Dinner with my parents

Today Lee Zen (she is cabin crew manager for China Airlines) came to visit us. She always brings much exotic food with her. She comes mostly for Monling of course, both of them are Taiwanese ‘girls’. Lee Zen is my wife’s best friend I think. I like her a lot. Not only because of the exotic food but also for the regular visits she pays to Monling. That allows Monling to vent her frustration about various topics (mostly about me, me and me :-).

They preferred my room to my company of course so I called my parents whether I could have a chat and dinner with them or not. They didn’t mind at all so they came to pick me up in the afternoon and took me back in the evening. We chatted about many things including my “end phase”.

Most of you will know that I’m a vegetarian I had asked for the typical Dutch “raapstelen stampot” (mashed potatoes and turnip-tops and onion gravy). I didn’t realize that it was not the season for raapstelen so (without me knowing that at the moment I asked for raapstelen stamppot) I condemned them actually to a long search. But that search paid off resulting in a delicious hotch-potch. Thank you both for making such an effort!

Birthday of Monling

My wife had her birthday today. She got her presents (enough cosmetics to start a small drugstore) last week already so I just got up at 9:00am this morning, went to the bakery, bought fresh bread, ‘butter cookies’ and some pastries for breakfast.  We had a pretty easy going day and went to Haarlem (less than 30 minutes by train from our home) for dinner in a restaurant called “ML” (http://www.restaurant-ml.nl/).

We had a splendid evening while savouring the many courses that one after another were taken to our table: 2 amuses, 3 first courses, a main course, a collection of deserts and a kind of spoom. Wonderful food cooked to perfection with a grand dose  of creativity. It took us more than three and a half hours to finish it and we loved every minute.