July has wound to a quiet close. I reordered our fiction books on our black bookshelves, went for what might be charitably described as a run --- if you overlook the fact that I had to pause and walk every 800 metres or so --- and did a quick Pilates workout at home. Out of the shower in time to snatch a phone call with Astella, before she took off off to the next continent on her summer world tour. Did a little shopping and dinner at Parkway Parade with Terz before we adjourned to (no prizes for guessing where) Sods 2, the green-lit snug pub that is rapidly becoming Terz's second home.

Last night, Sods was the very picture of intoxicated multiculturalism: an Irish pub, in a traditionally Peranakan neighbourhood, with imbibers ranging from muted, middle-aged Indian men to loud Chinese people to a girl in a neat black top that I kept admiring from a distance (hope she didn't think I was admiring the guy she was with) to interracial couples (including the pub owners, the Bs and yours truly, though we don't look it) to an older Eurasian couple that seems to be happily growing old together to a totally blotto gentleman who'd apparently been drinking for nine hours and, fortunately, had a friend to prop him up on his way out, or he'd've fallen sideways onto the pavement and probably stayed there unable to get up till this morning. Earlier in the evening, a couple in their early twenties paced cautiously up the courtyard, peered into the bar, and promptly turned around and walked right back out onto the street. Were they expecting Zouk?

At the end of July, I have alarmingly little money in my bank account and I wonder about the imprecations of summer on my cash flow. While Singapore does not have a summer season per se, we do get an influx of people who live in countries with real summers and hence, for whom this is the best time for them to call on family and friends. Last summer, I think it was my cousin's visit that broke the bank. This summer, it's partly attributable to Astella, partly to be blamed on Sods 2's proximity to where we live. Clearly, I should just spend the rest of the year saving for the summer.

Blogging resolution for August: Take no prisoners, leave no post titles. Just go with the flow, girl.