Getting It Right

We went to the fitness centre this evening for the first time since about halfway through the fasting month. This is part of an attempt to revive the reasonably healthy routine we'd established over earlier months. My back has been slightly troubling me for the best part of a couple of weeks and it seemed sensible to avoid aggravating whatever had been injured by overdoing things. But the problem is, of course, whether these fears led me to underdo things. One of the challenges presented by aging is the way it interferes with what were previously reasonably accurate instincts as to what the body can and can't be asked to do. I think I got it right tonight.

Noi reminded me earlier of a magical moment this time last week. On our way up to Melaka,on the last day of fasting,we broke our fast at the toll station at Lima Kedai. We'd prepared a thermos flask of tea and bought a couple of Polar tuna puffs, and these we supplemented with some fruit. There we were, the light fading in an almost deserted car park, with just three other cars around whose occupants were all doing the same as us. Four impromptu picnics - one of which involved three children eating actually sitting on their car bonnet. It was the best cup of tea I've ever tasted. A kind of quiet joy descended and a sense that this was the right way to end the fast.