Monet's Garden

Japanese Bridge, Monet's Garden, Giverny

Elmo was fortunate to work in Paris for a few months last year. Poor Elmo: all those pastries, art, FOOD, weekend trips around Europe, and did I mention FOOD? Of course, I was supremely jealous of all the eating, so I joined him towards the end of his stay. 

One of the absolute highlights was visiting Claude Monet's house and garden at Giverny. It was wonderful to see Monet's studio and personal art collection (also his amazing kitchen and cookware). And while the garden was lovely in the overcast morning, when the sun finally emerged in the afternoon, it was absolutely stunning. 

 

Monet's garden at Giverny

Op shopping

i'm a terrible sucker for op or junk shops (or maybe it's the good get that i love so much).
i inherit this from mum and dad: they too value the old or abandoned and have a collection of previously unloved things.

we spied this cute norwegian figgjo sugar bowl in the dandenongs. sadly, not too long after we brought it home, i dropped the lid. oops!

imagine our excitement when we saw this figgjo lotte coffee pot, milk jug and sugar bowl at a market on the bellarine peninsula...
aren't they the cutest? love the drawing style and the colours, very distinctive in amongst the english ceramics that you often see at opshops. once i stop admiring them, we may even serve coffee out of the pot once day far far in the future (especially since butterfingers here is likely to be a klutz with them!)

ching ching!

on our way home from london, we stopped over in hong kong to see my side of the family. in the instant that i saw my relatives, the six long years between drinks disappeared - a very comforting feeling indeed.

we stayed in tin hau, a relatively quiet neighbourhood on hong kong island. tin hau is dotted with excellent hong kong style cafes (think congee, or rice porridge, for breakfast and noodle soups for lunch) and the most fantastic dessert house, ching ching (i kid you not).

that's right: a house of desserts.
and so many to choose from: from classic tong yuen (rice dumplings) in ginger syrup, tofu fa, red bean soup and my absolute favourite, black sesame soup. you can choose to eat the desserts hot or cold, or you can add semolina pearls or tong yuen, or any combination that you desire.
the first night, i ordered black sesame soup that included coconut milk and semolina pearls. this was smooth and silky, with sweet pops of pearls in each mouthful and a lovely nutty taste from the black sesame. mmm.

elmo ordered red bean soup with mango pieces (of course). the mango was absolutely delicious. how i would love to live in a tropical country - think of all the fruits!
we returned later to sample the mango pudding and the tofu fa - equally silky and delicious.
we were in heaven!

eating aside: a mere two weeks in london and paris were not enough preparation for the excesses of hong kong.

the buildings are BIGGER.
the number of people: HUGER.
the shopping centres: HIGHER.
the smog: SMOGGIER.
it's a vibrant, bustling, elbows-out, get-on-with-it kinda city.

and though we barely embraced consumerism while we were in london or paris, we shamelessly lost control in hk at muji.

muji is a japanese lifestyle store that offers everything from furniture to fashion to food. there was something about the clean design and practical simplicity of their products that we couldn't resist.

we confess: we want to live a muji life!

elmo found this and immediately declared his love for it.it's a portable speaker, almost measuring 3cm across, that is charged via a usb port. this cute little cube flips out a plug that fits very sweetly into your mp3 player of choice. for its size, the sound is pretty good. and so far, we've got through a leonard cohen concert without losing power.

i can just imagine: elmo as dj at all our summer bbqs...