Headspace: A series in which teaching staff and students from the English Department write about a place or space they go to write, read, study or create. [Read all entries.]  [Revisit the “Ongoing” series.] [Revisit the “Interrogative” series.]

I often suffer from insomnia.

Part of the reason, I believe, is that I have a “wandering mind”. While I am not a keen traveller, my mind likes to shove a load of random thoughts into its rucksack, and voyage through the abstract universe of knowledge. The mind is not the most accommodating when it comes to taking a rest. When I am lying down on my bed and closing my eyes, my mind will open the mental door for a journey, and in the process, deny my body the rest it needs and deserves.

I always thought my mind was by nature a little too restless, until I realised that, whenever I undertake research, I pile up books and papers on the bed.

With these mountains of words and phrases in full view, it’s no wonder my mind enjoys hillwalking.

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Just like an average person, Vinton Poon assumes many different identities. To name a few (not in any particular order), he is a son, a lecturer, a badminton enthusiast, an extrovert, an elder brother, a debating coach, a semi-Buddhist, an academic, a friend, a hypochondriac, a volunteer, and a pursuer of good tea. [Click here to read all entries by Vinton.]