H^PPY H^ll*w >.< n

Great way to round off October and Halloween Day.

Thunderstorms bashed Singapore these two evenings at around 6 - 7 pm.

Yesterday, I was almost drenched battling the strong winds and rain making my way to the bus stop at Pasir Ris. Fortunately, when the bus arrived at Sengkang, the downpour had subsided to a drizzle.

Today, when I made my way to The Arts House for a free screening of Japanese film "The Most Beautiful Times" which was part of the Singapore Writers Festival, the sun nearly melted me to a pulp. I almost regretted coming out in the heat. But later, I realised that I would have regretted it more had I missed the beautiful film.

It's a very simple story, and yet so engaging, simply because it managed to put forth the most natural human nuances on-screen, so much so that many times, I knew exactly what the character was gonna do next because it's so natural but yet so subtle that I couldn't help wondering how the writer managed to have such a keen grasp on what makes people human.

Oh, haha, I realise I've just written an entire paragraph with no full stops. I've been using a lot of commas in my sentences lately, no thanks to prolonged chat sessions in Chinese where commas seem to be easier to use, especially on the mobile phone.

I digress.

So the film finished around 5.30 pm, thunder was rolling outside, but I decided to stay for the dialogue session with the writer. It's always enlightening sitting through these sessions, listening in and observing how different people have viewed the same film in different light and what sparked the most curious curiousity. Some perspectives were really interesting, though the writer (not to blame him) couldn't really answer: "are the spots where the Singapore audience laughed the same as the ones the Japanese audience laughed at?" The exploration of cultural differences was at the core of the lively discussion, which lasted another 30 minutes.

It was already raining as I stepped out onto the porch of The Arts House. The thunder was loud, but what was more boisterous was the crowd of fans queuing up for the autograph session with Neil Gaiman. I caught a glimpse of the man, whose only work I know is Stardust (and that, the movie version), so there was no point of me hanging around. I wanted to get to the MRT station before the downpour descended upon me. Sure enough, it did just moments before I reached the overhead bridge that led to The Central and to the MRT station. By the time I reached Sengkang, it was still pouring, but miraculously I wasn't very wet. The night was cool, and I was extremely thankful for that.

No trick or treat, just a chilly Halloween night.
v(^___^*)v