SINGAPORE — Day Two of the Singapore Writers Festival had everything covered for me — a Singlish-speaking poetry appreciator, searching for the meaning of life and how to lead it. Well, almost everything.

When I told my colleague I would attend the panel discussion on Singlish in Singapore literature moderated by Angelia Poon, he told me to write a post in Singlish as a challenge (I still have no idea if he was joking or not). I tried anyway and it was harder than I thought — damn hard lah. Which is why I take my hat off to the panel — talkingcock.com starter and film-maker Colin Goh, playwright Faith Ng and poet Joshua Ip — for keeping Singlish and the Singaporean essence alive in their works.

Aside from discussing the importance of Singlish, the panel also shared the challenges in using Singlish in their works, especially Goh, who has had his movie trailers (Talking Cock, Singapore Dreaming) banned before.

“It’s still fascinating to me to see that it’s (Singlish) still a subject of controversy,” said Goh.

Ip entertained the audience, with one of his poems, titled Chope, got a chuckle from the audience — “Would it be disrespectable if I, while at a hawker stall, drop to a knee, and place a tissue packet on your thigh?”

“That’s one problem and advantage of Singlish. It is exclusive — in the sense that when you get it, you really get it. You’re part of an exclusive crowd that understands this secret code. But at the same time, it also excludes people who may not understand those words, those idioms,” said Ip.

I had to agree. Despite being Singaporean and speaking Singlish when I mingle with people, there were moments during the panel discussion where I found myself not understanding certain phrases used — probably because I don’t understand that much Hokkien and I felt a little clueless when everyone else was laughing. (I think it’s time I get myself a Coxford Singlish Dictionary.)

Singlish wasn’t the only thing on my plate that day. I checked out British philosopher AC Grayling’s lecture (moderated by Kwok Kian Woon), with very limited knowledge in philosophy — and by limited I mean the occasional reading and Googling.

However, the lecture about leading one’s life, and if it was possible to live good lives in today’s modern society, was thoughtful and interesting — a humorous one even.

Starting off the lecture with the topic of morality, he defined the phrase “good world”, discussing the way people treat one another and how doing a little bit to help others would make a difference. “Because if one deliberately shuts one’s eye as to these responsibilities, then one isn’t being as reflective as one should be, in order to live the life that is good to live,” he said.

Sitting through his lecture wasn’t a dry and boring one, for sure. On top of injecting humour (there was laughter as he joked about French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy’s trademark unbuttoned white shirt and “magnificent hairstyle”), the Greek mythology, science and literature references mentioned definitely caught my attention as well.

If I had to share one takeaway from the lecture, it would be the big old philosophical question — “What is the meaning of life?”

Well, according to Grayling, the meaning of life is (drumroll please) “the meaning of your life” and what we make of it.

Okay, let me give you time to ponder over that.

While my colleague had a two-hour literary tour, I signed up for Poetic Intervention @Singapore Biennale Sites, a one-hour poetry reading around the Singapore Biennale installations accompanied by a performance and music.

It started off at Eko Prawoto’s Wormhole at the National Museum of Singapore and ended at Nguyen Tan Nam’s installation at the Singapore Arts Museum, where we stopped by Irwan Ahmett and Tita Salina’s installation along the way.

The roving poetry reading included performers — some of the students were from SOTA — reciting poems from poets such as Cathy Park Hong and Felix Lee. It was quite a different and refreshing programme to attend, seeing that the students performing were quite passionate. Another plus point was that my group wasn’t that large, making it more intimate — a nice way to end my night I think.

The Singapore Writers Festival 2013 runs until Nov 10. For details, visit http://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/. Check out the buzz on the local arts scene, including updates on SWF at http://www.todayonline.com/artlanders