Ready when you are!!

 "Hey travel, I’m ready when you are." I came across this while reading and yes, I’m ready and have been for the last couple of months. What about you?

Everyday I see many planes flying in the sky from my balcony and the travel bug began to bite!! My tickets which had been cancelled by the airline because of the Covid-19 virus pandemic were re-activated and together with my daughter, we flew off to the Pearl of the Orient, or Penang as the locals know it. It’s also known as a food paradise!

We partook of the signature dishes in different establishments and I’d like to share some of the dishes we had.

From clockwise: row 1 - Spring rolls with vegetable filling (poh-piah); steamed rice rolls (chee cheong fun) in sweet sauce topped with fried onions; oyster omelette (oh-chien);

Row 2- Deep fried savory snacks (loh bak) with sweet and spicy dippings;
cendul (a local dessert with palm sugar and coconut milk);

Row 3 – local black coffee and noodles fried with cockles, prawns and duck egg (char kway teow); Ice kachang topped with ice-cream (local dessert with cream corn, cendul, kidney beans, black herbal jelly sweetened with palm sugar and some thick coconut milk).

The top favorites are the Char Kway Teow and Cendul. People actually come to Penang for these two dishes which originated from here. The queues to get these two dishes are usually long as people don’t mind waiting. They are very yummy and the cockles are big and fresh! It’s the cockles that make the dish so tasty!

Penang is also home to the Peranakans who descended from mixed marriages between the Mainland Chinese immigrants and local Malay women. The off-spring are known as Baba (male) and Nonya (female).

The Nonyas are excellent cooks and skilled in embroidery. In the olden times, these are mandatory skills for marriage. More on the nonyas in my next post! Stay tuned!

 

Books Available on Pre-Order

 I’m happy to announce that the last book “Successful Magic” in my series “Love in the Shadows of Salem” is now available on pre-order in amazon.

Here’s the link.

https://amzn.to/3PelQ0l

Just in case you haven’t heard about this series, there are 5 books altogether. It’s the story of Gwen, who was ignominiously thrown out of her college, found herself without a home, thanks to her father’s crime, and dumped by her fiancé. Get to meet her and to know her within the pages of these books, as she discovers her true nature, befriended by werewolves and falls in love with a vampire. You’ll love the irrepressible Gwen and the chaos created as she discovers her magical powers in raising the dead.

Coming up is a new series entitled Destinies Entwined. The prequel “Welcome Home” is available on amazon and Bryn, after a long sojourn in the human world finally goes home to her own world where Joseph has been waiting for her, always at hand to protect her as he had vowed, centuries ago.

https://amzn.to/3uEaTg6

Destinies Entwined is also a 5-book series which showcase Bryn’s story. Book One entitled “The Daywalker” is now available on pre-order on amazon.

https://amzn.to/3NZjml0

My mother, a vicious killer vampire presumed dead is alive and still killing.
My mission? To bring her in, alive.

“Who are you?” I asked, staring at him. I could only see his body from the waist up, but I saw enough to know every inch of his body was lined in muscle.

“Are you enjoying what you see?” he remarked.

I was. But I was not going to let him know that. As far as I was concerned, he could be my next meal. I did not tend to play with my meals...but he might be the exception to that.

Loneliness and death are the constant for Bryn, daughter of vampires. She sets out on her perilous journey to bring in her killer mother, accompanied by the handsome daywalker assigned to assist her. Their attraction to each other is very strong

Will it develop into something more or will their separate destinies doom it from the start? When secrets are uncovered and truths revealed…

*****

Writing has always been my passion and more books are in the pipeline. I will inform you when they are on pre-order.

If you would like to read all my books for FREE, I suggest you sign up to be on my ARC street team. The VIP members in this team get to read all my new books before they are launched, for FREE and the only thing I ask in return is an honest review when the books are live on amazon. Here’s the invitation to join my team. Just click on the link below.

https://bit.ly/3zuG522

Reviews mean a great deal to an author as it enables more readers to learn more about her books and to read them.

Thank you for reading my books.

Yay! Heartstrings will tug your heart!

 My new 5-book series entitled Heartstrings is now available on amazon!! I'm chuffed!

Take a peek into the lives of the Manvin family and share their ups and downs. Each member has his/her own demons to deal with and the passions simmering below the surface will have you fired up too.

Stan is back to helm the family business empire after his father’s demise but it’s not what he wants. His return unravels the family in subtle ways. His first love Amy whom he left without a word is now married to his younger brother.

Amy cannot forget Stan and Steve has noted the effect Stan still has on his wife.

Julie the youngest Manvin who dislikes Amy because she has “taken away” her brothers’ attention has her own secrets that are taking a toll on her mental health.

Mama Leah the matriarch currently holding the family together but for how long? How will things work out for the Manvins? Will the family business survive? Will Steve and Amy go their separate ways? What of Julie?

Do grab a copy and while away your weekend with the Manvins in Heartstrings.

Copy and paste the links into your browser to get the books.

 https://amzn.to/3t5vnNc

https://amzn.to/3JtmsMn

https://amzn.to/3CTulII

https://amzn.to/37L5lrE

https://amzn.to/3wo6DmM

The Annual Tomb Sweeping Day or Qingming Festival

 This festival is usually observed ten days before and after the actual date of Qingming which is in early April. It is obligatory for family members to visit the graves of their close relatives to pay their respects and to receive blessings from the departed. On this day, the cemeteries will be crowded with people, who have come to sweep the tomb and offer prayers, food and other paper offerings. However for the last two years, few have observed this because of the Covid-19 virus pandemic. This year, people have started to do tomb sweeping once more.

Food and paper offerings such as joss paper (currency in the after world), paper clothes, shoes, gadgets such as smart phones and tablets, etc. are brought to the site of the tomb. Before the goodies are laid out, the tomb is swept and cleared of any detritus or weeds.

Pieces of colored paper are put on the grave site (I don’t remember what the significance is). I remember as a young child, I was told to place a small stone on each of the colored paper so that it is not blown away by the wind.

When the grave site is spruced up, the offerings are laid out. Then family members will pray, using joss sticks (incense sticks). Prayers invite the departed to partake of the feast before them and then supplications are made, asking for blessings for the family, keeping the family safe, etc.

Coins are tossed to determine if the departed has finished his meal. A head and a tail would indicate that he has. Then the offerings can be burnt so that he will receive them in his world.

My grandfather’s tomb is on a hill and it commands a great view. The higher a grave is, the better the fengshui. My grandmother’s tomb is close by his.  She was the first of his five wives to join him after his death. As you can see, the tombs are big and elaborate. My brothers went to pay their respects and took these photos. The graves are very well maintained.

My grandfather's tomb

(The boxes contain the paper offerings which will be burnt later)

My grandmother's tomb

Swedish Death Cleaning

 This is an interesting practice which will benefit many of us. The term Swedish Death Cleaning was coined by author Margareta Magnussen in her book “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter” (2017).

She asks readers to consider their loved ones left behind after their demise. Your loved ones would have to sort through all your things which you’ve left behind and this will not be an easy task. She gives suggestions on how to make this process as easy as possible for them.

Swedish death cleaning, then, is organizing and decluttering before you die so that your loved ones will not be unduly burdened after your passing.

It’s also about making decisions: what to keep and what to let go. This not only refers to your physical possessions but also your digital assets. You need to make sure that login details for your online bank accounts, your important websites, etc. are made available for them.

You might want to declutter your computer or desktop apart from your wardrobe and bookshelves.

Paring down one’s possessions will make your home much neater and a better place to live in.

I will be doing this bit by bit from now on as so much stuff has been accumulated over the last seven decades of my life. I shudder to think of it but it has to be done, so that my loved ones left behind will not be frustrated by the amount of “rubbish” mummy/grandma has collected!!

It’s something for you to consider too. It’s never too early to begin!