Marsha Maung: I write. I love. I live

I occasionally print out inspiring stories from newsletters I subscribe or find on the internet just so that I can read them again. You know...for quick pick-me-ups. And this is one I'll share today. *** *** *** An investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The banker complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, 'Only a little while." The banker then asked why didn't he say out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The banker then asked, 'but what do you do with the rest of your time?" The fisherman said, 'I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I

It's raining outside on this Wesak/Vesak day holiday and we felt (VERYYYYY) lazy to go out for lunch. Anyway, I once read an article about how buying a whole chicken can save you a whole lot of money compared to if you buy chicken parts, i.e. chicken breasts, drumsticks, chicken chops (which I will continue to buy, unfortunately - too much hassle de-boning the thigh), fillet, etc. And I wholeheartedly agree! On most days, I would actually pop by the morning market after dropping the kids off at school and just get the 'chicken lady' to chop-chop-chop everything up and they're all good to go. But there are days when I am in the middle of the mall and I need something simple like toothpaste or clothes softener, and there are air-chilled chicken looking back at me at the other side of the aisle in the supermarket. Getting these whole chicken is cheaper than when you get them at the morning market. Which is stupid because people GO to the morning market assumin

For some reason, most of the supermarkets that I frequent have run out of their supply of my favorite Bulgogi marinade. My guess is something went wrong somewhere along the way, along the supply chain. I've also considered purchasing them from KMarket but:- 1. Kmart is a little out of the way for me 2. Buying it online using HappyFresh costs RM9 per trip 3. There....must....be....a....way And true enough, if they can make it in a factory and bottle it up, we should be able to make it ourselves at home. The difference, for people who are looking for shortcuts, is just the Korean pear. I've not tried this out for myself so, there's no vouching for this recipe but it's worth trying, huh? Happy cooking, Happy Memorial Day, Happy Vesak (tomorrow) Day, everyone! XOXO, Marsha

When you're not looking, time zips past you like a bullet and the next thing you know, you're looking at a whole new dimension. We celebrated my nephew's birthday today. It seems as though it was only mere weeks ago that his cries greeted the world. That my sister finally became a mother. And yet, today, he's reached a milestone. #time flies when you're not looking. #nephew turns 1 and it seems like only a few months ago when he was born. My own #kids are going to be ready for the world soon and we will be stepping into the unknown #future! Wishing the stuffy-nosed Liam a happy #birthday wish, a kiss and get well soon. #kids #family #gathering #lunch #yums A post shared by Marsha Maung (@marshamaung) on May 26, 2018 at 1:30am PDT It's a rainy Saturday over here and although I wanted to 'celebrate' the weekend with a few drinks, I think I'll pass. I don't know what it is but some thoughts are tickling me in my brain...it could b

It's a consistent struggle to work from home as a single mother - to work, to clean, to cook or to exercise. It's one or the other. They tell you that multitasking saves lives and the bible of being productive dictates that women were MADE for stuff like these. I'll save the gender talk for another time, though. XD But the truth is, the combination of tasks that you're doing is going to fight for your attention, each validating their reasons for being more important than the other. When you perform multiple tasks that each require some of the same channels of processing, conflicts will arise between the tasks, and you're going to have to pick and choose which task you're going to focus on and devote a channel of processing to it - Joe Robinson, Enterpreneur.com The result, for most parts, is half-hearted or incomplete everythings. Just like our WiFi, we would eventually come up with a bandwidth problem and something's got to give. This is not to sa

For me, it started the last election, or to be more precise, BEFORE the last election. It was when I realized that I had the power to make changes in this country and we have all been living in this self-induced indifference all these while.  We've, people like me, have never voted despite having the chance to. We've been marginalized and sidelined for as long as we've known but we've also accepted it as fate. You don't have to take it from me, take it from Jennifer Pak on BBC with her piece on  Will Malaysia's Brain Drain Block Its Economic Ambitions ? Seeking Open Doors Where Doors Would Open Because of the very scary racial clashes of May 13, 1969 , which people of my parent's generation continue to 'fear' and 'mentally block out', people have generally looked away whenever there was injustice and accepted it as their deck of cards. We just have to work very hard, harder than everyone else, to move away and make our liveliho

It's Sunday and tomorrow's another day. Things are starting to sink in little by little but let's just keep things on the uppity here. Sometimes, this is what I feel like saying to my boys. #lol #jk #pleasedontbutthurt #ilovemykids Happy Sunday, people! Love, Marsha

Last week today, on a Thursday when I was on the way back from dropping the kids off at school, my cousin passed away in the hospital at 8.10am. Things have moved on, we've done our best to send her off to her next journey. A journey we foresaw and had hoped would not come too soon but did. She fought really hard against cancer, every single day she was alive, she fought it with everything she had. With herself, with the doctors and with her God. She wanted to stay. That's what makes it sad when during her final moments, she saw it coming. She knew she was defeated. The fight was over. In a way, her passing was a relief to her. It was a bloody painful journey for her. And it brought many of us down to our knees. For a few days, even when we were all trying so hard to be strong, to smile and trying to keep it together for everyone else who DID NOT see it coming (not everyone knew she had cancer so, to them, it was an even bigger shock), it's like we still had a fort