Shanghai HSBC Golf Championships (Nov 2013)

Special thanks to Angel for getting us tix! The VIP clubhouse access and freebies made it especially enjoyable ;) Always inspiring to watch golf live.

Up close and personal with the stars! To name a few: Ernie Els, Rory Mcllroy, Phil Mickelson, Ian Poulter, Andy Garcia and Dustin Johnson whom I captured the best shot and who eventually won the championship :)

Shanghai Oct/Nov 2013

Shanghai Masters Semis :) Watched Nadal and Joko. Honestly I think the tickets are overpriced. Which probably explains why the stadium was only about 75% full. Still, we were surprised to find a live band playing outside and some activities to keep people occupied.

More restaurant-scounting.

Name: T8

Address: 181 Taicang Lu, Xintiandi 太仓路181弄新天地北里8单元1楼

Review: Lovely brunch place though a tad pricey.

Name: Top Chef

Address: 169 Mengzi Lu 蒙自路169号智造局 4-105室

Review: A hole in the wall French restaurant in our neighbourhood. Recommended by a friend to try their lobster noodles. First time was a hit while the second time a miss. So I would say good but inconsistent.

Name: El Willy

Address: 22 on the Bund, Zhongshan Dong Er Lu 中山东二路22号5楼

Review: Our go-to Spanish tapas place along the Bund. Good variety and at a reasonable price point considering it's a Bund restaurant. Somewhere we would often bring our visitors to.

Name: Mr Willis

Address: 195 Anfu Lu 3rd floor 安福路195号3楼

Review: Good food and one of foreigners' favorites.

Name: M on the Bund

Address: 5 on the Bund 7th floor 广东路20号外滩5号7楼

Review: Brunch is alright.

Name: Oyama (鮨 大山)

Address: 20 Donghu Lu 2nd floor 东湖路20号邸雅居2楼 

Review: Our top restaurant in Shanghai with beloved Oyama san! The first experience blew us away and we've been back several times since. Feels very much like dining in Japan without having to actually fly over. Top quality food - mainly sushi and sashimi - plus Oyama's superb hospitality are the reasons why we find ourselves forever raving about it. I highly (only) recommend reserving the counter seats (~10 persons max) and choosing the 2nd seating at 8.40pm. Price is fixed at 880rmb pp. Just sit back and let the man himself feed you :) Somewhat of an Omakase style. Alcohol can be a bit pricey. Nonetheless, it's the closest thing to perfection..in Shanghai.

Florence/Rome/Paris May2013 - 5

Back to Paris after the BBQ, dropped our luggage at the hotel, met our friends, and together immediately drove off to Honfleur! Love how familiar all these feel..

Charming place which we're always so proud to show off to our friends. 3rd time back here at restaurant Sa.Qua.Na and it's still as good and as value for money as ever. The half menu lunch at 68eur is already enough to wow our tummies. Very easy to drive to from Paris. Trust me that it won't disappoint!

Finally returned to our oh-so-dear Paris for the remaining leg of the trip. Stayed at Adagio hotel near the La Fayette and the location is super perfect. Access to shopping and very importantly to the metro. For one dinner, we wandered randomly to a nearby Korean restaurant which serves pretty good grills.

Roland Garros hohoho. Never to be missed. And again, showing off our favourite restaurant L'Ogre. Heavenly roast suckling pig and cote du beouf!!! Walk it off along the Seine and take in the lovely night scene. What a perfect end to the day.

Swan Lake; Rugby; Snow; Zo

Watched a Swan Lake ballet (titled Le Lac des Cygnes in french) last night at the Opéra Bastille. The theater is a lot more modern than I had expected. Very much prefer Palais Garnier with its magnificent interior. Having been my first encounter with a full classic ballet, I find the overall pace of the performance slow. The first two acts were a lil boring but thankfully the pace picked up to give a grand ending. I enjoyed it nonetheless as I love ballets.

Last Saturday - Rugby test match between France & Australia at the Stade de France. The French got terribly thrashed by the Aussies with a score of 16-59! It became sort of embarrassing for the 80,000-strong home crowd.

26 Nov - The day we sighted the first snowfall in Paris. November! Can you imagine? We were shopping around Rue St. Honoré and the Goyard store assistant told us that the snow had come 3 weeks too early! Anyway, I'm not complaining because I ♥ snow. You should have seen how excited I was that day. Yes it's painfully cold, but looking at the white droplets really makes me feel happy I don't know why. It seems to have some magical effect on me. But of course I'm not wishing for heavy snow storms! Light ones will do :) As it is, I'm already looking to get a scraper to scrap those frost off my windscreen.

Friday night - Dinner with free-flow champagne! Ladies night though so too bad for the men. Hah. Drank till we were tipsy but I still managed to drive us home :p Food was quite good as well. We had a burger & a truffle penne as our mains. Love this new-found value-for-money restaurant especially since we got a discount by booking through www.toptable.com. Recommended! Not sure when this promotion ends though so you gotta hurry.

Name: Zo

Location: 13 Rue Montalivet, 75008 Paris

Expenditure: 30€pp for 3-course menu + free flow champagne for ladies on Friday (40€ if not booked via toptable.com)

Roland Garros 2010

Caught a couple of days of Roland Garros.. but the first one got rained out 3/4 of the day! Quite a dampener. Oh wells, there's always next year ;) On the up side, we did managed to watch a few 2nd & 3rd round players...

Li Na & her french opponent Stephanie Cohen-Aloro

Andy Murray & Chela

Shvedova (quite an eyecandy) from Kazakstan & opponent Kleybanova

Everyone hiding under their brollys. Poor Jiewei couldn't catch much action.. At least our dinner slightly made up for it.