It was a very delayed festival indeed!
The Turkish Islamic Community held their 1 day Eid Festival just yesterday (10 October 2009). The festival was set on the grounds of the Keysborough Mosque.
We were there with my husband to hold a stall. To be honest, I have no idea if this was their first festival or one of many others. As I was in Turkey for quite some time, I'm a little delayed on most things that happen in Melbourne.
Anyhow... we were supposed to be there at around 11am, and since we live on the other side of town it roughly takes a little over an hour to get there. So, in reality I had to get up at around 8am, get all the stock ready by 9-10am, and leave home by 10:30am the latest! Yes, that is how it was meant to be. However, I woke up just before 12pm (went to sleep around 7am, set my alarm, but do ya think I heard?!!) to my husband running downstairs (yeah, slept on the sofa cos it was too late(!) to go to bed, and if I went to bed, I would never be able to wake up early!) and yelling "IT'S 12, IT'S 12!!!"
We got ourselves and and the stock ready by 1pm (1 hour?!!! it's a record for me LOL). Then we googled the location to plan our route. If everything went according to plan, we would have been there no later than 2:30pm (still very late since the festa started midday!) When do things go as planned? I never remember anything I do ever go as planned... Westgate Fwy was closed! :( I've only been to that area max 4 times in my life, and wouldn't know any other way... We didn't have an e-tag that would allow us to breeze through the tollways...
So we blamed each other for a while. LOL Hubby blamed me for not getting up earlier cos he didn't know that I worked all night. In return I blamed him thinking he slept earlier so he could have woken up. Since he's new in Melbourne, he doesn't know too many routes either, but hey, he got his taxi license, so he should know better than me!
This is the convo (more like argument) we had in the car:
Hubby: open the melway and look for another way to go
Me: I don't know how to go there even witht the melway! The lasttime I tried, I ended up in geelong, the total opposite direction..
Hubby: you should know better than me, I don't know melbourne!
Me: piss off! we spent so much money on your taxi course and license; was it for nothing? prove to me that all the money didn't go down the bloody drain!
Hubby: I said, open the melway and tell me where to go or I'm going home!
Me: Nope... I'm not gonna open it before you look first!
Hubby: I'm going home.. ?
Me: Go! I don't care...
Then he took the melway... opened it... and started asking me, "how about this route?" So he got me involved anyway... We decided on Princes Hwy... And guess what? We got there! It was a little past 3pm when we finally reached our destination and all the other stalls were open.
My husband wasn't too happy and kept on saying "no stall area left!" and I showed him a couple... Anyhow, we set up in one of the 2 places I showed and another seller came and set up right after us... So we weren't the last ones to get there. :) But you know what? It was pretty quiet when we first got there, because nobody was expecting big numbers anyway. There were only about 6 stalls selling stuff, including us... one of the stalls was to represent one of the islamic colleges, and 1 stall was in the back section next to the food stalls selling books. There were only 2 food stalls and one selling corn. I missed out on the corn as there was none left by the time I got there. Oh yeah, there were also some rides in the back, but I couldn't really go to that section. I asked my husband to go take some photos in that section, but he went and didn't take any! Apparently he was embarrassed. Doh!!! But he was too ready to go and watch the fight that started. Don't ask what the fight was about, I have no idea. I'm assuming it was over a girl... Fights usually are... It's either a girl or land/power!
I blabbed on and on again! I always want to write short posts so as not to bore you guys, but I can't stop! Sowwy...
Before I end this post, I have to say... It was a wonderful day... The weather was beautiful mashaallah... The people at most of the other stalls were also very kind and considerate. I had the people from the stall beside me move some stuff around in their own stall to make way for my customers. That was soooooo nice! May Allah reward them.
There were also some "big men" from the council with their wife. One had "ministed of... something" (couldn't see) badge on him. He kept on wearing his spectacles each time he went past my scarves. It was cute :) I couldn't approach him as I usually had customers when he was around.
I didn't go there to make any profit and we didn't think we would make any sales. It was more as a favour and we thought a little advertising wouldn't hurt, but alhamdulillah, the response was good.
Now for some photos (sorry, not too many as I couldn't get my hubby to take them, grr!)
This is the first thing you see when you get there. There were about 4 stalls under this. I took this photo from my stall. The items you see are replica handbags and wallets. There was someone on the opposite side selling scarves too. They were different to the ones I sell, so there was a good range to suit all.
Same place, but a little more to the side. There was a conference hall on the left. That redish wall you see.. that's the conference hall. I've been told that there were a couple of informative seminars held there on the day. Oh, and to the right of this (you can't see), there were seats and tables, and another sheltered area with seat for people to eat and relax with live music in the afternoon.
You can see the conference hall more clearly now. The stalls you see on that wall were selling jewellery and the other one on the left with all the stuff stuck on the wall was representing Mt. Hira College. Oh and there were home made cakes and sweets being sold right next to us. You can a glimpse on the left. BTW, that garbage bin was in our way all day!
This was our stall, and that man is my husband. I kept on telling him to get out of the photos, but as you can see, I failed... Oh and the stall on the left (I know, you can't see) was selling clothing items. There was a good range as everyone was selling something different...
Yes, our stall again... and my husband... again! I know, our stall looks a little tacky, but we had no idea what the place was going to be like, what we could do, etc. etc. Better next time inshaallah. :)
