Where's The Rain?

I am human.

I have always loved sunny days... the light that gives life and that makes me feel alive inside out.

Yet, too much sun and no rain makes for a very dry season. We have not had rain for the past two weeks and in fact having a record high temperature that has made the beautiful turfed grasses turned dry and brown, flowering bushes wilting and tall shady trees shedding leaves.

It has been one of our driest season yet. And with it came sporadic wildfires island-wide too.

I chanced upon such wildfires last Friday when youngest brother was sending me home in his car.


It was close to home, at the grassland along Tampines Avenue 10... where I love to cycle to be close to nature. Fortunately, the fire did not spread over to the dirt-bike track, stopped by the fast response by the SCDF fire-fighters.

This stretch of grassland has been known to get wildfires on many previous dry seasons before. A sanctuary for birds, but become a potential fire hazard once dry season comes.

All these years that I have been living in Tampines, through many instances of such, this is the only time I got to witness the smoldering fire and the fire-fighters in action.


It was quite cool to watch the whole thing, but I kept thinking of the poor birds and the nests in the grassland... the eggs and chicks engulfed in the fire.

I told Wifey about the fire that was just 2 blocks away from our flat when I got back home.

"No wonder it was badly hazy," Wifey replied, almost like a revelation, "I had to close the windows because it was uncomfortable to breathe."

Wifey mistook the smoke from the wildfire for the smoke that will come when the Chinese folks burn long stalks of sugarcane and paper hell money as offerings to their ancestors. A ritual to send these souls back to heaven after the festivities of Chinese New Year come to a close... or something to that effect if I have my facts right.


Being a tolerant Muslim neighbor and those not of this faith, we will normally close all the windows during such days to avoid the flying soot and choking smoke coming into our homes and dirty our curtains and sofas. Taken positively, the smoke deters mosquitoes.

Anyway, there are not many a times that I have uttered this, but where is the rain already?!