Eeek! I can't believe it's February already!! This is a very sheepish, belated "Happy New Year" from Perth in Western Australia. 

I hope you had a lovely break over the holiday period (and didn't have to deal with too much crazy winter weather!). 

For me, I was delighted that my husband was given the go-ahead to travel after his surgery and so we were able to go away to Taiwan as originally planned to visit my mother for Christmas & New Year. 

I only get to see my mother once a year (or even longer sometimes!) and so it's lovely to be able to spend some quality time with her. 

In particular, we accompanied her back to her home village in south Taiwan and she saw her brothers & sister for the first time in nearly 30 years – so it was quite an emotional reunion! 

Also, as my mother lives alone and there is no close family nearby - plus she suffers from several health issues - it's nice to be able to help her with some big jobs around the house and make her life easier. 

(By the way, in case you're wondering, I was born in Taiwan but left when I was 6 years old and have grown-up / lived in "the West" all my life - so English is my first language. I do speak elementary Mandarin but sadly, can't read or write it!)

Have you eaten yet?

One great thing about visiting Taiwan is the FOOD!!! The Taiwanese live to eat (seriously, the traditional greeting when you meet someone in Taiwan is not "Hello!" or "How are you?" - but "Have you eaten yet?" 😉) - and the island has an amazing array of gastronomic offerings, from traditional street food and Chinese cuisine from all the different provinces (Szechuan, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan... etc) to "foreign" cuisines like French, Italian, Japanese, Korean - and even British pubs, American bagel joints and Aussie brunch cafes! 

So we always enjoy a lot of good food whenever we go back to my birth country (although I don't enjoy stepping on the scales when I come back home! 😝)

One of my favourite things to eat is Hot Pot (aka. "shabu-shabu") - have you tried it? Everyone sits in front of their own hotplate or gas burner at the table, with their own pot of broth, and orders their choice of fresh meat & vegetables (my favourite is thinly sliced beef!). You wait until the broth is bubbling and then drop food in - it cooks in seconds and then you fish it out and eat it with delicious dipping sauces... 

At the end, you can drink the lovely broth which has absorbed all the flavours from the meat & vegetables - it's really delicious on a chilly winter's day! I suppose it's similar to the Western concept of "fondue", except that this uses chicken broth instead of melted cheese or chocolate.

Speaking of food, I saw these cards at a hotel breakfast buffet while we were in Taiwan – to stop the waiters from clearing your plate & cutlery if you haven’t finished eating yet... don't you think they're rather cute? 😉

Well, we're back in Australia now and - after all the recent interruptions and forced break due to my husband's cancer diagnosis and surgery - I’m pleased to report that I’m FINALLY back writing again! 

Yes, I’m back hard at work on the manuscript for the finale in the Bewitched by Chocolate series (which is going to be 2 books!) and I'm trying my best to make up for lost time… 

Will keep you posted on the progress! 

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Meanwhile, my French and German translators are both hard at work on the next book in my Oxford Tearooom Mysteries... so Book 11 ("Wrongfully Infused") should be releasing in those languages soon. 

And I also have some exciting news to share about another new translation language that I'll be launching soon. More details in the next newsletter! 

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Finally, for the cat lovers here...!

For the Muesli fans, here's a picture of the little minx... She has decided to adopt one of our suitcases as her new bed and spends all her time lounging, washing herself and sleeping on it. We were supposed to unpack and put it away weeks ago but we've resigned ourselves to living with a huge black suitcase in the living room, because we feel too bad ruining her fun... 

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Do you find yourself also doing ludicrous things to keep your cat happy?? 😜

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