Trek . Or 'kena' tracked by monkey?

I know, I know. I am working backwards, but my friends fill up my diary so much that I hardly want to touch the laptop when I reach home.

As usual, we did not manage to meet at the aforesaid time of 10am and by the time we reached Bishan, bought whatever stuff we needed to bring along as hunger saviour and had a very late breakfast (more like brunch), we reached Macritchie Reservoir at about 12 noon. Haha! Typical lazy urbanites, us!

The weather was exceptionally good though and the sun was hiding behind the clouds. Perfect for walking. After the treetop walk, I began to feel hungry and so we made a pit-stop at one of the benches. There was another group of English family with 2 kids. They were also eating. No sooner had a taken out my SoyJoy, did the monkey come a-looking at us.

I guess it was partly my fault. There were too many plastic bags and I was ruffling them around, trying to find my SoyJoy in the sea of things in my bag. It was sitting on the support handles for trekkers while edging nearer towards me and my (ex)-housemate (ehm), while both of us kept moving away. The only person he was afraid of or thought of as a threat, was my ehm's husband. It hissed at him.

Worse still, it saw me keep my snack and it knew that I had food. It came after me still. We kept screaming for my ehm's husband to distract the monkey so that we can get moving. It finally did get distracted and we ran down the wooden steps.

When we were at a very safe distance from the monkey, I quickly ate my snack bar as we continued to walk. Phew! What an experience!

Crazy weekend

So I lament that I did not plan my Friday properly, but I think I over packed my Saturday and Sunday to the brim!

We started off late on Saturday and ended up going home only at about 2am in the morning. Mahjong I mean. We played longer rounds for some of us kept winning. As usual, we had fun though, my cousin and I. We were singing songs all the way, entertaining my Dad and my aunt. Towards the end, we even started playing the I-name-a-song-and-u-sing game. My cousin would say a title, and I would sing. She was just super amazed at how I could sing almost any of the songs that she said.

Actually, it is because we are of that same era and therefore, we listened to similar songs. It was just that I am more the song-crazy person who would bother to memorise the lyrics.

The next day, I had planned to go for 8.45 mass, but of course, I only woke up like at 10am and almost wanted to strangle myself. Setting the alarm did not help. My meeting with trek-mates was 11am and if Dad did not give me the car, I would have been so, so late.

I was only half awake and we were going to climb my dreaded Bukit Timah Hill. Used to like it a lot until I twisted my ankle. Ever since then, I have not gone back there until yesterday. I braved myself through all the steps that I went down. There were no ropes for me to hang on to and at one point, I was feeling dizzy. It was bad.

As we descended from the peak, I thought all was going to be well when one of my friends suggested we take the off road track again. I saw them steps and I immediately told them I would meet them back at the starting point. It was enough steps ascending and descending for the day. Besides, to tell you truth, I am sooooo out of shape. I am going to take the opportunity to build up my so-called stamina when I totally quit my job. I think at one point I was even a little asthmatic for I was breathing so hard.

The rest of them were very nice. They said to go with majority, but I could see disappointment on their face. Shoot. I have become the wet blanket and spoil spot.

Nevertheless, I would rather be one than to risk twisting my ankle and paying for doctor's fees again.

I feel dead beat even now, but I give myself one month to pick up again. I MUST NOT GROW OUT OF SHAPE!!!!!

Uses for my rainboots

I have been cracking my head as to what I can do with my rainboots once they arrive. Here are some of the options:

1. Wear them on a rainy day (duh!)
2. Wear them when I go for a stroll in the neighbourhood
3. Wear them when I go to the market for breakfast (then can fight who has got prettier boots: fishmongers or me? Muarhahaha!)
4. Wear it when I go for easy treks

Then, tonight, I thought of another occasion: wear them when I am washing the toilet! HaHahahahahahaha! Why? Because I was washing the toilet tonight and the bleach was sort of biting into my soles and the floor was real slippery while I tried to scrub out mould from the cracks and crevices. That's when I thought of my rainboots!

Erm...but when my housemate came back home, she exclaimed when I told her I got a US size 5 shoes. She said that is big. Erm...just have to keep my fingers crossed now coz if I remember correctly, my sports shoes are US size 5.

Who is getting out of hand, humans or monkeys?

Yesterday, I was telling my colleague about how I go to the Macritchie Reservoir to trek. That this was my form of keeping fit.

She then commented on how there were so many monkeys and how they will snatch food from trekkers. She told me that she even heard the monkeys knew how to open people's bag to rummage through their stuff for food and any such stuff.

I then told her the appalling story of how my friend's back-up camera batteries got snatched away by monkeys while at Macritchie (or was it Bukit Timah Hill)?

After making a string of comments about how horrible and terrible this was, she made one comment that really stuck out: " That is why I don't go to these places. The situation is really getting out of hand."

What situation? If anything, I think we have invaded into the monkeys own natural territory and perhaps, in the eyes of the monkeys, we are the ones getting out of hand. She is obviously an urban junkie who does not appreciate nature. The nearest thing to a jungle she has come across is probably the concrete ones that surround her all the time.

Trekking, is to be in one with nature, and animals, are part of nature too! As much as they are snatching our food, we must still respect the shared space that we have with them. That's my take on it.