when not too destructive, rain is a relief from the heat of day. even at night, rain makes you want to snuggle up tighter and sleep tighter. this afternoon, i continued my ravenous reading amidst the delightful downpour.

i love how the wind howls and creates a vortex that lifts and sends the leaves fluttering in an upward spiral. they look like a hundred thousand butterflies.

i love the billowing bellowing black clouds, that’s when the smell of impending rain knocks me out. i am an inhalant so that works for me.

this scent should be bottled up and sold at body shop’s next spring range. this is what how stuff works says about the smell of rain:

As it turns out, the smells people associate with rainstorms can be caused by a number of things. One of the more pleasant rain smells, the one we often notice in the woods, is actually caused by bacteria! Actinomycetes, a type of filamentous bacteria, grow in soil when conditions are damp and warm. When the soil dries out, the bacteria produces spores in the soil. The wetness and force of rainfall kick these tiny spores up into the air where the moisture after a rain acts as an aerosol (just like an aerosol air freshener). The moist air easily carries the spores to us so we breathe them in. These spores have a distinctive, earthy smell we often associate with rainfall. The bacteria is extremely common and can be found in areas all over the world, which accounts for the universality of this sweet “after-the-rain” smell.

the most important update from my previous post is that the sty from my right eye is gradually shrinking. it does not even hurt anymore.

the next important update is that the march hols have come and is slipping through my fingers like sand. at least i have a few days breather before the madness starts again.

a related update is that i’ll be whisked away on a (as chiche as it sounds) romantic getaway for an extended weekend. the past few weeks was really crazy, i hardly even had time to talk to the geek on the phone in the evenings. this trip will be a well deserved one.

we live for the holidays, the toil in between term breaks takes 110% of our time, energy, sweat and blood. so, dt and i have booked our flight and accomodation in bali for june. brillant! we are so pleased with ourselves.

i spent a good part of the day spring cleaning my room. that involves changing the sheet, wiping the mirror, washing the floor, disinfecting the surfaces and recateogorising my numerous compartmentalised storage spaces.

it was therapeutic and worth it.

the neat freak in me sent my heart racing at the sight of this online – a good idea if i live in a dust free environment.

other than that, i spent the other good part of the day watching the rain clouds pour. apparently, the street down the road has been the worst hit area by the storm on sunday, 5 trees were uprooted not too far from here.

morbid alert:

such overcast skies also makes for good somber visits to the kranji war

memorial.

i’m quite pleased with myself that i managed to see this field trip through, with wreath laying ceremony plus a bulger to boot.

in the past week or so, i’ve seen more rain than i ever had in two years in melbourne. in hindsight it was really quite fortunate that it didn’t rain during the marathon last week. but since i’m not working, i have no reason to complain about the weather and it does cool down the climate to hibernation levels.i never thought i would settle back home so easily. a big part of it has to do with getting a new place in a better location, catching up with those who matter, cheap and good food everywhere and the fact that i got all the time in world to bum, for now.

ever since i got back, there hasn’t been a sunny day in singapore. its been cloudy with frequent showered scattered throughout the day. i’m beginning to feel that this is the constant climate here. the trade off is that it cools the heat of the day.

melbourne is generally cool most of the year, but the temperature hike during summer is ridiculous. it peaked to 39 degree celcius at night during the chinese new year weekend earlier this february. therefore considering that i left melbourne when it started to climb past 30 degree celcius (together with the increase in the number of flies hovering at your face), returning to singapore felt cooler, making the transition home strangely more favorable.

in melbourne, it is a habit to check the weather forecast every hour or so because the climate and temperature does fluctuate that much – 4 seasons in a day. although it doesn’t fluctuate that much here, the met services website still remains as one of my bundle opening tabs.

now i know where all the sun went to, it has been there from 9pm to midnight, maybe hidden by the clouds. maybe met services should fine tune their graphics a little?

in other observations, the only time i do not feel humid is when i up the moisture level all the way and totally immerse myself in water. no surprises that i’ve been spending quite a bit of time doing laps in the pool or that showing is the new obsession.