Marsha Maung: I write. I love. I live

A breakkkkkk!!!! Yes, finally, a true Labor's Day break!! Taking the kids to Penang Island for some fun in the sun and they are absolutely bouncing off the walls. Me? I just wanna chill...and not think about work for a while. You don't know how taxed out you are until you are face to face with the possibility of not having to touch the keyboard for a while. Penang is a land of food, so, I'll be having me some of that. The work-out begins when I get home. I think Nintendo Wii Fit Plus is not going to be happy with my lose-weight target when I get back. Hahaha...it always tells me bad things...like my Wii Fit age is 50-something. Blergh. So, to everyone and to my clients, Happy Labor's Day. May it be filled with lots of wonderful things, blessed events and joyful reunions. Cheers!!! *hic* (No lah! Kidding lah!) :-)

I want to spend some time writing about something that nobody really wants to talk about. Something people think is taboo . Something that if you said you had it, people think you are cuckoo in the head .  Depression.  I believe that most of us suffer it from time to time; the severity defers from one person to another. Some find it a condition that they could live out by hiding themselves in a room. Some reach out to their friends when they started noticing their thought patterns were changing. Some absolutely deny it and soldier on.  But then there are those who refuse to see that they have a condition that can be solved, refuse to look it in the eye and find a solution. These are people I hope to reach out to.  I know how it feels like because I've been there. Yes, I've been utterly, hopelessly, helplessly, irrefutably depressed. I didn't know it at that time and I refused to see that it was a problem, until it became a problem for my kids.  No...

Almost every night, there is this loud  wailing right outside my house. The commotion caused by my neighbor's three year old son. You see, it is daddy's idea of punishing his son for don't know what reason and it goes on for a few minutes every time. The first time I witnessed this, my kids were so utterly sympathetic for the poor boy. He was crying his lungs out....his gut juice literally spilling out from his eye balls. My kids went out to check on him every two seconds. I am in no position to offer advice about his tactics, maybe it will finally work one fine day because it doesn't seem to be working (if it's for the same offense). But anyway, I have a message for this young boy. Little boy ah, don't cry so much. Do you remember the last time it happened? You cry and cry and cry and cry and in the end, daddy opened the door and asked you if you were going to do it again, right? You said 'no' and you got to get back into the house, right? Remem...

I went for a massage just now and boy, did I need one! Oh, I wasn't being lazy lah...it was because TNB had to work on some maintenance things here, so, I have no choice but to sit in the dark....with only my phone for entertainment. There was this darkness....with nothing to do. Only the toilet working...and I don't think playing with the toilet is a good idea at all. So, I ask myself, 'What would make me really happy right now?' The answer came to me almost instantly. A MASSAGE WOULD BE DANG NEAR BE HEAVENLY! So, a massage it was. After hitting the wrong shoplot for the third time, I finally found one near my house. The one thing I loved about walking in is:- The wonderful smell of aromatherapy Three people leaped to their feet all at the same time. I thought they could see through the glass? Ah well.  I chose the short 30mins back massage because good lord, my back, shoulders and neck was killing me. It always kills me because I sit here everyday typing wit...

I love to watch Asian Food Channel but I have a complaint. I particularly like to watch chefs go about creating some fantastic (and stunning) dishes) and derive inspiration from them. A dash of this, a dash of that. One chef's style could be completely different from the other - watching them is sooooooo inspiring. However, the problem is that during the afternoon, even if I have the time, I would not watch AFC. And that is because during the afternoons, Astro airs the lamest promotional programs ever! I mean, it's a blatant ad!! It's not even a cooking or culinary show. All the people are scripted to say, 'Oh, this is simply delicious', 'Yummy', 'Delicious', 'Mouth-watering', 'So tender', and all kinds of compliments. It's an advertisement what. What else are they supposed to say? That it could have been less salty? That it was too sweet? That the salmon was undercooked? That the noodle was a tad too hard? That the chef sucks...

My younger son has inherited some of my most annoying traits that I wish he didn't, damn it! I am always rushing them off to sleep so that I can get some 'me' time and I think 10pm is later than most households as it is. So, I am here getting his stuff together (for school), making milk, and then you know what he tells me? 'Mom, I got homework and I don't know how to do DIVIDE' I am like...GEEEZZZUZ!! At 10pm (more precisely, around 9.45pm), he tells me he doesn't know how to do his work. My blood goes 'pheeee' as in kettle boiling. I teach him how to do the stuff and walked sulkily away to the kitchen. Might as well sweep the floor now that there's a shorter 'me' time...and he's there, whistling away like a merry ole chap with all the time in the world. 'Gelang, Si Paku Gelang. GELANG. Gelang, Si Paku Gelang. GELANG!' But he was doing his work. The procrastinator attitude. The devil may care attitude. The everything...

I used to turn to my blog for therapy. Yes yes yes...I know I sound delusional but ask any blogger and you will see that sometimes they treat their blog like a shrink. It's natural. Don't believe me? Start a blog. Anyway, I've not been updating my blog so often these days because well...there's the issue of work and laundry, and kids, and cooking, and cleaning the floor, and answering emails, and replying to SMS, responding to instant messages....you know, the everyday thing? Yeah, that's given. So, I feel like kind of in need of really good therapy sometimes but my fingers ache from too much writing all day, so, what do I do? I turn to blogging...but a slightly different kind of blogging. When I feel like saying very short simple things, I turn to twitter . When I have something longer to say that requires more than the 140 spaces given on Twitter, I turn to facebook . And if not, then I just turn to my phone, switch on the audio recorder and say something ...

I hate to admit this because I make it a point to feed my kids healthy food and I buy organic stuff like a Nazi buys weapons. But it's true - while I pay special attention to what I feed my kids, I don't pay too much heed towards what I eat....IF I eat at all. Recently, I got into trouble when I started suffering gastric problems and indigestion. I mean, HARLOW!! I don't get this kind of problems wan OK??? Now SHOO!! But age is catching up lah, how long can I torture my body like this. When hungry, one must eat. Not continue working. I have always said that adults have lots of things to learn from kids and this is just another instance that proves it so. I was at the table gobbling down food. My son looks at me from the corner of his eye, 'Wow, you sure are hungry today.' Through mouthful of food, I mumbled, 'Yeah, I didn't eat breakfast AND lunch. Only 2 cups of coffee' He asks with a frown, 'But why?' Swallow, swallow. 'Well, I ...

Sometimes when my kids come back from school, they are hungry. Lord knows why because they have food to eat in school. But they come back looking forward to some tea time and I think mine is the few Malaysian families that eat dinner at around 5.30pm. Anyway, tea time is a great time to pull out leftovers and do something with it. Don't laugh at this post ah. It's very simple and the kids always love it wan, so, I post here lor. I had leftover sausages and mushroom from the night before. So, I drop a couple of them onto pieces of bread. Then, put a little bit of tomato sauce. Then add a slice of cheese on top. Place it into the oven. Heat it up till the cheese melts and the bread crunchy. There you have it. Serve it up with something healthy like a banana or some fruit. I cut it up into a few pieces before serving because when the piece is too big, the kids have trouble holding it up and eating because the pieces fall out. And this is what they have to say...

I am sitting here, thinking about a nice, small plot of land, away from the city. There must be lots of trees, a river by the side with goats and horses drinking lazily from it. There also would be a large tree by a small house where I live because that would be where I spend the whole day reading books. I don't know what it is to like about city life anymore. I used to fantasize about going to countries like Singapore, Hong Kong and New York and live the hard and fast life. I used to dream about being amongst the millions of people fighting for $$$ and make my way to the top. But I no longer want that. $$$ is just that....$$$. You can't take the $$$ with you when you die. It's just something people fight for and whilst I continue to like a bit of a challenge, I don't think it's priority anymore. If I have the $$$, fine. If I don't have it, it's also fine. I know all my post are a little 'off' for a personality like me but I am going through a ...

Meditating Image Yes, I was one of those who used to scoff at people who mention the word 'meditation'. In fact, I would instantly label them as a little 'cuckoo' in the head, a bunch of mental maniacs who can't come to terms with life. I have better things to do with my life than to sit around and do....nothing. Imagine that. Nothing. Do Nothing. That's nuts. Isn't wasting time a sort of crime against life or something. These people who meditate and say 'ooohhhmm' need to get a grip, y'all. Senseless sitting around, breathing purposefully in and out. Like I don't already know how to breathe. Sheesh. But you know what? Someone knock me on the head because meditating is the most insanely beautiful thing to do. At first, it wasn't a cool thing because when we are young, we have all this energy and some angst too. It wasn't cool to do NOTHING and breathe. We want cool! We want cool! We want cool! We want cool! At this stage ...

I have a problem with my blood pressure again because of everyday stress. I know it and can feel it when it comes at me. I know how it feels like but just to be sure, I head over to my doctor for check and confirmation. So, I sit there and wait for my turn. Out came a woman who sounded nasal but talking on her mobile phone. Then she said something like, 'Yeah, I have to take the day off because I am having flu and fever. Oh yeah, I did the H1N1 test, just did it. Yeah....blah blah blah. AH-CHOO!' I slinked into a far corner of the clinic. I am here because my blood pressure is a little high and I am stressed out, but at least it's not something that will kill me instantly, dudette! And then she just sat there talking and I can't help feeling a little apprehensive about walking past her. OK, OK...fine, I was being a big fat chicken but can you blame me???!! If I die, it's perfectly fine, I think, although it's not my wish to be in such a situation but wha...

Not been blogging much because I just don't feel very funny these days but on the topic of funny, I think I need to clarify some things here. I did the clarifying on my FB the other day and I said in my status update that I sometimes just don't want to add some people on Facebook because there are 'funny' people out there in this world. You know 'funny' as in 'a little weird'? Yeah. I say this based on experience. I used to add every single donkey and monkey who comes into my website or blog and add me on Facebook but I don't anymore because there were times when I said something personal or something that was my own personal opinion, I got flamed real bad. Well, I could ignore these people but it smarts sometimes and I don't like that because I don't know them at all. Like this Easter and Good Friday thing, I posted something which I thought was funny. I said 'Fridays are good. I love Fridays. Coincidentally, tomorrow is good F...