Free movie? Opening night of a film festival? Sure.

I nearly pulled out from attending though. The weather has turned rather foul in Dublin in the past 30 hours or so, wet and extremely windy. There have been news report of overturned vehicles and a tragic freak accident by this very spot where a fallen tree killed a woman. Flower tributes now tie along the sign.

However, the weather did improve somewhat in the evening (drizzly with occasional gusts of wind) and I made it to the IFI in Temple Bar. The film festival has been organised in conjunction with Dublin Chinese New Year Festival, but the hope is to turn it into an annual film festival. We saw Bodyguards and Assassins which was very good (if a tad bloody), and the evening was followed by a small reception.

The DCNYF Chinese Film Festival will close on 13 February with a world premiere of Blood Oath, directed by Stephen Shin and produced by Zhang Yi-Mou. The director himself will be in attendance, opening the movie and taking part in Q&A at the end. I look forward to that.

The last time I travelled through Beauvais-Tillé was back in November 2010, and like all the other times I used the airport, it was teeming with passengers, trying to make their morning flights to Milan-Bergamo, Barcelona, Rome Ciampino, Stockholm, Fez and Dublin but to name a few. (I know, it’s a bit scary that I know what flights there are purely by the frequency of my trip via this airport.)

This morning, however, was all calm and the panic queues through security were missing. Sometimes in the 3 months, a new Terminal 2 has been opened and now many European flights have been distributed to the new terminal, reducing the passenger load of Terminal 1. I must admit this is a much more pleasant travel experience.

Looking back, this airport has changed so much over the years. The first time I used it must be about 10 years ago, where the building was partition into two, one for arrival and one for departure. There was nothing else bar a small cafe, so forget about duty free shopping even. Since then, the building was extended, shops and cafes added, duty free bonus, and now a shiny new terminal. Impressive.

It’s the eve of Chinese New Year. Traditionally, family reunions/dinners are held today and downstairs, I think there’s a party somewhere, with cheesy Alan Tam music on. A number of Chinese residents (and friends) have been going in and out of the corridor where the music is blasting out loudly. I debated gate-crashing it, but as a newbie, it’s probably frowned upon to be quite that forward. Never mind, I’ll be getting my New Year dinner fix tomorrow with my friends back in Dublin.

There are 3 Chinatown areas in Paris. The largest of them is in the 13th arrondissement, mostly concentrated in around Avenue de Choisy, Avenue d’Ivry and their environs. These streets are currently lined on both sides with large greeting banners and lanterns in red, with the Chinese community flocking the major Asian supermarkets to complete their shoppings for the festivities, from food such as roast pig – yup, the entire animal – and nian gao to decorative items including New Year picture and plum blossom. There will also be a Chinese New year parade this weekend, which alas, I won’t be here to enjoy. Quel dommage.

The second Chinatown is in Belleville and it is actually a lot more diverse and multi-cultural here with a relatively high number of African ethnic groups also living here. A third and much smaller Chinatown can be found in the 3rd arrondissement, near Rue des Gravilliers. They each will also have their own parades to welcome the Year of the Rabbit.

For a complete programme to CNY celebration in Paris, check out this link (it’s in English) from the Mairie de Paris. Happy Chinese New Year!

I flew in to Paris this morning for a short 48 hours trip. As a thick layer of cloud shrouded the sky (the view during the flight was very impressive) over north of France, it was inevitably a grey and coooold day in Paris. Nonetheless, I find myself on a stroll around the Latin Quarter for a couple of hours in the evening before heading to Anne’s for dinner.

I’ve barely crossed the road from Place St Michel towards rue St André-des-Arts when this trompe-l’œil materialised before my eyes. The hues matched so beautifully, yet the painted reflection of the window revealed a season that is definitely not winter. Afterall, the trees outside are currently pretty bare. I should revisit in a few months for a follow up photo.

It seems the shops are gearing up for Valentine’s Day. Passing by the junction where Wicklow Street, St Andrew’s Street, Exchequer Street and South William Street meet, Butler’s is all red and pink and aiming to catch lovebirds’ attention to their heart-melting chocolate gift boxes.

Meanwhile, I continue to experiment with my new-ish camera. I have just (a couple of days ago, in fact) discovered the in-built miniature/tiltshift mode (no, I haven’t read the manual) so I couldn’t help playing around this function. The effect is pretty impressive too, given my baby is a compact PnS at the end of the day. What do you think?

There is a sweet little stand of delicious goodness in the form of cupcakes at the Powerscourt Centre. They look pretty and well-iced, although I don’t normally buy them, given the rather extravagant price tag (for me) and I could bake them myself at home (although I admit to not being very good at icing the cupcakes). Still, today, I gave in to the temptation of a chocolate biscuit cupcake.

This is the most delectable marriage between chocolate and biscuit, and possibly a very Irish thing too since I’ve not seen this elsewhere abroad. Maybe I have not paid enough attention? In any case, it is actually quite easy to make some at home too, except it takes time for the cake to set. Not ideal, however, if one is looking for instant gratification.

My favourite places for immediate chocolate biscuit cake in Dublin:
– chocolate biscuit cupcake (€2.25) at Cupcakes
– chocolate biscuit slice (€2.60) at Café Sol
– chocolate biscuit slice (€2.00) at Pichet

Another weekend comes round quickly and for anyone who claims January as a slow month for socials, they are wrong! And on this Saturday night, we’re out to celebrate Cait’s upcoming nuptial! No faux glittery tiaras or bunny ears folks, Miss C is waaay classier than that. Instead, we each receive a beautiful white silk peony as our group hairpiece.

We went to the Mint Bar at Westin Hotel for cocktails and music after dinner, and a live jazz band was in the house to entertain us all. The band seems to love playing songs by Michael Bublé (which I like anyway) in up-tempo beats and there were even couples swing-dancing to the lively tunes. Totally different vibe to last Saturday’s dance session but I love it! A big thank you to Fi who organised the evening out. :)

A new exhibition has just been launched at the Science Gallery called Visceral, so I nipped in quickly to have a look at what’s touted as “the living art experiment”.

Conceptualising and visualising science as art is a challenge that few can meet, but once again Science Gallery has came up with a winner. Each exhibit incorporates living cells (mini books with cover made from explant skin tissue, beautiful calve-derived installation in a bioreactor dome, allegory of Alzheimer’s disease etc) and each display prompted me to think of the inspirations for each experiment in a different light.

Visceral is open until 25 February, daily except Monday, from noon until 8pm weekdays, until 6pm weekends. If you are confounded by certain exhibits, there are assistants throughout the gallery who can walk you through the creative minds behind the projects. And like all living things, we die eventually. A Visceral funeral is due to be held on 24 February.

I’ve found a sister graffiti to Kindness!

A stroll along the Grand Canal has always been lovely, from spotting swans and mallards further inland (towards the direction of Ranelagh/Portobello and beyond), to studying the gates system that controls the water level (near Leeson Street), to pondering food options (lunchtime market on Thursdays, the docked La Peniche, restaurants flanking the sides) and now, with a bit of philosophy thrown into the mix.

Reading this reminds me of an unkind remark that I uttered a couple of years back. I lashed out in a moment of frustration and anger. As soon as the words flew out my mouth, I berated myself over it. This behaviour was (and still is) inexcusable and that one sentence caused much hurt and damage. My apologies haven’t quite yet mend the bridge as I’d hope for. If only I’ve held my fraying temper tighter…

I tagged along for a drive today to Dungarvan. It has been a while since I headed south of the country, so I thought, why not? I was hoping to get into the quaint harbour town for a walk and hopefully snap a few photos during my walk-about. Unfortunately, we got in a little late and even then, we were bypassing the town in order to make it for a meeting.

Unwilling to give up, I stood outside the meeting venue and surveyed the surrounding. Colligan River Estuary wasn’t as picturesque as it should be; its riverbed dry with murky puddles in parts in the low tide. Coolnasmearmountain looked majestic in the distant but in the dying lights of the day, I simply couldn’t get a good shot out of it. However, as I turned around, the colour of the sky took a soft shade of pastel pink and blue. Voila, the photo of the day.