I'm a simple girl with a li'l dream, of seeing her humble works in exquisite print, to share with all who feels for words, written with
an unsupressable urge. So indugle in my fantasies, and plow your way through my memories, greatly appreciated you will be,
if you can leave your comments here for me.


Tuesday, August 22, 2006

dry spell

for a writer like myself, it's a tragedy to be hit by dry spells. the need to purge has been highly inhibited by the incapacity to write.

writing has never been a problem, at least not for a girl who's inflicted with what's commonly known as the verbal diarrhoea disease. but I guess when one's life is going nowhere but spiralling into a hopeless quicksand, one surely has more grievances to air. but when one is in a state of calm and peace, ironically, one becomes "word handicapped" and is inevitably stricken by writers' block.

seems as if joy is the ultimate bane for all writers. happiness murders creativity. that's why most creative people such as artists, poets, writers, painters - are a bunch of eccentric, temperamental and individualistic egomaniacs.

hong kong was simply divine. i shopped and ate like never before. yes - me, elvina shopping. i get goose pimples just remembering that. what on earth was i thinking about?? but the stuff was cheap, and it made me look ten years younger - so i thought i should spend some money to lie to the whole world. it made perfect sense. women do that ALL the time.

the food, oh my, was absolutely tempting. desserts were swimming not only in my mind, but in the cavities of my digestive system every few hours. roast meats, dim sum, spanish food, hong kong street delicacies somehow manage to squirm their way into me. i must have carried a whole 50kg worth of food in me during the whole trip. ahhh yes....miss tummy is peeking out as well, enjoying the world view with miss belly button.

time for the hamsters' run on this idiotic looking machine they call a treadmill.

i couldn't bear to look at my shopping bills. maybe if i stash them underneath the bed, they might disappear. i bought shoes, dresses, sleeveless tees, skirts, bags, accessories, lingerie, snacks and other ridiculous gadgets which i may have no use for at all in the near or far future.

i must be possessed.

either that or the woman in has finally been unleashed.

i think u guys would prefer to believe in the latter, though i am very much inclined to think otherwise.

photos? tons and tons. the gadget freak in me was unstoppable. trigger happy me was trying to capture the entire state of hong kong in a 512mb chip. ambitious fool i am. but the pictures were lovely - because they encapsulated all the amazing fun i had. one of my most memorable vacations i must say, in more ways than one.

i think i will have to spend some time making the pictures smaller so that i can upload here for your viewing pleasure. kindly donate to the elvina's future foundation before you view them so that i can continue such altruistic projects in my years to come.

suddenly, the dry spell has been broken...

16 comments:

Iceman said...

" ... that's why most creative people such as artists, poets, writers, painters - are a bunch of eccentric, temperamental and individualistic egomaniacs."

How dare you! I am definitely not an individualistic egomanic ok?!

Elvina aka LaoNiang said...

haha..if you insist. but i definitely am and i m proud of it. :P

Cobalt Paladin said...

Great that you are actually finally takeing a break. :)

Sunflower said...

wow, your trip sound so interesting. I can picture myself in HK!

Good to hear you enjoy this trip.

INVS 2.0 said...

Sounds like a bookworm short stories.

tussand said...

Good to know that that pen of yours is unleashed!

Richard said...

You are probably correct in stating that a state of happiness is not conducive to writing. After all, hwy should you put pen to paper when you could just kick back and enjoy that nice warm fuzzy feeling.

On the other hand, when we write, we must take care not to become a repetitive one topic sideshow - like those gross caricatures masquerading as columnists. There is no question all of us have our pet theme topics that periodically surface and intersperse our dialogue.

It reminds me of a friend I went out with this past weekend. I hadn't seen him in probably 8 years and I am pretty sure the last time he and I went out alone (just the two of us) has been 11 years or so. Yet, his choice of conversation topics, his lines of argument are pretty much the same as they were back then. I don't expect him to be a different person, but some new and original dialogue would be nice.

Oooh! photos! Please show! Any of your navel gazing about? (this is supposed to be clever, but in all probability my brain is parsing it differently from 99.9% of the rest of the world. sigh).

How does HK differ from Sg? You have to understand that for this pink skin on the other side of the planet, I perceive HK and Sg as pretty similar - busy, hectic city states where you can buy almost anything your heart desires (aside from controlled an prohibited substances).

Anonymous said...

yes, yes, i think you are right. i have recently became happier in my life and i realised that the writing juices no longer flow as smoothly inside me...my entries are really turning crap...

Elvina aka LaoNiang said...

Richard: Haha..hope I am not becoming a boring reptitive deluded columnist. sometimes i can't help thinking if i am writing garbage.

yes yes! photos are on the way...but don't laugh if you see any fats cos i may just go kill myself.

Hk vs SG - well you are right in saying that both countries are pretty similar. Culture, lifestyle and even land size! However they have twice our population, and they really is a shopping paradise!

Seems to me that there are more expats working in HK too. One thing that strucks me was that the people in HK seemed to be super open minded. Men pick up girls easy in pubs and the next thing I know they were frenching and groping one another. And ya, they were total strangers who knew each other on the dance floor.

Men in SG are more reserved, and women here, more hard to get. Maybe they want to be open minded, but socieal standards inhibits their darkest desires. Hence they don act on them like the Hong Kongers do.

And drugs in Singapore are a serious issue. You go to the gallows for it. Most of the profitable businesses such as gambling, entertaiment, sleaze industry are owned by the local mafia - hence drugs are rampant. That's why I don't accept drinks from male strangers.

HK also has four seasons - but Singapore is HOT HOT HOT all year round. It's summmer for us 365 days a year!

Other than that, we are pretty much the same. :)

Now you have made me miss HK.....

r_goh said...

haha.. i think its great that you can go around and have fun. seems like fun. nv been to so far places. hahah. but you're young and cool. =D

BigBrownBearBear said...

People dont like me;
I try to get them to most of my life;
but I guess I just gave up a while back,
I mean, I am what I am.

– Anna Lucia on Lost

Elvina aka LaoNiang said...

Impressive Tiger. You found my inspiration.

Elvina aka LaoNiang said...

r_goh: Thanks. I work so hard at this branding. Cool that is. Young? I guess my looks just deceives everyone. haha

Richard said...

Interesting comparison of HK to Sg.

sereneannabelle said...

hahaha!!

welcome to girl-hoood!

you should be elated! (and stash all tt guilt away)

Anonymous said...

Hi there, it's great to see another up and coming writer from the Malaysia/ Singapore area. I'm a Malaysian-born novelist based in London with two books published in the UK and I've been sharing some of my experiences with Malaysian and Singaporean writers on my blog at www.fusionview.co.uk. You may be inspired by a podcast interview I did with a UK literary agent who gives tips and advice about being published in the UK - go to www.fusionview.co.uk and find the Category called Getting Published.

Meanwhile, it looks like you're having a great time in Hong Kong and also making some interesting observations about the cultural differences with Singapore - no doubt you can put that to good use in your writing in the future!

Best wishes
Yang-May Ooi
Fusion View, an East/ West blog on writing, culture and the arts