Mamma Mia!

Songwriters: Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson

Writer: Catherine Johnson

Director: Phyllida Lloyd

A mother, A daughter, 3 possible dads!

MAMMA MIA! is the global phenomenon based on ABBA's timeless songs. 22 of ABBA's biggest hits are woven throughout the story.

MAMMA MIA! tells the story of a mother and daughter on the eve of the daughter's wedding. The sunny, funny tale unfolds on a Greek island paradise. The fun starts when, unknown to the mother, the daughter's quest to discover the identity of her father invites the three men who could be her father, from her mother's past back to the Greek island paradise they last visited 20 years ago, to her wedding.

The official website of Mamma Mia! http://www.mamma-mia.com/

I first attended a Mamma Mia! musical in Melbourne on Oct 2001. Hubby (my fiance then) and I were visiting Sydney and Melbourne. It was my first visit to Australia and also first time meeting hubby's brother, Jin and family.

Jin booked the musical tickets for us. The musical was held at Princess Theatre in Melbourne.

http://www.marrinertheatres.com.au/venue_princess.jsp

Jin bought the corporate package tickets which were inclusive of dinner (pre-show) with coffee and cake during intermission at the in-house restaurant at the theatre. It was a very good dinner with free-flow of Australian wine and good company. Before the show started, the waitress took our dessert order for intermission.

Just before the musical started, the waitress who attended to us ushered us to our seats. No queueing, no waiting time. The moment we sat now, the musical started. We got very good seats, 6th row from the stage.

During intermission we adjourned back to our table at the restaurant where our coffee (mocha, latte, etc) and cakes were ready on our tables. That was great! Hubby and I were very impressed with them. Even Jin was surprised. The entire evening was so well planned.

Hubby bought the above CD (AUD30 each) during the intermission. One for Jin's family and one for us.

When Jin was in KL last month, he bought the movie soundtrack for us. Now, I have the above 2 CDs of Mamma Mia!

It was a great evening ... good food, good musical with good company. Till today, hubby and I still remember that evening and as they said ... that was the best night out and musical that we've ever had!

I was thrilled when I heard about the Mamma Mia movie.

• Amanda Seyfried - the bride
• Meryl Streep - the mother of the bride
• Pierce Brosnan - the father of the bride
• Colin Firth - the father of the bride
• Stellan Skarsgard - the father of the bride
  
  

My sister, Annie watched it 3 times at the cinema. According to her, it was a great atmosphere in the cinema and most of the people sang along the songs.

Yesterday, I watched the movie on DVD at home together with hubby and Aunty YC. I turned on the subtitles and sing along too. The feeling was great.

The Mamma Mia! musical will be here in KL! They will be performing at Istana Budaya from 17 Dec 08 to 1 Jan 09. I heard only limited tickets are available. My company bought 2 tickets of RM1,000 each for the opening night, which is also the Charity Night. Wonder who will be going for the musical.

http://thestar.com.my/mammamia/

MAMMA MIA! the ultimate feel-good show!

Start Buying Equities Now?

Recently, there have been lots of news, articles, talks on the economy and of course ... share market.

Of all, I have the strongest impression of the article from iFAST Corporation co-founder and executive director, Moh Hon Meng. The following are the extracts of it:

It’s time to go back into equity markets

• Warren Buffett bought in October
• John Bogle said in this month that equity markets are too low; and
• Bill Miller recently said that he sees great value in equities.

Has the market reached a bottom?

• We have passed it. October could have been the bottom.
• We are very near it. A lot of the bad news has been priced in. Given the very low valuations now, there’s not much downside, which makes the upside over the next two years very interesting.
  

Make sure you invest with money you can set aside for at least three years. This is because you don’t want to be caught having to sell at the wrong time and you need time for the markets to realise its full recovery potential.

The world's most renowned investor Warren Buffett had in his recent article titled "Buy American. I Am" published on 16 October 2008 in the New York Times, quoted the following in explaining why he began to invest heavily in stocks: -

"I can't predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven't the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower in a month - or a year -from now. What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over. "

"Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is.
The time to get interested is when no one else is.
You can't buy what is popular and do well." Warren Buffett

The simple rules of equities investment are:

1. Make sure you have the holding power ie money that you could set aside for medium term
2. Do not be greedy. We can never buy at the lowest and sell at the highest
3. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Spread your risk.

I love to hear from you

It has been 2 months and 8 days since I created this blog. So far, I've posted 47 posts on variable topics ... family, friends, food, card making, scrap booking, Kuantan trip, etc.

This blog is meant for me to pen down and capture those special moments and to share them with family and friends, near and far. And that's the reason I named my blog "treasure memories".

I'm glad that there are constant visitors to my blog, not many but good enough for a 2 month- old blog. To my surprise, I do have fans too. Fans who visit my blog on daily basis and quietly reading them.

My fans are the shy type. They read my posts, enjoy what they read and they logged out. But ... I would love to hear from you!. Tell me what you like about this blog, what you like to read, suggestions, comments, feedback, anything at all.

Surprisingly, my sisters are my fans and read my blog too. One of them likes my posts on "My Life as an Accountant" and asked "Why there's no new posts on this label?".

Remember, it is you, my fans that keep me going and writing, albeit after a long and tiring day. I would love to hear from you!

Leave your mark behind!

Potato Cheese Cake

I just realised that lately, I've posted quite a number of posts on food. I'm lucky and glad that I'm surrounded by good cooks and good food.

This Potato Cheese Cake (doesn't really look like a cake but like a lasagna) recipe is from our Company's chef who did cooking demos to our customers. We liked the food greatly and requested the recipe from him, which he gladly obliged.

Again, I'm posting it here to share with everyone.

Ingredients:

1. 200g idaho potatoes
2. 50ml heavy cream
3. 100g cream cheese
4. 50g grated Parmesan cheese
5. 20g unsalted butter
6. 50g leek
7. 30g Shallot
8. 1 bulb roasted garlic
9. 5 nos whole egg
10. 100g plain flour
11. Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:

• Boil and peel potatoes. Mash them and set aside to cool
• Sweat shallots and leek over medium heat until soft
• Add in cream and stir in cream cheese
• Add in roasted garlic, followed by the mashed potatoes
• Incorporate butter and stir in eggs
• Add in flour and season to taste
• Set in baking tray aligned with parchment paper and sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top
• Bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes

Rice Pilaf

Contribution from Auntie Jenny

Auntie Jenny is a very good cook. She is such a good cook that we will feel tremendous pressure to invite her home for dinner. If any, we would rather buy her dinner and eat out.

Auntie Jenny cooks very nice Rice Pilaf. This rice pilaf goes extremely well with "ayam rendang". I am very happy to have this recipe from her and also her consent to post it here on my blog to share it with everyone.

Happy cooking! Do leave comments once you've tried it.

Ingredients:

1. 
   
   Chicken broth (can be made with chicken cubes)


2. 
   
   4-6 tablespoons butter


3. 
   
   3 tbsp oil


4. 
   
   8 shallots (more if desired), sliced


5. 
   
   4 cloves garlic, chopped


6. 
   
   2 -4 cups basmati rice (do not use jasmine rice, its too sticky)


7. 
   
   1-2 cup raisins or dried cranberries or both


8. 
   
   Toasted almond slivers or pine nuts (toast in oven at 140 C for approx 20 min, stirring every 5 min till slightly brown, or toast in bread toaster or pan fry, constant stirring, without oil over medium/low heat)


9. 
   
   Salt and pepper, to taste
   

Method:

• 
  
  Wash rice and put into strainer to drain off water, about 1 hr


• 
  
  Fry shallots and garlic till golden brown


• 
  
  Add in washed rice and fry till well coated with the oil


• 
  
  Transfer basmathi rice to rice cooker and add chicken broth


• 
  
  When rice is cooked, add salt, pepper, butter, raisins and cranberries and mix well


• 
  
  Keep rice in pot for another 10 minutes


• 
  
  Serve rice and garnish with toasted sliced almond or pine nuts.
  

High School Musical 3

Mon, 27 Oct 08

My niece from Singapore, Qi Wen was in town over the Deepavali holiday.

Except for Jared, all my nieces and nephews are fans of High School Musical. My sister arranged for a movie together. Jared and I went along for the movie as we would like to spend some time with them.

As expected, Jared did not enjoy the show. During the show, he kept on asking me "Why so long?".

Anyway, the show is disappointing. According to my sisters, nieces and nephew, its not as nice as the last 2 seasons.

On the way home, I was asking my sister "When was the last time we watched a movie together?". I guess the last movie together was when we were single and did not have any boyfriends then.

Digital SLR and My Best Friend's Hubby's Birthday

Christina is a sweet lady and she always is. Her hubby, Yuan Hui's birthday was in Oct 08. She invited us to her house for dinner. This time round, Christina cooked dinner for all of us ... 3 families!

Recently, Yuan Hui is into photography. During our Kuantan trip, he was toying with his SLR digital camera and took quite a number of good shots. Hubby suggested to get him a book on SLR photography.

Hubby browsed through photography books in Popular Book shop in 1 Utama and bought this book "Mastering Your Digital SLR ... How To Get The Most Out Of Your Digital Camera".

Hope Yuan Hui would like this book and find good tips on digital SLR.

I made this card cum book mark to go along with the gift.

I used 2 different pattern papers for the front and back of the card. I printed one black and white photo and another colour photo of Yuan Hui (taken in Kuantan while he was concentrating in photo shooting with his SLR camera) and glued it to the card. The tab on top of the card is to be used as a book mark.

Birthday boy shooting the cup cakes made by his beloved wife, Christina and chocolate cake brought by his best friend.

Christina lighting up the candles on the cakes.



Lovely cakes from lovely wife ... the best birthday gift!

Hubby teased me that I didn't cook and invite close friends over for dinner on his birthday, as Christina did for her hubby. Christina, you've set such a high standard for wives to meet.