토요일, 4월 03, 2004
i miss eating oranges.

somehow the oranges you get here in singapore seem to be all fibre no juice, but maybe that's just my opinion. whatever it is, today i felt like i wanted to go back, which proves that man, nay woman, is never ever satisfied with anything. however, i guess i'll have to try. :)

as trivial as it seems, i notice that whenever i have the courage to don a sleeveless top, it starts to rain. why is this so? strange though the notion, it has been this way ever since i stepped out, bare arms at the mercy of the elements, just 2 days ago, and i regret to inform you that the trend has continued ever since. oh toil, toil, toil and trouble i hear you cry. well, that's just it. all i have to do these days is come out of my room dressed in something sleeveless and voila, my much-beloved mum will rush to bring in her clothes that she left drying outside in the backyard, or bring out the awning or whatever. such is the state of affairs that my mode of dress has become a weather meter.

hrmmm...

what was it, murphy's law, i think, that everything that can go wrong, will. i wouldn't apply that to all aspects of my life, but hey, when you're left shivering at the bus stop in the wet and cold thanks to the tropical rainstorms that have been in abundance of late, then you talk to me. kudos of course, to the lovely ladies who manage to deal with singapore's fickle weather as masterfully as they change their hair colour (which, for some, is err... not very often). i, for one, have come to the conclusion that i have simply forgotten how. as my mum aptly puts it, putting out clothes to dry is like playing wayang, or chinese opera, which, to those not in the know, involves people with painted faces gliding over the stage in a manner not unlike that of a group of retirees doing taichi in the park, only put in fast forward, with costumes to put the cabaret to shame and the accompaniment of the hefty beats of the likes of chinese traditional instruments, some of which, if i may say, sound like catgut being stretched out. but y'know, it has its own beauty. the reference in question relates to the fight scenes (yes, chinese opera was rather upbeat and sophisticated for its time), where actors haul out spears and the like seemingly from nowhere and joust, in all senses of the word, spinning round and round in elaborate choreography that would put john woo to shame. so, that's what trying to second-guess the weather gets you: many happy hours worrying over whether my clothes will get wet or not, and not to mention lots of arm and leg exercise as you teeter in and out of the house, trying to rescue said stranded clothes. not to worry, the jones from next door won't be laughing at you: their filipino maid will probably be doing exactly the same thing. anyway, so ends the significance of wayang.

i have seen many a picnic ruined by the tempera-mental bouts of weather that we get here on our little island, and indeed, it is not always the pretty picture that tourists always seem to rave about (hrm, i wonder if they're paid to do that?) somehow, when you make the trip to sentosa, it will always rain, and when you need to get your clothes dry, you can bet your bottom dollar the storm clouds you see gathering will deffo not go away. i'm not just talking about the rain, oh no. when you need to walk ten miles home because the bus has broken down, you can be just as sure that, you guessed it, the sun will be a rolling ball of fire, leaving boiling hot streaks across the sky. c'est la vie folks, that's just the way it is.

nevertheless, i like the weather here. it's reassuring, somehow, to smell home again. like they say, it might not be perfect, but it's home.