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In der Badewanne

Esperar Leute….

My colleagues are very curious bezüglich my first Oktoberfest experience, everyone said be careful, the beer there has more % of alcohol, there are only betrunkene Leute.

I took train to Thomas & Janine then we three drove together to Munich. Stopping by at Thailanese Restaurant Khanittha on Werksviertel for lunch. Thomas’ colleague said this place is pretty authentic one, yeah, including the service, they slightly ignoring us although it wasn’t really full, you need maintain strong eye contact if you want to request something.

We ordered 3 dishes, I mean every Asian should know that it was meant for sharing. I know we were also 3 people, could be the German way of eating 1 dish each…. imo still no, the logic ain’t logicing. Since they didn’t give us some plates, we decided to just hau rein while waiting if we could grab their attentione.

There was some Werbung on the table to scan our bill for winning a trip to Thailand. Had never expected Thomas has never been to Thailand considering he’s the diver King. Hope one of us will win it!

Continue driving to our main purpose of the day: Claudia & Giovanni’s apartment which is directly in front of Theresienwiese. We parked 2 stations away, walked with our luggage + bags only for the security guy to stopped us. Thomas said “wir wollen darüber gehen” he doesn’t care, detour we must.

Made it, there are several homeworks to do in their place: Thomas manually pumped my Luftmatratze ~ secure my sleeping place for tonight or else I’ll have to sleep in the Badewanne 😉 , Freya arrived, Giovanni distributed our entrance + voucher. Claudia still have to work a bit, that’s why we headed first!

My first feeling entering die Wiesn was WOW! Marina said it’s a Kirmes, like any other Volksfest except much much much bigger! Had to say Jein: Ja ~ can see the Kirmes style Achterbahn, snacks und co. Nein ~ not only all of them are on Jumbo size, the atmosphere were just different on every level, everyone wears Dirndl & Lederhose, it’s like Alice entering Wonderland. Good I went to Canstatter Wasen with Andreas before hence I know the tent wasn’t made of circus tent haha this is not #This is the greatest show oo oo oo oo, it involves woods, bricks and his friends.

Our tent Pschorr Bräurosl located in the middle. My colleague Sabrinchen also there, she and her partner – Manuel came to visit me for one Mas! We work together in Dortmund yet had to go to Munich to meet outside the office hours 😀

The waiter came, Manuel ordered 6 Mas. I was confused at first because in Wasen there are more type of beer options, in here, in our tent there is only one: Bräurosl Beer! The mas! the 1 Liter Beer, it’s heavy! Can’t hold still, reached my Maximale Belastung! hahaha Giovanni asked if I already trained “Mas Heben” #facepalm.

After some time, Claudia finished her work, yeay! We are still waiting for the other 4. I had to say Claudia & Giovanni are the profi, they brought Müllsacke to put our jacket protecting it from the dirt, foldable Waserflasche, tag for their beer. I might follow all of their tips for next year.

Thomas and Giovanni, they both really excited to see me drunk, not happening bro. Thomas said “If you drunk no problem, we can carry you home, if you feel sick, there is the Badewanne.” Gio kept prost-ing my Mas, prost prost prost…. stop, waitttt!

Some hour later I really mean some, at least 1,5 hour… my Mas is finished! I have to ask Claudia for bullet proof documentation. Stephan came late yet he finished his Mas before me. He asked “what do you usually drink?” “I don’t! That’s the whole point. The reason why they always “Marlyn, come on 加油加油” Leute, it is not about the 油 that’s need to be 加 😉

It helps to know some songs in German….or in English…. or in Italian haha Music in general. There are some songs which was played more often than the other called Ein Prosit. The crowd hype out of nowhere on “Hey Baby, I wanna know, if you’d be my girl” Followed by Hulapalu, Cordula Grün, Atemlos durch die Nacht, Skandal im Sperrbezirk, 99 Luftballons. Overjoyed they include Bella Ciao on the list too! Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao. What’s else? Gimme Gimme Gimme the man after midnight, then I can sleep in Badewanne. Claudia cut “in his Badewanne, not ours” 😉 On the Mamamia song, Thomas said “Marlyn, stand here, pointing at the bar / separator between the tables” Aye Aye! Going there! You can see from the video how by then I lost my balance. The final song in every tent #Gio’s word is forever and always Angels von Robbie William.

Kai + Coco + Elena + Stephan need to leave earlier, the last man standing was….. the Food Nerds people! hahaha as always 😉 plus Freya!

During his 2,5 Mas Thomas realized he lost his wallet! Oh no! Even though I was tipsy, my brain still can work. Asked the waiter if he saw a wallet maybe on the floor. Me, Janine, Claudia, Freya looked on the floor with our flashlight. Damn! Whats inside? at this point, money is the less concern, it is more like bank card, ID, things you need to go to office, make some report pfff too many Aufwand. Of course we didn’t find it, they told us to go to the office downstairs.

Me and Claudia went to the Büro while Thomas and Janine search elsewhere. Guess what? His wallet was safe and sound on the Schublade! Phew!

Once we out from the office, Thomas was walking on our way to the Büro, we stopped him.

He couldn’t believe it!

I am on cloud nine for my first Oktoberfest with all of these people. Of course I don’t talk much with all the 4 who went earlier, however I got the impressions they are all nice. Elena was so creative she was the snow white from Innsbruck 🙂 #What a memory, Innsbruck, love it. Stephan who I thought at first has some family connections with Andrea due to his ring is kind of similar with Andrea’s #They’re not distant family. The cool Freya, we hold umbrella side by side actually she was holding it, because of that she got free umbrella on the street haha.

Undoubtedly my food nerds! Grateful we have been friend for a looonnngg time, almost a decade! With Thomas since 2016 who introduced me later to Claudia & Giovanni, had I not met him I wouldn’t know them! Giovanni who always relaxed and welcoming “Ah your friend Sabrina can also join us, we still have place on the table, let’s meet in the Tent” Claudia the queen of Dirndl ~ perfect from top to bottom, who calm Thomas & Gio when they unstoppable hyping me up with my Mas! Thomas & Janine who I finally have a picture of you as a couple ~ only you two, just in case someone will ask again! 😉

What a happy ending, it’s all work out in the end, I don’t sleep in Badewanne + Thomas got his complete wallet back!

Would be very excited to be with the same people on the table again hopefully next year I could get more chance to speak with the fantastic-four 😉

Def not the last Oktoberfest! Repeat please!
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How I Met Thomas’ Wife

On the 5th of July, one of our pioneer member of Food Nerds had his Civil Marriage in Bozen. They are legally married <3.

Alas couldn’t be there on their Standesamtliche Trauung, sure I’ll be on their Hochzeitsfeier at full length 🙂

They planned it so well for us all, shuttle bus pick us up from Castel Latemar, we had some time to get our first drink until Manuel and Rickard aka Thomas’ bestmen ~ not a typo, meant exactly for bestmen, as in men, not man, got it 😉 ~ guided us to sit on the benches.

Music starts, Thomas came out walking side by side with his mother, damn! it built up some feelings in me ~ not yet cry. Seeing Thomas stand at the sogennante ‘podium’ waiting for Janine who later walked with her father. Jackpot, this is the moment where I shed some tears, I’m sure Cecile and Sara too #The scene was just too beautiful.

The dual language bestmen explains who was involved in making stars aligned for them. Vows exchanged, put on wedding rings, opened up the champagne with knife! ain’t it cool? The both nailed it!

It was a very memorable moment when both of them looked at us from their ‘podium’. Come here, we are ready to give you hugs! We really did our job by blowing the bubble soap. Claudia, Sara and I was very total on it, we blew it as if our lives depends on it.

Before they went to have their own photo session, we gotta have ours, the Shanghai group. While they’re gone, we got many many Appetizers, lecckerrr!! At some point, me, Claudia and Nino decided to stay inside, it was warm + we could sit + quiet until…..

…..the Xelom guy arrived in style. I was like häää? what’s the sudden noise? what’s happening? oh we need to get out? we saw this giant machine ~ I think it’s called Tractor / Schlepper / Bulldog have no idea what’s the official name is. As a matter of fact, I don’t know how did it got there? We drove passed it with shuttle bus yet didn’t see those machine parked.

Engineers life, one wrong button caused whole gas coming up! just like what the Xelom guy said “this is how it feels like to work with Thomas every day” I said to Nino who is currently heavily pregnant “wear your mask”

Thomas’ colleagues prepare some games. First is Janine need to drive the machine, seems doable eh? no no no there are some tricks, they changed the program, I think left to right and front to back. She managed it! took the present out: its a Bobby car. Second game is Thomas’ turn to drive it, they played a Folk South Tyrolean song from the mountain haha #that’s what Philip said. Janine gave instructions how Thomas should drive, in the middle he need to sing a song whose lyrics was only “Auto fahren Auto fahren Auto fahren” for the whole 3 minute-ish, continued with parked the Bobby car.

Since I’ve never been to any of it, I use the chance to get in into this machine. At the same time, Sara and Fiona was on the back of the truck jumping, dancing, screaming whatever things they’ve done in Shanghai, they did it there. Of course its provokes other people too such as Cecile, Chris, Armin. Out of nowhere Rickard brought me there. Fiona said “the Xelom guy seems not very happy about it” Dude, we are doing a drop / endurance / jumping test on this machine, they better be grateful 🙂 Then one of the Xelom’s daughter also join us yeayyy!!! #We are TNT, Dynamite.

Getting in for Abendessen, there was no seat arrangement, me, Diego and Claudia need to count many times if the seats are enough for us or not haha. Appetizer, main course was very good! On the other side from my table is a group of football fans, I felt FOMO need to come over to see Switzerland vs England.

Followed by dessert and pinata. The Pinata was kind of a revelation how scary when two sporty people comes together. They didn’t hit it, in another word they missed… nevertheless, their swing was so strong! Everyone need to abstand halten, if they hit you with the bat you are having Feierabend.

Their first dance was so perfect! Have no idea how long they trained for. Janine was “be careful, we need this space” They really do need that space, spin around, backflip, what the hell just happening yo? Suddenly jingle “All the single ladies, all the single ladies” we lined up but none of Food Nerds get it. Claudia said to Sara “You didn’t even try to catch it” It’s OK Sara didn’t get the flower because Diego got the Garter #Same same but different 🙂

Remember I’ve told you about some people on the other side of the table was a football fans? She’s still going on, on the dance floor we knew Netherlands went to the next round! Janine moms change our Limbo game into tug of war #Impromptu games. The “Hey DJ, we want Avicii song” banner being showed, I’m sure this is 100% Rickard as a Swedish himself. What’s more? dancing after dancing after dancing!

At some point during the party, the hat occasion which worthy of story by itself. But for now, we can introduce it to the crowd 🙂

Obviously the Food Nerds took the last shuttle at 01:30 #Right on schedule. As I said we’ve been there at full length.

Thank you for letting me to be a part of your wedding. It was really herrlich you gathered up the Food Nerds Gang again! I miss you all so much! We should do this more often XOXO

I am very proud of my friends; Christian is a loving father to her daughter Juli who won’t put pressure on her. Ooops, wait let me correct my sentence directly, he put 北大 shirt on Juli when we met at the Bus Station from Bozen to Karersee, he did said “no pressure” hmmm…. right, that is exactly how no pressure looks like 😉

Sara & Diego is buying a house on the beach! They said the water from the beach is literally there, I gotta visit them yo, next vacation destination confirmed! #Take my money!

Fiona with business of homemade butter, chenpi lemon balm and jujube ginger balm. You gotta make more products for some people aka me who don’t eat bread hahaha I’m very excited to try two of your products!

Claudia & Giovanni, the power couple who constantly become the heart of every party. Always involving people, knows how to have fun, never missed a chance to party such as inviting us to come to their home for Oktoberfest where perhaps we will all sleeping together on the floor #I’m on! Claudia in any circumstances is very beautiful like a Princess but be careful she is very crazy at the party, we know her…. for a long time 😉

Last but not least, to the man of the night, Thomas my friend. I am very grateful we met back in 2016, watched F1 either live or in Cages Sports Bar, our eating rituals at Bar Centrale, explaining pros & con of studying MBA, introducing me to Food Nerds gangs with whom I’m still friends until now, you are a part of my Shanghai life that made it more colorful than it would be, I have you to thank for. I am very happy you met your other half, big congrats once again on your wedding, wishing you a lifetime love and happiness 白头到老！

It was a legend….. wait for it….. dary, legendary!

And that, kids, is how I met Thomas’ wife 😀

http://marlynpraseli.com/2024/07/13/kann-ja-nicht-alles-unter-einen-hut-bekomme/

Photos + videos was taken from all of us on the group, I can’t really remember other than Armin and Claudia’s. Visibly the high quality professional pictures are from Gabriel Eisath www.gabriel-eisath.com / @gabriel.eisath / info@gabriel-eisath.com

Heart icons created by Kiranshastry – Flaticon

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Kann ja nicht alles unter einen Hut bekomme

One of our dear food nerds friend, Thomas, is getting married in Franzin Alm. The Nerdies featuring Claudia + Giovanni, Sara + Diego, Fiona, Christian will be there, what a nice Shanghai reunion <3

A little bit of history background, I knew Thomas in year 2016, we became close somewhere in 2018 with new people like Claudia & Giovanni + Sara. In 2019 the Wechat group Food Nerds was established, not long after that, Diego joined Sara in Shanghai, followed by Christian then Fiona to the group. Why food nerds? because we do nothing other than eating, especially our weekly ritual Bar Centrale every Sunday for Buy 1 Get 1 Free Pizza + happy hour Aperol Spritz. To this day, I am actually biased of what made us come often to Bar Centrale, is the Pizza that good? or the money deal is undeniable? Long story short, we knew each other for some time.

That is why when I got a text from Thomas about his wedding, I am really happy for him 🙂 I’ll make sure I’ll be there!

Prior to the wedding there are many discussions on both Wechat & WhatsApp group regarding what will we do for the couple. The core members of both groups are the same ~ meaning I only know us the Nerdies, there are some other new people too that I haven’t even met. With bigger crowds come bigger discussion, many ideas thrown out yet not a concrete one.

The classics one was always a slide show presentation about our time in Shanghai, that is why “someone” asked for a photo to be uploaded in a google link. I have a lot of photos from me and Thomas, we were friends for years. Additionally, I visited Thomas in Bolzano in 2020, obviously I have many selfies.

Had to mentioned, I have never met Janine before, so does other people. It is common some people in the group only know one side, either they are friends of Thomas or Janine. Few people actually friends with both as they first met in 2021. Some factors weigh in such as the famous Corona lockdown makes it harder for larger group to gather around.

Little did I knew, “someone / he” mistakenly took me as Janine! due to the reason, he never met neither me nor Janine! I think I’m the only one who sent a lot of selfie with Thomas on the google drive. Then, I realized he wasn’t make the classic slide show, he made a hat! for us to wear on the wedding dance floor! A hat with my selfie + a lot of hearts…it’s a funny hat for me, not sure what would the newlyweds think!

How did I found out about this hat?

During dessert time, I was talking with Thomas’ brother Philip then Rickard put something on my head. It must be a hat, what else can it be? I didn’t think it was THAT HAT! I thought a hat from PhotoBox. I utter the word “ah what kind of hat are you putting me on” Philip replied “a very nice one” took it out from my head, I WAS SHOCKED! directly hide it under the table, no no no no, you can’t do this to me, breath breath breath! Philip didn’t know the background story. I told Philip what “the hat creator” told me, according to him, he asked photos from Janine & Thomas. I misunderstand it as “please send me a photo of you with Thomas or you with Janine” Philip laughed, he said, let me see the hat, give it to me.

I really didn’t want the hat to spread around, I have never met Janine before, I don’t know how she will react. Started with Philip, it created a chain of information. Now it is to Diego, to Sara, to Claudia, to Giovanni. Giovanni said “give it to me Marlyn, I need to see it” Claudia cut it “no, not now, after the wedding. Don’t give it to him Marlyn, it’s dangerous if he has it”. When Manuel see on the ‘storage room’ there are a lot of these hats packed in a poly bag, I freaked out, ran, closed the door, put all the hat into the Koffer, no no no no this can’t be. The Nerdies were just laughing, they all said “I want to have one of it”

My hat was hid perfectly well on the pocket of my jacket, others I put it inside the Koffer. So far so good, no one needs to know other than the Food Nerds + Philip + Manuel.

The wedding party went smoothly, food after food, cakes after cakes, first dance, party started!! we were all having fun….until…. the hat reveals itself, boah I can assure you, all food nerds were flabbergasted! there was a brief moment where I locked in eyes with Claudia on the opposite side, our jaws dropped to the floor before burst into laugh. You can see on the video, Giovanni hasn’t stop laughing! The reason why I was shaken was…. how did Janine found out? who’s giving it to her?

Now the cats are out from the bag, no secret anymore! haha we all can wear the hats! Diego said “Marlyn, whoever from us married next, we will make a hat with your face and the guy’s face on it” The Nerdies hats are special, we have Thomas & Janine signed on it. Thomas has one with my name written on it. He said, when you are getting married, I don’t care if I’m invited or not, I will come with the hat and ask your guy to sign it as well, I will tell him “See, I have been there before” hahaha

After the wedding, some guess put the hat on the lobby area, hey! don’t throw it away! Luckily, the hotel receptionist approached Claudia to asked “is this belong to your party?” “Yes” “do you know the person on the hat?” “Yeeessss!” so now Claudia has two!

Sara, Diego & Fiona stayed a few days after the wedding, they did hike together with the hats! oh God! this hat really will go everywhere! They won’t let it go easily.

Perhaps we will wear it all together when we meet again, Oktoberfest hey? See you all soon nerdies! don’t forget about our hats!

FYI, now that I’m calm down, I scrolled the chat, he didn’t specifically mentioned Janine AND Thomas, not like what he told me on the wedding day. He and his wife told me because they never met Janine before that’s why they asked in the group to send a picture of both Thomas AND Janine. They said “And you send your selfie, so we print it” Nope, no prove of you saying that word ‘AND’. The whole time I thought I misunderstand them, I wasn’t! They fucked up then they wanted to throw the shit out of me, not gonna happen brother, I backed up by Janine humorous personality.

Well…. sometimes mistake must happen in order to know the real character of the person, I’m relieve Janine took it as a jokes 🙂 it could potentially be really schief gegangen, thank you for not letting it go south.

Love you Food Nerds! Happy Wedding Thomas & Janine, thank you Janine for being a fun individual!

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Vitamin D

May in Deutschland, what can you offer? hmmm…

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 😉

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Give Paella The Fourth Chance

Finally this time we were having Paella for lunch! And the menu was pork ribs Paella. We were 6 people and Diego’s colleague Carmela brought a Chistorra. Yes we had a starter this time!

Like the Sausage so this was our starter! #yummy! While Diego prepared for the Paella and he said that we can start to make the sausages and Thomas suddenly remembered that he has bread! But still very frozen so we need to postponed the sausage for about 30 mins as we need the bread to be on the oven first

Idk what happened with Thomas kitchen because he can only turn on one stove on so they were kind of “OK, stop this one first and use the electricity for the oven and then continue” and they had kind of changing cable situation on the kitchen mwahaha

Thomas and Diego kept opening the oven to see if the bread got warm as they or should I say everyone wasn’t that patient to wait 😉 and when the bread kind of warm enough they started to make the sausages and eggs and here is our starter 😉

While the boys busy with their own cable and starter, me and Sara was busy on ordering a cake. Last time it was Dutch Pie, this time we need to give other bakery a chance and I suggested that we ordered from Cake Home, the famous Russian bakery 😉 and there was a tie between carrot cake and red velvet cake so we ordered half and half. I asked the cake home guy to write “Happy Birthday Sara” but he said “No, only happy birthday” and I was “what is going on with this guy? He can write Happy Birthday but he cannot write Sara?” and he said “when you receive it you’ll understand” okay then! Make the cake and deliver it to me and let’s see if I can understand 😉

I still hold my previous job as tasting the salt but Carmella and Thomas also had this job so there were a different opinion regarding the salt and the cook choose they opinion instead of me booooooo mwahaha but it still turns out good 😉 Here’s the pork ribs Paella!

And then our dessert arrived! Cake home had a really cute box which is a pink ribbon and turns out the “happy birthday” was a sign so that’s why they can’t add Sara on it and yes I understand 😉

When we received it we were doubting is that even carrot cake? or Tiramisu? I know their carrot cake is not like typical carrot cake but it is!

Unfortunately they were running out of candles! So Thomas took out his best candle which I am so reluctant to put that candle on the cake because it doesn’t really match but Gianna just put it like bam! Here’s the candle haha

Happy Birthday Sara! Hope your thumb heal very soon! Hahaha I think that’s the most realistic wish ever 😉

I think that time was already 5-6ish and Carmela had to leave first so there was 5 of us left at Thomas’ and somehow we keep talking about random things until suddenly a big brainstorm idea came hahaha it was about opening a Taekwondo class but the teacher will have to be Diego, he just need to go back to Spain to earn his black belt and come back hahaha. At first I thought Thomas and Gianna was just joking just put this as an idea but then the conversation getting more and more serious and they were really tried to convinced Diego to be the teacher and Sara said she can teach Flamingo dance and what can I do? Hmmm I can be the admin! Hahaha Thomas and Gianna can be the investors 😉

This was going on until it’s about dinner time around 8-ish and we went to eat Pizza and Fiona joined them for after dinner and Thomas and Gianna told her about their plan of opening a Taekwondo class and she seems to be on board also haha I didn’t know that you guys are serious about this, it’s just so funny watching you brainstorming without any written agenda, Gianna said “it’s all on my mind” mwahaha Well, well, well, let’s see how it goes… Meanwhile, everybody get back to your own job 😉

Even though we had Paella as a lunch this time but we ended up until late evening haha the same things as if we had Paella for dinner 😉

Thank you Diego for making the Paella but my fav still either the rabbit or seafood and Happy Birthday for Sara! and really hope your thumb get fix soon so that we can start doing Via Feratta!

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Give Paella The Third Chance

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

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

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

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

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

Btw the boys really did a good job!

  • Looks
  • YUMMY!

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

Perfection!

The chef reaction….

  • It looks good, Chef!
  • It is!

And the eaters…

  • Our belly is as happy as our face

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

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

The Second Round Crew

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

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

  • TADAAAMMM!

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

The last moment the cake looks like a cake

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

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

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

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

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Give Paella A Second Chance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hola Paella!

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

  • ALL
  • GOOD!
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The Something Bad Almost Happen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then….it was the time for a speech!!!

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

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

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

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

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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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We No Speak Americano

Guess who’s back? Back again? haha it’s the Food Nerds! It’s all started when Thomas posted a Thanksgiving Dinner options at Zeitgeist, followed by Claudia posted also another Thanksgiving Dinner at Le Bouchon. Which one to chooseee *confused

We were 8 people and Christian did the calculation of which one is cheaper 1180/8 VS 1188/8 and we only pay 1RMB more but we got fatter turkey at Le Bouchon haha so easy peasy! We chose Le Bouchon 😉

Claudia and Sara arrived first, and the door at Le Bouchon is very tricky to open, I cannot even smoothly open it ahahaha and need to waiter to opened it up for me, please excuse me Ms. Praseli wants to get in ahaha. Followed by Christian, Giovanni, Thomas & Nora and we wouldn’t even try wait for Fiona because we suspected that she will arrived at 9 ish while the dinner was at 7:30 sharp! haha but turns out Fiona wasn’t that late, in fact she was pretty on time, sneaky smart! she arrived when the Turkey was about to serve, she doesn’t even need to wait ahahaha. While we were waiting for both the Turkey and Fiona to arrived, we took a lot of pictures, but due to Claudia quote from her “wasn’t in a good day for taking pictures” therefore from many pictures that we took, she only sent one hahaha and here we are looking so natural 😀

Then the turkey came with the Chef Charles ( I suppose it’s his name..or? hahaha) he helped us to serve it but before he cut it, we were so insisted to take picture around the Turkey but in the end we didn’t do it because it’s just too 麻烦 haha

We just stood around it and admire the Turkey in front of us and all the side dishes *drooliingggg

Then there is a what I called domino’s picture but somehow the domino doesn’t effect Gio, he was the only one that stand still hahaha We were slightly debating of who will got it first, and Gio stood next to the chef and he said “start from the biggest to the smallest” and I gasped! and Christian said “then start with me” (because he’s the tallest) but Gio said “no, it’s the biggest” (because he’s the ……….hmmm hahaha) but I got the first one! yeayyy! and Gio said “OK Marlyn, this is only for the picture” hahaha

The turkey was sooooo great, I like the stuffing, baby cabbages, potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, I don’t really like the chestnut not because the chestnut was bad or sth, I just don’t eat chestnut in general. I had the second round, I think most of us make it through second round. And by the time we were on the table eating the turkey, I just realized that none of us are from the States hahaha, we came from either Asian (Indonesia, Hong Kong and China) or European (Germany, Spain and Italian) hahaha we don’t even have a thanksgiving celebration but yeah we participated in glorifying the Turkey! haha Sara’s was the one that prepared so well, she wore one size bigger skirt and at the end of the dinner the skirt fits her perfectly hahaha!

After we glorified the Turkey, Gio insisted to have a dessert as what he said “I just need a spoon of sugar” we were so reluctant to have dessert due to we were full already but Gio got support from Thomas and they ordered the chocolate volcano and creme brulee and 7 spoons hahaha (Christian already bounced at this time).

But then when the dessert came it was just like a war-zone, all of us except Gio were so fast to get the dessert and it’s gone as fast as the speed of light! The dessert was placed in front of Gio and he was the last one to taste it hahahaha and he said “Who’s the one that doesn’t really wants dessert?” haha 😀

We still have food left there and Gio said “we can take it for Diego and Java” and I was like “who is Java?” and Java is Fiona’s dog. and I was like hmmm yeah Diego and Java? on the same level hahaha! #sorry Diego just kidding 😉 Sara took some for Diego and also for lunch for her and Claudia, and Fiona took all the bones for Java, he must be very happy and I bet he wouldn’t be able to jump to the bed ever again hahaha.

Somehow the conversation went to fake teeth, I don’t know how it goes nor that I want to know how can we went to that conversation and Gio said “I need to take care of my fake teeth” and I was like “do you have fake teeth?” and he said yes! haha he said “I’m already old, you can call me Shu Shu” 😀 He thought I was the youngest but no, it’s Nora who is the youngest among all of us.

I hope everyone had a good digestive system as for me, it was such as struggle to sleep yesterday due to my stomach is sooo full and I’m afraid that I could throw it up if I lay down hahaha.

Funny how I can meet my families in Shanghai, I met my bro Thor and sis Gy and now I just found my long lost shu shu Gio! hahaha

Happy Thanksgiving and I give thanks to all of you 😉