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jiewa-at-bandung

Your City, Your Passion!

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A couple of weeks ago I made a rather cryptic comment about a secret mission involving Eat Rio, communication and Indonesia. Well today I can finally reveal all!

Some months back, I was approached by someone from the Skype company who asked if I’d be interested in getting involved in a project they were working on. The title of the project was “Your City, Your Passion” and you might not be surprised to hear that I was a little cynical at first. There is a lot of talk about ‘passion’ nowadays: just skim through Twitter and you will find countless people who are “passionate about getting you the best deal on home insurance” or they’ll shout joyfully that “Shower curtain rings are our passion!”.

However, Skype’s proposal was irresistible: spend a day wandering around Rio, showcasing the best and most interesting food the city has to offer. Hmmm, ‘Rio’ and ‘food’ – I am (reluctantly) forced to admit that I am passionate about both of these subjects.

jiewa-at-bandung

This is Jie! As I showed him Rio, he showed me Surabaya.

 

My partner for the day was Jie, a food blogger from the city of Surabaya on the Indonesian island of East Java. Here’s where Skype came in – they arranged for Jie and me to ‘meet up’ for the day over Skype on our mobile phones. Using the wonders of modern mobile technology we chatted, swapped photos and videos and compared the culinary highlights of our cities.

So, how did it go?

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All about me!

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There’s an implicit conceit in writing a blog isn’t there? It’s that you judge what you have to say to be worthy of people’s attention. It’s the equivalent of walking into a room and shouting “Listen up everyone! I’ve got something to say and I think you’re going to like it!”. I’m sure we bloggers also have some higher motives, but if we’re honest, I think there’s an element of ‘vanity project’ in every blog.

This makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, but with a subject as interesting as Rio, I feel happy enough to simply describe what I see and speculate on why things are the way they are. Then I can sit back and read what everyone else thinks in the comments. For those that don’t enjoy what I have to say, at least there are some pretty pictures!

Eat-Rio-500-likes

The Eat Rio Facebook page just passed 500 likes!

 

People have all kinds of different ideas about what should go into a blog. Some people use their blogs as a kind of journal through which they invite you into their personal lives, others go for a more cold, fact based approach.

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Happy Birthday to…

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Today I would mostly like to say a big Happy Birthday to my Mum! It’s at times like this that I feel the downside of living in Brazil. The sun and adventure is all very well, but it’s tough to be away from so many loved ones for such long periods. I have also just recently missed my niece’s birthday and (unfortunately for her) I am one of those people who is useless at planning ahead, buying presents or using the postal system (AKA a man).

Happy Birthday Mum!

 

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Introducing: Eat Rio Galleries!

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Notice anything different about the site today? I’ll give you a clue – I’ve re-shuffled the main menu a little. See it? That’s right, I’ve added a “Galleries” link as the last item on the menu bar.

I don’t want to get too autobiographical on you, but a little bit of background wouldn’t hurt would it? I bought my first camera when I was 7 – it cost 20p from a school fair and was very old and beaten up. Ever since I’ve loved taking photos and although I don’t really know what I’m doing, I really enjoy having a go.

 

Living in Rio has made me a little obsessive about having a camera with me at all times – you just never know when something interesting, beautiful or noteworthy might come along. One day it’s a crazy girl doing the most expert hair twirling I’ve ever seen, the next day I stumble upon a cool Asian food shop.

So instead of just storing all these photos on my computer at home, I thought it might be nice to group the best ones together into themed galleries.

Currently there are 3 galleries (Multiplicity, The Beach, Cristo Redentor), but I will be adding many more when I find the time to work through my archive. One rather boring note: if you click on the first image while the top menu bar is visible, you may find that it (the menu bar) gets in the way. To avoid this just scroll down a little before you click on the first image.

8 line brag

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Anyone object to a little bragging? C’mon, indulge me: those of you who follow the Eat Rio Facebook page will already know that yesterday’s post was picked up by the news! Australian news site, NineMSN, have an article on their World News page which is basically a cut down version of yesterday’s post! As I speak we are the fourth most popular item on the entire site – exciting right?

 

Whatever Gillard – you may “get things done”, but we invaded an airport! Think about it – I know who I’d vote for…

 

Two things stem from all this – firstly I’d like to welcome any new visitors that may have popped over from NineMSN – g’day. Secondly, now that I’m famous (yes, I said ‘famous’ – my name is mentioned four times in the article) I’d appreciate a little more respect from my regular readers – all four of you.

OK, that’s enough bragging for now – a proper post will follow shortly.