One of my goals this year is to save more money and I really mean save more money to build enough funds for a downpayment for a house. But if you look at the value of the houses in Hong Kong it really is quite ridiculous!

The prices go up and down like the price of seafood, and HK is the top most unaffordable city where the cost of property equals 11x the average hong konger 's income . Not to say Vancouver or Sydney is any better ranking 2nd and 3rd in terms of unaffordability.

I work very hard on staying positive but the injustice in this world really makes me sad.  We all know who is snapping up all these properties like hotcakes and driving up the prices further and further, its you-know-who from you-know-where and a lot of this 'hot money' is purportedly black money.

So are these 3 most unaffordable cities actually promoting money laundering practices? I'm sure we've all heard of those buyers who whip out entire suitcases full of cash just to pay for a house or a car, how did they even get that across the border??

Sad thing is if you look at their country the gap between the rich and poor is huge! here you have shopping parties lining up outside LV like its a $10 dollar store and then you see on tv poor farmers who have to drink chemical infested waters with 10 mouths to feed. I thought a "communist" country means everyone gets an equal portion of everything. Well apparently not eh!? Maybe if they bothered to spend their money within the country instead of massive global shopping sprees the livelihoods of all their citizens would be greatly improved.

But thats life, my mom always said "Life is not rosy and nothing is fair"

life is a cycle what goes up must come down

do not compare your life to others everyone has a shittier story to tell

i wonder if i can still find things not made in china

supply and demand-demand and supply why do we need to demand?

if you can't change your way you think about something its time to get the hell out

why are all the animals disappearing? is it really too late?

if only we can all see the beauty in things and see things through God's eyes then the world will be a better place

one must work hard to find the time to do the things they treasure most before its too late and 50 yrs will have flown by

money is the root of all evil and one really can't live without money

you work to make money and when you have time to spend it its time to check out..

stop and smell the flowers if there are any around

do we really need all this stuff its just stuff isn't it?

It just dawned on me this morning that I need to let out some steam and I figured why not use my website? Not only does it showcase my art but I could use the blog to put in my 2 cents worth of my travail of living in the not so fragrant harbor city.

I've moved back to HK since the end of 2003 and I have to say it still takes a lot of getting used to. The daily commute to work really wreaks havoc on my attempt to stay zen!! I have to mentally transport myself out of there, sort of like a scene from Matrix where you see all these things happening around you in slow motion. From the crazy-eyed passengers that ram through the door like NFL-ers to the cart-laden couriers that take over the entire train cabin like its their office and the loud tourists from the north and so on and so forth.Trying not to be negative about things because it will suck away whats left of my positive energy.

I'll probably start sketching these wacko scenes because I think I express myself better visually than literally.

well another hour to go when its time to commute home and to face those oddities on the train!!

Time flies and its already been one year since I last wrote anything. Sadly have not been able to paint anything new except for a commissioned piece early this year. However because it was not a Karen Lo original I did not post it on my site.

If you've noticed I was able to add 2 new photos to my Photography album, those were both taken on the weekend when out and about with my son.

Lots of images and ideas are swirling around in my mind, I have my paints/canvas/easel on standby, check back in 2011 to see my works!

Till then....

Finally decided to add a new page to my website, so that those who view my homepage will know a bit more about whats going on with me and my works.

I guess you may have noticed that I have not added any new material since the "Roots" painting. Well I just gave birth in August so have not had a chance to paint while pregnant (trying to avoid the fumes) and have not had a chance to take any pictures. 

I have slowly started to take pictures again when I have time of my son using black and white film.

Check back soon for more updates!