Episode 677: Holidays Finally Started For Real...

How disturbing. I was in Borders today, and it was so difficult to find three books to buy, so that I could use my voucher. I think it was partly because I only wanted to spend money on books that I really wanted, instead of just buying something for the sake of buying it. Ended up getting stuff by Mark Salzman, since I'd been eyeing one of his books for some time anyway, but just kept putting off my purchase. Hung out with Samantha and Tiffanie for some time in Wisma Atria, gossiping over a drink, and then went down to BooksActually because Kenny and Karen are having a 20% sale over the weekend. Shirley was supposed to have met me, but she was too tired in the end. I thought 20% was just too good a discount to pass up on! Bought a couple more volumes of poetry, including Arthur Yap's The Space Of City Trees, which is out-of-print now, so all remaining copies of it are stocked at BooksActually. Did not end up buying the entire series of Singa, simply because that would have required spending far more money than I can actually afford right now, at least until MOE pays me my attachment allowance, which they can't do because I haven't posted the attendance sheet. Haha! I've also finally posted that review of The Road for my editor's approval. The Evolve Journal site does not seem to like my Internet connection, so I've spent the better part of half an hour refreshing, trying to get it to work. Bad times...

Episode 676: DPPS Day 3

I think it's got to the point where the weather here is currently as abominable as it is in the UK. Caught in a traffic jam all the way along the road leading to the BKE because of the torrential rain, which resulted in me arriving at the end of the morning's session. So really, I paid nearly $30 to arrive in time for tea, and that started late anyway. I'd have got there earlier if I'd just stuck to the MRT! Oh well. Lesson learnt. Was pretty zoned out until the final session of the day, but that was only because the person speaking to us was so animated. I swear he was really a bit like a cartoon! That wasn't actually a bad thing though. I'm pretty close to finishing with The Road, so I'll probably write the review of it after I get back from tomorrow's Warwick alumni picnic. Wasn't going to attend until Tiffanie and Samantha said they were going, so at least now there're people to disappear with if it's too awkward at the picnic. The menu sounds pretty good though, even if we do have to pay for it out of our own pockets. Am thinking of hopping down to Borders after that, since I'll already be in town anyway...

Episode 675: DPPS Day 2

Today's seminars were slightly more interesting. I'm starting to realise that I'm actually quite interested in international relations, at least in terms of thinking about it as consisting of games and strategies being played out on the geopolitical stage. Not interested enough to want to study it though. What intrigues me more are the elements of calculation and manipulation involved. Afternoon was a field trip to the Changi Prison Complex, which I thought was going to be a drag, but actually turned out to be a rather fascinating experience. Don't know how things went for those who went to the MHA Heritage Centre and the Home Team Academy, but I'm glad I got to visit the prison after all. Had a good chat with Chermaine on the way there, and it's good to know someone else who cares about local literature and has read enough of it to have formed opinions on it. We're both interested in doing a PhD dissertation on Singaporean literature, when we reach that point in our academic pursuits. Feeling a bit guilty about still not having finished reading The Road, so I'm going to try and get through 100 pages of that by tonight!

Episode 674: DPPS Day 1

While I applaud people who actually ask questions during Q&A, I also wish they'd learn that the key thing is to keep your question concise, rather than deliver a long spiel that comes off sounding like 'failed social activism', an off-the-cuff phrase I coined. Anyway, it was good catching up with the other MOE people, some of whom I haven't seen in nearly a year. Food was not bad too. Haha! To be honest, one of the best things about these seminars at CSC is how well we're fed, although sometimes I wonder if the breaks were shorter whether we could just end earlier. Met up with Daniel and Thong for dinner after that at Shin Kushinya. I guess the food was okay, although my dessert was quite underwhelming for something that cost $7.80. (It was green tea ice-cream and mochi. Serviceable, but not breathtakingly good.) It's funny how easy it is to slip back into conversation with some people, even if you haven't seen them in ages. It feels so grown-up, to sit in a restaurant late into the evening on a weekday. Yeah, a bit random, I know. Now we're even going to see a play again. It's like JC days, except with more disposable income.

Episode 673: HQ Attachment Day 17

So it's finally over. Have sent e-mails out to people in my division, thanking them for making my time in CCD enjoyable. In case you think I was just trying to leave a good impression, I wasn't. I'm genuinely thankful that the people I've been working with for the past couple of weeks have been such an easygoing bunch. I don't know how the other scholars on attachment feel, but I'm actually going to miss going to work. I hate the hours, but it helps to have friendly colleagues. Plus I'm just an intern. Nobody actually needs to be nice to me! I've begun reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which I'm meant to be reviewing for Evolve Journal. It's a chilling post-apocalyptic novel, but I'm just having trouble getting into it because of how sleepy I've been. Alfian Sa'at's Collected Plays One is a lot easier to read though. I've never seen any of them being staged, but I'd like to. I'm just a little bit turned off by how insistent the copyright notices are. I mean, the tone was kind of beginning to border on hostile. I appreciate that copyright is serious business, but a reminder at the end of each play that all rights are strictly reserved does feel like overkill to me.

Episode 672: HQ Attachment Day 16

The other day, Alex sent me a message on Facebook about those posts I did last week for Incwriters, basically informing me that my blogging style was a dead giveaway. Well, at least now we know I have that elusive thing some writers are always going on about. I've found my 'voice', for better or worse. Had lunch with two of the ADs today, which was less scary than it sounds. I mean, I'm an intern. Everyone's nice to interns, right? (Don't bother to contradict me if you're interning at a law firm because I think your future pay more than makes up for any humiliation you receive now.) It was a really busy morning at work today, although I was only involved in a small bit of it. It's a bit of a relief to find out that the ADs are aware that the amount I could have done during the attachment, or rather its scope, was inherently limited by the nature of the division's work. Now I don't feel so bad for spending hours surfing My Forum, since that was one of the few things I did have access to, and it was an enlightening experience anyway.

Episode 671: Despicable Me

Having just watched Despicable Me, I think I'd like a couple of the genetically modified minions for Christmas. Thanks. I quite liked how each minion was individualised by minor details and given a name. It would've been so much easier (and lazier) to have rendered them from a generic template and not bothered to distinguish them. The film's fundamentally a feel-good animated feature, and it does shamelessly manipulate you at all the moments where you would expect to be manipulated by cute expressions and behaviour. Still, it was a pleasant way to pass the evening. Plus I got a lift home afterwards from William, so I've arrived home at a decent hour. The rain was insane though, so I expect reports of floods tomorrow, or more cars being crushed by trees. I must say, it's quite interesting how this is turning into a PR nightmare for the government, and yet to a certain extent, this is something really beyond their control for once. Must be quite discomfiting. Singaporeans being Singaporeans, aren't thinking rationally and only too happy to start pointing fingers at those in power without stopping to reflect. I mean, it's not as if the government deliberately ordered the rain so that we could have floods!

Episode 670: Local Writing...

Headed to BooksActually today with Ben Woon, so that I could use up my $70-for-$100 Vouchies coupon. Ended up buying completely different stuff from what I'd intended to. Basically, no Nabokov novels. I ended up buying a lot of local literature, but it was all stuff I know I'll definitely enjoy, e.g. Alfian Sa'at's plays, Felix Cheong and Yong Shu Hoong's poetry, and an anthology of Merlion poems. Even found a copy of Clive Barker's latest novel, Mister B. Gone, in an edition that shelves nicely with the reissues Harper has been doing. Or it would have shelved nicely, if I hadn't returned all of them before coming back to Singapore. (Well, I'm going to order them all again once I'm back in the UK.) I also bought A Field Guide To Surreal Botany, which I'd read about in the newspapers a long time ago and thought was interesting, so consider it a semi-impulsive buy. There's also a huge number of issues of Singa at the store, which I'm tempted to start buying, just to get a sense of the historical sweep of local literature. It'd look a bit weird though, if I just picked up this huge number of issues and brought them to the counter. Incidentally, Kenny recognises me (we're Facebook friends), which sort of surprised me, but was quite nice as well. Will probably make another trip back before the end of my vacation.

Episode 669: HQ Attachment Day 15

The day began and ended badly. Was nearly late for work despite taking a taxi, as we got stuck in a jam. Then I got caught up after work, and that was about three hours gone, so I got home around midnight. Thankfully, it's Friday and I don't need to work tomorrow, otherwise I'd have been even more upset. Whatever. Not going to allow myself a repeat. No sense in making myself unnecessarily frustrated! Work was the usual, although the tiny TGIF slipped in at the end of a colleague's e-mail was a nice touch. Two more days with this bunch of people. Like I've said before, it's crazy that I'm actually kind of going to miss working there, but I am. Makes me wish the attachment were longer, so I could get more deeply involved with the work that we do in our division. Incidentally, I've finished filling up Stanza with all the English and French books from Feedbooks that I could want. No idea when I'm going to be able to read them all, but if I can find just one more book likeThe American Book Of The Dead, it'll be worth it. Hoping to find some interesting science fiction, as there seems to be a lot of that on Feedbooks. A lot of the public domain stuff I'd never have encountered any other way, so it'll be good to take a look at it all.

Episode 668: HQ Attachment Day 14

I continue to be impressed by Pomegranate. It's also interesting how many familiar names are turning up among the contributors. Anyway, someone's added me on Facebook, and the only reason I can think for it is that it must be related to my writing. Would be a bit awkward to ask though, so I'm hoping she sends me a message or something. Busy filling up Stanza with more books, this time it's not user-generated content, but classic works that are in the public domain. Also did something new at work today. Hardly worth mentioning really, but it was a bit like levelling up. Haha! Mixed it up a little today and had lunch with a different group of people than usual, so now I've had lunch with almost everybody in the division. (It's a pretty small division.) Feels strange to admit it, but I think I'm kind of going to miss everyone when I'm not in the office anymore next week. Ah well. I've got a new haiku out by the way, in Four and Twenty, and it's free to download here if you're interested. I suppose you could just read my poetry blog, but it's nice to support other people's work as well, right?