A Place Too Far

Finally I’m able to post again from KL, though I don’t know how long my weak connection to the Internet will allow me to keep this up. Entertaining seven kids on a daily basis is stretching my powers of invention, but Noi has shown outstanding ability in this area. We’re taking the troops bowling this afternoon after trying to exhaust them with a run this morning.

A routine of taman runs appears to have been established. Ayiem, Azrul, Sabrina and Aiman seem particularly enthusiastic and I think I’ve seen an improvement in Ayiem’s level of fitness even in the short time we’ve had. This morning I saw a couple of monkeys, fairly big ones, who were in one of the trees at the top end of the taman. They scuttled guiltily away when I went around the corner but then went back to whatever they’d been up to as we saw them again, and they rescuttled, when the kids joined in on lap three.

I’m now up to a comfortable seven rounds of the taman and may even increase this by the end of our stay. I think I’m enjoying running these days even more than when I was younger, though it’s a close thing. But in those days there was something of a driven quality, especially in my early days in Singapore. Now I’m slower but more relaxed. To be running at all has a miraculous quality about it, a sense of being glad to be alive, and that’s quite enough for me.