Local landmark and cool retreat from the humidity - Penang Hill
(my own photos)
A few of my subscribers and several other friends have asked me why I haven't posted any stories for a while.
Well, here in Penang I barely get time to take a breath. Folk will always tell you that when you move to a new country, or even a new town/city/province, it takes time to get into the way of life, meet people and establish a routine. It takes time to gather a circle of friends and grow the social calendar...
It hasn't.
It's come to turning down invites. I'm an active member of the International Women's Association committee, I do Zumba classes and hiking, I go out sampling the culinary delights of Penang with several different groups of friends, I'm the grocery shopping, cook and cleaning maid in our (probably too) extensive apartment, I attend regular local cultural and literary events. And I ride horses at two different stable yards.
Sunset meals on the beach and buzzing food courts are a part of Penang
(all my own photos)
I've also been posting stories on Medium. Some of them were originally on this website and it takes time to adapt them to suit. For those of you who have never visited Medium, it's described as "an open platform where readers find dynamic thinking, and where expert and undiscovered voices can share their writing on any topic". The slant appears to be towards politics, self-help and deep inward reflections on personal issues but I struggle to come up with anything in that sort of line so I've headed down the travel route. I've been producing stories for a Medium publication called Globetrotters and am part of a Read-4-Read club in which I've shared some of the blogs you may have read here. I'm grateful that my exploits in moving over here and my initial explorations of Penang seem to be popular. I don't take it too seriously but it does take my time.
My Medium profile page
(screenshot)
I've also had a go at producing videos. Steven Spielberg is safe at the moment but it's a load of fun, especially when horses are involved. The round of social media is responsible for wasting a good deal of my time too but it's how we keep in touch these days - and I'm talking about keeping in touch with REAL friends and making real arrangements, not spewing out my life story to unknown, online ones.
Any post of mine is missing something if horses are not mentioned. "The yard", in any country, has long been my second home. I go out looking for equine and equestrian friends if they don't come to me. Joining various Facebook groups turned out to be a good move and I now have a circle of Malaysian friends from Prominent Stables here on the island and AMS Equestrian Club on the mainland. The equine members of this band? Ali, Halim, Raudah, Jolie, Haron, Mustang and Blue (and no, Blue is not blue). There will be more about them, you can bet on it.
So that's what I've been up to. Greetings to all of you from this lovely island.