This entry was written on a journal on November 27, 2014 in Hong Kong Disneyland.
I used to write a lot.
By writing, I mean using a ballpen and a notebook to record my feelings, experiences, adventures. I used to seek refuge in the paper and the ink when nobody understands why I don’t always smile, why I prefer to stay at home to read, or why my relatives seem to make my lovelife (or the absence of it) the subject of their early morning gossip.
But I betrayed the paper and the ink. The lure of writing by using the computer – and then the arrival of the smartphones – was too tempting to decline and I found myself aggressively pounding the QWERTY keypad with my fingers rather than wrapping them around the thin, slim body of a sign pen.
In the course of time, the gadgets have been faithful to me. They have extended their screens and their battery power to me in the most crucial times when I both need to work on school requirements for my Master’s while travelling the world. They stored my writings with tender care and allowed me to write articles even when I was trying to catch the next train to Paris.
But in a manner that I betrayed the ink and the paper some years ago, the gadgets – the ones I’ve since considered my best friends, who stored more than 3/4s of my life in their memory bank – betrayed me with not much warning. They let me know when my time is up when that single red bar appears on the screen with a blinking note that says “Extremely low battery. Connect to charger!”
Where to go to recharge when I am here in Hong Kong, at the “Happiest Place in Earth” where WIFI is non-existent and where there seems to be an absence of friendly plugs that will welcome my charger?!
So…the decision for today is to sit on a bench, take out my three-year-old leather journal, the pen that my dear husband bought me and…write! Scribble words, phrases, and sentences using the paper and the ink.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is where I start anew.
