Happy World Animal Day! Did you attend any events in your part of the world? Here in Melbourne we had the Animals Matter To Me Rally, held outside Parliament:
Attending events such as this makes me reflect on what I was like before I became vegan. I cringe now when I think that I was once a person who had a narrow minded, ignorant and plain old stupid view of ‘animal libbers’. I imagined them all to look a certain (hippy) way and to be annoying in the same way, all because that’s what the media chose to show and what I chose to believe. The truth is when you attend a rally like this, you will see people you know and you will see yourself. I see families that look like mine, couples in their 60s that look like my parents, grandparents that look like mine and people of all ages who care so much about animals. I took DeeW (my six year old daughter) because I had explained why I was going and so she wanted to go along too. Truthfully, she wanted to make a massive sign that said “I love cats too!” but she knew exactly why people were going today. I don’t think people give kids enough credit for thinking for themselves. All too often parents are accused of dragging their children to these events, when the kids with handmade signs today were choosing to show their support:
Before the rally, DeeW and I checked out the trade stalls in the Treasury Gardens. It got much busier after the rally. And look at that gorgeous Melbourne spring weather! Which means we’ll probably be freezing again in two days:
I was looking forward to trying treats from The Compassionate Kitchen. Check out their creations page and you’ll see why! I even took my own container to load up. In the end I exercised some restraint and went with a zesty lemon ginger slice and a raspberry jam coconut slice. Oh, and I got the Belgian waffles too. Exercising restraint? HAR HAR! This is Veganopoulous you’re talking to, we have no genuine restraint here!
Delicious! My own Belgian waffles turn out super crappy because my “one of the best on the market” Belgian 4-waffle maker can’t make up its mind where to distribute the heat so I get half burnt half under cooked waffles. But the Compassionate Kitchen waffles were great and made for a most satisfying brunch. Here are some more of the tasty delights at The Compassionate Kitchen’s stall today:
If you bought a slice you got a raffle ticket to win a hamper full of awesome. DeeW was so looking forward to winning so I had to do the whole preparing-child-for-not-winning-the-hamper-of-awesome talk. When the raffle was drawn, it wasn’t our ticket but the ticket holder wasn’t there to claim their prize (you had to be present at 3pm to claim it). So another ticket was drawn and this time DeeW was the lucky winner:
There was a brief moment of terror on the walk to the tram stop when the wind blew away that voucher you see, but thank goodness it got stuck on the wire fencing and I was able to quickly retrieve it. Â NOTHING GETS BETWEEN ME AND MY TREATS. Not even, like, nature and stuff.
Anyway, here’s what we (I mean DeeW) won. A packet of Belgian waffles!
A packet of ANZAC biscuits!
Some giant Rainbow chocolates (think giant VEGAN versions of chocolate freckles, something I haven’t had since I was a kid):
Stop already! Chocolate muffins!
WHEN DOES IT STOP?!
Even the box is great because it’s the perfect height to store all our messy Wii games and control thingies under the tv table. Yes that a VCR. How else am I supposed to watch my dad’s old collection of Star Trek:The Next Generation? Captain Picard in sexy pyjamas people! Doesn’t everyone keep a VCR for that?
DeeW and I really enjoyed our day out and she was super ecstatic she won the raffle because we’d bought the rainbow chocolate during the day and she went back for another. On the tram it was all “Mummy I think you should put the prize on the seat and you stand up”.
I hope World Animal Day was a great one for you!
Congrats! I’ve nominated you for a Liebster award. You can find out all about it at http://atravellingcook.blogspot.de/2014/10/food-for-thought-and-liebster-award-2104.html
Thanks! I got quite a few during MoFo *hair flick* and no idea what to do now, because all the people I had gone to nominate had already been nominated by others 😛
what a great day – weather perfect, hanging about with like minded people and so much good food – how lucky with DeeW winning the raffle – it really matters to kids to feel they have a chance of winning. That hamper looks amazing – no room for restraint there!
it was pretty good, I’m freezing most of the hamper (hopefully it will be okay!) and will break them out for some upcoming special occasions 🙂
All products will be fine when frozen. We actually deliver them frozen to our cafés. Enjoy and well done for winning.
Awesome! I’ve frozen similar in the past and they turned out fine. Looking forward to having them again 😀
What a fun day! It’s so awesome that you won. You’re going to really enjoy all of those treats! Cute kitties too!
thanks! The cats have pretty much taken over everything, I need to do some kind of photo montage…
That is so awesome! Congrats on winning the raffle! And those treats look so delicious! Glad you had a great time! 🙂
Thanks, I’m keeping the treats aside for some special occasions 🙂
Wow, you won! Awesome! Those treats look delicious and I love that DeeW wanted to go along to the rally with you
I think stall holders loved that she went with me, given she wanted to buy everything and I spent a fair bit though all for good causes so I don’t mind. One of the stall guys asked her if she wanted to buy a badge, sneaky! But effective, cos I bought it.
What a lovely looking day! I was working on World Animal Day, so I guess that kind of counts seeing as I am a vet. LOL
Great to see so many people at the rally. Because of my ability to get burnt by the sun even when coated in a thick white layer of zinc and wearing a long sleeve shirt and a hat, I don’t really go to rallies because they all seem to be out in the sun. I need to organise a group that rallies in the shade. 😉
Sounds like a plan! There was no shade at the rally 🙂
Haha, I’m like a ‘Where’s Wally?’ I’m subtly in three of the four photos up top. ‘The Compassionate Kitchen’ were amazing on the day! I purchased the exact same things as you too! I got the belgian waffles à la mode with the lemon ginger slice and the raspberry coconut slice. Extremely delicious! And I’m so jealous about the hamper. I can’t believe it had that much food inside of it! I was sure my ticket was a winner. 😛 Glad that your daughter won though. It always makes me smile when I see little children winning things.
Thanks, she was stoked to win 🙂 I’m looking forward to trying more of Compassionate Kitchen’s products!
No apologies for the VCR, there are so many rad movies that may never be transferred to DVD. Great turn out for WAD, so cool DeeW wanted to make a sign for it and she won such an epic basket. Best day out ever!
yeah it rocked and I have lots of awesome goodies to last a while 😀
That looks so fun, and what an awesome prize. I like DeeW’s confidence. I never say “I don’t win anything” because I believe you’ll never win that way! And btw, we have a couple of VCRs around here. 😉
I had to do a big cull of the VHS ‘collection’ recently…