Singapore Storm Cloud Street Countdown Timer

Singapore does storms properly. The sky goes from bright to black in about ten minutes, and then it just sits there over the estate, all bruised and heavy, deciding whether to commit. This is an HDB neighbourhood on a day like that, white blocks with their rows of identical windows and air-conditioning units, palm trees and rain trees, a covered walkway on the left where somebody is standing under the awning, and a road running away between it all with the markings bright and clean and almost no traffic on it. What I like is the contrast. The buildings are so orderly and the sky is so chaotic, and the trees are that impossible tropical green that only exists when the light is about to be taken away. There is a bus stop, a few signs, a man walking with a bag. The whole scene is completely ordinary and completely strange at the same time, which is basically the Singapore condition. It did not rain in the end. It just threatened for an hour, and the light came back all gold. The estate went on doing what estates do, which is to be quietly full of people you never see.