My parents' love story 50 years ago

My mum wrote this sweet love story if her first date with my dad 50 years ago, and my dad kindly posed a reenactment. What a very sweet couple!

"... in 1962 ... this man spent ALL his savings to buy 5 cones of Ragusa Italian Ice cream for the girl he had decided to be his wife ... but in his eagerness to please the whole family, he tripped and dropped ALL 5 cones ... 50 years ago, in this exact position, at the point of crossing the street ... but he was sooo much younger, sooo much thinner, and sooo much poorer than he is in this pic ... Yet he is still the same man, my dear dear Joe ;D

I love you forever, Daddy Joe <3"

mathilde ;p

A Visit to CERN

Then and now

It's funny how certain memories from childhood can sustain, vividly. 

This summer my husband Andy, my son Jacques and me drove to France for two weeks. Camping here and there and thankfully, we managed to find tge old house in Toulouse. Not far from Blanac Airport.

I lived in this house in Toulouse, France in 1982 for almost a year. My dad was assigned to Aerospatiale - now merged as airbus - for over a year. So mum, my little sister and ne joined him. 

Here are we now, me and son Jacques.

My 8-year-old self and my little sister in 1982

The side porch where we spent some summer evenings having dinner with my dad's friends. Mum would drink Martini Rose and chat with her friend Chantelle, while I played with her daughters Isabelle and Natalie.

The house I lived in 30 years ago

It's funny how certain memories from childhood can sustain, vividly.

I lived in this house in Toulouse, France in 1982 for almost a year. My dad was assigned to Aerospatiale - now merged as airbus - for over a year. So mum, my little sister and ne joined him.

This summer my husband Andy, my son Jacques and me drove to France for two weeks. Camping here and there and thankfully, we managed to find tge old house in Toulouse. Not far from Blanac Airport.

Mac in France

Martabak

One dinner time at home, a conversation about Indonesian food - especially street food – arisen. My son Jacques whose experience of Indonesian street food is rather limited asked me about “martabak”.

So here is the explanation I gave him and my husband. Martabak is basically Indonesian omelette, but slightly more complicated as it is fried inside a very thin pastry. The pastry is like Filo pastry.

Hmmm…. Since then I felt challenged to cook it at home. After some researches – thanks for the wonderful technology called internet – I found this recipe:
http://www.homemadesbyarfi.com/2008/09/martabak-telur-for-wtsimindonesian.html.

The only thing that I did not fancy making is the pastry. It just sounds so complicated. So I cheated by using ready-made Filo pastry.

The result is good. I enjoyed watching the egg mixture bubbling up and then quickly folded the pastry. I even made two versions: the real martabak with mince beef and the vegetarian one using vegetarian mince.

Hmmm…. This will be tested tonight when Jacques and my husband Andy are home. My sister Tania who lives in London is also coming tonight, so I will find out the feedback and reviews soon.

Yum yum…! Hidup tukang martabak jalanan…! (Long live street food vendors)

How to zap annoying creature(s)

These are how my brain copes with highly annoying people. While in reality I can’t do anything about these creatures, I can always run away to my dream world of cartoon… So let’s zap them…! How to zap them out of existence?

We can send missile or nuclear bomb with a Northrop-Grumman B2 Spirit.
We can use taser gun to shut them up.
We can send a UFO with evil alien to abduct them (and don’t bail them out!)
We can throw them to an evil badger’s nest to be eaten alive.
We can send them to the cannibals
We can send the Dalek to exterminate them.
And last but not least, we can throw them to the big white shark.

Whatever the weapon of choice, the evil rabbit and donkey must be wiped out of existence!
Or….send them to a sweat shop in a third world country so that they learn what real world is like.

Ms Agatha Christie, we need your brain for this….