It has been raining all day long here. Even at high noon, the sun refused to peek out of the clouds. I completely understand, Mr. Sun. We’ve all known what it’s like to want to hide the day away. Thankfully, it wasn’t one of those kinds of days for me.

After I had finished catching up with Dirk (one of my Borneo traveller buddies), I ran into Alison in the food court. Talking about the rain, Alison’s entire face softened as she got lost in a daydream about England and she said, “It reminds me of winter at home.”

Wintry it is not; but it is a refreshing change from the usual tropical heat and humidity. I love this temperature. Goldilocks would be pleased.

The rain is incredibly relaxing. The constant pitter patter against the slanted window pane has got me feeling very mellow. Iron and Wine is an appropriately quiet and soothing soundtrack. On the one hand, it’s absolutely wonderful to be this chilled out since it’s doing my body good to properly recover from the stress of hastily drafting essays in the middle of the night. On the other hand, I’ve got to snap out of this and kick it into high gear before I leave for Taipei in a week and a half.

The past few days have been blissful. I toured parts of Singapore that I should have seen within my first week here. I melted before my favourite Botero sculpture by Boat Quay. I went to the Art Museum and felt my heart lift out of my chest because of the power and beauty of some of the pieces. I muched on some yummy xiaolong bao from the Paragon location of world famous Din Tai Fung so I can give you a more holistic review of the original Taipei outlet in a few weeks. I helped to make and consume delicious Korean food with some fly Korean ladies and some cute Australian and English boys. I purchased some sexy wedges that will allow me to keep my reign as the girl with “the coolest shoes in law skule.” (Thanks, Manuel for giving me the title. My Donald J. Pliners never let me down, but there’s always room for more. ) I went clubbing for the first time since the August law bash. I happily observed some really sexy dykes being sweetly shmoopy in the back of the “live room” at the club.

There are many stories to tell, reflections to share and photos galore. I promise some photos this week. Clearly, that Borneo entry is not going to write itself!

I will tell you that after I had fancy dim sum at the Crystal Jade Paragon, I followed my relatives to Centrepoint and spent the better part of an hour in the Times Bookshop. It is a far cry from Kinokuniya or Borders, so it’s no surprise that after getting turned off by a scary, scathing, super-biased bio of Hillary Rodham Clinton, I greedily and guiltily devoured American magazines like People and Teen Vogue.

The most shocking thing of the afternoon was not found in a tabloid or teen fashion mag. Nay, it was found in the front of the bookstore next to a small magazine rack. A woman in her 30s was sitting in a stroller quietly reading a magazine. Maybe she’s a busy mother without a nanny and needed to take the weight off of her feet, but she should’ve just forked over the cash for her magazine(s) of choice and headed to a more comfortable place to rest her bum. BECAUSE THEN SHE MIGHT NOT HAVE PUT HER TODDLER IN A SHOPPING BASKET AND TAKEN THE POOR CHILD’S PLACE IN THE STROLLER!

I had to resist the urge to whip out my phone or digicam and snap a picture. Paparrazza I am not. I could barely hide my shock and horror, there was no way I could hide a snapping camera.

Sure, the kid seemed happy enough to flip through a picture book while sitting in the plastic basket, but it was just so inappropriate! We’re not talking about pushing your child around in a large grocery cart. We’re talking about taking your toddler out of his/her comfy stroller and placing him/her into a shopping BASKET so that you can take his/her place.

Singapore, apparently, does not have a law against this kind of uncouth behaviour. What would MM Lee say?

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 16th, 2005 at 9:27 am and is filed under S'pore, Emo-ed Out.
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