London

by | | Her, Random

Is my favourite city in the world. Walking through a live history book. Finding hidden streets and nooks. Lovely espresso and soft instrumental music. This is my new paradise and I am loving every moment of it and I don’t want this to ever end. Although I am alone I feel so alive and energized. Can’t wait to come back again.

London Diaries Day 3 Triangles and Squares

by | | Her, Random

I love literary London and walking along Bloomsbury streets where writers once lived and made history by writing books that left a lasting impression on the human consciousness. I would like to go on a similar tour like this in Hangzhou, China and learn about what inspired the literary Chinese to create Butterfly Lovers and Madame White Snake.

It is unfortunate that I have more knowledge about the western world than the eastern world although my family originated from the east. I could blame communism and China’s closed doors policy for that gulf but I hope in future more interest and preservation of the Chinese culture will be explored.

I am officially exhausted after three days of hyper excitement. I have finally collapsed in bed and admit defeat for exploring too much in a short time. They said that the writers in Bloomsbury had relationships in triangles but lived in squares. The tour only proved novelists were wacky, and poets drove lovers to madness, editors pissed everyone off. We ended the tour in the British Museum, which was the former book depository.

Amazing how they kept every copy of every book printed in the gardens. Now books are electronic now and it is not necessary to store hard copy books. I joke with my dad sometimes if William Somerset was alive would he have imagined that people are reading his books on electronic readers.

There are about 55 000 books published each year online (I think this are the numbers but correct me if I am wrong). No library in the world can store so much books but now, everything is stored on the cloud depositary. The cloud may be humans best invention to date. Imagine the number of forests and trees being saved. Imagine so much information is available in a swipe. I love this world we live in now where information is so accessible.

*Daydreams

London Diaries Day 2

by | | Her, Random

I have a very strange idea walking around the streets of inner London, a very strange crazy idea. I want to write a contemporary history walking guide. One with audio podcast and reading materials in the form of chapters. Similar to lonely planet, tourists can download each chapter for a dollar, and maybe another dollar for the audio. They can plug their earphones into their phones and listen to the audio while they walk around the city and follow in the footsteps of the audio guide. They can press the pause button if they want to spend more time on one attraction.

I wish for something like that for lonely travelers and I am surprised no one has done that? Everything is going electronic now and soon tour guides will not be needed when one can listen to the audio guide at their own one and pace.

I spent hours every night reading about Greek history and trying to figure out the meaning behind some of the monuments and statues I saw, which era they are form and why they are made. But there is not much information no matter how much I read as its too ancient and even tour guides do not really know why, but offer theories to the location of the Atlantis and ancient cities that lie beneath their current city. I wish I had an audio guide while I looked at the attraction so I don’t have to spend too much time reading and figuring things out. Tour guides were too expensive in Greece and rare.

I feel that London is now my favourite city in the world, followed by New York and Paris. I love the artistic and cultural history of the city and it is as if I am walking through a history book exploring little nooks.

I had not slept much for two days as I am so excited for London. I wake up before my alarm and can’t help but read about the city. Admittedly, I am tired of traveling at this point having probably covering about 20 000 miles in less than 8 months. I am on the plane every alternate month and I am starting to miss the stability of having a fixed home. This year I had been to Paris, Sydney, Penang, Hong Kong, Indonesia. The trips mostly are my getaways to finish my novel deadline and I am happy to say that I had finished writing my first complete novel and it will be ready for publication by end October.

I would think that authors below the age of thirty are few, as our young energetic bodies can’t stay still with such intense marathon focus to complete 80 000 words with a single goal of a narrative that makes sense with a start and an end. To combat this fidgety aspect of my personality, and my hyper active nature, I travelled to write. Most of the better parts my novel are written when I travelled. In total, the Red Hourglass was written in these countries over 4 years :

New York: 3000 words
Subway scene, visited twice in 2011 and 2013

Sydney: 5000 words
Romantic scenes

Madrid: 5000 words
Inner monologue of main character

Penang: 5000 words
Rewrites of protagonist love interests

Melbourne: flashes and snippets
Initial beta stage of figuring out if I was writing a thriller or fantasy novel and I settled for a thriller.

Hong Kong: initial research stage for sequel

Of course I won’t take another four years for the sequel but a year at most. I personally feel that the first novel is the hardest as the fundamentals and background has to be solidified before the sequels can be written in the same universe. I am excited to write the sequel soon and I can’t wait.

Squeezed

by | | Her, Random

Hollow narrow mellow
Beats of uneven drums
Crash fall inwards
Ghostly images
His face

void

London Diaries Day 1

by | | Her, Random

For the past few days I was filled with excitement as I read up everything I could about London. I booked six theatre shows and memorized the areas for walking trails. I booked a place near the heart of the city, ready to take it on and explore in depth into the London scene.

There is deep disappointment in my heart, however, as I seem not to know anyone from London. Alone in this stretch of my journey, I finally feel lost, isolated, and to the point I almost felt like crying when i misplaced my keys. I only misplace my keys when I feel very anxious and the last time I felt so much anxiety was the first day at university in a sprawling campus and I was lost in directions to rush for my lecture.

I ask myself what was my mistakes in trying to make London friends but I can’t seem to make or keep any. I had visited many countries and staying over on friends sofas. I ask myself why has my relationship with Londoners fail and I find myself sighing.

I never intended to come alone. It was a matter of circumstances that made this trip so lonely. A part of me now yearns to visit my relatives residing in the UK outside London. But then again, I hope there is a better tomorrow and I will learn to move on from this point.