Mission Accomplished - Wedding Gate Crashed!

Ok - let me explain this: Gate-crashing is a Chinese wedding tradition where the husband-to-be with the help of his groomsmen is trying to brake into the bridal room. It was played in ancient China to tease bride and groom. In modern times, its another way of screwing your future husband... ;-) The tradition is carried out in the morning just before the wedding.

The girls were gathering in the 'brides chamber', getting ready for protecting the door from the boys. They locked the gate and prepared their evil games... 

Bastian and the groomsmen put on a nice smile to get access to the bride, however, their request was quickly declined. The girls wanted red envelopes (angpao) with lots of money in it...

Instead of big money, sneaky Bastian put 100,000,- Indonesian Rupee in the envelopes and the girls were not amused...

... they stepped up their game and the boys had to change their outfits. Round 1: Beautiful bunny ears, disposable undies and lingerie...SEXY!!!

The ladies were enjoying themselves and opened it up for Round 2: The boys had to perform a dance to Beyonce's 'Single Ladies'... HOT HOT HOT!

Round 3: The bridesmaids were not done yet. Here comes the punishment... Food challenge, a journey through married life. Bastian with the support of his groomsmen had to experience sour, bitter, sweet and spicy moments.

And they weren't done yet... A little bit of angpao, singing, dancing, and making a fool of themselves, the girls were ready to open it up for the final round...

Banana games!!! What have bananas to do with a wedding??? Good question! The boys had to put bananas with a string around their waist... and their fellow groomsmen had to peal and eat it without using their hands. This was wild... Anyway, according to Bastian, the bananas were delicious!

Finally, after about more than one hour full of embarrassments, Bastian managed to break through the gate and kiss the bride-to-be... 

The girls could not get enough and took a final group picture before getting ready for the wedding ceremony at Chijmes in Singapore. Thank you girls for this memorable event ;-) 

Stag night in Macau

About a week before the wedding, 'best man' Arthur aka Serpent organized a bachelor party... typically an event full of embarrassing moments and humiliation for the 'husband-to-be'. When the sun went down over the Venetian casino in Macau, I was expecting for the worst ...

It must have been an epic night, who knows!?! To be honest, I can't remember much which may not be such a bad thing. Memories have been erased through a toxic mixture of Whiskey and Champagne... OOPS... one picture somehow made its way to the public. 

The next time we saw our 'best man' was at 6:30am only with his socks on at the hotel lobby... a classic 'hangover moment'!!! Arthur... you nailed it ;-)

Happy Birthday or rather Happy Ipad-day?

On the 31 of July, it was Bastian's birthday and I surprised him with a new Ipad. For the rest of the day, I almost couldn't get him away from it... 

... but after unwrapping a cooking book from his parents, he was open for a dinner in the evening.

I booked a table at the 57th floor of the Ion on Orchard Road. Its an Australian Steak restaurant with a spectacular view.  We enjoyed a beautiful sunset (without his Ipad).

When we came home, we received a call from our friends Chester and Celaste who wanted to drop by. To our surprise, they smuggled a fresh durian into our apartment. Yami!

That is what I call a perfect finish to Bastian's Ipad day ;-)

China trip to Zhuhai and Shanghai


Bastian spent some time to do business in China again. First, he was near Hong Kong in a city called Zhuhai and at the later part of the week, he was staying in Shanghai.

Shanghai is one of our favorite cities in Asia. It changed so drastically over the past few years. Its always fun to walk along the bund and look over to the Pudong side.

Great Eastern 10k Run

Evelyn together with a friend from work signed up for a 10k run. Because of the heat, the race starts at 7am in the morning... It was only about 28C and 90% humidity at that time!

Despite the early hours over 16,000 women signed up for the race. At finish I had a hard time finding her. She finished in respectable 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Wow, in the end it was rank 637!!! Pretty exhausted, but proud (like Oscar!)... The race finishes at the Padang in the center of Singapore.

Welcome to the 30s club!

I turned 30 on June 12th... OMG!!! There is a saying that when you turn thirty, a whole new thing happens: you see yourself acting like your parents...

Weekend trip to Sydney

After lots of traveling in China, Evelyn and I were ready to explore something 'non-Asian' so we decided to go for a weekend trip to Australia. We were strolling around downtown which has a unique mix of both old and new architecture. From the Sydney tower, we had a great panoramic view.

From circular quay we had took some nice pictures of the Sydney bridge and the opera house which are not the only highlights of the city.

Our friend Cuong recommended a couple of restaurant and we explored almost all of them. The food was really outstanding! Our first evening took us to a Greek place... Bastian liked it so much that he 'over'-ordered...

Next morning we boarded a ferry to Manly which is located 17 kilometres north-east of the Sydney. It is a residential island with beautiful beaches, a perfect place to relax. We started with that already on the ferry!

In the evening, we were back in Sydney for one of our favorites: A big fat steak at the Chophouse in CBD Sydney. This was heaven... yami!

After so much meat, we felt guilty! So next morning: Workout!!! We got up early and went to Bronte Beach. After studying the local news and of course having a delicious breakfast at the water, we started our coastal walk to Bondi.

The workout was not over, when we were back in downtown Sydney. Bastian had a little surprise and we finished a wonderful weekend trip with the unforgettable Bridge Climb!