rain

I’m a very polite guest here in Singapore but it is one of those days and as Jane Austen once (kind of) said ‘if you have nothing useful to say, restrict your remarks towards the weather’.

It’s hot and overcast here with thunderstorms in the afternoons. Every day.

It’s true, I find the weather here very challenging.

When I was an English teacher in Japan, about a million years ago, we had to teach the kids these dreadful songs. One was cheerily called ‘The Weather Song’. It wasn’t tricky. One group had to sing ‘How’s the weather?’ and the other group would reply ‘It’s sunny/rainy/cloudy’ – delete as appropriate.

One day, a group of six year olds all sang ‘How’s the weather?’ ‘It’s unchi’ came the reply. I let them sing it over and over (killing time, I wasn’t a good teacher) thinking that it probably meant ‘happy’ or ‘fun’ until the door slid open and my office manager kindly pointed out they were singing:

‘How’s the weather? It’s s-h-i-t.
‘How’s the weather? It’s shiiit
How’s the weather? It’s shiiit, it’s so shiiit today.

This week (and last week), the weather in Singapore is definitely unchi.