Women who read

I read this funny joke today...

"One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap.
Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book.

Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, "Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?"

"Reading a book," she replies, (thinking, "Isn't that obvious?")

"You're in a Restricted Fishing Area," he informs her.

"I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading."

"Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault," says the woman.

"But I haven't even touched you," says the game warden.

"That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment."

"Have a nice day ma'am," and he left.

MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think."

The Wheel of Fortune

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.
- William Styron

After my trip to Yunnan, I finished the last few chapters of Absolute Truths, finally finished the Starbridge Series. Then, I started on A Question of Integrity(UK title)/Wonder Worker (US title), it's quite a good book I like Nicholas Darrow & Lewis), though not as good as the Starbridge series.

The problem happens when I started, no, it started when I got hooked on the Wheel of Fortune (also written by Susan Howatch), but instead of writing about clergyman, this is one of her earlier works. It is a family saga, "a recreation in a modern dimension a true story of ... the Plantagenet family". (Don't worry even if you don't know about medieval England, I only vaguely remember I have read about the name "Plantagenet", must have read about the family in some novel by Sharon Kay Penman, but don't remember anything about them...)

The story is divided into 6 parts, each part told by a different member in the family. I like reading stories written in the 1st person, as you can know more about the characters, but the problem for me, I need to like the character first. As I don't like Robert (the character narrating the first part of the story), so even tho the story is interesting, when I started the story, I just wanted to get to know the ending, However, I knew I couldn't flip through this 1090-page family saga and expected to understand the ending, so I skipped the lines, even pages, but kept on reading. Ginerva(the second narrator, Robert's wife/his father's cousin/in the end his friend) is more interesting.

Then, I finally got hooked in part 3, John's story. I cried in part 5, when Harry described why his father, John, went back to the loveless marriage, when John finally married Bronwen and during his funeral.

I'm surprised when I read the reviews in Amazon.com, other people like Ginerva, Hal, Kester!!!, I can understand why people like Harry (I like him too), but I like John most. I think I like character whom I can identify with, that is my problem, and that's why problems always occur during my writing. For a story to succeed, I need to different characters, and when I don't like a character I don't like to read/write about him/her.

Anyway, I think the most marvellous thing about Susan Howatch's book is that she can make me understand why her characters do things they do. It seemed like an easy thing to do, but when you read her story, you know it isn't, coz the plot is so complicated, and some of them do things so weird I can't begin to comprehend...

The cost of reading such a book is that you feel exhausted afterwards... well worth it tho...

Back from Yunnan

I'm back from my 8-day trip to Yunnan. I surprised many by joining an escorted tour to Yunnan, everyone (except my mother) expected me to go by myself.

I joined a tour from the Modern China Travel Agency, famous for its tours to "weird" unpopular places with poor hotels & food and minimal shopping. The tour is more expensive than similar tours provided by other travel agencies, but with no shopping and no commission, I think it is fair that the price is higher.

I have never had a better tour guide, she's very knowledgeable, and she provided more info about the various places we visited than the local tour guides. She pays attention to every little detail, and she said she's called the "Tibetian queen" coz she's been to Tibet a lot of times.

The initial parts of my trip was spoiled by heavy raining, I had to blow-dry my shoes in the hotels in the first few days, and I couldn't see Jade Dragon Snow Mountain at all, even when I went up the mountain at altitude 4680m, I could only see 10m in front of me... (Please look at my photo album to see how I look during my ascent & descent) I was breathless after just a few steps up the stairs at that kind of altitude, and after all that walk, I can still see nothing. I remembered Kim Sam Soon's hike up Hallasan, after all the hard work, she saw nothing...

I was really looking forward to Lijiang, however, I found it too commercialised. I still think it's beautiful especially at night and with a great atmosphere, even with the heavy raining.

The place I love most is Bitai Lake Nature Reserve at Shangri-La. It is a beautiful place. I can't help thinking how long a place can stay beautiful in China when I saw hordes of mainland Chinese tourists stepping on the trees to take good photos, smoking in a dry forest, sigh...

I was even more sad when I saw pieces of White Water Terrace being cut out and sold to tourists, one of the girls in my tour group bought one piece. No wonder the whole thing is disappearing...

When is China going to learn its lesson?

Yunnan Trip