All Smiles

We went down town this afternoon, to Orchard Road no less, where I felt utterly out of place, quite enjoying my rampant sense of alienation if truth be told. I think it's encountering buildings that light up like demented Christmas trees that does it - it being to make me feel like someone who's just walked in from a simpler rather backward world to a place that's a bit too forward for its own good. Fortunately most of the inhabitants looked as ill-at-ease as I felt; distinctly, uncomfortably, human amidst all the glitter.

The brightest smiles I saw were plastered on the faces of three young people featured on the side of a bus in an advertisement for one of the local universities. They were gathered around an avuncular old chap, also looking rather cheerful, as a result, so the ad seemed to claim, of carrying out some sort of successful research. This struck me as odd. The encounter with new-found knowledge is far more likely to lead to a sense of despair, I reckon. Maybe they were faking it, after all?