Thursday, October 07, 2010

On leaving at 4pm from work

Starting this week, I have started to leave at 4pm, if there are no more loose ends to tie up.  Since I have night conference calls to take, might as well leave early.

Yesterday afternoon, things had wound down enough to leave at 4pm again.  And I had sent out the agenda for my PLT meeting on Tuesday, so nothing much left after lunch to do.

I left at 4pm with Viv and we went to attack the muddy trails of Macritchie reservoir.  My 2nd this week and Viv's first ever trail run (yes, I questioned her Singaporean-ness, she has never ran at Macritchie?!!).

As we left Motorola, Viv noticed a few police outriders, some VIP she commented.  Then we noticed there were people lining the streets gawking.  So, I did what was most natural - put my shortsighted glasses on.  Next thing we saw this gun carriage go by...  I assumed it was LKY's wife's (what is her name? who cares?) funeral cortege going by.  Much later that night, watching the late night news confirmed that yes, her cortege went by Upper Thomson Road and that she was given the honour of a gun carriage for the final ride to Mandai crematorium.

I'm a little on the fence with regards to her contributions to Singapore.  LKY - yes for sure, undeniable.  But his wife?  The late Ong Teng Cheong didn't even receive that honour and his contributions to nation building are unquestionable.

Sigh.. politics. 

Back to more interesting matters - Viv and her first time at Macritchie.  Her natural running pace is faster than mine, so she'll run, then slow down when she is unsure of the path to wait for me.  At the turnaround point, we chose to run the boardwalk so she can get a view of how beautiful the reservoir is (and I get to run on level ground instead of the hilly trail).  Once on the boardwalk, level and easy, she flew ahead.  Suddenly she appeared running back to me.  When she approached, she said "monkey!".  All 1.53m of Viv cowered behind me, afraid of the monkey troup sitting on the boardwalk nonchalantly picking their fur.  Once we cleared the monkey danger, she flew ahead again easily....  I really doubt her Singaporean-ness, she has not seen monkeys?!!

Back at the car, she said to me, 'Oh you mean that was trail running?'.  That's what happens when you spend too many years overseas.

2 comments:

-+Vivi3n FaiTh+- said...

hehehe. *blush* let's do d trail run again (: I like! I like!! ((:

Felicia said...

First u sing the national anthem and our national pledge :)