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FAQ Needed!

Jovita prepared this brunch since like a month ago, she has been asking if everyone will be available on 27th April at 12PM for ages. She will bring her polaroid cameras, prepare games and specific topic to discuss, she asked everyone to confirm with the brunch menu one week before the actual event etc etc, full of preparation style. Even she prepared the flyer! Once someone organized something and there is a flyer you know it’s another level of brunch already 😉

Beautiful flyer

The brunch place was at Fogo, the restaurant is in 6th floor but I entered on a wrong door so I had to walked up stairs only to realize that the door was locked and I was like “Damn it!” and went to 5th floor opened the “back door” and the guy looked at me in amazed (read: confusion) “how did you get in from that door?” haha they showed me where is the elevator to go to 6th floor and there I was, on a very elegant place called Fogo. Jovita booked the terrace for us which is unbelievable! The terrace was super nice! the sun is there, the wind is there and what else? haha table, chair, the decoration was just perfect.

She even prepared the “game” (aka Gin game-as the specialty of Fogo is their Gin) I’m not a big fan of alcohol drinks but one glass is fine 😉

Eiman got her gin which is elephant gin, I got my London Dry Gin and Veronica got sth with tea or so. All of our gin’s were very special, just… Eiman was better 😉 and now she will request gin with cheery and apple every time she goes to a bar.

and Jo also hired the photographer that documented the whole brunch. Eiman wanted to punch the photographer on the face because he didn’t stop taking pictures of all of us, he took his job very seriously which rare in these days, it calls dedication Eiman! hahaha

After one glass of gin and tried the other person gin’s we moved to the brunch table, time to eat!

We had 12 amazing women (me included)! #wohoooo we had our self introduction before we moved to our brunch table. The presentation of the food was outstanding. I ordered charcoal grilled chicken tandoori, banh mi and bread and pudding. Turns out the charcoal grilled chicken tandoori was a ceasar salad, I don’t mean to complain but when the guy gave it to me I said “I didn’t order the salad” I mean salad yo on this very cool place? I need to have meat! but yeah turns out it is a salad, he didn’t make a mistake because he’s got all the list of what we want to eat but it’s still good anyway so I’m not complaining 😉

  • Behave for the purpose of the picture
Can’t wait to eat!

The bread and pudding was amazing, they even had a scoop of an ice cream on the side, I spread the ice cream on the bread and Eiman asking me “what were you doing?” I said “isn’t it how you suppose to eat it? with an ice cream” and I saw Jo also putting her ice cream on top of the bread and pudding and I said to Eiman “Look at Jo’s she’s also putting the ice cream so I didn’t do it wrongly, she only did it in a more graceful way than I do” 😉

We were keep eating and talking and the sun was perfect but at some point I need to clean up my sunglasses and that’s the time when I took it off and I was “WOW! this is very shinny” I don’t know how Veronica, Jovita and Lauren handle it as they don’t bring their sunglasses haha

I really enjoy the conversation going on when everyone started to share some stories about everything, their diet plan, the unstoppable brunch or free flow deal that exist in Shanghai, the coffee enegma things that Mable did. The conversation went randomly to a Filipino ayi mwahaha completely other directions from diet but yeah we’re women, we love to talk 😉

I especially like the story when Jovita’s did her skydiving in New Zealand and after that specific moments, she decided to quit her job. She said that when you jumped out of the plane, you see everything from the top and there was some moments where your life flash before your eyes and you can make a clear decision afterwards. Similar with Jo’s, Veronica’s friend also did a skydiving before she decided to went back to Australia and somehow this is such a must before made a decision 😉 knowing that not only Thorben and Marina did skydiving makes me and Eiman want to do it also! Eiman, I will have to go before you! otherwise I won’t jump out of the plane 😉 It will be super cool if the next meeting with these wonderful women was on someplace to do skydiving hahaha!

The afternoon went just like the speed of the light suddenly the food was finished! oh nooo… and we moving on to our “discussion table” the topic that Jo asked us to research was about endocrine system but in the end we discussed about sth else which is feminity, and Mable gave us the tips and tricks about how women need to behave in a certain way on a workplace, just wish that I will be able to behave like that someday…or probably never! hahaha

Finally there was no photographer around us anymore, Eiman must be so happy! hahaha but at some point we need to leave because it was already almost 5PM I guess? and we all either had something or the weather were just getting more and more windy, I mean we were on the terrace yo so it’s cold! hahaha

Thanks Jovita for organizing this brunch and gave me the opportunity to feel how superstars are with a photographer around 🙂 thank you for all the preparations that you made for this brunch, I mean look at this name tag this is not made from a shitty paper kind of things, this is a serious name tag, if I zoom in the picture you could actually see a pattern on the name tag! Eiman reminded me to take it home for the next event, so Jo pay attention, Eiman has her name tag and she need to brings it to the next event 😉

Thanks for making the food deals for us I know that me and also Eiman! we are complicated “can we just order ala carte?” “we don’t want to take the free flow drink”, “where is the place?” I mean we basically asking many many questions frequently, you might need to make an FAQ next time mwahaha

Last but not least, it was very lovely to meet another 11 women! <3

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Give Paella The Third Chance

All equipment are sets since last time Diego cooked Paella and such a waste if we only used once, due to Thomas already did a “big investment” for it then we (read: Diego) need to use it again and again and again 😉 Yesterday- Easter Sunday, 21st of April was our 2nd time of successful Paella dinner! (out of 3 times trying)

Diego insisted that Paella is for lunch, not for dinner and Thomas supported this thought due to last time we did it on dinner time and he need to cleaned up and it took him a loooooonnngggg time to do the cleaning, sorry Thomas! but…. someone (read: Gianna) couldn’t do that so for this time we will also do it on a dinner time but we all will help Thomas with the cleaning #determined and then Thomas agreed! well, Diego need to agree as well, he need to adjust his thinking (again) that dinner in Shanghai is equal to lunch in Spain 😉

The cook- Diego and Sara arrived first at Thomas’ and then me! then Hanna and Elena (Idk how to spell your name, sorry if I spelled it incorrectly) followed by Gianna and last but not least Fiona. We miss you Christian, get well soon! and hope that you’ll learn from the fact that one beer always lead to another 😉 hahaha

This time, Diego made a seafood Paella, Thomas did the cutting, me and Sara did the garlic sauce… well basically I just put the egg and garlic on the blender and the rest was Sara haha but I still made a contribution to the Paella! I also put the ink and became the salt tester 😉 I tasted it even when Diego didn’t ask and at some point he said that I need to stop otherwise we won’t have enough soup for the Paella #ooopppssss

While Diego and Thomas doing the cooking, we, the girls were just chatting 🙂 The topic was Sara’s thumb injury that still need 6 more weeks 🙁 huaaa but hope that this really the last 6 weeks you ever needed! also her story when she came back from Singapore to Shanghai and at 5AM ish, she’s been followed by a guy #woooo spooky! nope, not spooky at all because the guy made sure that Sara knows that he followed her by spitting all the time gezzz! also her neighbor that played the piano at 6AM on the weekend! and mind you that her neighbor is not playing some kind of Beethoven or Mozart but more like practicing which is only do-re-mi-do-re-mi #poor Sara and Diego! and we, girls were creating a story of how to stop it, maybe we need to buy Sara violin or cello so she can also practice it at 6AM on the weekend 😉 hahaha

Btw the boys really did a good job!

  • Looks
  • YUMMY!

Fast forward to around 8-ish, Diego said to me “Marlyn, it’s getting ready, I already covered the Paella” and good good! Diego and Thomas was worried that it won’t be enough and we were thinking maybe we need to order pizza etc but Thomas got even a better idea, he said “If it’s still not enough, we can order Dutch Pies” and me and Sara were just “woooooooo” sooo do we ordered Dutch Pies in the end?! let’s see but first take a look at the final Paella 😉

Perfection!

The chef reaction….

  • It looks good, Chef!
  • It is!

And the eaters…

  • Our belly is as happy as our face

We killed it all! I had many prawns while Diego only had 1 maybe mwahaha I realized it when I need to put the prawns not on the plate and the other people still put it on their plate, it means that I ate a lot and then I asked Diego “Did you eat the prawns, where is the rubbish?” and he said “No, I haven’t eat it” and I stopped eating the prawns hahaha

Sadly Hanna and Elena need to leave 🙁 the rest of us still there!

The Second Round Crew

After the Paella we still need to eat something and this is where the Dutch Pies begin! Sara ordered the surprise package wohoooo so we will have 7 different flavors since it takes one hour to deliver it so we continue with Gianna The Storyteller 😉 Being the longest time in SH which is almost 10 years, for sure she witness all the growth of SH, the convenient life and technology that we feel today, she didn’t get it 10 years ago but this is what makes her story interesting! Especially the story when she tried to corrected people on how to behave? yeah that doesn’t work girl, just move on hahaha! I really love the story when you wrote the “love letter” to the police haha that really was EPIC! followed by drunken Thomas and Giovanni in Hongkong, yo, taxi in Hongkong is not cheap! Thomas you wasted the taxi fare haha! and the story about you and Thomas’ mysterious friend that made me and Sara wants to meet him while Diego wasn’t around 😉

After so many times laughing, Diego kept saying “Thomas checked your phone” he became grumpy and all of us actually became grumpy, “Where is the dutch pie?!” but we cannot complain because from 饿了么 it’s written around 21:51 it will arrived, but then 21:30-ish the bell rang and we were “Open the door! that’s the Dutch Pie” and here it is our lovely surprise package 😉

  • TADAAAMMM!

At first we thought one flavor each but yeah we became barbarian and just pick it with our fork every flavor hahaha so we got to taste all flavors! and my fav goes to…. all of them except coconut and strawberrys 😉

The last moment the cake looks like a cake

What a dinner! and I did the washing! Gianna also did the cleaning, Hanna and Elena helped to throw the rubbish, Thomas uninstalled the equipment, I called it TEAM WORK! hahaha

Not only us that had a good food, Demon and Luna will also have many fish for his breakfast 🙂

We even have set up the Paella LUNCH! next month! finally it will be lunch 🙂 we all already write it on our calendar so…. it really should be lunch time. What will be the Paella theme for next month? Stay tuned 😉

P.S: Thanks Diego for cooking and also Thomas 😉

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Precisely Predicted

It started after Thorben helped me moved to my new apartment and we had brunch at Penta Hotel and two weeks after that it will be his birthday on 7th of April and he made RSVP for 14 people. His bday fall on Qingming Holiday even though some people will travelling away but 14 people should be easy to reach considering that I don’t think anybody want to miss his bday 😉 I mean…why would them?

Then… I think I get used to unlimited list going on and on and on haha another wechat group of 5 people started and the list was for 14 people. So optimistic that he will make 14 out of 5 people 😉 but then this list getting long and longer through the following days. Ben said that he need to reserve the whole place of Penta Hotel instead of a long table. Up until this list blew up for 30+ people and Ben wasn’t so sure if Penta Hotel has chairs for all of us, but then Thorben said “knowing all of you, it will be like this sooner or later so no chair needed”

Expected

And the day arrived! He booked 3 big tables for all of us and we all had chairs 😉 It was all you can eat buffet with no time limits! And to make it better we can also order one additional dish! Penta Hotel is the best!

I was so happy that Stefan brought his son- Nemuun! Look at this cutie! He was just there, eating quietly but at some point he got bored and I tried to talk to him, apparently he doesn’t really want to talk to me mwahaha however I didn’t give up, considering that I already invested my Saturday and Sunday for 2 months in Goethe Institute, I need to speak to him in German! And the result was….it didn’t really work mwahaha but in the end we still managed to play 4 in a row and dopple card game and he was really good on it!

  • Focus on the kid please
  • Yep see the kid!

After some time, he wanted to play with his star wars game ALONE! I got rejected! Huaaaa Nemuun 🙁

It was a lot of fun with many new stories, one of them is Giorgio’s “haunted” apartment wuuuuuu it’s getting spooky! Against all odds, nobody want to be his neighbor so he has a whole floor of apartment by himself which is pretty cool for partying but there must be a reason why nobody want to rent it out which is……

Let’s just moving on to something funny when 1 hour of labor turned to 5 hours of labor and 1 person turned to 6 people hahahaha! Yep, Ben and Luis also moved to a new apartment and Thorben said that my stuff is only 1/10 from their stuff! Yes! I don’t have that much stuff then 😉

Luis came late because he’s still doing the unpack but still managed to look gorgeous!

Another funny moment was when Nicole tried to take a thousand pictures of her 😉 I was talking with Ivy and I heard Nicole said “take another one, again and again” haha such a job to take your picture! Hahaha Here’s finally her picture, thanks to Julia and Michelle that patiently that took it 😉

  • The…
  • Photographer…
  • Involved…
  • For Her!

Ivy and I also had a good selfie! I was either eating sth or looking somewhere when I heard my name being called “Marlyn” and I know it’s selfie time! Haha

  • Yep I was eating
  • Cleaned up the desert!

Moving on to Tim, he looks so elegant in his shorts and shirts, he can pull it off with just a simple shirt no wonder he’s a news anchor, therefore I need to say hi to him but either I was too excited or it just need to happen, I spilled the water to his shorts, he was on his phone and he said “bitch” so I feel (read: not really) bad 😉 I need to remind him that it could be worse, it could be a bloody mary, but since I don’t drink so……. It’s only water and it won’t leave stain, well it shouldn’t happened on the first place but it did haha

Rich-Wyatt-Tim

I think we were there until….3PM ish and before we walked to Zhongshan park which is only at the corner. That day was perfect, weather is really well cooperate with us, sunny and just nice!

Ben insisted of asking Luis to buy him Frisbee but since Thorben remembered that he has Frisbee so he didn’t let Ben or Luis brought it, in the end he borrowed Frisbee from somewhere and they played it for quite some time 😉 sooo think we owed Ben a “thank you” 😉

Then up until Marina said “let’s make a circle!” and here we are!

Reality

As if Thorben could predicted already, no chairs needed! And it’s not so much different from what he expected and reality 😉

Happy happy happy birthday to you Thorben! I’m so glad I can call you my brother, thank you for joining the Spartan exercise last year where I first met you (even though none of us did or will do the real Spartan haha), thank you for all the world cup game that we watched, thank you for all the steak and other food that you cooked for me and the list of thanks to you going on and on and on. There is no words can describe how I genuinely glad that I know you and simply put, you deserve all the best!

P.S: this is not some shitty lame bday wish like when you don’t know what to write to that bday person and just write “wish you all the best” hahaha biatch please 😉

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The Unrelated Father

It was a chill Wednesday morning so far, I was reading and replying some emails, looking on a wechat group about house, second hand stuff etc until one group really caught my attention due to many chats happening which is the one and only Hungover Games group. I was a bit curious because it wasn’t 12 PM yet so it’s definitely not a sign up time but what was the hype is all about? Turns out it’s was…….. #drum-roll and facepalm!

HAHA! SERIOUSLY?!?! Parent and Child Category?

This is about obstacle race in Moganshan the one that we and a bunch of archery people participated last year and they have it again on April and they use the picture from last year to put it as an advertisement for this year Xiaker’s race. They have 3 categories now (I think last year they only had 2) elite, recreational and parent and child hahaha! And what on earth somebody will put the picture of me and Thorben to fall on parent-child categories? 😉 LMAO!

Thank you Nikita that suddenly posted it on the group, I was laughing so hard and also thanks to Gigi that found it on the first place, you saw it right that girl on the picture is me hihi 😉

But still how it is possible? My very handsome Freddoy made an “analysis” if Thorben had me when he was 16 then it’s possible hahaha! but still I don’t look like 16, well if I do… it means I look 10+ years younger than I actually am 😉 #thanks to Yves Rocher cosmetics haha!

Not being over confident but I admit that on that picture I look younger than my age but still not as young to fall on child category hahaha and Thorben is really really impossible to look as old as a father haha!

Anyway, I found it very funny, thanks guys, you made my day and just like I mentioned before, something randomly funny always going on when you have a 500 crazy people on one group and this group is always worth to check 😉

And so it went to 12PM Tim sent a sticker saying “SILENCE” and you know what time is it? sign up time 😉

#Back to work 🙂

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Give Paella A Second Chance

Two weeks ago the nerdies was very excited to have our Spanish Chef-Diego as he would make us The Valencia Paella, the dish that he knows the most, even Sara doesn’t count as someone that knows how to make the real Paella 😉

The grand plan of the Paella started at CNY and Diego kept saying that we need to have the special pan with the diameter of 40cm, special stuff blablabla and Gio always said “Don’t worry about small stuff.. It’s easy to arrange, 小问题” and with the help of Thomas that miraculously order the things that we need the most which is stove and pan from Taobao where Thomas doesn’t even read any Chinese, I’m sure Nora helped him hahaha

Within the week, the equipment was “there” and I guess on D-day which is Sunday morning Diego reveal what we need for the Paella, and there was many conversation about who will bring what but in the end Sara was our unsung hero, she voluntarily bought all the ingredients 😉 up until…. when we were 3 hours away from the dinner plan, Thomas couldn’t find the connector for the special stove and the tube 🙁 so what did they do?

I was so sure there was about more than 100 chats on the group and I couldn’t even follow it anymore. Gio and Fiona checked from the shop near his home if there is any connector, Fiona suggested Thomas to go to B&Q to buy the connector there but due to Thomas doesn’t speak Chinese so he need to carry the stove as well to make sure that he didn’t buy the wrong connector. If B&Q doesn’t have it then no place will have it. Besides B&Q Thomas also wonder to several small shops on mobike with the stove ahahah 😀 and….. after wondering around the answer was a NO! We don’t have the connector!

Then how about the dinner? are we still going to make it? so Thomas went to Metro and he said “The decision needs to make now” haha therefore we postponed the Paella night and Thomas bought other ingredients and he became the cook for that night! wohoooo he made A Big Pot Chilli Con Carne 😉 and there it go, out of the sudden, potluck dinner was arranged and it went smooth! Sara brought cheese and Iberian chorio, Gio brought baguette, Fiona brought dessert and I brought Marina’s homemade waffle! Claudia kept taking out the chili from the pot so it wasn’t too spicy 😉

And right 30 mins before we suppose to arrive, Thomas found the connector on a different package from the 快递 guy pfffff after all this drama turns out the connector was at his home the whole time hahaha he just didn’t open it #facepalm!

Thomas said he never cut this much onions on his life ever and yes that’s a googles for cutting the onions hahaha

But the night went well, the food was good! and all of us were happy as always 😉

Well, I should say we learnt from the experience hahaha we became more prepared, rabbit was ordered for our Paella the following week 😉 and this time Nora made tiramisu dessert!

Diego started to cook since 6PM and we started to eat I guess at 21:15 hahaha and I had a very important role that night! which is to taste if it’s already salty enough 😉 this is the key role guys! neck to neck with the cook 😉 hahaha

Hola Paella!

Gracias Diego!!! I like the Paella, it was my first time eating rabbit and surprisingly I like it, I also like the burnt rice!

  • ALL
  • GOOD!
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The Something Bad Almost Happen

Tick… tock… tick… tock… it was time for our Nerdies friend- the prettiest woman I’ve ever know, Claudia and her husband Giovanni to move back to Germany 🙁

I remember I ran into Claudia like end of January in Jiaozhou Road infront of URBN hotel and she said she was looking for a venue for her farewell, I said to her that I thought it will be at her house? and she said it will be 70 people, we can’t have that much people on our house! and I was like “OK, they are really prepare! good Germans, full of calculation ahahaha :D” and then fast forward to yesterday, 1st of March, the announcement and the group chat was made and the number of the attendance keep going on and on and on, I mean who would want to miss your farewell? haha Not only that Claudia did some research about the location but she also prepared for the flyer and decorations!

The menu was very good, everything is very delicious we had a free flow finger food, the music was nice! and Claudia picked all the music, it took her 4 hours to do that hahaha and as always, Claudia looks very stunning!!! #drollingggg, she’s really lady with a class!

Regarding the food, Thomas was very aware, he saw the burger, I didn’t see it and when the burger arrived he gave me a code so that we directly went there 🙂 Sara, Fiona, Christian were… I guess, busy with talking to people while me, Diego and Thomas were busy of getting the food 😉 what a perfect combination! Then it’s time for a free flow cocktail, the Sidecar was amazing! dry martini was mehhhhhh not my fav hahahaha.

Claudia was ready to dance all day long, I mean with the high-heels and she can dance like this?! that’s respect!

In the meantime after we stopped eating and started to finally socialize with the other guest (read: Claudia’s colleague) hahahaha Thomas started to inhale the helium balloons and it triggered his friend named Joe to try it, but somehow he inhaled it tooooooo much and his face began to red and he was coughing, Christian said “Are you OK? I mean, it would be such a shame if in Claudia and Gio’s party there was one person dead” hahaha but he really really struggle, we were glad he was OK in the end hahaha!

Then, followed by another “almost” an accident where our friend, Diego lost his home key #facepalm! hahahaha but then he went back home and found out the key still attached to the door #fiuhhh at least you found it otherwise you and Sara cannot go home 😉 Besides them, Thomas is the master of getting himself locked out of his apartment, as once he got locked out wearing his house shoes, and then we would meet for dinner and he just went to Xintiandi (the fanciest area in Shanghai) wearing his house shoes and buy the new shoes there hahaha. Sorry Thomas but it was so funny! and you’re so Italian, you need to do it in style, I mean nobody will realize you were wearing house shoes 😀

Followed by Christian! He’s using a modern key which is a code but then after 6 months the battery was run out so he’s also got locked outside hahaha! Gosh it seems like a cycle! I don’t want to be the next one that lost of got locked outside of my apartment hahaha! But yeah everybody is safe in the end 🙂 it’s only something bad almost happen but not happened 😉

The party is keep going on and on, many pictures were taken on the photobooth, selfie etc. And the group picture was really a struggle! ahahaha

Claudia is really a Diva! look at her at her stunning dress and even she already had many overweight luggage, she said even if the luggage won’t be enough to bring her costume, SHE WILL WEAR IT! hahaha She will arrive Germany in style, and modest wasn’t in her dictionary 😉 Ask Christian! he also heard it!

Then….it was the time for a speech!!!

Claudia and Gio, you need to see that we all love you too, see the people that came, they are all in style and you can also see that they all agree that your party was the best! and it is really THE GREAT FAREWELL. Agree with what you said that this is not a goodbye, it will never be and we will see each other again sooner or later. You’re not the only one that sad to leave Shanghai but we also sad and please be assured that you will forever be miss by us <3

  • F
  • O
  • O
  • D
  • N
  • E
  • R
  • D
  • S

But until then, let’s just remember the instruction from this guy:

PS: Pictures were taken from everyone that shared it on the group 🙂

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The Difference Concept of Time

Saturday 23rd Feb marked the born day of our friend, Julia! She celebrated her birthday in a restaurant called RAW and I’m very happy to be able to be part of it. The dinner starts at 8PM and I read the comments for RAW and everyone that went there seems to have a good impression of the place and besides they won the award of best restaurant whatsoever for 3 years in a row perhaps?! and I can’t wait to try the food there. I arrived 5 mins pass 8 and the bday girl was not there yet ahahaha. Here is the special menu that we get 🙂

As for drink, I chose the 3 cocktails one 😉

Due to the bday girl wasn’t arrived yet so there were Jeni, Teru, Nick, JAdam so we started to either re-introduce ourselves or just pick up the conversation from the last time we met which is somewhere sometime in year 2018 haha! First I didn’t see Jovita and Adam but then I saw her and I talked to Jeni “I know her!” and Jeni said “me too but I can’t remember her name, I just remember she is very beautiful” and indeed agree with Jeni that Jovita is very beautiful!

Left is when I met Jovita first time on 2018 and right is yesterday, I think if there is ever be a constant, it will be her as she always beautiful all the time 😀

Then the bday girl arrived! Julia looked soooooo gorgeous! <3 #drollinggggg we were all cheered up and Eiman also arrived few minutes after Julia which is quiet surprising as we thought Eiman will arrive like maybe 2 hrs later ahahaha and with this, the dinner is ready to serve! The food was indeed amazing, the truffle was very good, Jovita said she makes it everyday as a breakfast wow! such a luxury! hahaha and the other foods also very good no wonder they won so many awards in a row! even if it’s not so many but winning an awards is not something easy so well done RAW! (I mean for now is a well done for you)

  • Idk if the two people on the corner was photo-bombed or what? haha

As a cocktail, me, Jovita and Adam started with Aperol Spritz. I talked with Jovita and just found out that she’s an architect! Please design me a homeeee! ahahaha 😉

I don’t know how many beers that Teru already had because I think at some point he was already 50-50, I have no idea if he was aware when he said he will join Eiman for Ramadhan month in April? ahaha it takes a mental preparation to do that, but yeah believe it or not he seems very determined about it. Considering that he was the one that bought saxophone accidentally when he was drunk so let’s see if he will do it 😉

The food came up so fast and we also ate it fast, then we still have the deal for the drinks so we stayed there of course haha. Somehow Eiman, Adam, Alan went for smoke but since Teru is already 50-50 when Eiman asked him to bring her scarf, Teru gave her my scarf, she did say that it’s not hers but Teru already somewhere on the moon so yeah thanks Teru and Eiman for the smokey scarf flavor hahaha that exactly what I ordered 😉

My smokey scarf wouldn’t be possible without you two 😉 #chuckle

I ordered my next cocktail which is Pisco Sour and I have no idea what happened with it as it took more than 1 hour to make it. I did asked the girl many many times probably 6 times and Nick keep reminding me to be calm and he told me that she remembered my order and will bring it shortly but yeah that shortly took forever as if me and RAW was on different planet with a different concept of time, what is up with you guys?!?!?! pffff They became very very slow up to the point that it wasn’t only me that realized it but Julia and the others as well. I was about to write a good review about RAW on bon app but yeah over 1 hour of Pisco Sour made me don’t want to do that.

We, well (read: I) did many things to let the time pass by and not remembered it was from almost one hour- one hour- over one hour to order my second cocktail, we did many pictures and so on but still the drinks has not arrived yet.

We were so ready to just pay the bill and go somewhere due to it will take forever and ever to get the drink but then we realized there was a cake! so we had to stay still and Julia was already hurried us to leave hahaha sorry girl, Eiman had other plan which is you need to get your birthday cake 😉

The cake was delicious! and since it’s not a tart cake so at first Julia thought to just bring it to Revolution and eat there haha yeap this is just described of how hurried she is to leave from RAW, but in the end she didn’t do that and she just cut the cake in the most brutal way possible hahaha and we didn’t even bother to put the cake on the plate we just took it with our hand, yeah! Indonesian way! ahaha We even want to take a picture together again but (again) we didn’t bother, we just want to get out of RAW and took picture outside.

We went to Revolution but due to we didn’t get the table so we moved to La Social! Adam’s friend is the owner of La Social so we got the VIP table and we enter without even waiting (except waiting for the elevator 😉 that kept ringing even though I don’t think we were that heavy hahaha)

Adam ordered a very good passion fruit mojito whatever its called haha and it’s very good indeed!

Up to the point where I need to leave because I have the German class the next day, yes people if you check on calendar it is on Sunday. And I said goodbye to Julia etc and I was like “where is Eiman?” but I realized Adam also gone so I’m convinced they were smoking downstairs and Eiman will always be Eiman, another constant, which is The Most Realistic person ever haha. I said that I have a German class and she said the F word! whaaaaaatttt precisely she said “F!#% it Marlyn, cut the BS, it’s Sunday nobody teach on Sunday? and only Germans speaks German!” hahaha #facepalm, very Eiman!

Well well well, enjoy Ritz Carlton for Julia and thank you so much for inviting me to your birthday, despite all of the drama with the different time zone we had with RAW, it was such a lovely dinner, nice place and nice time with you. I know all these people through you , I don’t know them as long as they know you but agree with your speech that they all wonderful people, I mean look at me ahahaha 😀 (read: that’s not the point)

I wish you a happy birthday, great years for you is just around the corner, all the happiness and happy to have you as my friend 🙂 #Sorry that I was trying to read your speech from your phone, I mean…I’m not a native speaker yo hahaha and I don’t get use to British accent 😉

PS: Photos are taken from Juia, Jeni, Alan, everyone that shared it on the group and the AWESOME Teru (and yes, he made me said that) 😀 hahaha

  • Sometimes the writer…
  • …doesn’t get that much freedom 😉
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Bring Back The Unicorn!

31st January is the birthday of our dear friend, Brendan!

Here’s the bday boy, Men in (always) Black

He is a Unicorn! last year he had his bday celebrated at UNICO probably that’s where the theme Unicorn came from 😉 who knows and this year we had the “Sssssshhhhhhh” team to bring back the Unicorn 😀 Thanks to the EPIC organizer- Rich, handsome Freddoy and Boramy who organized the party with all the decorations, yummy food and the master plan.

Rich posted on the group that the Unicorn party is ready! and it made me very very not be able to concentrate at work due to I really want to go to the party as fast as I can! haha Rich is always EPIC there’s no other word for him.

Unicorn 2.0

Because the “Sssshhhh” group suddenly getting bigger and bigger, and Brendan started to asking people if we are in Shanghai and could have dinner together, our group manager’s Freddoy said that we need to say something like “we’re busy or we had other plan” and that’s what we did! Aaron said he had football, fancy Anthony said he’s sick and btw he’s really sick but still managed to look so fancy by covering his face with a mask haha, Ben said he’s packing, John said he’s got a date, Raoul said he need to work late blablabla up to the point that we were afraid Brendan will figure it out due to anyone came up with an excuses haha. Then Freddoy gave a very not so easy to understand group rule, I need to read it 3-4 times to understand it haha 😉

Yeah… I somehow kind of understand the rule 🙂

I arrived at Rich’s home then followed by Boramy and Aaron, Boramy prepared the food, I helped them to blew the unicorn, Aaron helped me to put the legs, then followed by Luis, Ben, Marina and Thorben. Rich’s mansion was very well unicorn-ish decorated.

As Boramy putting the food on the table, some people started to eat first while Brendan still nowhere to find, according to Marina it was Ben and Luis that started eating so she followed but Boramy said “NO, eat the bread with this dipping so Brendan didn’t find out that we already started eating” Marina made the cheese dipping looks neat again but then she said to me “No, you can’t have this dipping, it’s already looks nice” phewww 🙁

Proof that Marina ate the food! 😉

THEN! We got a news that Brendan almost arrived, so we need to have a formation to surprise him, we even practiced of how to do it 2 times! haha Boramy met Brendan first and then they came up to Rich’s home where Freddoy was the one that opened the door, and then everyone yelled SURPRISE! while I was shouted WOHOOOO (that was Aaron’s order) 😀

  • Prepare!
  • Formation!
  • SURPRISE!
  • Is he surprised?

Yeayyy!!! We made it 😀 then we can officially start the party heyyy we are all in black! you need to realize it haha. We started to freely eat the food, drinks, taking pictures, loudly talking because when Brendan arrived me and Marina kept “ssshhhhhh-ing” everyone haha. #Marina is so German! haha

At some point, Thorben started to inhale from the balloon to make chipmunks voice, I tried it but on the first, second, third times I was failed, I don’t know how to do that but in the end I could make it! Marina said that I need to inhale it all the way to the lungs and stomach and then say the magic words! haha I want to keep trying but then we (read: Thorben) need to open the balloons again, I was just watching him and I said “come on Thorben” he said “open this by yourself” and indeed it was not as easy as I thought hahaha! so I just patiently waiting for Thorben’s.

  • I looked so patient waiting for Thorben’s
  • Inhale it all the way just like Marina has told me
  • Voilaaaa!

I remembered once at Nicolas’ home party, Brendan tried to popped out the balloons with me but I always not be able to do that, let’s see if I can popped out the balloons this time. I tried it but I still failed! In the end Brendan just popped it out huaaa let’s try again next time!

It was cake time! cake cake cake! Marina was so German again, she said this is already 9:46 PM! the cake should be cut at 9:45! mwahaha and Boramy realized it and she said “OK, it’s time, it’s time!”

I really had much fun yesterday and I could tell that everyone is having fun also, I hope it’s included Brendan’s colleague, the one that he said there will be dinner but sorry! no dinner was planned on the first place! hahaha.

  • Boramy-Rich-Brendan
  • Sick but still fancy Anthony-Aaron-Freddoy
  • Brendan’s colleague that didn’t know there was no dinner
  • Ben-Brendan-Luis-Raoul-fancy Anthony
  • Brendan the UNICORN

Of course the party keep going 😉 on and on and on haha we need to thank to really Rich, Freddoy and Boramy, and most of all we need to say thank to MISSY! she’s sooooo awesome and cute, especially when we were practicing of how to open the door for Brendan’s, she kept opening the door and we were like “MISSY! NOOOO” hahaha

This is Missy, bless her! 🙂

After so many time trying to get the picture with the birthday boy, I finally got one thanks to Thorben’s iPhone! haha

  • Failed
  • Failed
  • Failed
  • Succeed!

Happy happy happy birthday to you Brendan! I am so glad that I met and know you and thanks for all the trip adventure, party, sports that you brought me into, wish you all the very best! 😀 and please don’t leave Shanghai yet, don’t even try to think about it 😉

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The 8 “Working” Hours

Last Saturday, I asked Thorben and Aggy if they want to try the new Burger Chain called “Shake Shack” that just opened on Friday. From the article that I read, I was more excited to try the shake other than the burger. But for Aggy, she’s not a fan of burger but she will tag along anyway, Thorben currently not doing his strict diet so he agreed, at least until we knew that it took 2 hours to be able to order our burger and there is no burger in this world that Thorben and also me and Aggy obviously want to wait 2 hours for, therefore we switch to the next place. Aggy recommended a new British restaurant, the location was quiet nice too, it wasn’t that far from where 3 of us lives so we went to a new restaurant called Fish in Xikang Road.

The menu is called Godfather. We waited for 40 mins and Thorben said probably the food is as big as the table and when they brought it to us, it was true! haha The waitress did said it is for sharing between 2-3 people, but they only have 2 prawns and 2 breads 🙁 and there were 3 of us…please add 1 each haha 😉

After having lunch here, we went to Thorben’s to play the board games. And yes board games with a “s” because this house got every games of the year! Thorben wanted to buy snacks first and guess what are the snacks???? FRUITS! haha yeap he’s not on a strict diet but still eating healthy stuff, its good tho 🙂 Aggy also bought the grapes from that specific shop in front of Thorben’s apartment because the grapes are seedless, which is AWESOME! and Marina made the brownies for us!!! AMAZINGGGG!! This weekend can’t be more perfect!

My roomies- John arrived, followed by Brendan. Marina was reading something from her kindle, so at first it was 4 of us played the game called Confusion in German language. But hey, at least I learn a new words 🙂 Blau, Rot and Gelb hahaha blue, red and yellow what a useful words, I was getting good at this game, Aggy didn’t like this game so much. So we changed to a more confusing and chaotic game called Dopple which is Double, in every card they have at least the same drawing and we need to be fast to put it on the other person’s card. Thorben won this game twice, it is fun! doesn’t require that much concentration but we were chaotic and we don’t really know how to call this things so Aggy just said “Canada” because it’s the leaf that exist on Canadian flag and few other things. Marina was filming when we played this game and Aggy this is not a stupid game 😉 I really enjoyed playing this game haha!

Thorben already won and he helped me to see which drawing that exist on the other person’s card.

Then we played the game card that’s called “The Game” which is we need to sort out the number from 1-100 and 100-2, this is slightly similar with the game card called “The Mind” that we played before, but this time we can speak a bit. Thorben said if we have a card that is +-10 from the card on the table, we need to shout “STOP” so that’s what I did but maybe I shouted it too loud, I took the instruction very seriously 😉

I was eating Marina’s brownie and other bread it was soooo good, but due to my left hand was grabbing the food and my right hand was holding the card and I can’t do it so I need to put the cards down or grabbed the card not in a good order and John can’t stand to see the messy card on my right hand tsk tsk tsk roomies… Brendan arrived almost when the game ended, he knew this game so he also helped me to put the card strategically so we can all use the cards, no card left behind 😉 #I like the spirit!

And since 6 of us were here, so we played!!! CATAN!!! I’ve never played this before, so I was confused on how to play it, but they said it’s not as hard as it looks like. Thorben’s got the extension of the game, like seriously this house has everything! Brendan was patiently putting the pieces into the supposedly correct place.

Marina was the winner of this game! She’s the first one that reached 10 points! wohoooo and she was the nicest one, when she got a chance to move the robber, she moved it to the dessert awwwww! hahaha Thorben was upset with John because he stole the harbor that Thorben’s wanted, and me… I was only able to built 2 cities, 1 settlement and 3 roads mwahahaha this game took us 2.5 hours! when we finished this game I thought it was already 8:30 and Marina said “what happened” Aggy said “The Catan, that’s what happened” hahaha

We ordered food because the 饿了么 should be close around 9-ish, we ordered roasted chicken, they ordered 3, I wasn’t that hungry so I thought 1 is enough and we still have Marina’s brownies and everything but when the food arrived, thanks God they didn’t listen to me because the portion was so small hahaha.

Last game that we played was “The Wizard!” again I never played this game before and the card between the Wizard (Z) and the zero card (N) is written in somehow similar way so I was a bit confused at first…or should I honestly said the whole 9 rounds hahahaha 😉 so Thorben helped me to let me know which card should I put first blablabla and by surprise I was leading the game without even knowing the rules hahaha #facepalm! But finally on the last round, 10 out of 10, I got the rules and I lost! mwahaha got -10 points…hmmm did I really get the rules?!?!?! big question mark here 😉

Marina was neck to neck with Moi!

By the time we finished the food and the game, it was already 11PM hahaha! we were there since 3PM and ended up until 11PM, it’s a total 8 hours! just like a full time job that requires 40 hours a week which is 8 hours a day! hahaha #mindblown!

Thank you Thorben and Marina for your complete board game collections, brownies, snacks aka fruits, chocolates #drooolllingggg 😉 and also Aggy, Brendan and John that helped me through the game and “patiently” explaining the game rules 😉

#Back to work before another holiday again! haha Ciaooooo

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A Sky Full of Mystery

One of our food nerds member had a birthday last week! Who is sheee?!?!? It’s Fiona! She created a wechat group for people that is invited to her bday but due to she will have a yoga class on Sunday at 6:30 am therefore she wanted to start the dinner at 6PM until you know when. But she wasn’t in Shanghai at Saturday morning so she texted on the group saying that she might be late on her own bady party hahaha #facepalm

The Germans-Gio and Claudia will arrive at 9PM, Christian didn’t even confirm (yet) if he will come, Thomas and Nora will not come because they are in Suzhou, Diego will not come either because he is in Spain so it’s left to me and Sara. We will not come very on-time, due to Sara is Spanish hahahaha just kidding, we had one mission first before the dinner which is present hunting! What should we give to a senior lawyer that likes something like organic and stuff?! I mean I’m afraid that I will get sue if we don’t get her appropriate gift 😉 Therefore me and Sara had a mission super possible haha we had a video call and due to we live quiet close to each other so it’s easier for us to meet and it only took us 5 mins to prepare, the video call ended like “OK, Sara, I need to put on layers and see you in 5 mins in Jiangsu Metro” boom! yeah! #mission started

Like every mission impossible movie, the moment we executed the plan, some issue will rise up. Sara’s bank card got blocked! because according to the bank app she forgot her password, but according to her she knows exactly what the password is so we had a little bit drama of how to pay the presents mwhahaha but just a bit, in the end we sorted out 😉

We arrived at Bistro Sola, I read the menu and I am having difficulties of choosing between the 2 risotto, in the end I chose risotto with ink sauce, Sara didn’t want to choose it because she said it’s so Spanish hahaha so she chose the other one that I also want which is pumpkin risotto with foie grass and that was better! haha but I like mine too 😉

I like the mussels so much! yummy yummy

Christian arrived not so long after me and Sara, and he brought a cake, at first I was also thinking to have the cake for Fiona but then the dessert menu from this restaurant sounds promising so we didn’t buy it and it’s good that Christian bought it, but it’s more of personal cake instead of sharing cake hahaha he was the last one that wrote his name on the list so we didn’t knew that he will come but yeah there he is 😉

The Germans were late! they arrived at 9:11PM! OMG what is happening #shocked! this is unacceptable! sue them 😉 ahaha After dinner, Gio said that on a club named UP they have 90’s party so that’s why he decided to be back to 90’s by wearing this cap that has sticker on the middle that I never understand of why nobody peel off the sticker?! What is up with this? any insight? haha

It’s even written on the cap NO! NO! as if we can’t peel that off

Fiona of course not joining to UP and it was only 5 of us and Gio ordered a taxi and we started our 90’s from the taxi with our Dj Christian! we played songs from 90’s like Backstreet boys, Vengaboys, Britney, etc.

  • Claudia is always the prettiest <3

When we arrived at UP, there was a hugeeeeee line, Gio was pretty upset he said “I will only wait for 10mins” and Sara sometimes she’s gone, idk where she went and then she re-appeared, she said it was Christian blocked her because he was so tall haha and Claudia said she’d never waited to go to club in years! I was leaning on Claudia because it was cold outside and she asked am I tired? and I said no but just lean on and I need to make sure that it’s her other than random guy haha and Claudia said if it’s random guy you can “boom boom boom boom, I want you in my room let’s spend the night together from now until forever” haha I was such a responsible person in charge that was not moving during the time we were waiting in line, but somehow Claudia’s friend came down and picked us up so we don’t need to wait anymore wohooooo nice!

While we were on the club, we found up many tall people! what is it with them? even taller than Christian! during the dinner we also have a very tall Spanish guy, that’s such a mystery how come they’d be that tall hmmmm I didn’t stay too long on UP because pfffff DJ you gotta learn what is 90s from Christian, we made a better playlist on the didi’s car 😉

I went home and so did Christian, don’t know when Sara, Gio and Claudia went home but for the next day, Gio and Claudia will join Thomas and Nora for a birthday party in Suzhou, Sara and I will go for archery, and what will Christian do? well, that’s the mystery hahaha

Sara played well on her first archery tag and she insisted on getting an OFO instead of a mobike and because we live close to each other I’m thinking if she can carry me on the basket?! haha

but it only last for 1.5 meters I guess or even less haha so I took my own bike. Meanwhile what is Diego doing?! He’s eating churros and making a Paella! after he posted his paella, Gianna has the same ingredients so he has no other options other than make it for us when he’s back here haha Gracias chef!

  • Yes people it’s a snail!

Ooppssss don’t forget the reason that we are gathering which is the birthday partayyyy here is the not full crew 🙂 there were many people that already left earlier pffffff pleaseee 😉

Where’s Fiona?! Next to MOI! 😉

There was a rumor that you will leave Shanghai…. followed by the fact that Gio, Claudia and also Nora already fixed their date to leave Shanghai 🙁 well that’s the mystery of life we don’t know where it will take us…. meanwhile…. as your farewell party is already fixed, let’s go for more good food hunting, nerdies! 😉