morning chapter

autumn beckons and days are windy and free. i can't wait to watch the trees turn orange-green. the tree-lined boulevards on the university compound make the place restful. the path marks my daily walk to collect the morning papers. today, i adjourned to animal orchestra for breakfast- had the finest mocha ever and the house speciality, a pan of baked eggs choked with a variety of servings from gourmet cheese to goat's milk, smoked aubergines and capers, and even sardines! i opted for the last. not quite disappointed but it could do with a little lemon dash to blunt the slight seasoned bitterness of fish. the interiors are

glued with illuminating pictorials and crude snapshots of world news, capturing its peculiar nooks and crannies; nelson mandela on a pipe, dame edna kissing a vulgar bust of city wall and late princess di crowned by bouquets of angelic leaves & pastel florals. relaxed with the day's .

papers on hands. sipping coffee and making myself privy to the hordes of conversations polluting the casual air of melbourne's many streetside cafes on this part of town.








art.
the yellow clock-tower links time with knowledge, an unshakeable stature and to some, a concept so full of flavour it resists the corrosion of time. being here, not quite foreign yet trying to stand or walk in stillness to the clear fact that these old stone walls are silent witness to the hordes of students who come to taste jargons and concepts dating back to centuries of thought. the old arts block hides one of my favourite walking paths. the walls breathe & ascribe to medievial language and philosophy. subjects never to be found in techocratic nus/ntu and the like find full respect here. i wonder how local / singapore students might re-imagine their own purpose and direction should they be exposed to these academic possibilities early in life. to many singaporeans, knowledge is best appropriated in light of its relevance to an ever-thirsting economy and its subsequent practical value to life. the given vision is a frightening one. and narrow still.

some students have in the past denounced reason as the enemy of revelation. others identify it as a critical ally to self-understanding and independent vision. medieval studies provides an experience in building up rational wholes, theories and interlocking systems of language, culture and ideas which shape them into being. and there, we take the proverbial imaginative leap...thinking more for and about ourselves, our place in the wider world, our critical relationship with others... not to be confined to what weber terms , the 'iron cage of bureaucracy' and the disabling form of obsessive-compulsive worship of empirical knowledge' which we are binded (and have been blinded) to.