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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! 😉

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Blessed The Food… I mean THE CHEF!-Part 5

New Years! New Menu! Thorben switched the menu from steak to pork! I am not a big fan of pork, like pork belly and stuff because I don’t like to eat fatty stuff but when it come to Thorben is the cook then I believe it will be worth to try and worth to put my “I don’t eat this on my diet” aside 😉

It all started when Thorben still in Germany, he brought all the ingredients from there, wohoo I will eat 100% imported stuff, finally! I feel like a King haha. He wrote us the things that he brought with him.

hihihihi

Thorben always so German, he started to cook 24 hours before the day hahaha on Friday he blanched the kale, the 6kgs of kale #shocked!

Saw that it was a lot of kale, I asked Thorben how many people will it be? are we having a full house (read: 8 people)? and he said 12, so we will have an overload house! but my mathematical side came out, oh 12 people and 6kg of kale so each people got 2kg, should be OK. Mind people, it was in the morning, and my brain doesn’t work well in the morning with math’s issue haha 😉 but somehow Thorben’s brain works well in the morning haha he still on jetlag mode but he’s still able to corrected the math #face palm!

I arrived first, obviously haha who else it’s gonna be 😉 followed by Yves and handsome Freddoy, Boramy, Aggy and last one was Luis and Ben. Yves brought the beer from Luxembourg, Luis and Ben brought a lot of 胖叔 cakes *droollinnggg. Freddoy become more and more handsome and I just squeezed and hug him a lot so cute! 😉

Due to the table only has 8 chairs so they have extension table but this table was low, they called it baby chair and they want me to sit there but nope nope nope, Marlyn Praseli ain’t sitting on that chair, I need to sit on the middle, the center of all the food 😉

Marlyn IS the center of the foods

Thorben gave the explanation of what is what, we had pork belly, pork neck, sausages and not real sausages because we can’t eat the skin.

There was wayyyy a lot of food for everyone but for the beginning, we share the sausages and since I was sitting on the middle, I helped well… Yves said to me that I need to do the cutting of the sausages….. (hmmm it doesn’t sounds right….) but yeah I cut it up until the point where Rich asked me “Is it your plate or is it the cutting plate?” haha

I like pork neck the best because it’s not that fatty, Aggy and Boramy like the pork belly the most, Yves eat everything 😉 and surprisingly Thorben also prepare the dessert! wohooo when he said “I also have dessert” Freddy replied “But Marina is not here” hahaha 😉 Marinaaaaa come back pleaseee! Here is Thorben’s dessert!

We had the pink and yellow color: Rote Grütze mit Vanille Soße, the snow white bread: Christstollen, Marina cookies and whole Pain Chaud 😉

I was really really full after the dinner! Syuke came after we finished the dinner, he came for dessert and we just spread around after that. This home has many games! Thorben just bought I guess 6 packs of Cards Against Humanity! but we didn’t play that, we played the game called The Mind.

This game is rather odd hahaha, Thorben explained it and me, Aggy and Boramy was putting our hand so fast and so loud and he kept saying “We don’t need to put it that fast and loud” haha but still it’s the fun. Long story short, we sucks at the game, only until level 4, idk how Thorben played it with his family until level 8 hahaha. how how how?!?!

Then we heard a story of Boramy’s grandma and I got a conclusion that she is a magic grandma because when she was 85yo, somebody tried to robbed her but they failed miserably! Her grandma hitting him with her cane hahaha idk if I should laugh or how but I admire the courage of your grandma 😀 I’d better be nice to her, because like grandma like granddaughter (if this idiom does exist anyway hahaha)

And some people gone to another farewell party or birthday party, I was staying and played Awesomenauts with Thorben’s and then when I became confident with my skill, we increased the level and we suckssss! we need help from Brendan haha Brendan came after midnight with Nintendo switch and with Brendan we won some battle.

After that we played Mario Kart, at some point three of us became team, the goal is not to get caught because if you get caught you will be put on the prison and need the other team member to free you up. When Brendan say it, Thorben looked at me as if I’m the one that will be caught, hey guys! I know I’m not good at Mario Kart but….. haha and then 3-2-1 HA! BURN! Thorben and Brendan get caught first! Suddenly I felt like I’m the hero that saved both of them #proud of myself 😉

Then we moving on to another game, Mario Smash Bros Ultimate. We also choose characters, I was Kirby but then Thorben became Kirby and I was Pack Man. I thought it was also a team of three of us, but Idk why Brendan was kicking Thorben and he said “Because he is kicking me” and then I realized that 3 of us were enemies and should attack each other hahaha

Then, after so many yawned, it was 3 AM! It’s time to go home, while we were getting out of Thorben’s, Brendan said that Thorben’s apartment is really good and really big, does he need a roomate?! and I said “HA! if he ever need a roomate, I will be the first one that apply! Brendan replied “He won’t choose you, you’re too intense!” well well, I don’t think he’ll choose you either! 😉

What a good food at the beginning of the year with the best people in town 😉

Thanks Thorben for the dinner, NEXT! HAHAHA 😉

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Rich’s Mansion

Everyone that I know from the Hungover Games had been to Rich’s home while me…I’ve never been there! WHAAATTTTT! *mindblown
Up until on Saturday, while we were having dinner at Thorben’s, Rich asked me what will I do on Sunday? He said he’s having a happy hour party at his home and I was over the joy to finally able to see his home haha. Yves was there and he said “woww Marlyn Calm down” hahaha waitttt Guys the reason why I was over the joy was because I always heard sth bizzare about Rich’s Apartment hahaha the decoration and stuff, his collection of 150 bottles of vodka and the list goes on and on and on and I was super curious to check it out 😉

There you go the F(S)UNDAY poster, it is very very typical Rich to make poster of his own event, like soooo TOTAL, I like it!

Thorben, Aggy and I, we came together to Rich’s home. They’ve been there before but still couldn’t find the right building at the first attempt haha and when we finally there and the door opened it was EPIC!

He indeed has his own mini bar with around 150 bottles of drink, it was a bloody marry night and he brought it directly from USA unfortunately Im not a fan of bloody marry therefore our lovely bartender Luis made me another drink that involves proseco, campari…right? and sth orange-ish kind of things and it was gooooodddd!
I asked Rich to give me a tour of his mansion, saw the bar I mean its hard to miss it when it was directly at the entrance haha living room, guest bedroom and guest bathroom that you might need to change the lamp, main bedroom that somehow become the place where all of us playing mario kart hahaha

and NO dining table everyone hahaha 😉

We played game in the living room, Brendan explained the game called Jungle Speed where we need to take the stick if we had the same card, Uliana was very good at this game, she was so calm and so concentrated, this game is too much for me I cant control myself of not screaming while I’m taking the stick.. well on my defense, I need to match myself with the game name right? “Jungle” haha and Uliana match herself with the second name which is “speed”. Nicolas and Rodion had to remind me that this is a card game not a screaming game #facepalm.

Moving on to the next game, we wanted to play another card game named Saboteur, Thorben was reading the instruction but somehow it was printed weirdly so he kept flipping it up till the point where Rich asked “what are you doing? cleaning up your hand or what? hahaha the instruction will not change no matter how many times you flip it” ahahaha then he gave the instruction to me and indeed it was such a weird printed way.

Therefore we did another game that does not require highly concentration at all, Alice game! 😉 and then followed by another “overthinking” 1up 1down, two up and two down game #very very facepalm emoji please hahaha
We also did the meme’s game but I was tired of sitting so I moved to the main bedroom to join Freddoy and Uliana played mario kart.

Honestly, Sorry no offense, I was never liked Mario Kart! I mean, my mario generation was very much better, Super Mario Bross that I played in Nintendo! therefore I was always the last one among the 4 of us huhuh T.T When I was playing somehow a scene from TAKEN 1 happened!

I was the one that got taken by Rich by pulling my leg to the ground ahahaha and he said “Marlyn, its time, leave the game it doesnt matter come on come on it has to be now!”

I was like what the HELL is going on?! and then he took me to the guest room with Nicolas, Boramy and Thorben already there and he said “you need to touch all of us” put your legs, hands, anything you just need to be able to touch all of us! Boramy said “She can do split, it will be easy for her to positioned herself” Feeling so bizzare, I kept raising each other legs to see which one is which and positioned myself so that I was able to touch everybody. I still not understand why do I need to touch everybody but yeah I did it anyway and then we watched such a very lovely video <3 but somehow we missed Dasha! so I need to grabbed her and told her the same things but then Uliana came and the rules still the same, followed by Aggy, Luis and Ben! hahaha at this point Nicolas run away already 😉 and here we are
It was a super fun party to kick out year 2019, not to forget the muffin and bread that Uliana baked wogghhh so good! the guacamole, Thorben’s leftover dinner that Boramy took and I ate the pork neck 😉 , the chocolate candy that Luis hide it so that I didn’t see it but I did see that HA! andddd the taco bell deliveryyyy! wohoooo oh also the Ayi that kept cleaning all the things 😉 Also (how many also already haha) Rodion for trying to re-make the taken scene again while I was watching Lars’ played the mario kart haha and I appreciate your defense / compliments by saying “She was on the game, not winning or not a good player but at least she was on it and Rich just pulled her legs” hahaha

Thank you Rich for having me at your home, it was a very fun night with all the games and the rules that you made haha I genuinely cannot imagine what my life in Shanghai without all of you, thank you for choosing me to be your friend among any other people that you could choose <3 lots of loveesssssss kisses and huggssss from me XOXO

The Mansion’s Owner

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The Blue and White VIPs

It all started when Siti (the star of one food app) asked me if I want to go to an event called Zaku Night.

The location was at M1NT, I am not a fan of night club so when I first saw M1NT I was a bit skeptical but yeah I clicked on the link and read the descriptions and find out that it was quiet interesting so I signed up 😉

Up until the moment I signed up, I only knew Zaku is Teru’s event, Teru is Eiman’s roommate (now become ex roomate because he moved out haha) that we knew and he was the organizer for this event so yeah I came.

The attendance list was Siti, Julia, Eiman, Phil, Gordy, no Thorben and no Aggy hahahaha 😉
From the description, I know that there will be free ice cream, free soft cake or whatev its called and some foods and drinks. Thats enough to convinced me to go 🙂

So here we are, at Zaku Event!
They gave us this bracelet and coupon to use for foods wohooo free food on a rainy Friday, what more can I ask.
We had the soft cake and then ice cream and the third icon was nails? I mean… what is the connection between ice cream, soft cake and nails? hmmm idk somebody please explain! haha

The decoration was nice actually, the color was dominated by blue and white, I mean it has to be match with Zaku’s logo right hahaha Thanks to Siti that quote “I was here since 4PM helping them with ALL of this” yeah sure M1NT only has chandelier before you came right? hahaha

Then here is the main star of the night, Teru!

Not sure if 11th Jan was the first day that Steve Jobs launched apple back then…hmmmm need to check it out, but this year 11th Jan marked the first anniversary of Zaku zaku! wooooo *clap clap clap

With this first anniversary they also announced their new menu which is Zaku Latte, with the caption of BEST MILK EVER! from Hokkaido with the best cow ever! hahaha

This is the situation during the event, I mean its a fun event, Eiman! Idk why you looked so serious, this is not in class where you need to answer teacher’s question and got additional points hahaha

The food on there was great but not as much as its written on the descriptions I guess….or maybe there was too many people and they grabbed the food faster than us pfffff therefore we were hungry and we went to Xinwang restaurant just 30mins before the business hour closed, idk is it the people power that made them still let us in very late or what haha.

We were on the second floor with a small table for 10people haha! and Eiman ordered the food like a boss.
E: 我要这个咖喱something something (pointing at the picture)
XW:几分?
E:随便.
What is 随便?hahaha don’t order too much! we had 3 portion of ducks I guess and then all other food was doubled portion, we had 12 dishes in total. Surprisingly, we kind of finished it all.

During the dinner we discussed about Zaku’s event and how everybody on the table was invited as Teru’s VIP list hahaha *facepalm. It does feel very special when we can share this VIP list together, doesn’t it? #should be a rhetorical question, not sarcasm 😉

But at least in this dinner I gotta met the awesome crew like:
1. Nick, who apprently quiet upset that Zaku Latte is the new product other than Zaku Americano but hey you gotta taste the best MILK ever for once right haha otherwise you really missed something in life haha
2. TeeJ, the Korean guy that was carrying his spicy sauce around and for the sake of Asian’s I also carry my spicy sauce around sometime lets have spicy sauce battle later on hahaha. Special thanks to not choose fast food chains restaurant such as hahaha you named it.
3. Ken, from Japan that insisted we ordered too much food and wanted to cut down all the food to one portion only hahaha thanks God we didnt do that otherwise it wont be enough
4. A very cute husband and wife Vincent and Sonia that apparently came back to China (according to Eiman) too f$@!ing soon 🙂

Phil we missed you on the dinner!

Even though none of us won the lucky draw of free dessert for 365 days but we all know Teru and we made it to his VIP list (wonder if the VIP list does exist when everyone was on the list hahaha) then why dont we just came to Zaku’s shop and asked for it haha use the People’s Power one more time 🙂

Above all Congratz to Zaku Zaku for having their anniversary and thanks for having us there!

PS: pics was taken by the link that Teru’s shared and camera 360 from TeeJ.

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Gone (not) By The Wind

This is it! the first swap clothes in year 2019! Last Saturday, Ying held a swapping clothes event where you can bring your old but still good clothes to the swap and then other people will also bring their clothes and we just swap with each other, no restriction on how many clothes you should take, you can also bring your shoes, bags, accessories etc.

This is one of the reason why I succeed of not buying too much clothes in 2018 *thumbs up and I shall continue it in 2019 hahaha

You can see many many many clothes thats available here! from different sizes, style and even things you have no idea what the HELL is that haha and look at all the happy ladies on the paradise of clothes!

Unfortunately, theres a mystery that need to be solved and up until now not solved yet. Ying and Seth’s down jacket was taken! inside Ying’s jacket there are keys, metro card and gloves but nothing on Seth’s. So it will be easier to know that white long down jacket is actually belong to somebody, while for Seth’s it will be hard for people to realize that yours are not belong to the swap. #sorry

We asked all the people there but nobody see it, perhaps the one that took it already left and not in the group chat so it will be hard to trace them.

However we are still trying to find out where is the jacket, maybe somebody moved it and put it somewhere but the result is a no, they searched the whole corner of the bar but still couldn’t find it.

Seth is a photographer so he took a picture when the event started and we try to see if we can identify someone sitting around that area and then we find out that it was only less than 10mins after the event started and the jacket was taken and there werent many people at that time 🙁
I know its sucks when people mistakenly take your stuff especially in this winter time and you dont have a jacket 🙁 but what I like about Seth and Ying was they still able to find the positive and funny words regarding this. They said “now we are able to narrow it down to only 6mins so few people were there between 2:12-2:18PM” wohooo yeah good progress!So it was only within this 6mins and the down jacket gone! (not) by the wind specifically but just a methapore you know 🙂

and he continued with another funny alibi “now I need to find the clue from the floor maybe the feather fall down and I can trace it” ahahahaha *face palm
I know there was a family that sat around that area a baby that is less than 1yo and the parents I said maybe the parents remember who were sitting or standing next to them and Seth said “maybe even the baby know it! in the next 5years when he is able to speak he can come to us and explain the crime he witnessed” yeah Seth for sure that what the baby will do 😉

Anyhow until the event finished, we didnt find it and nobody came or reply in the group that it was somebody somebody that mistakenly took it 🙁 huhuhu

Look at the leftover!
This is only parts of it and what will they do with it? they will donate it to the rural area. I guess this is a very good idea sometimes people buy stuff and then dont want to wear it again and dont know what to do…well then this swap is the answer, maybe it will fit better in another person’s closet and even if its not you still do a contribution by giving it to the people who need it more 😉

Thanks Ying for voluntarily organizing this every month! and thanks to Seth that also supporting the swap, we need more people like you. And thanks God you didnt put your key inside your jacket ahahaha so at least you Guys can go back to your Apartment safe and sound 🙂

This is Ying, picture taken by Seth hahaha!
Sorry for your down jacket but if I ever see somebody wear it on the next swap, we know what we should do haha from now on, detective mode on!

On top of it, I would like to use this opportunity to say thank you to Pewa that became the pioneer of this swapping event on Hangzhou and then she moved to Shanghai and she started the first swap here. Pewa is not in Shanghai anymore and I dont know precisely where she is now but I hope you can see how much your swap idea grows, you should be proud of yourself.

ANNOUNCEMENT!
News update at around 8PM somebody reached Ying and that she could get her and Seth’s jacket again! wohoooooo so its a happy ending! 快递 will do the delivery. we all are so happy that their down jacket go back to their home and the mystery solved! now we can all turn off our detective mode 😉
#swapnotshop

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This Is The Greatest Show!

Meeru Resort Welcomes You!

This resort located 45 km, approximate about 1 hour away from Velana Airport is really the best! It has the best services, food and staff!

Thanks to my sister that booked the Jacuzzi water villa room so that we can enjoy the beach directly under our room! the feeling where you just jump to the beach right after you wake up was amazing!

While we were staying there, my sister booked the resort together with buffet, so for breakfast, lunch and dinner it’s already included and the good system from Meeru is they put us on the same table everytime so we don’t need to be afraid that we came late to the dining hall and we don’t have any table to eat or so on and they also have the same staff that responsible for each section of the dinning hall, the dining hall is really big btw which means they also serve many foods! many good foods! 😉

On dinner time, they put LED lamp on every table with the same color which is yellow, but because it was dinner time so it’s a bit dark and I got lost so the person in charge of our table-Nasfah asked “what is my fav color?” and he changed the LED light to green so that I won’t get lost again haha

This resort always have somethings to do, some events to see, etc etc they never running out of idea of how to satisfy the customers! awesome 😉 Me and my sister did the free trial breathing exercise for diving, they did it on the swimming pool with the diving gear and when I carry the oxygen tank I swear it was so heavy and I almost fall down carrying it, it was more like the oxygen pulled me away hahaha.

We did the exercise on this very cool swimming pool

Then, we went to do snorkeling coral reef, they took us on the speed boat maybe about 15 mins away from the resort and we snorkeled on the ocean, we saw a lot of fish! many finding dori around, seems she didn’t get lost this time hahaha but we couldn’t stand on the reef because it is sooo deep.

We also did sunset on yacht and they provide some snacks on the yacht! perfect!

This time we went further away probably 1 hour from the resort, I saw the gradation of blue colors from light blue to darker blue to navy blue! To all the garment boss out there please visit Indian ocean first so that you can adjust your navy blue color of clothes hahaha 😉 because the real navy blue is really beautiful! hahaha during this sunset hunting, we met some dolphins! the dolphins jumped in group, did salto and the staff on the yacht said that dolphins like the noise so me and my sister, also my mom and dad was screaming when we saw one dolphin and we made some noise! hahaha and the dolphins jumped again 😉 I was like don’t worry Ibrahim (one of the staff’s name) screaming is my area of expertise 😉

They also have the buggy or golf car every time. So from our room to dining hall even though it is close but due to some reasons (read: excuses) for example the weather is too hot or I just want to feel like I’m a king 😉 hahaha I always call the buggy pfff….not me calling the buggy but I always asked the staff to call the buggy hahaha

At Meeru we can also go anywhere barefoot haha this is the best! just like at home 😉 because the floor is decorated with sand, it literally everywhere including the dining hall, the staff also barefoot…well, except the buggy’s driver.

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It was really a relaxing and refreshing time in Maldives, this place is really 10/10! Btw just FYI, the raining season starts from Feb-July so better not to go on that months and maybe…..just go directly to the resort, unless if you want to see the city 😉 hahaha

As 2018 is about to finish within 24hr, I hope you all doing good, people 😉

Get busy living!

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The Falsifying Advertisement

First of all, alert! alert! there is no wifi at Maldives airport everyone! WHATTT!! *shocked! They have free wifi but you need to register with your local number which is of course we don’t buy it so I can’t tell my sister where I will wait for them, the airport is small btw so you can’t be lost unless! you were not waiting on the arrival hall nor on the place where you said you would be 😉 HA! I said to my sister that I will wait them at Starbucks or some cafe shop to have the wifi and so on bbuuuuutttt I was on the lounge 😉 so there was a bit of hide and seek part between me and my sister but she was the one that seek me more and me, I’m just hiding under the cold AC with cookies, fruits and wifi from the lounge 😉 haha but long story short, we were able to found each other 😉

And we met the driver that took us to our hotel called h78, the hotel was nice, right in front of the beach. Btw this is not the resort yet, we went to the city called Hulhumale. The receptionist of this hotel is a woman from Nepal. My sister knew that this hotel provide the city tour and we wanted to go there but when we arrived the city tour has finished and we were kind of sad but the woman told us that we can go by ourselves and she gave us the map of where to go and what can we see there. We became enthusiast when we heard her explaining the touristic places. There are parliament building, city garden restaurant, presidential jetty and park, sultan mosque, souvenir shop and fish market and she suggested us to take taxi to the park and then walk around and that’s exactly what we will do!

The taxi driver named Ahmad came and he became our “tour guide” by saying this building is Maldives bank, ministry of foreign affairs building, jetty blablabla. But during the way to our Presidential Park, he suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, take a bottle of water, get out of the taxi to the sidewalk, rinse his mouth and came back. We were confused if he is fasting or what but yeah nobody knows what is going on with him….. Anyway we arrived to the one that called “park”. I was like…this doesn’t seems like a presidential park and I said that we want to go to the presidential park and he said “oh this presidential park is behind the mosque” and he dropped us there. Before we got off he asked how long we will be here and I said maybe 3 hours and he said “No, it’s too long. Everything here is so small only 500m walking distance, 1 hour is enough” I was like hmmmmm this is such different energy from the receptionist and the driver.

And here is the Presidential Park, they have the what so called “Fountain Bridge” which is…. See it by yourselves people 😉 the fountain was just like this and this height, doesn’t go any higher and the lights are blue, green and red ahahaha

They have a unique swing and a man-made tree.

Then this is the Sultan Mosque, Jetty and another park which has many birds and the ministry of foreign affairs 😉

The souvenir shops was not appealing at all, because all the shops are darks so we didn’t go there. And the highlight was the so called artificial beach. Our receptionist said many people take pictures of this artificial beach and I was just curious how did they make the artificial beach in the middle of the city? And here it is people! Hahaha

See the sand, the salt water aka beach and then see those rocks act as a border between the artificial beach and the sea and the sea! haha

So…..the winner of this city tour explanations goes to the driver! Hahaha the way the driver explained everything to us was very simple and the way it is. But it is still good that we visited this city, because we got to know the places otherwise we will be curious about how the city will looks like and no wonder why the city tour already finished by the time we arrived there, I mean….there’s not much things to see anyway hahaha 😉

But we got to know that the people that we met in Hulhumale they all are very friendly and helpful and they can speak English! Wohooo so this makes our life easier haha and time goes really slow here #times goes by so slowly, times goes by so slowly lalalalalla by Madonna.

Next day we will go to the resort! To the real Maldives where you will see on google or any other search engine when you type Maldives. THIS BETTER BE GOOD! 😉

 

 

 

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The “Nightmare” Before Christmas

HO HO HO this Santa Claus laugh almost changed to Hu Hu Hu or Hiks Hiks Hiks crying voice for me hahahaha I really need to have some drama juussttttt before Christmas to make this movie title more real in life haha 😉

It all started with the very not prepare trip from my side, me and my family will meet up in Maldives for Christmas and then we will move to Bangkok and Phuket until beginning of January. My part was buy ticket for myself, going to Maldives and return from Phuket, my sister bought the middle part which is Maldives to Bangkok and Bangkok to Phuket. She will take bus from Canberra to Sydney, and then flight from Sydney to Singapore and Singapore to Maldives. My parents will take flight from Jakarta to Singapore and Singapore to Maldives. I think both me and my sister are getting lazy to check each other so we just gooooooo and when I was otw to airport I texted her to send me the other flight ticket, but she only sends me flight ticket from Bangkok to Phuket and she send it twice so she thought she also already send me the Maldives to Bangkok one and then maybe she went to sleep right after due to she’s been travelling far enough hahaha.

And when I was waiting to check in I just suddenly think “hmmmm do I need visa to transit in Sri Lanka?” and I checked on the internet and for Indonesian they need to have the travel authorization….I’m not sure about transit though…. therefore I called AGGY! haha but she didn’t pick up the phone and the waiting line got shorter and shorter and I panicked haha she was on the Christmas Eve party so of course she won’t check her phone so I texted on the group “Aggy! Pick up the phone!” hahaha the panic side of me started to use every way to be able to reach her. But she was able to calm me down by saying as far as she knew, it was only Canada that needed visa even for transit, so fiuhhh okay. First drama finished 🙂

Second drama started when the check in counter guy didn’t let me check in because I don’t have the flight out of Maldives. And I can’t call my sister using WA so I called my mom using wechat but she didn’t pick up *nervous stage 1. Then I called Aggy again to ask if she can call my dad’s Indonesian number unfortunately her phone cannot do that but since she was on a party so I asked her “can you ask somebody from the party if anyone can do that?” and she just shout “does anyone of you can make international call?” and someone saidd yes! and that someone was Hutch! yeayyy! Then I got another report from Aggy “the number is not valid” whoaaaaa *nervous stage 2! I gave her my father’s other number and she tried again but still 0 answer.

Thorben asked me “what is going on?” sorry bro, your little sister is in the middle of something! hahaha. Then I asked Gordy to call my sister on WA but she still didn’t pick up and his phone will run out of battery soon so he cannot call my sister anymore! *nervous stage 3. In the meantime while me, Aggy and Gordy kept calling my family member, the other Indian passenger looked at me and asked am I OK and I said NO! how do I look like OK hahaha I asked him “can you do international phone call?” and he said yes! sooo….the last candidate that I called using an Indian guy’s phone was…..my sister’s boyfriend hahaha! It was maybe 2AM in Australia but yeah I’m in panic hahaha and obviously he didn’t pick up either *facepalm.

In the end it was 23:07 and there was a ticketing guy that said “maybe you can buy again the ticket” I was like duhhhh! why I didn’t think of that! hahaha so I said to the check in counter guy that I will buy a new ticket and come back to you, and he said “but you need to do it latest 11:20 otherwise you will be late” and I ran with this ticketing guy to the counter ticket and I said “please buy me the cheapest ticket as I won’t use it anyway” hahahaha and then voilaaaaa! the additional ticket was printed, and I ran through the immigration. The immigration was only 1 opened and there was 2 people infront of me I felt like rrrgghhhhh this is just like in the movie “in time” when you just keep running otherwise you’ll running out of time and then security check and gate! woghhhh I finished the security check just in time when they start boarding…fiuhhh such an exercise on Xmas Eve 😉

Time to report then to everyone hahaha I called Aggy again to say that I’m safe now and because she’s my big sister she’s also panic and she texted my father saying “Hi this is Marlyn’s friend. Please ask your first daughter to call your second daughter” hahaha thanks God she didn’t mention anything about the ticket to my father 😉 otherwise it will be a longggg lecture about how to do travel preparation blah blah blah hahaha #sorry dad! I learned from my lesson, next time I will print every flight ticket and hotel reservations! *determined emoji.

I said to Thorben that I just started a TV soap opera involving Aggy but of course he wouldn’t understand so I called him to explain haha what so not German I am. And then I texted Gordy to said that I finally boarding and I saw the Indian guy again and he was glad that I made it to the plane haha I also said thanks to him.

After that I still asked Aggy can you do me the travel authorization for Sri Lanka, I give you my passport info hahaha and she said “no it’s too late, you will arrive in the morning anyway” hahaha true though and she said “how could you…” with 3 dots haha 3 dots is the official way to say that she doesn’t have any more words to say to me anymore mwahaha sorry sister! I’m in panic 😉

On the bright side…..seems this “nightmare” only happened before Christmas because now is Christmas day wohoooo! and the flight went really well, the service from Srilankan Airlines was really good, they continuously gave me water while I watched the movie without even me asking for it, they have a very tasty small biscuits and the cutest animation of the flight 😉 and I sat on the aisle just in front of the bathroom so I don’t need to wait in the line for going to the loo…nice!!!

My university friends called me 麻烦玲 (my chinese name is 李房玲-Li Fang Ling) they said because I 经常给人家麻烦 (often bother other people) hahaha and it might be right at this point, but ONLY this point 😉

Then I arrived Sri Lanka, transit and fly to Maldives.  And while on transit, my sister replied to me saying “I’ve already sent you the ticket” and I said “both of them was from Bangkok to Phuket” and she said “F#!k me” hahaha but it’s OK now the situation is under coonnntrooollllll 😉 besides, if nothing happened the night before Xmas, I won’t have this story anyway 😉

Now, everything went well, I arrived first and in next 3 hrs my sister and parents arrive so I treat myself by relaxing on the lounge, taking shower, have some snacks and life is good again! hahaha not that it was bad before, not at all but at least I can chill now 😉

Marlyn already chill

Besides, there is no movie called Nightmare during or after Christmas right? hahaha

😉