Food

My Birthday in Paris and Yoyo Ma Concert, etc.

Published on November 27, 2022April 23, 2023 by RioLeave a comment

Last month, I celebrated my birthday in Paris with the hubs and some friends. We stayed at one of our friends’s very lovely apartment, which overlooks the Eiffel Tower. It was wonderful!!! I didn’t wanna leave the room with the view. 😀

We also saw Yoyo Ma at the Philharmonie de Paris. We booked the ticket early this year, and it was almost fully booked! We were still lucky to get seats third row from the stage, facing the front. Here is a video of some of snaps and video shorts I took during the mini-breaks in the concert.

The Philharmonie de Paris was majestic outside, but a bit disappointing inside. But I still had fun watching the concert. It was a birthday gift from my wonderful husband. We had a great time despite the noisy people in the audience violently coughing and sneezing all the time. It was so nerve-wrackingly distracting. I do not know how Yo-Yo Ma managed to keep his calm and cool throughout all the noise. And having said that, I think it will be the last time I will be watching him live. It was too distracting. But it was a real pleasure seeing him live in the flesh. Best birthday gift ever!

Lastly, a bit of update on the job hunt: before going on this trip, exactly a day before, actually, I received a very good news from one of the companies I have applied to. I started working two weeks after this trip. I was ecstatic!!! I have been on the job for two weeks now, and so far, I’m still not disappointed. It’s a great company, one of the biggest French IT Consulting companies, and my client is the biggest aviation company in Europe. Also, I’m working on their big data platform, doing Data Engineering until the end of this year. After that, I might go into another project, of which, I do not know yet. 🙂 I am quite happy. C’est fini, la tristesse.

Cheers, and have a good week ahead!

Drawing Contest (Concours de dessin) by Art Tea Shop Toulouse

Published on February 18, 2022April 23, 2023 by RioLeave a comment

I was surprised and very flattered to be contacted by Art Tea Shop Toulouse for their Drawing Contest. They asked if they could use the photo I took of my watercolor artwork for their Drawing Contest’s flyers.

J’ai été surprise et très flattée d’être contactée par Art Tea Shop Toulouse pour leur concours de dessin. Ils m’ont demandé s’ils pouvaient utiliser pour les flyers de leur concours de dessin la photo de mon aquarelle que j’ai prise.

If you are interested to join, do visit their instagram page for details.

Si vous êtes interessés, consultez leur instagram pour plus de détails.

This artwork was totally not my best but I guess I captured the mood really well. My composition was not bad at all. And overall, everything in the photo looks quite nice! 🙂

Cette peinture n’est pas du tout ma meilleure, mais je crois que j’ai bien saisi l’ambiance. Ma composition n’était pas mauvaise du tout. Et dans l’ensemble, tout ce qui est sur la photo est très joli 🙂

By the way, they also have a nice restaurant / tea shop, where we had one of our monthly watercolor sessions two years ago.

À propos, ils ont aussi un joli restaurant/salon de thé, où on a fait l’une de nos sessions mensuelles de l’aquarelle l y a deux ans.

If you live around Toulouse, do drop by the Art Tea Shop. It’s a really nice brasserie and tea shop with warm, welcoming staff. The place is very cozy and quite original, they have good food and drinks, and they sell artworks from local artists, too. We totally had a good time there. I should go back one of these days. 🙂

Si vous habitez dans la région de Toulouse, ne manquez pas de vous rendre à l’Art Tea Shop. Il s’agit d’une brasserie et d’un salon de thé très sympathiques avec un personnel chaleureux et accueillant. L’endroit est très confortable et assez original, ils ont de la bonne nourriture et des boissons, et ils vendent des œuvres d’art d’artistes locaux, aussi. On a passé un très bon moment là-bas. Je devrais y retourner un de ces jours. 🙂

Plein Air Watercolor Painting in Gruissan, France

Published on June 12, 2021 by RioLeave a comment

Every year, my artist friends and I would take a short road trip to a nearby village in the South of France for a plein air water color session and to chill.

I was very happy with our choice of location this year — the Plage des Chalets, which is the setting of the movie, “Betty Blue”, or “37.2° le matin” as it is known in France. I’ve heard it is also a location of one of Leonardo di Caprio’s movies, but I couldn’t seem to find which one it is. Let me know in the comments if you know which one.

Anyway, here is a short video of our trip to Plage des Chalets and the pink salt mine (yes, “pink”, that’s right!) of Le salin de l’île Saint-Martin. We had a lovely time there. Hope you enjoy watching! And if you did, please give the “like” and “subscribe” button a hit.

Have a lovely summer weekend! 🙂

L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Published on December 5, 2017March 23, 2020 by RioLeave a comment

Last Thanksgiving weekend, hubby and I had dinner at l’Atelier de Joël Robuchon. We wanted to book the restaurant, which has three Michelin stars, but it was fully booked. L’Atelier, which has two Michelin stars, was not such a bad alternative with a more relaxed ambience and no less than sumptuous offerings in the menu…

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Champagne Brunch Buffet at La Brasserie

Published on October 25, 2017March 23, 2020 by RioLeave a comment

For my birthday, hubby treated me to a surprise date for Champagne Lunch Buffet at La Brasserie of The Fullerton Bay Hotel.

And for this occasion, I’m making a short review of the brasserie…

First of all, the place wows you in all directions upon entering. Immediately, you find yourself surrounded by sumptuous dessert on the buffet setting. The clear glass walls with the view of Marina Bay and the high ceiling make the room so bright and airy. It’s definitely my kind of room — beautiful view and very high ceiling. I was already sold!

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Montréal

Published on August 12, 2017March 23, 2020 by RioLeave a comment

I’ve always imagined Canada to be very cold and very far away. When I visited it a few weeks ago, I was right about the “very far away” part, but not the cold. I did not know it’s possible to get very hot there in the summer.

Here are some of my favorite images from this summer’s trip to Montréal…

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Romantic Lunch Date at Rhubarb Le Restaurant

Published on June 8, 2017March 23, 2020 by RioLeave a comment

There is nothing more pleasantly distracting than a surprise romantic lunch at a Michelin-starred French restaurant on a busy Monday. Hubby chose a cozy restaurant called, Rhubarb, Le Restaurant. We figured the owner must’ve been really obsessed with this plant, which a decade ago would’ve been something very unfamiliar to me. I now know for one that Rhubarb Pie is one of my husband’s favorites. And I quite like it too, for its tangy and citrusy flavor. We tried the restaurant’s Rhubarb Vanilla Ice Cream at the end of a three-course lunch menu, and found it deliciously refreshing, especially with the popping sugar bits.

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Old Town and Around Prague

Published on September 10, 2016March 23, 2020 by RioLeave a comment

Up on escapadecapades, my visit to the beautiful city of Praha and some hotel, bars and restaurants review:

Thanks for dropping by and have a lovely weekend! 🙂

Art at Curate, Resorts World Sentosa

Published on July 10, 2016March 23, 2020 by RioLeave a comment

Hubby and I decided to celebrate our Wedding Anniversary a bit earlier than usual this year. He told me about this restaurant at Resorts World Sentosa called, Curate. I immediately checked it out and found it interesting.

They regularly invite Michelin-starred chefs from all over the world for a sampling of their artistic cuisine. This particular weekend, we went for a lunch menu prepared by two-Michelin starred chef, Guy Martin of France. He is quite famous as he has a TV show called, Epicerie fine on TV5Monde (the French cable TV network) that we regularly watch on weekends.

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Pink Lemonade

Published on March 28, 2016March 23, 2020 by RioLeave a comment

In my search for everything pink for the upcoming Birthday Celebration of my daughter, I’ve come across “pink lemonade” on Pinterest. Since I love lemons and my daughter loves pink, I decided to test out this recipe that I found on Youtube. It was quite easy to make, and I love the fact that it uses raspberries for color, not an artificial food coloring.

You can make your lemonade as pink as you want. I prefer to have mine with just a hint of pink. But upon serving it for snack to my daughter, she complained that it’s orange, not pink. She just likes to complain all the time. I wonder whom she got that from? 😀

Happy Easter! 🙂