Spring(field) Surprise

Springfield, a perennial favourite brand of mine, now has a flagship store at Raffles City. This I discovered by chance today. I asked the store manager (i guessed she's the manager) and learnt that yet another store will be opening in Plaza Singapura.

This is not good news to the vain me. Yet another brand that is going down the road of Topman - becoming giordanonised!

I also noticed that Springfield now carries women's clothes and accessories. Yet another sign of the maturing local fashion-apparel retail market.

Anyway, fatal mistake to chance upon that store. I walked out poorer. Much poorer. Sigh.

The morning I saw a rainbow

The weather was cool this morning and though the sky was overcast, I was hopeful that the clouds won't unleash its power.

No such luck.

The rain came on after we got past the congestion at Kranji Loop. Kenneth was ahead of me from the get-go, and I was careful not to lag far behind him. Cycling towards Kranji Dam, I could feel the rain gathering strength as decisive droplets pelted on my exposed arms. Soon enough, the droplets hit me with relentless force and in larger quantity. Did the rain get heavier, or were we just cycling into heavier rain?

That's when I saw it - the rainbow. We were rolling across Kranji Dam and I was focused on cycling, barely paying attention to the surroundings. Of course, it was impossible to miss the endless sky that loomed above. I first noticed the portentous clouds that had swallowed the Saturday morning sky. I hardly needed any reminding that I was in for a soaking experience. Only moments ago, i was shouting against the whooshing headwind to Kenneth: 'We are cycling into the rain!'

It was when we got to Kranji Dam that we saw the rainbow - its full, wondrously curving entirety, so serenely yet incongruously perched against the stormy sky. I was so excited that I shouted again to Kenneth in front: 'Look! Rainbow!'

Anyone who's seen a rainbow before - especially during or after inclement weather - must surely experience a sense of cheerful hope. It's a beautiful phenonmenon that is an apt metaphor for hope - an array of colours justaposed with cheerless gloom.

The rainbow that we saw this morning appeared just as we braced ourselves for the torrents that were going to descend on us shortly. It was a sight to behold because the rainbow was spread nearly as far as the two ends of the sky within our sight, forming an amazing arch that was so extensive it left me in awe. For a moment, it didn't matter that I was cycling in the rain.

The brevity of a rainbow's existence is one reason why it's special. I didn't know when the rainbow disappeared, for it wasn't long before the trees along the narrow Neo Tiew Road blocked the view of the sky. In any case, once past Kranji dam, I was battling the fierely pelting rain and had no mind to think about other things.

I suffered much discomfort because the needle-like raindrops were hitting my glasses and eyes with such intensity that made keeping my eyes open a challenge. Throughout the whole Neo Tiew stretch, my mind was half-preoccupied with trying to keep my eyes open to see the road ahead. The other half-preoccupation: entertaining thoughts about soaking-wet shoes.

Yes, it's not exactly a priority concern. It's trivial and silly even. But hell, ever since army days, I can't stand wearing shoes that contain swooshing water. It means socks completely wet. This in turn means great discomfort of a disgusting level.

So while my eyes were struggling to stay open - at times the best I could do was a slit - I was thinking of my shoes that were rising and falling in tandem with my pedalling. At first I consientiously avoided puddles. Then, thoughts of minimising the wetness of my shoes quickly gave way to thoughts of delaying my shoes getting completely wet. It was like how the slight drizzle swung to the other end that is the torrential rain: it's just a matter of time. One's will and foolish hope surely were naught when pitted against Providence.

Like a defeated soldier who had nothing else to lose and could not get any worse, I subsequently surged forth with wild abandon, not bothering to avoid or slow down when cycling across puddles. Seeing the white of Kenneth's jersey stained with lines of black, i consoled (and smugly congratualated) myself for my judicious decision to wear the blue jersey today.

The downpour only eased somewhat when we reached the open part of Lim Chu Kang Road where we turned into Old Lim Chu Kang Road. From Neo Tiew to Lim Chu Kang, only about 4 cyclists passed us by in the opposite direction. A few other cyclists had taken shelter at the bus-stops. The ever-friendly Kenneth would wave at them when he cycled past.

By the time I reached home I had covered 70km - my longest ride this year so far and a good progress. Most importantly, i feel more confident about next week's ride. Can't wait for Saturday to come!




The rain left its mark all over my bike. :( Took me some time to give my bike a good scrub after that. Photo at the top: After the clean-up :)

writing - an asthetic experience

Æsthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed. The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words and phrases which appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typography, width of margins, etc. Above the level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic considerations.

- George Orwell, Why I Write

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect your reader precisely as you wish.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Blue, blue Sky

I love the blue, blue sky. Through my tinted lenses, it was a shade cooler, a blue that soothes my mind.

The sky was nearly stark, as though it were baring Heaven's soul upon Earth. And the bareness of it only serves to accentuate its vastness, limited only by the few wisps of clouds that emerge from either end.

The heat was intolerable: we could almost feel the sun's searing rays piercing our grime-soaked skin. But this couldn't hide the beauty of the naked sky, which was matched by the green fields spread beneath.

I knew not how to remember this beautiful morning, which was quickly giving way and becoming consumed by the merciless mid-day sun. I acted only on my impulse, which was to fumble for my camera, fiddle with the buttons, search for the right frame and, finally, click.


Not me, of course. I ain't look so good even from the back!

Of belated gift and surreptitious photo-taking

A very nice shot by Ms One-Zero.

The morning ended with us drinking kopi at Ya-Kun, after we had gone round to hunt for that perfect gift. Between a suitably elegant necklace and a pair of classy looking candle holder, we both settled for the same choice, which we consider to be slightly less common, hopefully therefore more special.

Like a pro, we took photos of the gifts surreptitiously - me positioning the camera in furtive angles, she acting the interested customer. It was not a junvenile act, but part of our elaborate gift plan, which includes pictures of our hunting in action and, of course, our handwritten notes and jibes. A pity i did not take a photo of her waiting at Starbucks in the early morning when only a few souls were around - this would have been a nice prelude.

Come Monday, our fun shall continue. And we fully expect praise and an outpouring of gratitude from the recipient. Nothing less!

May Day Happy Day

The only blemish to the evening was the reluctant realisation that, sigh, tomorrow's a working day. Labour day really shouldn't be today; it should be tomorrow - since, well, we are labouring tomorrow and not today! (of course, as I'm writing this it's already past midnight. i forsee that i will be on coffee sustenance tomorrow. But as Kel said, you look forward to the weekend tomorrow! Now that sounds familiar.)


May day afternoon was a fruitless trip to Borders @ Wheelock. Can anyone imagine that I, armed with two Straits Times cut-out 30% discount coupons, walked out of the store without using them? Of the two books that i specfically wanted, Borders does not carry any books by one the two authors. The other book is out of stock. So much for the trip.

Evening was a lovely and thoroughly enjoyable meeting with the gang. L's bday celebration continues to roll over into the Xth day, and tonight was our turn. We received updates from Adrian, and hope for his sake that the storm will clear soon and the issue resolved.



Over at Harry's, Adrian delighted with his stories, and at one point of time, J picked up on his words and summed it up: You are kuai lan but not heartless
And I must say Adrian seems pleased with the prognosis. =)

Cheers.

Glasses clinked, conversations flowed freely, there was incessant laughter amid the banter. I recall it was a squarish table we sat at, an ideal setting for after-dinner talk, for everyone was within sight and earshot of one another.

I was reminded of some American dramas that I've watched, where a family or group of friends would sit around at a large table, engaging one another in a spontaneous, lively exchange of ideas, usually over or after a meal. The image of a vibrant interchange of ideas amongst a group of people always attracted me, perhaps because it's not in our culture to talk spontaneously in a large group setting.

The topics discussed shifted almost naturally, with hardly anyone realising their transition. Jokes were cracked - mostly by JM who could turn a line into a story - opinions contested, memories recalled.

I allowed myself to go with the flow, adding something or replying only occasionally, mostly because each time there was always someone doing the talking.

And when I'm not talking, I was the odd, impolite guy fiddling with his camera, seemingly uninterested, finding interesting angles and taking pictures - like the one above.

Last 7 days

Over the last 7 days
I celebrated a very good friend's bday
With a gregarious group at a cozy restaurant in Dempsey
Met up with another friend who's back from UK
Sat at Walas, drank and shouted to get myself heard
Found out that he's engaged and getting married this year -
My first good guy friend of my age tying the knots
He's going back this Sat and coming back in August to hold the wedding
And I thought,
Life's journey's so wonderful sometimes unbelievable yet so beautiful.

I sms-ed another friend
A friend from university days whom I've not met for more than a year
Asked him out and we caught up over a meal at Pasta Mania
He filled me in about the others and i found out that
This very bright girl (1st class honours) had just died of cardiac arrest
And I knew,
Life's journey's so wonderful but not without its tragedies and aches.

I sms-ed another good friend
Arranging gathering and fixing dates
Realised something's not so right coz she sounded impatient tense and sharp
This was not her usual nature and I worried for I know these were signs
Clear signs that she's burnt out and out

Many more things happened over the last 7 days
Good and bad, happy and sad, all were had
And I pray,
The next 7 days will be more good than bad more wonderful and bright.

Treasure-Trove

A photo snapped and a moment
freezes, its subject becoming an
object of study and reminiscence,
until the day it can't be found and
memories become a misty haze.

Like a piece of trusty lock that
lay silently and inconspicuously,
it unlocks personal memories that
recall fond moments past their expiry.

They used to unfold like a chapter
of life in hard pages after pages
but now lay mostly hidden in invisible
folders that lock stories already forgotten.

I still prefer its old glory - the physical touch
and frozen frame as real as the thing
that happened and gave it life.
Flip the pages, feel the edges
Let nostalgia flow and suffuse your senses.

The blue sky shimmers above, the perfect
backdrop to a group of un-uniform boys -
and a girl - boisterious and gathering close
like they have never before fallen in together.

The quiet and rustic charm inspires as
i rode down the track that stretches
for all i care - only the rustling breeze
and swaying lallang move, just like I, and
that is all i need for company to go on forever.

Treacherous though our neighbours are,
we rode streches unscathed perhaps
because luck and sobering mind were on
good terms that morning. Prata was our
reward, and so was the good company,
Unquestionably.

Those silly grins on our faces
staring down ourselves staring
back at us, so funny and fun, it
all seems not too long ago when
we were idling undergrads, free and unruly.

These are treasure-troves, precious
like the thoughts a dear friend offers
you when you are down and out, reassuring
like the ease you feel on entering your own house.
They - they're the eternal gatekeeper of our memories,
Truly.

The thing about Wednesday is...

Over beer with L at Harris after work today, our conversations inevitably - and frequently - veer into the topic of work - and, no surprise, it's mostly about the bad part. Like how her proposal was axed by the big boss, how things on my side are still the same, how i am praying hard that i will get a hopeful call these days. And i think pretty much everyone else in the bar were talking about work too. After all, everyone is dressed in sleek, executive garb and downing beer. But they don't look miserable; quite frequently there would be jovial laughter erupting in some corners, probably a response to some jokes about clients, bosses or their company?

L has some not so cheerful tasks ahead which she ain't looking forward to. I can't change her lot even if i very much wish to believe that I have cosmic powers.

So I said: Cheer up! It's Thursday tomorrow and it's going to be the weekend!

She gave me a suspicious look, doubting my assertion. And it seems to say this: It's Wednesday, mid-week, not the end of the week, so the weekend is not exactly here yet, you know.

I sensed her suspicion and quickly added: You see, on Thursday you look forward to Friday knowing that it's the last day of the work week, that the weekend's finally arrived! Thus, on Wednesday you look forward to Thursday knowing that Thursday is the day to look forward to Friday, the last day of work in the week!

Tah Tah. One must always look towards the end...of the week! And it's true, really, that the end of the week is upon you before you would realise it. Trust me, enjoy your Wednesday by looking forward to Thursday, because on Thursday you will be thinking about Friday and how wonderful it is that the weekend's arrived - almost!

Positive thoughts breed happiness. (My moment of profundity!)

Disclaimer: this does not apply to those who work in the weekend.

All in a week

So, in the span of one week I caught four films – three in the cinema, one at the National Museum, which by the way is a wonderful place to visit. That’s more than what I would normally have watched in easily a few months (although to be completely honest, I hardly go to the cinema to catch a show.)

The Singapore International Film Festival was on-going last week and I caught 3 of the films that were being shown. That’s not bad except that out of the 3, two of them quite frankly bore the hell out of me. I am no film connoisseur or critic; in fact I am a member of the amorphous masses who don’t have any background in film appreciation.

Still, one of them seems to me genuinely bad – and unfortunately, it’s a local one – because the characters don’t seem to accord with reality (unless there’s a dramatic purpose in the apparent incongruity), and the whole film leaves one puzzling as to what the Director is trying to convey. The plot was flimsy and I certainly wasn’t convinced of its depiction of characters.

As for the other one that bored me quite completely, the abstract in the festival catalogue has this to say: this aesthetically brilliant noir-thriller promises to leave a hauntingly indelible impression on its viewer.

What it didn’t say is whether the impression is for the better or worse.

No doubt, the Director is a deft old hand when it comes to the use of cinematic devices in this particular genre. His noir film unfolds with consistency and flair, the angles of camera and distances used to good effect in creating suspense. However, all this is overwhelmingly overshadowed by the excruciatingly slow pace in which the plot unravels; and this is further heightened by the lugubrious silence of the film, which is in black and white.

The scenes are shot at but a few locations, each of which the camera nearly always lingers for an awfully long period of time. This creates a claustrophobic mood. It’s a challenge to follow through and discover the truth – but not before one’s patience is put to test.

Lest I be accused of being unappreciative of the aesthetics, well, within 15 minutes of the film’s starting, there were audiences who walked out of the cinema. After that, more and more people left the cinema in the next 2 hours. One gets distracted after sometime, wondering when the next person will leave. After the first hour, I dare say it never took longer than 10 minutes before the next group of people walked out of the show.

The last film that I caught at this year’s SIFF was, as the brief of the film puts it, ‘a memorable ode to music’ that quite simply pleases. This one comprises a string of fantasy sequences that flow with ‘poignancy and wit’. The music, settings and spoken words create a poetic mood that delights; and one can surely identify with the idiosyncrasies and human emotional frailties that were depicted.

To tell the truth, the films that we wanted to watch at the SIFF were all sold out by the time we got to buying the tickets. There were many good shows but unfortunately they all had limited screenings. One can only hope to do better next year, and hope also that some of these films might be available for screening locally in the later part of the year.

unlike any other day

today was just like any other day. it started with me hauling myself out of bed after much self-persuasion. i brushed my teeth, shaved, changed into shirt and pants, then left home and walked to the train station. Just like any other day - alright, maybe i walked a little faster. but other than that, it was the same.

i passed through the turnstile, took the escalator up and walked to the same spot that i stand at and wait for the train every other day. and when the train came, i packed myself into the centre - exactly the mid-point - of the carriage, plonked my bag onto the ground, then stared at the passing scenery as the train moved along. first it was the lake, then the identical blocks of flats. soon enough the pre-recorded announcement played, almost as natural and routine as my journey to the train station, that i sometimes don't even realise it.

standing in the train, my mind, as usual, was still getting accustomed to the reality that it is function time. it usually takes a few stations to pass before it jolts into operation mode, whereupon i would rummage my bag either for a) my never-finishing novel; b) the Economist; or c) my MP3 player. A and B are exclusive for obvious reasons. C doesn't take place when A or B happens, because i don't belong to the multi-tasking generation. i like to say that i prefer to enjoy my music wholeheartedly.

when my mind slowly shifts into slightly more advanced operation mode, i start to scan my surroundings. depending on when this takes place, sometimes my surrounding (view) could be just two strangers flanking me and the row of people blissfully seated in front. many a times i would spot a familiar face: the young working couple with their two daughters in tow; or the young father invariably in singlet and three-quarter pants carrying his barely 2-year old daughter; or the auntie who looks resigned to the fact that nothing short of a miracle would an empty seat be waiting for her when she gets onto the train. there's always a familar face, and it goes to show that i am a normal chap who, like most if not all people, wait and enter the train at the same door all the time, no matter if we wake up to a bad hair day or not. we do the same things over again, though perhaps not often realising its sameness - that's how our frenetic lives maintain a semblance of order, i suppose.

and after a long tiring journey standing and my mind becoming operationally ready by the minute, i finally reached raffles place station where i crossed over to the north-bound train. this is always the welcome interlude - there's always a nice empty seat, and i usually get to choose where i want to seat. all in a day's journey to work, just like any other day.

then on the way to office, i would get my tea or coffee to fully shift my mind to turbo operational mode. the soul may be unwilling, but the mind had better be ready to fight fires still simmering from yesterday, not to mention fresh fires that will no doubt rage with urgency as the day goes by.

there are variations to the actual proceedings for the rest of the day. but the essence, the theme, the structure remains unchanged like the day before, all the days before: replying, scheduling, planning, refining, calling, discussing, submitting. life can't be any more predictable than this.

But - a BIG But - the usual day did not end the usual way. i still made the same journey home, now in reverse order somewhat, except that the time was not turned back. i still returned to the same home, paid the same train fare, bore with the slightly less packed crowd in the train.

But it was different. Amidst the jarring din and weariness and slowly self-shutting mind (whose operational readiness started declining since a few hours ago), i was engaging in the most quintessential activity of today's wired world - text messaging on my samsung phone. it made all the difference for an otherwise ordinary, just-any-other-day day, because i was connecting with a few friends, smiling faintly as i thumbed messages, oblivious to the engulfing noise that i usually consciously resist. and did i mention that the train journey seemed twice as short as its usual time?

i promised Val that when the stars are aligned i will make our meeting happen (later at night when she informed me of her travel plans, i told her i would intervene using my cosmic powers if need be, to make sure the all stars align themselves). i told tamk that night out for drinks should be on the cards. i also buzzed jon who just came back from cambodia, who replied that 'it was quite good but pampered (him) was glad to return to good ol singapore after 6 days.' this was, i believe, when my face creased into a grin and i replied him immediately. i also messaged Lisa and XY, telling them to check out yesterday's Life! on the article on Laos. most of them replied me, and i am not embarrassed - as should be obvious by now - to say that 'hearing' from them has made my day.

Val's last message to my cosmic power sms was this: Haha! Indeed i believe u are powerful.. Hee. Kay u take care. Hopefully see ya real soon! :)
And to Ms tamk, thank you very much, for acknowledging what i always knew - that i'm (firmly) in the core, not the periphery. Hahaha!

Just like any other day, but even better. Today.