Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

It probably comes as no surprise that my friends and I love places [...]]]>

Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

It probably comes as no surprise that my friends and I love places like Books Actually, because it’s a place that’s just so special. You can feel it in the walls, the people and the products, and it makes you feel glad that there are places like this in Singapore.

I am glad to say that Books Actually is not alone in its independence.

Post-Museum is a little slice of heaven located in 107 and 109 Rowell Road; it’s a small 1920s shophouse near Farrer Road MRT station. It has four studios, an event space for rent, and a vegan-friendly cafe called Food #03.

Our friend Rozen had stumbled upon it a few weeks before. She was thinking of renting a studio there for her own mini-office and possibly sharing the space with the HSWG, which of course was a exciting prospect for us. We were sent to recon the place, and also to try vegan food.

So it was on the last Sunday of January that Sarah, Mintea and Avariel headed down to see what Rozen had been raving about.

She was right.

Post-Museum is located at the very end of Rowell Road, so once you find Rowell Road just stay on the left and walk alllll the way down. You will pass interesting shops selling interesting goods and, er, services, but just keep going.

It just so happened that we were there on the same day as the Really Really Free Market. The RRFM is literally that; you can bring your stuff there to give away for free. If you don’t have stuff, services are also offered; I saw someone doing tarot readings and another who would teach you how to play reversi.

Really Really Free Market

I picked up a bottle of fairtrade instant coffee and several packs of red packets, seeing as the Chinese New Year was rapidly approaching. They had a donation box there, with proceeds going to help keep Post-Museum going.

After that, we headed over to the adjoining cafe Food #03 for a spot of brunch to try their food. They serve fairtrade coffee, tea and cocoa, as well as vegan-friendly food. It’s vegetarian by default, but you can ask for it to be vegan and without onion and garlic, so it’s good for folks with a variety of dietary restrictions.

Hand-stitched menus

Let me describe the inside of Food #03 for a bit. When we entered from the front, to the left were a few shelves with some merchandise. Proceeds from the sales go to supporting Post-Museum. There are t-shirts, tote bags, olive oil, even cute little badges that you can get. A bit further down is the counter, where there is a big red bottle for donations.

The walls are not fully finished; the lower half of the walls of the left wall is tiled over. The rest is just exposed brick and mortar, possibly dating from the original construction. The floors are bare concrete, the tables and chairs simple wood constructions. There is just enough space to seat twenty.

There is the quiet buzz of happy conversation. It’s warm, but not too warm; the three fans spin lazily overhead, providing just enough ventilation to keep things cool. There is an airconditioning unit in the corner, but they only switch it on when it’s very hot.

Close your eyes, lean back in your chair with a cold drink in your hand, and just relax. You feel like you’ve left the urban concerete jungle and you’re someplace else – somewhere special, where things are different. Slower. More special.

There's something magical in the air.

It's like you're elsewhere.

It was quite crowded because of the RRFM, but we were able to get a table. We ordered drinks, starting with their signature drink: the Post-Museum pour. It’s a mix of apple juice, mint and spiced tea served with a longan. It was a little too strange for me, but the others liked it.

Second round of drinks involved Bundaberg Lemon Lime & Bitters, which I love and was really happy to see on the menu. We ordered a vegan pizza with grilled mixed vegetables with tofu instead of cheese.

Lemon Lime & Bitters ($3.50) and Post-Museum Pour ($2)

I was a bit apprehensive about the pizza because I’d never tried vegan food before. It’s something you can’t get anywhere else, so we gave it a shot. I needn’t have worried, because it came out quite tasty.

Vegan pizza: mixed grilled vegetables with tofu instead of cheese

It tasted non-awful, and I quite liked it. The tofu did not taste weird when baked! Which is good to know.

All in all, Post-Museum is an amazing place. We didn’t get to see the rest of it because they were busy, but before we left I made sure to donate. They’re a very special place that needs a bit of help to keep going, and I’m more than glad to help out as much as I can.

That’s right, Happiness at the End of the World is available in stores now!

So far it’s only been spotted at the main Kinokuniya store at Takashimaya, but we expect that the books will hit other Kino stores and other bookstores soon. :D

You can find it here in Kino:

With GST it’s S$19.26, but you can get [...]]]>

That’s right, Happiness at the End of the World is available in stores now!

So far it’s only been spotted at the main Kinokuniya store at Takashimaya, but we expect that the books will hit other Kino stores and other bookstores soon. :D

You can find it here in Kino:

With GST it’s S$19.26, but you can get it for S$18 (inclusive of shipping) at the publisher’s website!

Aaand what is Happiness at the End of the World about? It’s a collection of eight sci-fi short stories centering around the theme of, well, happiness at the end of the world.

There are all sorts of genres in the book, ranging from romance to crime to fantasy. Everyone has their favorite, so go pick up your copy and find yours ;)

Quick details:

All In! Young Writers’ Seminar: Writing and the New Media Venue: The Arts House (1 Old Parliament Lane) Date: 20 Feb [...]]]> The All In! Young Writers’ Seminar is the first seminar-conference I’ve heard about that specifically targets post-secondary students from JCs, polys, and universities. I’d go, but I have exams that week so unfortunately I can’t ):

Quick details:

All In! Young Writers’ Seminar: Writing and the New Media
Venue: The Arts House (1 Old Parliament Lane)
Date: 20 Feb 2010, Sat
Time: 9.30am to 6pm
Admission is free

It’s organised by the National Book Development Council, the Arts House and the NUS Literary Society, with NUS being the National University of Singapore.

Here’s a rundown of what the gist of the seminar is all about:

This seminar will provide an insight into:

• How the Internet and web technologies have evolved and are evolving
• How has the traditional publishing value chain been affected by IT and the new media
• Writing in the larger context of Digital Media
• How to keep up to date with new developments
• Future trends like e-books, e-readers, interactive and multimedia content
• Responsible blogging

Things like comics and online journalism will also be covered during the session, so go forth and register! The flyer with the registration info can be found here.

Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

Saturdays are usually my days to recover from the previous school week, which [...]]]>

Tally-Ho is a semi-regular column of my adventures with the Adventure Crew (and sometimes other people). We figured that Singapore can’t be all that boring, and are determined to show other folks how fun Singapore can be… if you know where to look.

Saturdays are usually my days to recover from the previous school week, which means sleeping in.

But not two Saturdays ago. Instead of experiencing the simple joy of unconsciousness, I found myself climbing a mountain hill and attempting to save a prince(ss) from the dragon keep up with everyone else.

Along for the hike up Bukit Timah Hill were most of the Adventure Crew: Joelyn Alexandra, Avariel and Seriously Sarah. Mintea joined us later, for Part 2 of the adventure.

Joelyn, Avariel, Sarah

So it was early on a Saturday morning that I found myself climbing up Bukit Timah Hill, learning about local flora and fuana, running away from butterflies, and pretending that I was an explorer in a never-before-discovered jungle.

We’d signed up for A Walk In An Ancient Forest, which is held every third Saturday of the month at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

We had a volunteer guide, a nice lady called Anne, who took us along the green trail, which I believe is called the South View trail for a bit.

Volunteer guide Anne

We set off from the Visitor’s Centre and almost straightaway there were interesting plants to show us.

This is the betel nut, which is usually wrapped in betel leaves and assorted spices and chewed. It’s supposed to be a mild stimulant, so truckers in Asia chew it when they’re driving long routes.

Betel nut, still in its husk

And then we started climbing up the hill, stopping along the way to see various plants and animals – like big termite nests, which look like orange-brown basketballs.

I found out that the taller trees in the reserve actually have lightning rods attached to the back, because they don’t want the trees to be struck down by lightning. Considering that the hill is the highest natural structure in the island, and perhaps one of the few remaining patches of primary forest, I totally get it.

We saw a monitor lizard lying in the sun near the tree with the lightning rod, but it ran away as soon as we approached so I only saw its tail disappearing behind a tree.

Up we go! Picture by Sarah.

Anne told us that we might see pitcher plants, but probably not because this part of the reserve has quite a lot of topsoil and dead leaves on the ground, which means that the soil is relatively nutritious. Pitcher plants only grow where there isn’t enough nutrients in the soil, so the trees get what they need from unfortunate insects.

We came across this, which is wild pandan:

Wild pandan

Wild pandan is different from the pandan leaves that we use to cook! For one, there’s no smell. I don’t think it’s used for cooking at all, though it’s used to weave mats and stuff.

Another interesting factoid: if you can hear the cicadas (like crickets, but not) chirping away, the weather is gonna be fine. But if they suddenly stop or are very soft, then get your behind to shelter as soon as you can because it’s going to rain. You do not want to be in a rainforest when it rains. Cicadas can sense barometric pressure, which means they know when it’s going to rain. Neat, innit?

The green path is actually quite walkable and is supposed to be the easiest of the four trails, although I did have some trouble in certain spots. There are these concrete blocks set into the ground to help deal with compaction and erosion, and the older ones make for very high steps. And — I make no secret of this — I am short and fat, so there were areas where it was actually kinda difficult to climb. But I made it (:

The tour was a very interesting hour, but eventually Anne had to say goodbye. She left us at the halfway point of the hill where all the trails converge to head to the summit. We decided to head up to the summit since, heck, we were halfway there already.

We climbed. And climbed. And climbed.

And, because I was feeling rather sticky and somewhat isolated from the rest of the modern world, I made pretend in my head that I was an adventurer exploring the hidden depths of an unexplored island and that I was doing a Great Service to Mankind. I was at the back of the group not because I was slow and out of shape, but because I was looking out for man-eating tigers!

…

Hey, it got me up the hill. I’m not complaining.

296º Northwest, old boys!

Okay, so the iPhone compass somewhat spoiled the effect. BUT YOU GET WHAT I MEAN.

Incidentally, I was surprised my phone was working. There are two signal towers at the summit of the hill, and the last time I was there I had no reception as we approached the top. But this time I had no problems until we actually reached the top, so I suppose we won’t all die from radiation poisoning. Which is good, but it also means we probably won’t wake up with superpowers ):

We came to a really steep-looking path called the Summit Path, which was a shortcut but looked frighteningly steep. So we took the long way around, which is a slope. We saw lots of people coming down, so we figured it would be easier if slower. It took us about 30 minutes to reach the top that way.

It’s a winding slope and all flat ground, so it was easier.

That being said, I have never been so happy to see a big rock before.

I love you, rock.

We rested for a while, enjoying the view of the cell towers:

One of two phone/radio/signal towers

They’re in use, by the way. I had some trouble getting reception from the top.

And then after a bit, we headed down, this time using the shortcut that we’d avoided before.

Now we know why everyone was using the long winding way instead of the shortcut! It was a shortcut, but it was ridiculously steep and treacherous. I couldn’t pretend to be a Brave Forest Explorer because I was too busy trying not to slip on rocks and roll down X_x

I'm at the back. Notice a pattern here?

And then! While we were on the treacherous path, we nearly stepped on a monitor lizard. That caused a small amount of panic. We were sure to panic very carefully because there are so many other ways to die on the way down.

I could feel every rock jabbing at my feet through my Doc Martens, because the hill is made from granite they were strewn all over the path down. Eventually we made it to flat ground, which is just as well because very shortly after I had my very first leg cramp.

We headed back down to the visitor’s centre, which is at the foot of the hill. Along the way we did the butterfly dance (mostly me trying to avoid and run away from butterflies, with a panicky expression), the bee dance (like the butterfly dance, but with more panic) and the “don’t stand there, there’s a big spider!” dance which involves me half-hopping, half-limping away from a big spider in a rotting log.

And after lunch at nearby Al-Ameen, off we went to the second jungle: the urban jungle! We met up with Mintea along the way.

We made our way to the Singapore Art Museum, which has a really awesome exhibit right outside:

Flirting Point by Vertical Submarine

About Flirting Point

So amusing. I’d seen Vertical Submarine’s work before, which was really cool and interesting. They share my sense of humor, which is great because quite a lot of the time I find art installations too abstract and serious to appreciate. They don’t have a website of their own though, so I can’t point you towards their awesome.

And then we headed to the National Library at Victoria Street to do a little research on a semi-secret project. They were having a sort of humanitarian and environmental fair, and we each got to ride on Segways! I suck. But it was fun! No photos, though.

When we came out of the library again we had drinks, and we spotted this very cool can recycling machine. So since we had cans, Sarah and I figured we’d give it a try…

The machine noms the can

It’s a really neat machine that eats cans and bottles up and crushes and stores them until a recycling company comes along to collect the scrap. There’s another model that doesn’t crush the cans, just stores them as they are.

Interior of the machine

For every can you put in, the machine prints out a coupon for you to redeem something. This machine is sponsored by Coca-Cola, so we got a voucher for a can of Coke.

I can has a Coke

The company that brings the machines in is looking to put these in assorted office buildings and schools to encourage recycling. The great thing is that the machines are quite compact; the big one is slightly larger than a vending machine, so it’s entirely possible you might be seeing these near normal vending machines.

In case you’re curious, I recycled the Coke can after I was done with it.

So I felt good. I’d spend the day in a forest, learning about the local natural heritage; and I ended the day with recycling to help reduce waste.

Good karma makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside (:

I’m not exactly big on celebrating new years, so technically I wasn’t really celebrating New Year’s Eve when I went to the Blogger’s Hat-py Party at the Singapore Art Museum a few days ago ;)

An aside: Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing a lot of Assassin’s Creed II lately, but when we went [...]]]>

I’m not exactly big on celebrating new years, so technically I wasn’t really celebrating New Year’s Eve when I went to the Blogger’s Hat-py Party at the Singapore Art Museum a few days ago ;)

An aside: Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing a lot of Assassin’s Creed II lately, but when we went into SAM — which is housed in a colonial-era convent school that had monks and everything — my mind went something like this:

1. Look for the building’s highest point, which is where the viewpoint would be located: a mini-dome with a cross
2. Look for possible feather and glyph locations on the way: rooftop, around the cross
3. Identify the fastest routes for Ezio to make it up to possible feather and glyph locations

I did actually figure out all of that, and before long I was looking out for bales of hay to jump into in case enemy guards spotted me. I think I’m experiencing the bleeding effect! /aside

At any rate, I went with my minions cronies usual gang of suspects, but with new additions! I’d met Lysistarielle (of Tiramisue.com) before at STGCC — some of you might remember her as Poison Ivy. But Arrch I’d never met before, so if you’re reading this, hi Arrch! :D And of course the wonderful Seriously Sarah, Joelyn Alexandra and Avariel were along for the fun.

Arrch, Lysistarielle, Sarah, Joelyn, and Avariel

The theme: hats! Everyone had to wear a hat or headgear of some kind, hence the rather amusing name of the party. (Arrch had a Scribblenauts hat, which makes him a ton of awesome.) I wore a Mario hat, mainly because I could. Hahaha.

And what if you didn’t have a hat? 24seven.sg had a solution to that…

"24seven made me wear this because I forgot to bring my hat"

Bwahaha. The photo doesn’t accurately capture the sparkliness of the hats.

At the registration area I met people who I’ve only read about, which is always kind of strange. It was a bit like when I met Neil Gaiman, except this time I could breathe and talk at the same time! So I didn’t make a complete fool of myself in front of Ivy (of Nanyate.com), Claudia (Claudia.sg), Diana (MoleMole.sg), and Tech65.org guys Jerrick Lim (who is really big) and Hisham.

And I met lots of other bloggers, most of whom I don’t know the names of. But suffice it to say that there were many awesome hats and wigs in attendance:

Wig-eration!

Moar wigs

They opened up the dinner buffet early because it was kinda late, and everyone was hungry. It was nice food! I don’t have any pictures though. There were roasted small little round potatoes that looked like meatballs, but they were extremely yummy. They’re a bit like chocolate; you pop one into your mouth, and then you say “just one more” and before you know it…

The main party was in the Glass Hall, which housed an exhibition of works by patients with mental illnesses. I can’t really appreciate art — I’m not posh enough, and the written word has always been my area — but I was fascinated with some of them, both as a visitor and as someone who has dealt with mental illness firsthand. I’m not sure whether it’s a charity exhibition, but some of the works were very poignant.

This was one of my favorites:

'Angelic portrait of myself' by Eric Sean (white glue and sand)

At any rate, there were some games. We were sent into the gallery to take photos, and I believe this particular gallery was featuring art by Filipino artists. One of the activities was to find a picture that was made with an M16 bullet, which was this:

One of pieces from the 'Headshots' series by Alvin Zafra

A portrait of a young Imelda Marcos

And, since everyone in attendance was a blogger, it involved a lot of tech…

Well she -is- taking a photo, just not of the art

And then back to the Glass Hall for some music! We  got the chance to see two really good bands perform that evening. The Black Diamond Ninjas did some rather sad songs, and Only After Coffee performed some really boppy country songs.

Black Diamond Ninjas

Only After Coffee

We ended up sitting on the floor, and I can safely say this is the first time I’ve ever done that in a museum :P We also voted for the craziest hat – congrats to the winners, your win was well-deserved.

There was bingo! I love bingo, even though I didn’t win anything.

So close to full house!

There were lots of lucky draws too, and the prizes ranged from Sentosa ride tickets to $500 Singtel vouchers and all other sorts of interesting things. It was like everyone around me was winning something except me, hahaha.

Joelyn won the grand prize, a Samsung Pixon 12 handphone! A really good Samsung phone too, not some random old model that no one wants. Her reaction was hilarious. The emcee read out the lucky number, and there was silence… And suddenly a very loud “HUH?!”

Bwahaha. I couldn’t stop laughing at her afterwards.

As the saying goes, when you’re having fun, time flies. And it did. Soon it was 10:30pm and we were taking a big group photo, silly hats and all, and it was time to go.

But because Sarah was wearing an awesome shirt, and we had name stickers that were just the right size… We left with this (:

It actually says Buffy under the sticker.

A great way to kick off the new year, no?

Aheh. Full post to come soon!

Last Saturday was Nanowrimo Singapore’s Thank Goodness It’s Over party!

We had a sign and everything!

We had catering, so Earshot cafe was mostly ours for the afternoon :D But yess.

Sign-in area: stickers, Vicious the Ninja Bunny, sign-in sheet, [...]]]> This post comes a little late, but I got caught up with school! But here it is.

Last Saturday was Nanowrimo Singapore’s Thank Goodness It’s Over party!

We had a sign and everything!

We had catering, so Earshot cafe was mostly ours for the afternoon :D But yess.

Sign-in area: stickers, Vicious the Ninja Bunny, sign-in sheet, assorted condiments

So I arrived early and set up for the arrival, then Sarah of Seriously Sarah arrived with more stuff! Awesome stuff of the prizey sort.

Have a funny story: she came into the cafe with her bags and no cake. I thought the cake had met with some sort of mishap, and I experienced a moment of panic. All I could think of was “THE CAKE WAS A LIE!”.

It turns out the (extremely large and heavy) cake was in the car. She went back to get it. And this was right after I’d been joking with a Wrimo about the cake not being a lie.

More and more Wrimos started arriving so we could really get the party started.

Wrimos galore

There were quiz questions, and we gave out all sorts of prizes. There were prizes for Highest Wordcount (200,000+ words – amazing), Best Last Line, Earliest New Wrimo of 2009, among others.

It was all rather fun, even from the ML side of things. After all the prizes and quizzes, there was cake! :D

The cake isn't a lie

It was an awesome cake. The ‘50′ was, of course, for Nanowrimo’s 50,000-word goal. The coins were chocolate Euros, which was amusing because I didn’t even know they made chocolate coins in Euros.

The yellow stuff next to the coins are meant to be gold bars, I think. They were made out of white chocolate colored yellow. Everybody was wondering what the heck they were, until someone cut them up into little cubes and passed it around. They were quite nice, even if the color was a bit off-putting.

The cake in all its yummy glory!

Cake cutting

After the cake, we had the refreshments catered by the Arts House: muffins (with chocolate cores), assorted mini-cakes, puffs, and beverages. Lots of sugar meant a lot of interesting conversations were had :D

While we ate some of us did readings! Mostly from Happiness At The End of The World, a collection of short stories that I’m in ($18 from the publisher, hinthintnudgenudge) but also from our Nanovels. I read the Phail Whale bits from my Nanovel :D

Sarah Coldheart reading

It was good. I had some extremely entertaining conversations, cake, and other sugary baked goods. And as we all know, cake and assorted sugary baked goods are always good.

Happy MLs are happy

Til next year! :D

Don’t panic!

It’s a site bug that was just discovered by the folks in Australia and NZ. HQ is working on fixing it.

Currently, the only workaround is to change your timezone to [...]]]> If it’s Nov 30 in wherever you are, you might notice that you can’t validate your wordcount because the site thinks that Nov is over.

Don’t panic!

It’s a site bug that was just discovered by the folks in Australia and NZ. HQ is working on fixing it.

Currently, the only workaround is to change your timezone to something further back.

More updates as we get them.

This week Dates: 21 Nov (Sat) and 22 Nov (Sun) Venue: Earshot Cafe, The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Lane Time: 2pm to 4pm

Bring your brolly! It’s been raining like mad these past few days, so hopefully we wouldn’t be flooded in.

Here’s a map from City Hall mrt station:

View Larger [...]]]> We’ll be at The Arts House again!

This week
Dates: 21 Nov (Sat) and 22 Nov (Sun)
Venue: Earshot Cafe, The Arts House, 1 Old Parliament Lane
Time: 2pm to 4pm

Bring your brolly! It’s been raining like mad these past few days, so hopefully we wouldn’t be flooded in.

Here’s a map from City Hall mrt station:

View Larger Map

Again: don’t own Twitter or any of its trademarks, won’t be making money off the novel, and Fail Whales are adorable.

“It’s almost nightfall,” Lina explained, splashing water onto the Phail Whales. “The Twitter birds are about to come out, so the [...]]]> Here’s the continuation of the preview from yesterday. The first part can be found here.

Again: don’t own Twitter or any of its trademarks, won’t be making money off the novel, and Fail Whales are adorable.

“It’s almost nightfall,” Lina explained, splashing water onto the Phail Whales. “The Twitter birds are about to come out, so the migration is gonna start.”

“Ooh,” she cooed. “Time to say goodbye?”

“Time to say goodbye,” Lina agreed.

“Aww.” Rain leaned down to hug the Phail Whale, tickling it under the chin. “I have to go.”

“Faaaaaaaaaaail,” the baby Phail Whale sang. “Faa?”

“It’s time for us to go,” she said indulgently, patting its head. “The migration is about to start. You need to go back to your mummy.”

“Illll? Aaaaaaaail,” it sang. “Ffttt. Ail. Ill.”

“He’s saying goodbye,” Lina translated.

“Llllll. Aaaaaaa. Ffffft aaaaaaaail. Failllll…”

“And he wants to play with you again,” Lina smiled.

“I wanna play with you again too,” she said, hugging it tightly around where its neck was approximately was.

It bumped its nose against her chest affectionately, and she gave it a little push towards the deeper waters. A big wave hit her, and she could see the adult Phail Whales surfacing as they approached the shore for the migration.

The baby Phail Whale swam off, followed closely by its bigger friend. It stopped halfway to its parents and turned around, singing and waving its tail at her.

Rain laughed and waved back. “He’s adorable!”

“They are,” Lina smiled, “The young ones are very friendly. They like humans.”

[...]

“Tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet tw,” the Twitter birds sang. The tone had changed, and she could hear the sounds of hundreds of birds preparing to move.

“The migration?” she whispered to Lina.

Lina smiled. “Of the Phail Whales. The Phail Whales protect the Twitter Isles from anything that might want to eat the Twitter birds – they’re big enough and scary enough that most predators think twice about coming near the Isles.”

“In exchange, the birds help the Phail Whales migrate to the warmer waters on the other side of the Isles. It’s a spectacular sight.”

The birds were singing now, and suddenly a group of about two dozen birds burst out from the forest and raced towards the water.

“There they go!” Lina said.

Rain craned her neck to watch them. They were carrying something that gleamed in their beaks. It was so thin and clear that she could barely see it, just the way the light glinted off it.

She knew what it was: the famed gossamer nets of the Twitter birds. Much like the cave swift birds of Asia, whose spit dried into a gelatinous mass that formed their nests, the Twitter birds spun nets out of their spit for the migration.

Twenty birds joined their individual strands together so that it formed a stronger net large enough for an adult Phail Whale.

There was a Phail Whale swimming apart from the pods gathered as near the shore as they could stand to be. She recognised her little Phail Whale friend hovering near a much larger, adult Phail Whale who looked kind of feminine, presumably its mother.

The birds headed for the separated Phail Whale and dipped low to the water. The clear net disappeared underneath the surface of the water, and the birds hovered close to the surface as the Phail Whale propelled itself gently towards the net. It didn’t swim as such; with a big flick of its large, inverted handlebar moustache, it glided towards the net.

It glided to a stop more or less within the net’s boundaries, and sang loudly to signal the birds that it was ready. “Ffffftt aaaaaal.”

The birds tweeted back, and their little white and orange wings flapping madly, started to lift the Phail Whale up.

It didn’t seem that difficult for them, and before long the Phail Whale rose from the surface of the sea around the Twitter Isles.

Rain’s breath caught in her chest. It was beautiful, and so serene. The Phail Whale was singing loudly. It was so loud that, as they rose to several dozen feet above the heads of the spectators, Rain could feel the song vibrating in her chest. It was beautiful.

The Phail Whale was calm and serene, and – and smiling. She didn’t know Phail Whales could smile, but this one was, and it was singing.

“It’s reassuring the others,” Lina whispered. “It’s telling them that everything is fine and that the view from the top is beautiful. It’s telling them that they’re going to a better place with lots of fish and warm water and funny humans.”

Rain couldn’t help but smile. “It’s so gorgeous…”

And then everything went wrong.

She saw the lights in the sky first, and she thought perhaps they were more birds. As they emerged from the cloud cover, she saw what they were.

Fireballs.

Travelling at high speed.

Towards the Phail Whale.

She didn’t even have time to scream when the first fireball struck.