Best things about this year's Singapore Writers Festival

1. Pico Iyer. 'Nuff said.

2. Savouring a little Lagavulin single malt, courtesy of @alfpang.

3. Actually, a whole bunch of new-to-me liqueurs and wines, thanks to @alfpang. You had to be there.

4. Running into people in the Festival Pavilion and just outside --- friends, writers, readers, all. I've been rather social life-less lately, so the Festival turned out to be a good way to catch up lots of people in one place. Also a good way to catch up on the panels and sessions I didn't attend.

5. Pura the Cat, a children's book by my extremely talented and inspiring old friend Tan Soon Meng. As I said on Twitter: cute street cats, Singapore setting --- what's not to like?

6. Hearing unassuming writers like Boey Kim Cheng talk about the process of writing and making meaning, and how it's mostly, at the heart of it, about "words on a page". YES.

Here's a more detailed overview in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (link via @alfpang): "Politics and business, sex and violence, wrestling and the Pulitzers–all of this and more at the Singapore Writers Festival".

It doesn't stop, does it?

The rain, I mean. It feels like the monsoon season is full on already, even though the US elections are just over (woo, Obama!) and the school holidays in Singapore haven't officially begun yet, and there's still the Deepavali and American Thanksgiving holidays to go this month.

In other words, it's still, only November.

I'm not ready for it to be December yet. Yes, yes, I know, the supermarkets are already playing Christmas music and selling panettone, and Watson's is selling Santa-Claus style Christmas hats. But how did we get down to the last 52 days of 2012 already?