Marsha Maung: Write. Cook. Read. Watch. Try. Innovate.

Source: My recipe on Cookpad For someone who advocated very actively about home-cooked meals and managing one's schedule to make healthy, simple, money-saving meals at home for the family, I sure failed miserably for the past 2 years since the pandemic hit. To be honest, the years of the pandemic, getting groceries was tricky and there was just general anxiety about going out...even if it was to get groceries and anything from the stores.  So, for the initial 2 years, I hardly touched the precious utensils in the kitchen. Food from before the pandemic sat expiring on itself. Sauces went bad, and frozen meat simply became permanent residents in the freezer.  I swear, I touched nothing in there. Lunch and dinner were all delivered to the home via apps, so were groceries whenever possible.  I didn't like ordering meat I couldn't quickly eyeball and check online - everything else was OK - so, I still made trips to the grocery store wherever I felt brave enough.  But now ...

I've been reading like I've never read before. The past week was just me with my nose buried in one book after another. I read John Grisham's Camino Winds and it was...er....not as expected? I mean, it was awful. It was.  So, I am not going to share what I think about it here.  After the disappointing and confusing fiction novel by Grisham, I decided to pick something light instead - The Flat Share by Beth of Leary. Sounds like a rom-com I can enjoy without too much judgment.  The Flat Share - Beth O'Leary It was a good idea.  The premise was a little weird, granted, we don't have a bed-share practice here in Malaysia. I don't know of anyone who would be willing to share their flat/bed with a stranger they've never met, really. Not even when I am really desperate for money.  Putting personal 'thoughts' and 'common sense' aside (please enlighten me if this is common in your country or culture), it kind of makes sense for a (male) nurse who wor...

I read 2 books in 2 days. It's sooooo overboard.  Granted, I have a tower of books yearning for my touch by my bedside but still...it's kind of OTT . I guess it has to do that my little break from work is ending and I thought I needed to scram and cram. I will post the reviews after this because they're of different genres and I have polar opposite opinions about each of them. I have also been speaking to quite a few people about work and life and am slowly putting pieces of life back together. Isn't that nice? Yesterday, the tasks of 'TikTok' video and 'new article' flashed red on my Trello board. It means they are overdue and I have been procrastinating. Bad. So I did them all day and into the wee hours of the morning. I am testing out various content platforms so, if you're a friend who suddenly saw a barrage of video updates from me (on Facebook and Instagram , mostly), now you know why. Working on consistent content, text and/or vid...

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash Looking at the news, I can get very disillusioned.  I go from a puffed up piece of video on how people make millions on the internet (without having to do an hour of work) to people falling for love scams .  I bumped into this little nicety on TikTok a few moments ago and thought I'd share it here before heading out for dinner with my mom. You can see how matter-of-fact the writer of the message was and the emotions building up for the recipient.  And the message is simple too.  @toachieveyou This was incredible. ❤️ | @kye_man ♬ original sound - AchieveYou For me, it was the sudden photobombing of the pelican that did it for me.  Have a splendid (rest of the) Sunday, people, 

Can you believe it? I didn't even take a picture of this. This is so sad...😢😭 Cooking at home, something I used to actively and religiously advocate for It's been closed to a year and a half since we smell did cooking in the kitchen. Work took over my life and I don't really know it happened. I've always been an advocate of clean, healthy living and eating...and it makes me sad.  I have a fully-equipped kitchen and used to cook every single day. I was so fired up about cooking that I have my own recipe-sharing page on Cookpad where I share my simple recipes to encourage others to cook more at home.  I made something really something yesterday and the response I got from the boys was..."Wow, I smell something from the kitchen!" I felt so....overwhelmed.  Realizing that I have given everything, above and beyond, to the work that I do, there's a reason for me to feel proud too. This is the journey I want to embark on now that my boys are grown up. But not a...

I took my time with this book. I've had a tough time buying this one because most book stores in Malaysia did not carry it and getting it online from MPH or Popular Bookstore during the MCO lockdown was tough. And besides, with the pandemic, I wasn't in the mood to read anything somber like...you know, Apartheid.  But I found it on BookDepository and placed it in my Wish List - like I always do with books I intend to read one day .  When I finally got the book, I took my time.  You see, all I know about Trevor Noah came from the show he hosts, the one we see on YouTube and Instagram . After reading his Wikipedia , I found out about his childhood of living through the end-stage of Apartheid and his mom's near death experience.  THEN, I had to read the book.  Racism is the silent elephant in a small room in a country like Malaysia. We don't talk about it, we don't shy away from it, we don't deny it, we don't (really) fight it. So, in a lot of ways, I think w...

Except for a short period of my life where I donned long hair (which was mightily unkempt), I've mostly sported the short or bob hair cut. I just didn't have the time to deal with the straightening, curling, or whatever it is that women are required to do before they get out of the house to buy a bag of salt from the grocery store.  I've wanted to write something about how An San, a rising archer from South Korea,  got flack for sporting a short crop . Despite her performing with near stellar perfection.  How is having short hair a sign or declaration of anti-men?  Are men who wear their hair long anti-women, then? I don't even know where this is going because it doesn't even make sense. LOL. Short hair is simply easier to manage. The flip side is that if you have to attend a gala or a big event, short hair is even harder to style! PLUS, some women just look fantabulous with a short crop! Miley Cyrus , Katie Holmes , Michelle Williams , Meg Ryan , Natalie Portman , ...

4/5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐   Why I Watched It Tony Leung. That was why I decided to watch Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings because I have no idea who this character is or was or will be. All I know is that I saw Tony Leung being interviewed on Youtube, and I thought...erm, OK, it's been some time since I watched him on the big screen, so, yeah, sure.  And also, Fala Chen. She spoke about this on Instagram a while back when she was interviewed by 9gag, I think.  Since I am a sucker for spoilers, I watched all trailers and as many footages of the movie before going. LOL. I want to know what I am in for.  How It Went Like...wow? Many people are suckers for bad-ass kungfu stuff (I also loved the Tai-chi parts) but I am NOT one of those.  The movie was nicely-paced, considering it was an origin story that needed to paint the right picture for follow-ups. It told the story well. The audience had the time and breadth to FEEL, actually FEEL not just glimpse, the chara...

Some people don't like to read and undermine the work of writers. I don't blame them, but I also don't have to agree with them. To me, everything...quite literally EVERYTHING starts from putting thoughts down on paper. It's only by visualizing and then penning something down that you see the bigger picture. Things move forward faster and easier from there.  Everything from videos and sometimes even comic strips starts from words being put down on paper.  I can't say that life as a writer has always been easy. Sure, it gets easier now because I've been writing for a long time and have had my fair share of both compliments and criticisms.  The thing is this - I wish people these days read more. I know we're living in an age of the internet. Times have changed. People no longer spend time reading a manual or a friend's letter sent through the post office. People no longer appreciate books and magazines the way we did.  And it's bloody sad.  In advertisi...

  I follow Matt Haig on Twitter and I've heard about the book he wrote, The Midnight Library, over and over again. He is mighty proud of it, that's for sure...and he should be.  The thing is, The Midnight Library was not available in our local bookstores. I searched for it but to no avail. But then I found the book on BookDepository.  There were, let's just say, some complications with the ordering and delivery process, but at the end of the day, I finally got the book in my hands and I was READY to dig in.  The hardback felt so good in my hands. Shipped all the way from the Great 'ole Britain, apparently.  The book is about a woman who suffered from general overall unhappiness with her life and harbored thoughts of suicide. And when she made a drastic decision to end her life, she found herself teetering between life and death.  From then on, we're talking about alternate universes and quantum physics. She was given the chance, while hovering between life ...