Mamma Mia ! - Broadway from West End London

I have heard about broadway, but never imagine I would attend one.

Theatrical performance always reminds me of the clumsy Mahsuri stage performance during Teacher Day back in my primary school days where the "actors" lip-sync to pre-recorded dialogues and messy stage prop.

Last Saturday, I attended Mamma Mia ! the musical at Istana Budaya and I must say....
"holy @&%$^#$ !"
I will never looked at theatrical performances the same way again.

The performances are simply AWESOME !

When the curtain was raised I was already sitting up from my seat, impressed and mesmerized.

While waiting for the show to start earlier, hubby said that he does not like ABBA neither does he hate it.

10 mins into the performance, he is already a DIE-HARD ABBA fan. HAHAHA !
I hereyby quote him...."I have been ABBA-nised".

Finally, I have successfully bring him to the "dark-side".....

It is worth your every penny. No regrets at all.


Singing.....Super trouper.....beams are gonna blind me......

One of my fav: Dancing Queen...feel the beat from the tambourine, you can dance
you can jive..............


I have a dream... a song to sing, to help me cope with anything....................

By the encore, everyone was already on their feet singing and hands clapping to the infectious songs.

The fat uncle seated next to me was busy humming and tapping his feet all the way and the ladies on the other side dissapeard to the corner to sing and dance with the rest.

I must say that I went to see the performance with very high expectation after reading the rave reviews from the newspaper and people who have seen it.

And I'm glad that I was throughly impressed beyond my expectation.
I enjoyed it so much I didn't want it to end at one point !

Wedding Dinner @ Chyna, KL Hilton

Finally, more photos..............


You need a skilled master to handle this unconventional teapot. Everyone was in awe watching him pour tea with his acrobatic stunt. I was worried that the tea might landed on the wine glass instead. But, he's really good.

Starter: chilled lobster rolled with mango salad & three combination platter.


Double-boiled superior shark's fin consomme with sea treasure. But seriously, I have seen big piece of dried shark's fin on window display but bever eaten one as big as this one.

No need intro to this.

Abalone, sea susumber, mushroom and stuffed bean curd.

Deep fried live soon hockfish coated with assorted spice & braised eggplant and basil leaves.

My new baby

Maybe I'll post more wedding photos in my next entry.

I should, actually.....

And I would say that I was a tad (ok, maybe more than just that) traumatized by the photos.

First of all, my stupid 2 years old casio digital camera broke down 1 week before the big day and I didn't bother to go and fix it.

2nd, the photos taken by other camera were bad, bad bad....

3rd, some of the photos which I took with ah meng's camera....well, they were still inside the camera and his camera is still here and I did not bother to do anything about it.....

Oh, did I mentioned that it cost RM450 to fix the damn casio lense?????
I might as well, yes get a NEW ONE !!

Yes, let bygone be bygone...........


So I got this......
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Yes, this is my new baby ! Canon EOS 450D with 200mm lense !



And And And.........I bought the 5 Million Dollar Home for my baby at KLCC 2 days ago !

It's also called the Crumpler Bag, sold exclusively at KLCC. Comes in 4 colours (red, olive green, grey and black). Cost me RM259 bucks.
Mine is OLIVE GREEN.


Happy Happy Happy !

Just Married

So, I decided to pay a visit to my aunt and uncle in klang to tell them the good news as they are my closest relative here.

Mom played with Sasha, the miniature terrier while Bubble the moody mutt slept by the corner sulking away. Mom like Sasha so much she wanted to carry her home......

Like always, we went for BKT (bak kut teh). It is almost like a sin, if we didn't have BKT especially if dad is around. My eldest cousin joined us also.

I was pretty excited when Klang aunt offered to bring us to their new house or rather still under construction mansion at Eco Setia Park.
It's a very exclusive newly developed and gated community.
Can't wait to visit them when their houses are complete next year.

That night we had dinner at Oriental, Jaya33 to celebrate my wedding and uncle's 63rd bday.
Finally I got to see my niece and nephew aged 4 and 2.

I will publish some photos taken during the dinner (hopefully) and also those taken on the wedding day.

My camera broke down during the last day of my Bali trip 2 weeks ago and I still have not get repair yet. I have loose faith with Casio. Why did I bought casio digital camera in the very 1st place?

In major dilemma whether to get a DSLR or a canon powershot......decision decision decision

Anyway, I would like to pay a tribute to the shoe that never make it to the wedding.
I bought this black lewre with swarovski crystal to wear for the dinner but left it at PJ Hilton.
I couldn't believe that I actually lost it till the very last minutes when I was about to wear it.

The receptionist at KL Hilton helped us call back PJ Hilton and try to locate the missing shoe, but........its a sad ending to a pretty shoe.

Luckily, I got this picture to remind me of her.




This is the shoe which I ended up wearing that night. It's a gold coloured Nine West.
Nice to see, but my feet sored like crazy wearing this one

Bali

Last week was eventful for me. Worked for a day and went back to Pg for a night and then off to Bali for 3 nights.

Bali is known as the "island of the thousand temple". I would like to called it
"island of a million temple" instead. This island, 5 times bigger than Singapore has more temples than houses.
According to the locals each house has their own temple for dead.
With population of over 3 millions with more than 90% of them are balinese hindus.


Mount Agung. A priceless view taken from the plane. This is Bali's highest mountain at
10,308 feet and also the most sacred mountain. This mama last erupted in 1963 and as you can see her large and very deep crater, that she is very much an active volcano !


Day 1. Attended the Barong dance. Very well known dance about the fight between good and evil. Do you know that somebody can die or get seriously injured in a Barong dance?
The masks of Barong and Rangda are considered sacred items, and before they are brought out, a priest must be present to offer blessings by sprinkling them with holy water taken from Mount Agung, and offerrings must be presented.
No one got pocessed during the play that day. phew.



This is Tanah Lot. Another sacred temple in Bali. Means Land on the sea in Bali. When the tide is low, people can walk to the temple. It looks like a floating one when the tide is high.
Noticed many caves below the temple and it is said that the sea snakes that inhibit the caves guard the temple from evil.

Wash your face with the holy spring water which runs through the temple cave underneath and then you will receive some rice grains on your forehead and a jasmine tucked in your hair.


Panoramic view of Lake Batur. This is Bali's largest lake, it's surrounded by the high walls of the crater rim. There was a massive eruption thousands of years ago and this lake was formed.
The atmostphere is cool up here.

This is Mount Batur, another active volcano. Adjacent to Lake Batur. Last erupted in 1917 and claimed hundreds of life !

Yes, yes...we already knew.....

Me and Mt Batur.

Our welcome drink. Halved coconut. Very sweet and refreshing after a heaty day.

Beautiful setting of Jimbaran Beach. It's dinner-on-the-beach and musicans playing soothing musics at night time.
Let me rephrase, musicians playing 'chilling' music at times....when these people tried to sing in mandarin to cater to their chinese diners. It gives me the 'chills'.
Terrible pitching problem and pronounciation also out, suddenly my crab tasted bad after hearing them sing.
I give then 7/10 for the effort.


Sunset coming up at Jimbaran Beach. When the shades turn from yellow to orange to red.


Sarong-Party-Guy. Yo ! Man ! What's with the hand ?


Bali most spectacular temple, Uluwatu temple. Located high on the cliff top at the edge of a plateau. Below is the Indian ocean waves. This temple guard Bali from evil sea spirit.



Planet Hollywood Bali. Our friend attempted to make his mark here. Wassup duck?


Me & Arnie. Astala Vista babeh !

MAMMA MIA! here I come...My very first broadway show

Yes, I am very excited to present to you...........*drum rolling*................



MY VERY FIRST BROADWAY SHOW FROM WEST END, LONDON.

I'm going to watch MAMMA MIA! ! and I just love ABBA. Can't wait Can't wait

And I can already imagine myself.................

you can dance, you can jive.............
havin' the time of my life..............................
see that girl, watch that scene...............................
dig in the Dancing Queen...............................................

I've been going ABBA mania since I watched MAMMA MIA! the movie thriller on E!
Seeing Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and the others sing........

chiquitita, you and I know, how the heartaches come and they go and the scars they're leaving, you'll be dancing once again and the pain will end, you will have no time for grieving.....

boy, I can go on and on and on...the songs were just SO INFECTIOUS !

Another bad Char Koay Teow Day.............

Searching for a decent plate of char koay teow here in KL is like searching for lost treasure in the pacific ocean. Virtually impossible.

Apart from the "Kampung Malabar" mari Char Koay Teow stall at Gurney Drive Restaurant, inside The Gardens, I have yet to taste one that I would really endorse. ahem ahem.

Penangites are always very proud of their hawker food, so proud it became an offence when the non-locals critize the local food.

I want to believe that I could find a decent CKT stall here in PJ/KL.
Each time, I passed a CKT stall and I would notice the stall owner fried the koay teow with such intensity, sweat dripped from his forehead (and into the koay teow).
I would order a plate and hope for the best.

99% of the time, I got dissapointed.

So now, each time I passed another CKT stall that displays "Penang CKT", I would shudder.

Yesterday, I fell victim to another char koay teow sorrow.
This time, it was at Pavillion food republic.
You won't missed this stall, it's opposite Mdm Kwan's Restaurant and it seemed like it's worth trying with attractive window display of actual people frying CKT with big wok.
Oh, when I saw their display of their newspaper cutting which shout "Best CKT in town", I decided to give it a shot and again, hope for the best.

Fortunately, I didn't have my camera with me to snap the pic of my CKT.
Otherwise, I would be traumatized each time I look at it !
Not only it taste awfully bad, there is no prawns at all ! not even one. ZERO !
The prawns are replaced with few thinly sliced fish cake.
And prawn is very important in CKT, the bigger the juicier the better.
It's like eating Big Mac without the chicken patty inside.
Doesn't make any sense, right?

I agreed with CS that he said he would fried a better CKT. I haven't seen him fried an egg before but I agreed with what he said !

So, the ridiculous CKT got no prawns....only has taugeh, few miserablee slices of fish cake and a sprinkle of 'koo chai'. That's it. That it all !

and it cost 7 bucks ! I wouldn't be blabbing here, if the (&$^&*@ at least taste like a bad CKT.
I didn't taste like CKT at ALL.....
To add salt to the injury, we ordered 2 plates.

Later, I realized something.....the Food Republic is a halal place and a good plate of CKT MUST be fried with pork fat. No wonder..........


This is only my personal opinion of the CKT stall. Fell free to try one whenever you're feelin' adventerous.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Attending the 7 habits class was not a planned one. Initially, I had chosen to enrol for the Grooming Class.
Yes, what was I thinking at that time? Thought it would be fun...
But my colleague thought otherwise. Instead, she said that I should go for the 7 habits class as she said it's very interesting.

Today, I completed the 3 days "process" at Parkroyal, KL and to describe the class as interesting would be an understatement.

Like what Paul said, the 7 habits is not a 3 day class, but a 3 day process.
All 16 of us join this process with "sluge" over our body and 15 of us completed the process cleansed ! (1 of the girl dropout cos she was absent on the 2nd day and Paul had to let her leave). hahahaha.....

Steven Covey wrote this book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and it bacame the blueprint for anyone seeking personal developement.
Believe me, these 7 habits are simple set of life rule yet a remarkable set of inspirational and aspirational standards for anyone who seeks to live a full and purposeful life.

I've drafted my Life's Mission Statement on the 2nd day.
There are loads of things that I would want to accomplish, some childish, some over the top, some just downright silly, but most of it are real and CAN be achieve.
Just that I have never put all these down in writtings.
All these came from deep within me and it felt so much clearer to me now after I have penned it down in words instead of just thoughts.

I'm so glad I did, otherwise it remains just a thought.

Though it's just a mere 3 days I found myself walking back on the track after going through pebbled track for a while. Now I can see where the track is heading to.


First published in 1989, the 7 habits are timeless and I found it to be even more relevant in todays life.

Sow a thought, reap an action;
Sow an action, reap a habit;
Sow a habit, reap a character;
Sow a character, reap a destiny.

Mum's KL trip : the Black dress & the Black bread

Mum came to visit us last week and stayed over at my place with 1 main
mission : Go shop for an evening dress for 1st Nov ! I'll tell ya why later.


HAppy Happy Happy


Anyway, was cracking my head on where to go shop. Or rather which place stands a better chance of buying a decent dress considering that mum is only here for 3 nights.


Think Think Think


Ok. I decided to bring mum to Coast London, as these store specialized in pretty fun cocktail dresss which is also appropriate for dinner wear. Most of the dresses are knee length which is great. I bought mine there too.

So I decided to bring mum to Pavillion KL. The Coast boutique there is bigger than the one at Bangsar Shopping Village.

Reached there and saw that they have new arrivals ! Excited !
But I have to fight my temptation of looking at all the latest arrivals that I would like to try on and maybe buy and focus to find mum a dress that suit her.
Mum busy browsing through all the dresses at display......and nothing caught her eye.
I can see it in her eyes......
So, I pulled out several dresses that I thought would look good on her and shoved it to her to try it on...never try never no, right ?
Mum tried the LBD (Little Black Dress) and the pinkish red one.......
Mom doesn't like low cut and sleeveless, she told me later.

And I wondered, this mission is going to be impossible. But we were determined to find it.

Walked in to Club Monaco and THERE it is !!!! THE ONE !!

The design, the collar, the material, the sleeves, everyting is just perfect except for 1 small problem. It's BLACK.
Told mum not to worry too much cause black is classic and timeless.
And it's the new age, who cares whether it's red or black ???

Mum bought it later on.....and is very happy with the purchase.

Yipeeee.....clap hand. mission accomplished.


On the way back, we decided to buy that CHARCOAL BREAD at a baker's store inside Pavillion for thrill. Call us jakun, but we have never seen a
BLACK BREAD before !
We stared at the bread in awe wondering how is it made ? what is it made of? there's no flavour in it and why is it black? did they put charcoal in it ?
what makes it so black ?

Since we're so damn curious, mum bought it and ate 1 slice inside the car.

Taste exactly like regular white bread, only it's black. our questions are still left unanswered.....

anyway.....

Our charcoal black bread moments.....Pictures ! Pictures !
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This is the food that I am talking about. See how BLACK it is......not chocolate black.
But Black black.

Cam whoring with a slice of the black bread. Mum just can't stop laughing at that piece of bread.

Look at her face la......turned red but still can't stop giggling and laughing with me posing with that slice of BLACK bread.

Happy 42nd Birthday.

Yesterday and Friday, a grand celebration was held at the branch to celebrate its 42nd anniversary.

And I didn't knew that the branch is that OLD......

An event management team was hired to oversee to entire celebration.
Very carnival like with games, gifts, photo taking session, and baloons. Lots and lots and lots of baloons. Hitz FM cruiser came.
THR and MY FM cruiser did not make it. What a let down.



But.....but....but.... this humongous fruit cake DID NOT let us down, at all !!!
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We bought this cake at Cherry Cakehouse at Old Town. They make delicious fruit cake like this one. It's got grapes, longan, strawberry, peach and pineapple.
The fun part of this cake is you can cut it whichever way you want.
Example, I like grapes. So I just cut the bottom part horizontally so that the entire piece of cake is just GRAPES ! fun la !

We like baloons........red, blue, yellow, green, pink.....we LOVE then all !!!!


Games and gift station in front of the branch.


CORN girl.....not CON girl. lenglui making delicious buttery sweet popcorn. want some?



Posing behind the cake.

Penang,- fun yet sinful

Last weekend was the shortest trip back to penang ever since I moved to PJ.
This trip was rather refreshing cos I have the 3 mouseketeers with me of which 2 of them are on a makan-makan quest.
What better way to explore Penang than to have a local to show you the way !

Penang was included into the UNESCO World Heritage Site weeks ago, and I missed the street celebration.
I thought I would grab the opportunity to explore some of the heritage sites since I have not done this before !
To look at Penang in a different perspective......

Start of our journey. cam-whoring inside the car.

The state really takes the World Heritage Site status to a whole new level !

Khoo Kongsi.

Antique window pane and wooden door.
Like the look and feel. Very rustically beautiful.
This is his favourite pose. Don't ask me why.


Catching up with our latest gossip, news, etc......with the gals inside winter warmers, Gurney Plaza.

TBH & KPL

KPL, what are you diggin'?


Back to the mousekeeters. They decided to conquer Penang Hill the next morning. Their motivation was free mee hoon and coffee.
Some said that mee hoon and coffee never tasted better up there.
Instead they got free water and no mee hoon and no coffee.
And the water never tasted better anywhere else. How consoling..........


Down the hill, coconut never tasted better anywhere else !!! hahaha !
This is a classic shot of how coconut should be enjoyed.

Overall, we had a very sinfully fun trip. Anything more sinful than greasy char koay teow for lunch, dinner and lunch the next day? plus dripping oily oyster omelette for dinner and lunch.