The 21st Century is Kind of Awesome

This was supposed to go into the author's note for the latest chapter of The Prince and Me but then it began to feel like it's going to get longer than the fic itself.  

The name of the chapter (The 21st Century is Kind of Awesome) is basically the summary of a Twilight fanfic that is currently on my favourite list (yes, I do have Twilight fics in my fav list, and often they are better than the books). That fic, called going nowhere, going somewhere by Estora revolves around an Edward who actually has a personality. This fic has very little to do with the chapter of my fic, but I liked the phrase hehe.

First of all, I have to say the chapter The 21st Century is Kind of Awesome is partly a result of my attempt at Nanowrimo this year (which I failed spectacularly, all efforts considered). Part of Nano includes a lot of procrastination time whereby I dig up all these character building quizzes. You now, quizzes that have you pretend to be your character and answer questions about each and every one of their likes and dislike. 

And so The 21st Century is Kind of Awesome is a sort of an exploration of some of Xiao Yan's (and to a certain extent, Yong Qi's) likes and dislikes, but then somehow goes into a sort of reflection of my own rather odd love affair with Zhao Wei. 

On the subject of some of Yong Qi's likes, in reality, Tottenham Hotspurs are not doing so badly in the Premier League as I imply in the chapter. Not that I actually follow Premier League football.

In case you did not recognise the movie that Xiao Yan and Yong Qi went to see in this chapter, it is, of course, A Time to Love, starring Zhao Wei and Lu Yi.

I just wanted to share the whole idea behind the scene where Xiao Yan and Yong Qi went to the hotpot restaurant, which on the surface seems like a pretty useless scene. Well, it is pretty useless, but it's 100% based on my experience at Hai Di Lao Hotpot. 

Bei Wa Lu is a real street in Beijing (at least, I think I remembered it right), where near there is a real Hai Di Lao Hotpot restaurant. I ate there when I was recently (read, a month ago) in Beijing and I swear, it was one of the best service experiences of my life, if not the best. In Vietnamese we have a saying, "The customer is the emperor" and boy, did I feel like an emperor there. 

My friend and I didn’t actually have to wait for a table when we went there, but there was a waiting area that looked pretty cool and I have heard you do actually get a manicure and a shoe shine as you wait. 

Regarding the bathroom of this restaurant, it might seem strange for me to gush about a bathroom. But I swear everything I described in that scene in the fic is true. Except that, unlike Xiao Yan, I couldn't ask a waiter for direction to the bathroom from my table (because I speak no Chinese), it took me several near wrong turns to get to the bathroom. Yes, there were signs but still it was like a maze. I nearly got lost getting back to the table, which of course has no sign to direct me. But the bathroom was pretty awesome, especially compared to normal Beijing public toilets, but I won't go into that. 

Of course, whether this restaurant existed in 2005 when The Prince and Me was set, I don't know and if it did, whether it looked like it does now in 2010 is debatable. And for all my awe about this restaurant, I was disappointed when I got home and realised I had taken no photo of it. I think my friend and I were too busy eating. 

By the way, while I'm on the topic of my trip to Beijing, I have to say I did pass Gong Zhu Fen or the place that inspired HZGG. Well, it's a subway station.  So...it's pretty unepic. But I did get a photo of the sign that said Gong Zhu Fen.

My friend and I were planning to go to the set where they shot HZGG but that plan fell through the roof. That place is supposed to be quite a way outside the city so we were actually ready to spend a whole day to get there and back. Unfortunately the day before we planned to go, we decided to go to the Ba Da Ling Great Wall near the Olympic One World One Dream sign. On a Sunday in the Chinese National Day weekend. 

Well, needless to say, the combination of the destination and the date made traffic...a nightmare. We left the house at 7am and got the Great Wall at 12 noon. Yeah, I spent 5 hours standing squished on a bus. Anyway, we knew that to go to the place where they shot HZGG, we'd have to pretty much make that same bus trip, only go for even longer. After that bus trip from hell, not even the prospect of seeing Shu Fang Zhai (if it's still there, which is doubtful) could draw two massive HZGG fans to get on that bus again. 

And I actually had hoped to see Jing Yang Gong when I visited the Palace Museum. That didn't happen either. Again, it was Chinese National Day holidays, so the Palace Museum was packed. I don't think it would be even that packed when people actually lived there. So basically by the time we made it from the Imperial Garden out to Qian Qing Gong, we were basically too eager to get out of the crowd (by that time, all we could actually see was people and practically nothing else.) to even want to go find Jing Yang Gong which was somewhere off to the sides. We didn't even bother to fight our way in to see Tai Hua Dian which is arguably one of the main attractions of the place. 

 View from Wu Men

Boy, after visiting the Palace Museum, did I feel for Xiao Yan Zi. Now I totally understand why she needed the Easy Kneeling. And now I also so understand why getting in was hard, getting out of the palace was even harder.   

We sat on the steps of Yang Xin Dian, eating ice cream. I'm pretty sure Qian Long would have loved us for it if he ever knew. Then again, I'm pretty sure if ice cream existed in China in those days, Xiao Yan Zi would not be above eating it while sitting on the steps of Yang Xin Dian either.

No, I didn't make it to Heng Dian Studios in Zhejiang to check out the set of the New HZGG. But that's probably for the best. Though speaking of New HZGG, walking around the market, or the Palace Museum, or the Great Wall, there were a lot of stalls selling the Manchurian princess hats as souvenir or toys. Please tell me this is normal in Beijing regardless of the new HZGG being made. But even then, I suspect these princess hats are a result of the New HZGG since along with Manchurian princess hats, there were exact replica of the new Sai Ya's (Tibetan princess) hat as shown in released stills of HZGG. Well, looks like the drama isn't even out yet and it's already making money. 

Panda Ge ge

There's no point to this post

Apparently the internet at work hates Blogspot because it won’t let me do anything.

Anyway, regardless of that last “I’m giving up” post, I managed to get out 5000 words on Sunday at Highlands in the two and a half hours that it took for me to wait for my sister to finish her English lesson at Apollo. Hmmm…maybe there is some merit to the idea of writing in coffee shops after all. I think right now I have about 15k. It's still way behind schedule, of course.

Highlands, Highlands. It’s one of those coffee shops that are ideal to write in, provided you don’t go to the ones in the middle of shopping centres like the one at Vincom, which is always crowded. But they have power points, internet (not always a good thing while you’re writing come to think of it), and they don’t give you dirty looks if you sit there for two hours with one drink.

But they kind of baffled me on Sunday. It was 10 am, you order a green apple tea, you’d think considering they just opened for a few hours, they’d still have it. But no, they have run out. You order a mocha, you’d think a coffee shop would have it at 10 in the morning. Uhm…no? Bizarre.  So I ended up with a cà phê sữa đá, which in Highlands costs about three times more than it’s worth. I’ really buying the brand here, aren’t I?

~*~

Headdesk moment of the week:

 

Why? Just, why???

Where's my Nano plot bunny?

I am debating whether I should be continuing with Nanowrimo.

No, I am not doubting my ability to write 50,000 words. Last year I wrote 150,000 words in November, and they all actually made sense, with a tight plot and characters and all. The only reason it's not made its way onto FF.net yet is that currently I have three unfinished stories on there and adding another one with the added pressure of actually updating it is not exactly ideal, especially when one of my WIP hasn't been updated in about a year. That, and the fact there were bits that I skipped in Nano09 that I dread going back and filling in.

So, anyway, I've pretty much proved that with a good idea, I can fulfill all the requirements of Nano - that is write at least 50k words that is a novel.

The key words being with a good idea. Which, this year, I do not have.

I spent 200 words describing snow earlier today and then wrote a very useless conversation that is pure fluff and padding. When I normally write fanfic, and start going off into random conversations that have nothing to do with the plot (or, in this case, for lack of one), it is a sign that I should stop writing and take a beat.

In my normal stories when this happens, it's not that big of a disaster because there is still some semblance of a plot which will eventually get me back on track. The problem with Nano'10, then, is there is no track.

So, so far, I'm not really getting anywhere. I keep changing my mind about where this is going.

And I'm not sure I want to spend November writing complete crap that will be going straight to the Trash come December, that doesn't make sense and have no business showing its face to the world if it wasn't for Nano.

Yes, I know. That is the point of Nanowrimo. Well, not. It is the point of Nanowrimo when you've never written a novel before and never thought you could. In that case, the accomplishment of having written 50,000 words that connect is huge. Trust me, I felt this when I wrote my first complete long fic. But once you've churned out fanfics that altogether add up to about half a million words, you kind of know you can do it so, honestly, without a decent idea, the thrill of Nano isn't there. It's not Nano itself that lost the appeal, you know. It's the lack of idea that made Nano seem like a trek up Badachu.

So, for now? Let's just say my Nanovel is on hiatus. It might pick up again in the last week, you never now, considering then I'll probably be pretty bored sitting in a hotel lobby waiting for and playing reception to scholarship candidates coming in for their interviews. I know then I'd have stretches of 20 minutes at a time doing absolutely nothing and I might then be bored enough to create a plot bunny.