I love the monsoon season. Ode to dampness:

There's something sinister about the weather the past few weeks or so.

I don't remember the monsoon lasting this long and being this wet ever.

And everything's damp and places smell soggy.

Your feet get cold and your umbrella's dripping wet in the adjacent aisle.

People start wearing sandals and slippers since they don't want to get soggy feet in sneakers.

Or, people start wearing heavy shoes so their feet don't get cold.

The result being that EVERYWHERE smells of feet. The BUS smells of feet. The LTs smell of feet. Even the bus stops smell of feet. So what if everyone doesn't suffer from Athlete's foot? Everyone has to be subject to smells of soggy, almost mouldy suede (from all the Birkenstocks of course), stinky rubber from the Engin ah beng's Teva sandals.

This in addition to everyone smelling DAMP. EVERY-FREAKIN-THING smells damp. Even the canteen. Dampness overwhelms the smell of food, can you believe it.

And do you have any idea what body odour on top of dampness means?! Omg, the humanity.

Clothes don't dry as fast, and after a few days of hanging indoors, they finally dry with a freakin DAMP smell again. And you have to throw 'em all in the dryer to get them dry proper.

Soggy shoes never dry in time for their next wearing, thus contributing to the inevitable increase in the damp treatment of everyone's olfactory passage.

Wet umbrellas drip on you everywhere you go.

Your freshly blown hair gets mucked up on the way to your first class.

Your feet get so cold they become numb.

I would want to take out the trenchcoat I had to wear in soggy December Shanghai, but I think a bunny in a long black coat on the streets of Singapore would get some unwanted attention.

You lose any motivation to go outside (or for class at all) since the weather is just too good for huddling under the sheets.

Good time to start promoting water-proof mascara.