Photoquai is a biennale photography exhibition founded in 2007 by the Quai Branly Museum to showcase ‘non-western’ photographers.
The term ‘non-western’ sounds vague, but these are mostly emerging photographers from countries that aren’t usually included in larger photo exhibitions.
The 2011 exhibition, held outdoors on the banks of the Seine, right across from the museum in the 16th arrondissement, ran between September and November last year, and I was lucky enough to have caught it while on vacation.

The photos are snapshots of the world; unique and intriguing, showcasing a world perhaps different from many at the exhibit.
I imagine the photographers are fascinating too; their photos are varied and moving, they tell complex tales of people and places in Africa, Asia, Australia, Eastern Europe and South America.
The photos connect you to these places and make you inquisitive…. It leaves you wanting to learn more about the people and places in the pictures.
Vibrant and beautifully shot, the exhibition felt impressive under the open sky.

AutoPotraits РH̩l̬n Amouzou / Togo
Hélèn took these self-portraits for an art school assignment, at a time when she was also seeking asylum in Belgium.

Waiting Little People – Sergey Loier / Russia
This set on orphans was my favourite of the exhibition; the pictures are beautiful, haunting and poignant.
It’s almost like a fairytale with the bit in the notes that all the children in the pictures found homes
I hope they are happy

Alter Gogo Getters – Andrew Esiebo – Nigeria
The Gogo Getters are a football team made up entirely of grandmothers

Adrián F. Milanès / Cuba

Spring Summer Collection 2018 – Hassan Hajjaj / Morroco
I loved these playful photos from Hassan Hajjaj

And the picture I didn’t take… is young Mack Magagane’s ‘I’ll Be Gone Soon,’ black and white pictures shot in Johannesburg which shed light on teen suicide in South Africa

The next Photoquai exhibition happens in 2013

These pictures are from November when I first got the Jawbone UP, back then there was so much keenness to try this little bracelet.
I didn’t mind that I had to go all the way to Mount Vernon to get mine because the at&t store in Bellingham was sold out of the UP that morning.
The UP is basically a cool little wristband step-counter and sleep tracker that syncs with the Jawbone iPhone app and displays data in a user-friendly graph .

According to Jawbone,

As a self-proclaimed lover of ‘shiny new things,’ I took to the UP quickly and loved how unobtrusive and easy it was to use.
I’ve never been focused on tracking my fitness activity before; sure, I turn on my running app when I go running, but I’ve never tried to figure out overall how much I move in a day.
The band has three activity settings, regular, active and sleep. Active is for when you’re exercising.
I keep mine in regular mode most of the time except for when I’m sleeping. I thought I walked a lot, but wearing the UP put it in perspective.
I could do better, in fact I’ve made a few changes since I started wearing the band; I take the stairs, I try to take little walks during the day, I generally try to move more, and that’s what the UP aims to do.
I love the little buzzes (reminders) that remind me if I haven’t moved in two hours.
The sleep tracker is fairly helpful, it tracks sleep cycle, and shows light and deep sleep.
It has a built-in alarm clock that gently rouses you from sleep…
I find using the meal tracker a little cumbersome, same for finding friends who have the UP so I don’t use these features.

The UP isn’t without issues, I’m on my second device – the first had battery issues, couldn’t sustain a charge past a day, and then one day it died.
The replacement works perfectly so far, but I’m not sure how long that would last.
In fact the UP has been bogged down with so much hardware issues that Jawbone has a ‘No questions asked guarantee’ refund
Still, I love my UP, it’s helped me make some little lifestyle changes, I try to walk more, I’m horrified at how poorly I sleep and trying to work on it.

Today I’m going to tell you about these adorable cookies I found at the Italian store, and my favourite way to snack on them.
My friend D. told me about these cookies years ago, along with charming stories of the summers he spent in Italy with his grandmother
I think I fell in love with his childhood a little, which made the cookies seem a bit more magical when I first saw them.

Bucaneve or snowdrop is a flower shaped popular Italian cookie with frosting on top.
At teatime when he was a kid, D’s grandmother would toss of few of bucaneve cookies in a bowl of sweetened milk and leave a few out for dunking or tossing in later.
It’s simple cookie; dry, sweet and crumbly with a delicate vanilla flavor; and doesn’t fall apart when dipped in milk.

This is exactly how I eat them too… milk and Bucaneve cookes, like cereal in sweetened almond milk; it tastes indulgent, like I’m having dessert.
With the holidays upon us, I see a lot of snacking in my future, and how fitting it will be… snacking on snowdrops.

I first heard of La Vallée Village whilst shopping at Bicester Village; both are part of the Chic Outlet Shopping, a ‘collection’ of nine luxury outlet centres in Europe.
I wrote about Bicester two years ago, and last month I had a chance to go to La Vallée Village, east of Paris about 35 minutes via shuttle.
The centre is much like Bicester, quaint outdoor settings, featuring a large variety of designer brands at steep discounts. The centre also has an art gallery.
Next to the outlet is the huge Centre Commercial Val d’Europe which has Sea Life, and Disneyland Paris is just five minutes away.

After my friend E. had her baby, she came up with an idea for a ‘milk bar’ – where lactating mothers would go and hang out and feed their babies in comfort.
And then she worried that people could mistake it for a ‘Korova Milk Bar’ type of establishment and then there’ll be all sorts of confusion – doesn’t that sound more like the beginnings of a Judd Apatow comedy?

Of course there are regular milk bars that just serve dairy based desserts, and in recent times milk bars have become hip, and perhaps the hippest of them all is Momofuku Milk Bar.
Visiting Momofuku’s milk bar was one of the things I was looking forward to on my trip to New York.
The concept of this innovative dessert bar fascinates me; they serve classic desserts like cookies, pies, ice cream and milkshakes but made with wacky ingredients like cereal, pretzels, kimchi, potato chips, etc.
The desserts have daring names like Crack Pie, Compost Cookie and Cereal Milk – how can you not want to try them?

I tried the Crack Pie which is gooey, sweet and chewy and very buttery, it’s awesomely good, so good you probably shouldn’t eat the whole thing. I have this thing where I get a little light headed and jittery when I’ve had too much sugar, and that’s always my cue to stop.

The Corn Cookie is so good, it’s addictive, you keep on wanting more and more – again there’s no skimping on sugar and butter here.

@adjoa tried the Cereal Milk which she proclaimed the ‘best thing ever!’ so I had to take a sip – it’s like really creamy Horlicks and leftover milk after you’ve had three bowls of Frosted Flakes.

And the Compost Cookie…? I couldn’t even begin to describe it – it’s sugary and salty and crunchy and buttery.
Someone described it as being like eating candy and potato chips all at once, and they’re right!
We got a few cookies for our plane ride home and to share with friends and family at home – except it never made it to those friends and family.

The prudent thing to do after indulging like we did at Momofuku Milk Bar would be to run a marathon; that is if you haven’t fallen into a sugar coma already.
We did the next best thing though, walking all over Manhattan, from Battery Park to Central Park.
Then we did a bad thing; we had pizza at the Plaza!
We were on vacation and it was all worth it.

The milk bar (East Village) had just moved to its new location when we went, it’s next door in a small unpretentious shopfront with high tables for standing about.