Did I reach Adolphe Bridge? Still hasn’t reported that one didn’t I? Yes we did!
We saw the bridge, were walking on top of it but I want to be under the bridge, where is the entrance? crossed the road two times until Feli found some clue “I think the entrance is across this road as we can see the Zig Zag way” She was correct “see, see, not so hard to find, we did it” 😉
Right before we reach the other end of the bridge she said “let’s get out, I’m scared” I was surprised why? we were on the transparent glass tower before, in comparison, Adolphe Bridge is very robust #confused
I think if we keep walking this direction we will reach The Grund as we already at the bottom. We follow the road, find a skateboard ground, Feli pick a flower to what she claimed it’s a “wild flower” therefore it’s OK to pick, not a flower in front of Spuerkeess where she saw one lady grabbed it. Where is our lunch destination? Italian restaurant (again) hahaha! She was very dedicated to have Aperol Spritz although have to say the one she had wasn’t really the real Aperol.
We walked through the same route meaning passed a Cathedral, since it’s raining, I pay a visit. This Cathedral is famous for the paintings hanged in the wall. Continue our journey to city center, while looking a map, Feli remembered the road “oh here is right” she’s already a local after one day here.
We gathered with the guys in an Irish Pub down on the other side of the hill, to get to the bottom of Lukas’ stolen bag story #condolence. There we met with Tobias’ friend from “Ireland” Delia. We stayed until we finish watching Hurling final. After that we went for a billiard where we met Pedro and Delia’s friend from Taiwan, Daniel. The guys continuing their drinking activities while me and Feli went back to Ncim’s.
On the last day which is Monday, I had brunch with April and Leoni whereas Feli stayed in city center doing her last shopping, cafeing or caking. I spoke Mandarin to Leonie, received no reply, April said she speaks only Cantonese or Luxembourgish. Yves and his family also didn’t force Leonie to speak English, she is a real Luxembourgish in heart. April packed Leonie a lot of books, one of them is sticker books, she tear it off to stick it everywhere. This little Pizza is heavy! around 12 kg.
After brunch, it’s time for me to go back to Dortmund so we both went to Gare Centrale. April put Leonie into the stroller although Leonie can walk, she said it’s easier for her, if Yves is there then she let Leonie walk. We passed the fountain thingy, Leonie screamed 水水 we can actually stopped by to play with the water. To my suggestion, April said “I think it’s a bad idea” hahaha We saw a Boba Shop near the fountain, she missed 珍珠奶茶 so much, well… Feli is working at the Boba Tea Shop, I will get you 3* 珍珠奶茶 each day 🙂 Thank you so much April for spending the time to meet me. 珍珠奶茶 is waiting in Dortmund!
What else what else what else? Oh I also met Barbie + Ken! The marketing of this movie is so total! Hi Barbie! Hi Ken!
I’m grateful for Luxembourg weekend experience, it couldn’t have gone better if we’d planned it. Now the circle is closed 🙂
Although I didn’t mean to sing Gayle’s song, I can’t help myself 🙂 I wrote a series of Vitamin ABCD without slightest knowledge it’ll continue to the next alphabet, yet here we are!
What would be the representation of letter E?!
Eschborn!
Never heard about it? #me too. It all started at the end of April when I met Ashley and Ongky for the first time in Dortmund. We “knew” each other because my father and Ongky’s father are friends. Ongky had a Seminar in Düsseldorf then they drove to my favorite Italian restaurant 🙂
Prior to our dinner, I always texted with Ongky’s wife, Ashley. Thinking back, it was kind of our blind date as we didn’t have any video call before, I mean…. we are Asians in Dortmund, it won’t be that hard to recognize 😉
During dinner, she told me there will be an Indonesian Festival in Eschborn. The Indonesian Consulate General asked her if she’s interested to participate on selling foods. She hasn’t really confirmed at that time, however as the times goes by, I know they will have a stand, so I’ll definitely go! I already realized right there and then that she is a good cook as no one would offer her a stand if she can’t cook and it’s true! She brought me her signature PemPek TOP TOP TOP! I couldn’t sleep that night, woke up at 23:30, fried the PemPek, proceed to ate it! I slept happily after that heavenly snack!
Times get closer, let’s dig into more serious matter, where is Eschborn? its about half an hour from Frankfurt using S-Bahn. What a coincidence is my Archery photographer, Daniel Cuesta also in Frankfurt on that weekend, I told him, he’d better be free on Saturday to go with me to the Indonesian Festival 😉
We found the place! we were a bit confused with their disguise entrace. I thought it should be an outdoor event therefore I kept looking on tent or something that could represents as an event going on, na ja! it’s inside the building. OK. First mission, found them!
The building was OK, many people already sit on the chair… which not belong to them yet they treat it as if it’s generational, they won’t leave it for a seconds! We had to stand in kind of sharing table thingy. Good things we stood there though, we met another guy, precisely he was standing with us eating, I heard him saying “the sound system could be better” directly whispered to Daniel “he’s 100% German” “why?” “German stereotpye, always complaining” 😉 he was indeed completely right! the sound system, the mic, the loud Indonesian customers on behind, everything was horrible. I can’t hear anything what the speaker said. Poor man!
We started to talk to him to some point he asked “why are you speaking in English?” because this Mister right here is from Mexicooooo haha he’s not Indonesian, come on, dude, it’s written in all of his face. We asked the basic stuff until we know he came a long 2 hours S-Bahn journey only for this Indonesian fest! what an honor! thank you! what is more surprising about him is he was everywhere in Indonesia! from the most touristic place to less touristic place, he already plan for his next holiday to Indonesia, on top of everything, he had a Spotify playlist for Indonesian songs, boah! respect! Finally I know a foreigner who comes to Asia often other than the other way around #once in a blue moon!
At 18:00 there were some culture performance on the second floor. Me, Daniel and Pascal were confused (again! nope we are not dumb! the building floor plans confused us) where the damn stairs? I saw a kind of back stairs with an A4 paper stick to the door written “hausmeister” “treppe zur Bühne” guys lets go here!
We arrived, they haven’t open the official stairs yet but we were already inside. Few minutes later more crowds are filling the so-called auditorium. Opening speech, memorable ‘plakat’ were given, yeap, skip skip skip, performance please 😉
Dancers, singer, angklung performance were all out. Guess what? Ashley played Angklung! She didn’t tell me before, what a nice surprise 🙂
In the middle of the event, I was a bit worried if Daniel got bored… on the other side, he cant do nothing anyway hahaha suck it up!
A rather “old guy” (he refers himself like that) sit next to Daniel, he got some questions… so I, being an Indonesian, answered him. He came with his Philipine’s wife, he knew Bandung, from all the place?!?! turns out his ex-girlfriend was from Bandung haha. They stayed until the end, for the whole event I was sitting next to him. Until we were about to be separated, his wife wanted to take a selfie then he said “let’s ask her (read: me) to be in the camera too” I took it as if they won’t mind to have their picture here 😉
A saxophone + band act as our closing performance, they were amazing! all photos and videos about the performance comes from Pascal’s phone.
Here is the recap of Indonesian Performance
Hey! its a culture exchange thingy, they do have some performance by the Germans 🙂 The choir did sing one song from Mexican folks, La Cucaracha. Daniel was “whaaaaaatttt”
That’s our experience in Eschborn 🙂
Daniel comes with me to Dortmund, one step back on the Alphabet 🙂 we didn’t really do much… due to the reason, there is not much to do here haha here are some activities we did when he was here, the rest off to Düsseldorf + Köln by himself.
Jump to alphabet F, I had a seminar in Frankfurt from Facebook regarding finance thingy. Since the seminar is in Frankfurt meaning I went to Ashley and Ongky again yeayyy!!!! their apartment is amazing! the one you wish you could have #Genie, that’s one of my 3 wishes!
On Saturday morning we had a video call with my family so my father could see Ongky again after some decades aparts. I had PemPek as breakfast! best best best! Sister said “for sure Ashley is a good cook, otherwise Marlyn won’t come to Frankfurt” #Im sold easily by food 🙂
They drop me to my Seminar hotel, Ongky said “make sure the Seminar is really there” I was afraid it turns out as a scam or MLM that’s why I prefer to go alone. Long story short, it was actually a nice one, I might join again as a paying customer if they hold it next year 🙂 Afterwards, we went for a Korean food.
We also did some sport heyyy! run 5km! we gained calories while not burning so much haha #this is life!
Thank you beautiful people! Something as regular as eating, watching, sightseeing, even fucking running is more fun when you have friends around. Happy to be able to do it with you 🙂
There are indeed more public holiday in May compare to other months, let me take you to a city called Stuttgart 🙂 For this trip I took 2 days off + weekend + 2 days mobile work + 1 national holiday = perfekt!
Texted Binbin’s, he welcomed me to stay at their apartment, very well received! Yes I’ll stay in your big place again! Happy to be back!
I am still traumatized with my first experience taking ICE from Dortmund to Stuttgart due to more than 2 hours delay and the end result was the train not stopping at Stuttgart Hbf. Opt to take a Flixbus, it took me 7,5 hours including 3x stops at the gas station, not so bad I’d say.
Arrived their apartments on 1st of May, Binbin was still in Amsterdam only Andreas was at home. No special things planned as it was already evening. Day number 2, I do home office while Andreas went to the real office. Binbin will be back late in the evening. I had a dinner plan with Beaaaaa! Last time I saw her was in year 2017, first time I met her was in Shanghai back in year 2013 whoaaaaa so excited to meet her again!
First dinner in Stuttgart with Beatrice!
We met in front of the Stiftskirche, since I was there earlier, I took myself to visit Markethalle. Although there are many interesting food there, I didn’t buy anything as we plan to eat Korean food! my oh my, how I miss Asian food!
We doubted between two Korean places, Soban or Mandu. We both visited the places yet decided to go to Soban as it has broader variety of menu. At first we felt like we couldn’t finish it but after sitting for more than 2 hours plus kept talking, you could guess right? yep! it’s all gone! we finished it! We or let’s say correctly, our intestines just need some times to digest the food before we deliver a new one.
There is always funny story you entdeckt when you meet your friends. One example is Bea wasn’t exactly sure how to pronounce my name! ha! caught her! I said some Germans are not pronouncing my R in Marlyn, to that she commented “no, its not that they are not pronouncing the R, they are swallowing the R” hmmm… okay? using this chance, I asked her “What’s my name Bea?” she’s like “eeehhh I’m not so sure” haha!
After all of those foods and laugh, we were strolling around the city. She used to work in Stuttgart so she more or less knows the place.
Then she drove me to Binbin’s apartment, thank you lovely Bea for the evening! Good food, good conversation, what else can I ask more? Blessing to have a friend like you.
Who else lives in this city? Nora!
My food nerds friend! Told her I want to have a Chinese food, later she suggested to have a Hotpot, yaissss! it has been sooooo long since I have a Hotpot! Basically because it’s always contain lots of dishes, for me, I’m living alone so eating all at once would be impossible, doesn’t matter how long you spend the time sitting on the chair eating.
We were 3 people, meaning without at doubt we could handle it! While Nora was preparing she asked me if I know one of the dishes, I said “potato noodles” she was totally begeistert I knew it 😉 Okay Nora, it’s a revelation time, Binbin made Potato Noodles at home for lunch, that’s the only reason why I knew it haha, not so begeistert now… right?
They live in a very cozy apartment, I hope someday I can buy an apartment too, for sure it will be smaller than theirs, on top of that, I need their luck to get the one that already has floor, kitchen, bathroom and lamps! Perhaps many more apartments so I could qualified to be a 包租婆 haha if Nora can’t realize her dreams, who knows? maybe I can 🙂 Thank you Jacob and Nora the 王木木! 😀
My brother Thorben! What a pleasant surprise to know you were in Stuttgart while I was there!
How can I miss not to see you? No way in hell! Binbin, let’s gooooo! Since Thorben only have a limited amount of time, we met in the Stadtmitte SBahn to have a drink in the Cafe nearby (P.S: it didn’t make us less happy!)
Then we went to Lululemon where Thorben always says “you don’t need to wait for me, I feel bad” Oh brother, don’t worry, we do have time, this is what happen when you really have no agenda haha
Afterwards, we separated in the SBahn, Binbin got an appointment, Thorben went to the hospital and I went to Porsche Museum #Tourist!
Last day already! #schoked! I do have more time on this visit but still not enough!
After I visited Mercedes Benz Museum, I go pick up Binbin while he was walking Emil. Then he went to Edeka and I’m waiting outside with Emil. Andreas was busy with Billy.
On the evening, let’s have Paella! Me and Andreas already calculated when should we change clothes, when should we leave the apartment so we can catch the bus on time to be there at 19:30 as our RSVP.
Seconds before we left the elevator, last check, Andreas asked Binbin “do you have the DE Ticket?” dadammm! Binbin forgot where is his ticket and he said “there’s no one will check” being a German, Andreas insist him to look for it, if he is Asian for sure we will just schwarzgefahren! hihi #adrenaline high!
We three almost starve to death while waiting for our Paella, yes we knew it will takes around 45 minutes but it was more than that! The waiter, he gave us some more bread, good enough to wait until our main food arrived. At the end, we couldn’t finish it so I took it home for my lunch on the train #no food waste!
Oh Shanghai, what an amazing people you kept introduced me, thank you for all the time guys! I think I will see you soon….as Andreas said I should come more often to put some rational thinking to Binbin, exhibit a. not buying 45 kg of stone from China haha 😉
How many? let’s see how many I can meet during my short stay in Sydney:
(P.S. one of them is not an Indonesian, you’ll know who #wink)
Betsy
First time I met her was really back then, on my 2nd year of primary school in Bandar Lampung, SD Xaverius Pahoman. Never will I ever miss that bloody school! So so so strict! Can’t remember how many hats I have because every Monday we had a ceremony where we must wear hat and I forget it from time to time so I need to buy it every damn time or else I’d go to detention.
Enough with that school, back to Betsy, she was my classmates, I remember she was the smart one 🙂 Last time I saw her was in year 2016, she was a newlywed. Now I met her again, she’s already have mini Betsy + mini Andy = Bethany!!!
Bethany wasn’t even chill, she can already run, thus she ran all the time. We, the grown up ones were the one who worried if she will hit something. While we had our Lemonade drink, when she’s not running, she’s eating her grape raisins and chocolate, she does have a job to keep us busy 😀
She was fast yet easily get distracted. Betsy said “this is what happened when you walk around with toddler, never really know when will you reach your destination”.
Let’s see what could Bethany do next time we meet again…. perhaps fly…. to Germany? haha you have one aunt here Bethany! Someday it’ll be your time to visit me 😉
Leyfa
Mamacita! Thank you for seeing my post on IG otherwise I wouldn’t know you’re in Sydney too! Brendan say nothing about your whereabout when I told him I’m going to Australia.
Archery has brought us together, I still keep all the clothes you gave me, both the <3 Leyfa Por Favor is Coming and Mamacita needs a Margaritha. I’ll keep wearing it, the only way I see I’m not wearing it, is if I frame it.
Her place is in Dee Why, this is the moment where I realized Sydney is big! Because Dee Why is one hour and ten minutes away from City Center and the whole time I’m in the bus, I kept asking myself, where the hell am I?? Say no more, it’s worth a travel to see you!
I’m so proud of what you’ve endured, achieved, became and will become. Wishing you and Charly a great life in Australia, you are welcome anytime in Dortmund. I know, tragic ehhh from Shanghai to Sydney then to Dortmund hahaha
Queen
My brain and beautiful influencer, Q! This girl is so damn busy you can’t really catch her, her schedule is like a jetsetter! I already texted her a long time ago that I will be from X date to Y date in AU, got not a reply from her until I’m already in Brisbane. AAAAAA need to meet her before she spread her wings elsewhere!
I thought I’ll meet her for lunch before I come to see Leyfa for dinner but I lost my glasses so I switch the plan. I met Leyfa on lunch time then her for dinner or else I can’t see the way for me to be back to City Center in the dark time without my glasses hahaha
I always a bit insecure with her because she’s so pretty, I told her to just be chill and don’t wash her hair hahaha #I know very important, anyway she violated my request. She’s appears gorgeous as always 🙂
We reserve a table, what I mean is we came and say to the waitress “a table for 3 please” so we didn’t even reserve nothing haha while waiting for her +1 to come, we went to Darling Harbour #Sydney mandatory place.
+1 came, it’s eating time at Bar Totti’s #nom nom
From all the places in the world, Shanghai’s Church Courtyard is the place that connected us. It is so weird to type it in one sentence, a church courtyard in Shanghai #yeap, still weird.
You have brain and beauty, you studied medical, you are officially a doctor for f#$k sake! entrepreneur too, what’s next? have some projects in Europe please!
Mario
My highschool friend Yoyo! Sophie need to thanks him, without him I wouldn’t find the Southern Wild Co. Candle she asked me about 😉
He showed me the highlight of Sydney other than Darling Harbour (as I went there with Q already) met in Town Hall, ate the famous cake, went to The Rock. Said to him “Yo, took pic of me that looks like I’m abroad” he understood the assignment very well.
Then went to Ibis to take my luggage thank you for carrying all my $h!t, took shower at his place, airport #tough schedule.
SMA Saint Aloysius Bandung met us up, Parahyangan Catholic University met us up again although he was in a different Fach than me, honestly even from high school we were already different, he chose science while I chose social. He and his wife are the smart couple, they met on a accounting competition, the hell was that?!?!
He visited me when I still in Shanghai I guess it was year 2017 then now I visited him, next…. you and your wife need to come to Germany!
Thank youuuu friends for all the time you spare with me, do remember to contact me if you ever go anywhere in Europe. It doesn’t have to be Germany or Dortmund precisely, I know there are much better options hahaha I can promise you that I will try my best to catch you up in any part in Europe.
Love you all and really wish you the best in each step of your life!
Well well well, Halloween is something that I should say it could be improve, I don’t really like the idea that we have to dressed up as certain characters and than that outfit will become a waste in our wardrobe, I always want to wear sth that I already have or even if I need to buy new stuff, I still could wear that after the halloween. I actually don’t have any plan and don’t know what to dressed up as, I’ve done pirates, superwoman, athena and I really have no clue what I’m gonna be next, until our German friend-Andreas asked me few months before even Halloween “If you’re a Disney pricess, what are you?” and hmmm that question really stayed in my mind for so long, I even listed who are Disney princess out there but none of them got me, not Frozen, not Rapunzel, not Snow White etc until!!! Princess Venelloppe from Wreck-It Ralph showed on my screen laptop!
Yep that girl is a Princess!See, she has a princess dress
But I ain’t wearing that, I choose her normal green outfit because I already have green jaket and black skirt, not exactly the same but as long as the color match it won’t matter. So, even few months before Halloween, I already know what I will be 🙂
However, I didn’t wear it as a Halloween celebration. I wore the clothes though…just not on Halloween on……. #wait for it 😉
As I already forgot about Halloween and prepare that I won’t celebrate it this year, another flyer just came on the Hungover Games group chat and that is a flyer that our Russian friend-Nikita sabotage.
His real birthday is exactly on Oct 26th but since people had Halloween plan etc so he moved his party to the following week but using the same exact poster as what Cages made.
I was thinking, as my costume won’t be exactly the same like Princess Venelloppe, I need to team up with the other character so I will look like somewhat similar with her. I need to team up with Fix-It Felix Jr and Wreck-It Ralph itself!
For Fix-It Felix Jr it’s easy, we have friend named Felix so he should be it and Felix’s outfit is not that hard, only blau. The trick is to find Ralph and I had to sabotage Nikita’s original idea and asked him to be Ralph haha
Lucky me! They both were agree to be Ralph and Felix, for Felix it’s not be a problem, he just made a shirt with his name, cap with FF logo. For Ralph, Nikita was quiet frustrated as he can’t find the correct outfit and I was worried if he wasn’t Ralph then we are missing the main character so it doesn’t really work. But really thanks to Nikita, he found the similar one and he was willing to take my advise and be Ralph on his own birthday.
And here we are “Wreck-It Ralph 3” DIY version 😉
Some people are really on the other level, the amount of time they spent on make up on their face, hair style and outfit itself, just amazed me! Thorben wore his 550 RMB costume twice so yeay! now he can say that his costume price was 275 RMB and sounds more make sense 😉
Happy birthday and thank you Nikita for letting me sabotage your tarzan or fat Thor idea and chose Ralph instead. FYI people, it’s Nikita himself that said he wanted to be fat Thor, so don’t blame it on me 😉
Now is already September, my fav month of the year! we just had a 3 days holiday for Mid-Autumn festival (actually it’s only 1 because the holiday was on Friday and Saturday and Sunday is weekend sooooo doesn’t count)
On this short holiday, I finally went to M50- the art district and Shanghai Jewish Museum but since I wasn’t into art or museum so it took me 6.5 years in Shanghai to go to this places. It’s good that I don’t go outside Shanghai during this short holiday otherwise I would miss the very fine dine by Chef Thorben on Sunday! On the last day of the holiday, Thorben texted me that he would like to make an early dinner, as early as 4PM… and no matter how early or how weird the time is, I’ll come to his dinner! I was actually a bit afraid that I would spread the flu because I’ve been kind of having some flu for 3 days but after doing voice test I think I should be fine and my brain already switched to the amazing food that I’ll get at Thorben’s so I’m good!
Dinner changed to 5PM and here I came! Ivy and Hai Yan already there before me but for some reason Hai Yan left before even the dinner starts…tsk tsk tsk… Hai Yan said that she left so I can enjoy the wine that she brought but I said to her that I don’t drink wine and she changed to “then I can enjoy more tea” and again I don’t drink tea and she asked me “what do you drink then?” “orange juice” and she will bring orange juice for me next time! Hai Yan, I’ll remember it 😉
Me and Ivy looked at Thorben’s niece album, scan the QR code hoping the video will works but it doesn’t, Thorben check that QR code! The next guess is my one and only handsome Freddoy and he brought us kaya toast! uhlalala!
Next thing I know is the food already on the table!
There were bread and butter, potato with secret recipe, carrots and mashed potato with not so secret recipe because it’s from the video and not from Thorben’s grandma. Boramy said that it is a really German dinner when we have 2 types of potatoes served 🙂
Whole roasted chicken that lived twice longer than it should be and a 1kg beef with the bone.
And the chicken need to be cut by the knife that Thorben made it himself. But because we let the chicken lived twice as long as it should be, it wasn’t ready yet 😉 so Thorben put it back to the oven. Grandpa chicken #Freddoy said that.
I think this is already 6 ish PM and what happen on the neighborhood? I got a text, actually it’s not a text, it’s a picture from the other Germans (read: Felix and Andy) that were on the place not far from Thorben’s (read: Felix’s place) and here’s the pictures ladies and gentleman:
From Felix
From Andy
Followed by a supposedly touching sticker “You are our only hope” from Andy
Not sure why I was their only hope tsk tsk tsk and what should I reply then? They sent me pic of beef? I sent them back pic of what I am having at Thorben’s haha See what I got here!
The big question mark is: What do you have there that I don’t have here?!?!
While Thorben, Freddoy, Ivy and Boramy already finished the meal, it means only me that haven’t finished yet and Freddoy said “let’s look at her so she’ll hurry up and we can start the dessert” huaaa handsome Freddoy sorry! I was under pressure! then I cleaned my food so Thorben can serve the dessert:
Fruit salad
Kaya toast
For some reason I thought fruit salad is a salad so… veggies in the end? and I’m not a big fan of veggies but when Thorben presented the fruit salad it’s a fruit mix! yeay! this one acceptable 😉 mwahaha! and Kaya Toast from Freddoy!
Thank you Thorben for cooking, what a nice way to end the holiday and fuel myself up for the next day!
BAM! This will be the second time I (read: Thorben) will make Indonesian dish 😉 last time we made it with Aggy, this time it will be solely Thorben mwahaha… we will have additional guests, they are Cher and Aaron! Ever since Cher knew that me and Aggy will cook Indonesian dish at Thorben’s, she wanted to be invited and seems the time has arrived for them to try, also for Marina 😉
Even arranging the time for 5 people was quiet hard, we kept changing the dates like 3 times haha but then the date fixed to 4th of August! The day before I went to Carrefour and asking Thorben and Marina do they have this, do they have that and to my surprise they don’t have anything! WHOAAA! what is wrong with them?!?! they used to be like 24/7 groceries stores turns out that time their fridge was quiet empty SURPRISEEE! 😀
I came to Thorben’s before archery to prepare some dish first then went to archery and then came back from archery and continue cooking.
Thorben kept asking “OK, now what do we do?” and he moved fast like chop chop chop wush wush wush and then “OK, what do we do next?” Geezzz, I haven’t even finished reading the recipe yet and he’s already asking the next step…Germans….efficient!
Thor’s hammer
We also tenderize the beef using tenderizer and hammer. This time Thorben didn’t give the most expensive part of the meat because he knew that I will smashed it with hammer and tenderizer for at least 40 mins. I remember Thorben said if he is in the Avengers, he will for sure be a Thor, he even have a Thor’s hammer 😉 you are good to go for Thor!
Marina was on the phone with Sandra the whole time so she’s kind of lost on our preparation, up to the point where we almost need to leave for Archery and she made me a mango-avocado-smoothie yummyyy! and her smoothie was the fancy one with chia, coconut etc etc etc and all ingredients are from Germany!
Fancy smoothie! this will give me energy for Archery
Marina expected us to win on the game…. apparently none of us won! not the first time reality doesn’t fulfill the expectation mwahaha we probably need more bowl of that 😉
Fast forward after archery we came back and opened the door and we both “WOW” because Marina has prepared the table! amazing! but for now we need to continue our business in the kitchen with the main dish, beef!!
There was a bit of the drama on the kitchen like our small pancakes aka perkedel were tearing apart, the beef wasn’t absorb the sauce so we kept adding the ketchup, rice need to be made but not enough coconut cream so Thorben finished his coconut oil and mix it together.
Thanks that both Cher and Aaron are not Germans so when I said dinner at 7PM they won’t come at 7 sharp arp arp haha which is good because we haven’t finished cooking by that time haha! By the time Cher arrived she said “Oh, turns out Thorben’s cooking not Marlyn” #facepalm!
Even though we had the drama during the process but in the end I’m happy with the result 🙂 Thorben was saying “the beef is exactly how it suppose to be and everything is fine” Marina said “the beef was flavory” YEAY! I’m satisfied 😉 and they all like the perkedel!
Marina prepared the dessert and Cher brought us stroopwafels and I wasn’t too tired because Thorben did the cooking the most mwahaha! 😀
By the time we officially finished the dinner, we used 1L of sunflower oil and 16L of water! hahaha that’s a lot!
Btw I asked my mom to make the dish for you when you come to my home so that you could taste my fav food when I was a child…or maybe I still am 😉 Thank you Thorben and Marina! I always happy to “cook” or just crash at your place 😀
He booked the hungover games for us, usually we will have 7 people in one team but this time there was no team formed it was whoever wants to play will play, so the number of people wasn’t really 28, it was more than 28.
He will not called Rich if he didn’t bring any weird stuff with him, he brought a banana floating things and a bow and arrow that made out of plastic haha
Rich has special power on that game, whoever shoot him, he or Rodi shout “doesn’t count” so he can play on haha and even another one shoot him right after the first shoot, it’s still “doesn’t count” 😉 there was one game where he just ran to the safe zone first and grab the bow and arrow and while we all run to the safe zone, he was ready to fire us, that was scary moment! wogh!
It was a really fun and relaxing game even though at one game Aaron tackle me while I was on the safe zone and getting my bow and arrow hahaha I didn’t expect that! And Freddoy shot me right on my left ass that requires me to put analgesic cream the day after #facepalm followed by Aaron again that shot me on my right ass, so I was kind of balanced in a weird way pffff.
Rich has the very climax way to close the game which is we played 10 against 10! We don’t even have the bow and arrow for 20 people so some people will have the bow and others will catch the arrow. I don’t think we need referee for this last game as one simple question of “How?” hahaha how to decide who got shot, who caught the arrow and who come back to the field like who who who?! Rich also had his special power where he just moved from opponent team, crossing the safe zone and go to other side and joining our team haha. It was just chaos in the most fun way #I’ll allow it 😉 At the end of the game, I was trying to catch the arrow from Tim and he was trying to do it for me so that I was able to catch it and Rodi said “If she catch it, we all go in” but then his shot was too high and I missed it arrrgghhh! Rodi said “washing machine, you almost did it!” haha
We were playing until 9:45 ish, then he has a movie that he wanted to show us! So we gathered in the bar to watch it 🙂
The movie is a memory of Rich and his disturbed family 😉 and there was a clip that I found very funny, when Rodi was asked what does disturbed family means to him but he was drunk and still on his bed, he just replied “roaaaaaaa” I think that is the perfect answer anyone could ever asked for 😉 There was also a sad clip in that movie, throughout the end when Rich had sth to say and he recorded it in his apartment that is already empty, we were “awww” because we know exactly what was the furniture that were there before 🙁
Please be assured that you’ll be missed by us #obviously, perhaps also by Missy, your apartment security, neighbors… I mean they will get less pocket money because I don’t think the new tenant will hold party as much as you did 😉 #if you know what I mean haha
Thank you for the movie and for the last archery farewell with you!
Here’s the fun farewell day on the video:
Look at how many people that was not willing to let him go by kept sending him off to the taxi. Even the traffic light agree with us by giving us the longest red light ever. When he was trying to pull up the window we were “Nooooo!” We all just stood there, holding kleenex tissue and waving at him 😉
I can say that Rich is someone that really loves life and life loves him back. I do know that Shanghai loves him and I believe so will Paris <3
Another round of Hungover League, another round of creative jersey’s design, complete ornaments, adrenaline rush, shouting scene on Cages 😉
Credit to Aaron who made this flyer!
This time they will have 4 days of League with elimination day! so for 3 weeks they will play with 6 teams and on the last week there will be 2 teams that got eliminated and only 4 teams will go to Final. Who are they?!?! Here I present you:
Bowhemian Rhapsody featuring Captain Marco, Raoul, Cher, Andreas, Hutch, Eileen and Florian. I like the name so much! #Radiooooo someone still loves you teret teret tereett
Arrow Hub featuring Captain Nikita, Aaron, Eric, Ben, Agu, Aggy, Kwaki, Brenda and Alfred.
Arrrchery featuring my running buddy Captain Miguel, Gene, Jason, Anderson, Thorben, Viki, Gigi and Ricardo…. plussss 3M First Mate!
Rainbow Seven featuring Captain Felix, Viktor, Hudson, Jose R, Tammy, Christine, Helios, Jose Q.
Machines featuring roomies Captain John, Rodion, Gordy, Qi, Kun, Kate, Uliana. Just like what Cher said, you need to have Washing Machine! just imagine where everyone got a serious machine and then there you go, a washing machine photo printed on your white shirt. It is so cool and such an important machine, I can’t believe you didn’t take washing machine as a consideration phewww. I am fully agree with you Cher!
Lethal Laowai featuring Captain Zara, Lars, Radu, Jerod, Adam, Kayla, David and Benita. At first when Zara said his team name, I heard it Little Laowai and so did Luis! so I’m not alone and we were “why is it little?” and she said “no, not little, it’s like lethal weapon” and we were “ooooo”
They are all very discreet regarding the names of each team and their jersey’s design, I need to wait until 7th of May to see it 🙂 The team according to my eye sight divided to black and white haha! it’s good that rainbow seven wear green pants and arrow hub has orange color so they are kind of easy to differentiate. Team Lethal Laowai doesn’t get their jersey on time so they are wearing black shirt but I guess the real jersey will also be black #smart Marlyn!
Arrrchery is very prepared with the cheerleaders ornaments! they have a big flag, small flag and even jersey for me! wohooo I’ll scream for you arrrchery!
FIRST MATCH
There was accident happened 15 minutes before the league start which is Aggy fell down and she twisted her ankle 🙁 so Arrow Hub played with only 6 people. Imo they were so brave and they really played well! Come on Captain Nikita! You’re doing good!
Me and Marina was sitting on the bench, we did hold our big flag but then we blocked Aggy as she was sitting behind us so we use our small flag. Marina always prepared, she made protein balls and ginger chocolate snacks and we- me and Sveta ate them, not all but quiet a lot 😉
The first target game actually Arrrchery was always “almost win” so in terms of technique they are not really far behind but then on no-target game to my surprise Gene and Tonic get out almost every time by the first 5 seconds, come on Gene and Tonic! I know you can do it better. I was soooo happy when finally, FINALLY on a no-target game they got full point 😉 They were far behind but this only the first match and I believe in you, Captain Miguel!
Team Rainbow Seven was really really REALLY! good at the target game, all of their team are so precise! and just shot directly to the target and bam! one white target was out and this going on and on and on, probably it’s the perks of having a German captain, everything need to be well calculated 😉
What surprising for me on the first match came from Machine! Qi was Shazam! He was everywhere, this side, that side, caught the arrow from Viktor! this must be feel like a victory to be able to caught his shot! He also did the famous jumping shot- even though both of the jumping shot that I saw wasn’t really shot anybody but it was really really cool and what a privileged to see that 😉 Rodion always constantly good so it’s not a surprise that he performed well, but! he really gave me a surprise when I saw the way he dodged from the arrow, since when he became flexible? just like matrix reloaded movie where Keanu Reeves dodged from the bullets, that’s more or less or probably you need to use many imagination to think how Rodi did that 😉 but the point is he was so good at dodging from the arrow. This is what we called match! I said to Rodi “Rodi you guys were so good and really tight with the opponent team” and Rodi said “we played to give entertainment to Marlyn!” wohoooo yeah! this is what I’m watching for! and of course without a doubt, Machine won the first match with 6.5 points! Impressive!
At the end of the game there was “another one bites of dust” music playing from the Bowhemian Rhapsody and btw there were only half points behind Machines!
SECOND MATCH
All teams were kind of equal as the final points were between 4-5. So it wasn’t a big difference like the first match.
Before the game started, Qi said to me “Are you ready for the entertainment?!” He even put a tape around his leg, when I asked what is it use for? He said its for Machines!!!
Gimme your machine style, Qi!
Arrrchery got another support from the sub-Ricardo! They are playing better than last week and are able to get 4 points! For the first two games they lost and the third one it’s Arrrchery against Bowhemian Rhapsody, first I could feel that they will win because they still have 3 targets attached and BR only 1 left but then the they got stronger so both of them only have 1 target left and I was like “No! Not again!” Me and Marina was screaming like hell! “One more! shoot the target! go!” and I don’t know what words that came from our mouth what I can remember is Marina’s face got red after that hahaha We were sitting, standing, getting closer to the glass door it was all of our energy was pour to that match and they won! Followed by a massive, I mean MASSIVE scream from the spectator side-btw this time not only me and Marina but ALL the people that was watching and since Ricardo there, he was running around the field with the big flag 🙂 haha
There was also funny moments when Thorben and Anderson forgot to wear their mask #facepalm. Also when at some point somebody spill water on the spectator’s side and Rodion was almost slip and he said “Somebody tried to break the Machines! but the Machine’s not easily broken! ROAAAA” and he said to me “See Marlyn, before there was water here but now it’s sticky because Machines was here!” #Rodi is so entertaining. I started to like Machines 😉
Aaron from Arrow Hub is really cool, he was almost the last guy that always hit the last target and his response was only “yes” without a sound so it was only a hand gesture kind of yes if I was him I could scream out of my breath!
Ummmm hello to the girl that has black purse? Your alarm ring at 10PM! is it time for you to wake up? I’m afraid that you might be a vampire that wake up at night #woooo getting spooky!
THE ELIMINATION DAY
I still couldn’t believe what I just witness from yesterday! I guess because there will be 2 teams that got eliminated so all the teams are getting super super super serious, they are taking everything to the next level. The level of shouting, screaming and agitated was escalated pretty quickly. I think shouting and screaming was my area of expertise but I was so wrong, definitely they are many of the players that having this area of expertise as well, not only the man but the woman could scream the same level as me #Marlyn’s not gonna let her screaming throne slip away 😉
Before the game started, I thought Machines gonna be unstoppable, I mean they will win the game again but turns out no! Machines was stoppable! Let’s see who’s able to stop the machines 🙂
Arrrchery is missing Thorben because he is in Thailand but Marina kept reporting to him who we lost against mwahaha but also who we win against! And after 2 times lost we finally win over Machine!!!! It was such a nice game, the target was still attached to the bunker, if they moved the bunker the target will fall off so when finally Arrrchery hit it we were so relieved! and since Ricardo play the subs for Thorben, I was the one that responsible for carrying the flag.
At some point we know Arrrchery will not make it to the final even if they win all the games it’s just mathematically not possible, so what did the cheerleader do? We forced everyone to support us! I mean, Marina made a nice muffin cake, in order for them to have it, they need to hold the flag, with dignity! This will be the last chance for them to hold Arrrchery flag! Ling also supported for us when Arrrchery is not playing against Bowhemian Rhapsody and there was some match when me and Marina sang one of Queen’s song 🙂
Maria-Marina
Muffin
Marlyn-Marina
Us
dragging John
dragging Chadsey
dragging Jose R
dragging Christine
dragging Kun and Qi
For the non-target game we finally won against Rainbow Seven! Btw this team is CRAZY! it’s like witnessing Game of Thrones season 6, not season 8 and definitely not the finale episode of season 8 mwahaha they were brutal! they were so brave, all of them was unstoppable shooting, not from behind but from the front line! everybody was upfront and keep firing each and every opponents! Viktor was going all the way! so when Arrrchery won against Rainbow Seven it was really an achievement and here I ran my duty again 😉 Machines was always on the entrance gate and they are all tall people mwahaha but they let me in saying “yes this is your team you can ran the flag” thank you Machines!
Christine from Rainbow Seven was kind of “Mother Theresa” she always calm all her teammates down whenever something happened that bothered them, even when her teammates tried to talk out of it, she just stopped it by saying “OK, stop, don’t talk about it, let’s be better on the next game” awwww <3 what a chill Mama 🙂
So who was the one that able to stop machine?!?! the winner for the third match goes toooooo…..Rainbow Seven with a full 6 points, amazing!
The leading team so far was Bowhemian Rhapsody with 15.5 points, followed my Machines with 15 points, Rainbow Seven with 14.5 and Lethal Laowai for 13 points, soooo close!! Need to remember that there was one match on the target-game where Cher was the one that shot all 5 targets, that was super! I think that deserves a credit 🙂
Unfortunately Arrrchery and Arrow hub got eliminated, still, thank you for Arrow Hub and Arrrchery for being spare no efforts during the match 🙂 #They don’t seems so upset to get eliminated 😉
Thanks to both Captains!
Congratz to Bowhemian Rhapsody, Machines, Rainbow Seven and Lethal Laowai for going to the final! Btw I received a noise complaint, but since Arrrchery got eliminated so I don’t think you guys should worry about any noise on the final.
THE FINALE
I arrived Cages wearing Arrrchery jersey and first reaction from Aggy was “Gezz..you’re still wearing that” haha only me and Marina that wore it even their own team Gigi and Thorben didn’t wear it booooooo. Met Chadsey and I screamed “Chadsey, Chadsey, Chadsey” in front of his face like everyone else and he just stunned there he said “Perhaps if I’m not moved she will think that Im not exist and just let me go” Well, Chadsey it doesn’t work that way 😉 I asked Tim “Can I shout in front of your face like everyone else?” and he said “Yes, only you can shout in front of my face” wohooo what a privileged.
On the final since there was only 4 teams so they need to play back to back and rest only one time and play again wogh! that’s require a high stamina! There were many winning and losing between all the 4 teams which was hard to keep track on. All of them playing soooooo well!
At some match, Qi was always the last man standing from Machines and he kept fighting like a soldier or should I say like a machine 🙂 but somehow Machines was not winning as much as before 🙁
However, I like Rodion, he’s always so funny and entertaining, he said “Seems the machines is broken, machines doesn’t perform well, machines need some oil” haha
Machines got many supporters from another Russian speaking country and of course me and Marina like to shout “Machines!” it’s just their name is the shortest one so it’s easy to shout 😉
As I said the final went so fast and one team that kept winning the most was Rainbow Seven! They are unbelievable! There was no words to describe because almost all the match they won and I was “What?! Again? R7 winning again?” it’s beyond belief! Especially on the non target game, Tammy wasn’t even holding her bow and arrow she was all super ready to catch any arrow that was directed to her, and she caught it! Not once, not twice but a lot! like really really a lot maybe 5-6 arrows! that was amazing! she was like a watcher, keep watching everybody 24/7! Christine was a fighter she kept firing the arrow like the guys but sometimes she got shot but at least she’s giving her best. The guys were super good as well! Viktor is without a doubt no need to explain but what surprising to me was Jose R, I’ve never see he’s playing but turns out he’s pretty good at both catching and shooting the arrow and with Helios, Hudson and Felix, this team was just complete!
I didn’t keep the record so I wasn’t quiet sure of who’s winning but after seeing R7 kept winning the match I started to think that there’s big possibility that they are the winner. And then Tim announced the winner and it goes to….. Rainbow Seven!
Congratz for Rainbow Seven! Also good job for all the team! That was a hard final and you guys really proved that you have a good stamina to be able to fight till the end.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We really need to give the special thanks to all the referee, Tim, Wyatt, Chenzi and all other referee from the team like Chadsey, Arron, Thorben and who else I forgot haha without them this league will not happened and thank you for having a big heart and accepting all the shouts that was pointed directly in front of your face 😉
Thanks also for Arrrchery for involving me as one of your cheerleader and for taking care of all the ornaments including all the snacks to a higher level 🙂
Thanks to all the archers!
And last but not least! We have additional archery member! Baby Lowe!
Baby Lowe, I promised your father to put a pic of you as long as I made a good references to the dad… And I think I did…or? haha 😉
P.S : All the pictures was taken either from whoever that shares on the group or on their wechat moments and special message for Michael Sun, we missed you! There is no professional video made because you were on a business trip 😉
It was Marina’s bday yesterday, Sunday 12th of May and she wrote “I’d love to just have a casual brunch with friends” but I don’t think that how it works girl 😉 you know what?
D day -1
Because Thorben got her the present of learning how to bake with one of professional head chef that got used to do pastry for industrial level, the one and only Tessa! Tim also helped Marina to do all the cakes but they are such a good student that followed every instructions from the teacher until they realized that it was too much like TOO freaking much.
But I really don’t see where is the issue of baking too much? And Thorben said because their fridge is not enough to contain all the cakes!
See the German engineering in here? Upside down bowl, pickle jar haha and this is only one side of the fridge 😉
They baked and baked and baked for nearly 7 hours, from morning until sunset. So the bday brunch plan got fast forward to one day before which is eating all the cakes plan 😉
For me, I don’t see any problem at all and not surprise because I know Marina bakes a lot before, their eclair was awesome!! They really did a good job! Here’s the video before you see the final products!
And then I came to her place on Saturday, the guest were me-Boramy and later on Brendan. I never ate that much eclair in my life, it’s awesome! I think I had enough eclair until end of this year 😉 so it means I still can eat some more mwahaha still 7 months to go!
We were there until midnight 00:00 and Happy Birthday to Marina!
D day
The real and planned birthday brunch is here! Liquid Laundry!
Followed by Viva Ibiza party at the W hotel, Luis arranged the table for us there 🙂 we were so excited to go there…. but before going there… what did we do? We went back to Marina’s home to eat all the eclairs 😉
However, the waiter from Liquid Laundry came and say happy birthday to Marina and brought her the pancakes! we were laughing because we all want to leave but then she got a dessert 😉 it’s still a lovely pancake! I helped Marina to eat it #Marlyn is so helpful
After eating the eclairs at Marina’s, we head out to W hotel! Viva Ibiza and Luis Pena here we come!!! We brought the eclairs there haha I think they really got every way they could to get rid of it ASAP! Don’t worry you will finish it sooner or later 😉
At some point Thorben told me “You can tell Luis that he can bring the cake soon” so yeap!!! there will be another cake!!! within this two days I think I ate more cake than I had last year!!
Luis had to kick out another guy that was sitting on our table that not his guest so that it will be good for the pictures 😉 haha and what cake that Marina got?!?! Chocolate cake!!!
And here is the pictures after Luis kick out some random guy that occupied our table ehemmmm move 8!@#ch!
Marina, if I can guess probably this was your favourite present:
AWESOME Marina! 3rd place of Triathlon 😉 So proud of you!! #strong Marina
Happy happy birthday Marina! Yesterday was awesome! Your birthday literally is the birthday with the most dessert possible! #and I allowed it haha! and you’re the birthday girl that baked her own cake! usually, we-the guest were the one that should prepare the cake but not in your case 😉 thanks for providing dessert for all of us 😉
Marina, thank you for inviting me, not only for your birthday but for every time you bake something, I really like and appreciate it. Going to your apartment is some kind of nutritional improvement for me and I always have a good time with you #oopss also Thorben! haha 😉
