Almost Spring…

It was International Women’s Day rose the dude @ Flowers Cafe gave me a white rose when I got my weekend chocolate + caramel + peanut butter tart. How nice! I also splurged and got some fried calamari from Miss Fish. It came with fries and I opted for the sweet potato fries and they were amazing 😍 Even better than the fried calamari LOL

Just started on courses before for personal development. I’ll write more when I get more into them!

• For work: Improving communications skills – University of Pennsylvania, Coursera. I want to brush up and see if I can learn some new ways to be more succinct in my writing and speaking. I always want to be able to negotiate better while being empathetic and also be able to be more confident to say no.
  
• For fun: Hong Kong Cinema through a Global Lens – Hong Kong University, edX. I’ve watched movies from HK at home, on the plane and in the theatre 🙂 I grew up with these and having grown up with parents from HK while situated in Vancouver, I thought this sounded like a really fascinating course!

Met up with friends to check out the outdoor artwork on the park / grounds of the art gallery, Les Abattoirs. Really lovely pieces and great park and backdrop to the Garonne. Been sunny enough and plenty of people about!

More yummy Indian food! I got some lamb masala this time and also the usual palak paneer 🙂 I also tried and Aloo parata, like a chipati filled with potato, peas and spices – Yum!

Amazing pasta from Casa d’Italia! Just some basic spaghetti as I was craving spag bol (there’s some Aussie for ya!) and OMGGGG THE PASTA HAS CHANGED MY LIFE ❤ So fresh, so al dente, so tasty. I want it every week now 😀 And I also splurged and got a Panna Cotta dessert from there!! It’s too good 😀 I ended up totally making up my own recipe for the bolognese sauce:

• I mixed a jar of spicy tomato sauce
• onions
• garlic
• 3 each of white and brown button mushrooms, diced
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, diced
• 200g veal
• random fresh herbs like oregano and thyme.
• also chucked in a bay leaf

It was pretty good!

Checked out some patisseries!! 😀

• Bonbonniere patisserie: got a nice lighter version of an Opera cake with more coffee flavour. Nice but not mind blowing
• Sandyan patisserie: WOW!! Way more interesting and a trick for the eyes! It looked like eggs and toast but actually creme, mango coulis and green tea mousse for the eggs! The “toasts” were flakey pastry with a nice dried fig jam layer in the center: Yum!! 😀
• Credo Boulangerie: ok technically not a patisserie but very nice flans 😀
• Perlette: last week was the little peanut cake (which was pretty good) and this week, I got a flaky pastry with maple syrup cream : Very good! ❤

Massage lady @ Banyan was away and so I went with the understudy. She was very good but not as experience and subtle in applying pressure like the usual boss lady.

It’s Saturday today and warmish and sunny… really feels like spring is here 🙂 I’m feeling really tired today and slept in til 8:22am! For the record, I’m normally up at 5:15am for work so even on a weekend, I usually wake up by around 6:30am so almost 8:30am is a major sleep in haha! I had a walk around Minimes and it was a nice area that is still very close to the centre. It had a way different vibe from Compans as Compans has a uni so there was a lot of life, art, vibe, cheap food. Minimies felt like a small country town feel with food shops, boulangeries, a fromagerie, a few simple restaurants but nowhere really to hang out. Interesting! I visited Fromagerie Lavialle finally 🙂 I heard it was a good fromagerie and now, armed with my self-proclaimed Cheese bible of the AOP cheeses of France, I was ready. It was very small but still had some interesting variety. Lots of local options. They were minimally friendly and stared at me til I made my choices… which was unsettling. I guess they could only have 1 customer at a time but still… O.o Anyhow, I selected:

• Bleu de Gex, AOP cheese (Cow)
• Tomme lactique, Haute Garonne (Goat) – suggested by the male worker there that this would go well with the Bleu
• Massipou vielle réserve (Sheep) – ditto

It’s funny that he asked how strong I like the cheese and he was surprised that I like époisse hehe 😀

……ok on essaye en français……

C’était le jour international pour les femmes et l’homme @ Flowers Café m’a donné une rose blanche quand j’ai acheté mon tarte préféré 🙂 Aussi, j’ai acheté les calmars frités et aussi les patates douce frités ohhh la la c’était trop bon :d

J’ai commencé 2 sujets online gratuits: 1) Améliorer le communication et 2) Le cinéma de Hong Kong par le perspective du monde. C’est cool!

Avec quelques amies, j’ai visité le parc autour la galerie d’art Les Abattoirs 🙂 C’est nickel la-bas!

Cette semaine, j’ai mangé:

• les repas indiens encore 🙂 Le palak paneer c’était encore super et j’ai gouté le agneau masala: Miam! Aussi, j’ai gouté le aloo parata = comme un naan avec les pomme de terres + pois + épices dedans: c’est bon!
• spaghetti bolognese: wow wow! les pâtes frais de Casa d’Italie sont magnifiques! ❤ et aussi le panna cotta!
• Bonbonniere patisserie: j’ai gouté comme un Opera mais plus légère et avec le goût de café. Oui ca va!
• Sandyan patisserie: WOW!! C’était un trompe d’oeil haha Il se semble comme les oeufs mais c’était le coulis de mangue + crème + mousse de thé vert. Les “toasts” sont le feuilleté avec le confiture de figues dedans 🙂 Top!!!
• Credo Boulangerie: flans sont top!
• Perlette: la dernière semaine, j’ai gouté le bon petit gateau avec les cacahuètes – Bon. Et cette semaine, c’était un bon petit gateaux avec le feuillète et creme de sirop d’érable! 😀

J’ai pris un massage avec l’autre femme et elle est forte aussi mais moins d’experience ni subtilité. Ca va pour essayer 🙂

Aujourd’hui, j’ai visité le quartier de Minimes. C’est à côté de Compans mais plutôt calm, ennuyeuse hahah moins l’air intéressant. Finalement, j’ai visité le fromagerie lavialle est c’est petit. L’homme était assez agreeable et j’ai choisi:

• Bleu de Gex, AOP cheese (vache)
• Tomme lactique, Haute Garonne (chevre) – l’homme le recommandé de le gouté avec le bleu
• Massipou vielle réserve (brebis) – encore

haha il était étonné quand j’ai dit que j’aime le fromage forte comme époisses 😀