying they have been made redundant and with no choice they had to claim government benefit. They don't have to go on a strike if there is no job. If there was no facilities people wouldn't have choices and there wouldn't be any unnecessary demands arising from there. Let's say in Nepal we only have few benefit scheme like old-age benefit, pregnancy benefit and free education for children upto certain year and that is at the moment more than enough. Why? Simply because our government can only afford to or lets say system is only providing limited facilities.

In Nepal they do lot of strikes and close down the whole country, town and cities if some union or some political party or anybody when they want to protest against government. Who suffers the most : general public. Still after doing all those strikes and disruptions nothing really comes out from it. I hope those who did the strike get what they wanted.

When we wake up tomorrow things would be pretty much normal and running as usual. People rushing to go to work, roads full of cars again and traffic jam everywhere. Now I hope Londoners and the people of UK have a good sleep and no strike on action. May they have a better pay and pension in their dream as well. Sleep tight.

Thank you for reading and hope this post find you in most relaxing mood. Enjoy :)