Absolutely No Monday Blues

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Usually after a busy weekend all I want to do is curl up and rest, with some granola and a good movie or book. But there are different kinds of rest, and Monday’s rest after the exertion of Night Festival was found in spending time with a friend I feel so comfortable with and having a simultaneously entirely normal and entirely extraordinary dinner with her and my family.

I decided to walk to Nat’s house, down the Green Corridor and along the Canal, and so I set off in a baggy t-shirt, with my colourful patchwork bag (holding precious cargo of granola and chia seeds) on my back, and my Vietnamese Hat (nón lá) swinging in my hand and listening to ‘Hidden’ by United Pursuit. The birds are coming back to the Green Corridor, and as I walked along I thought ‘I really could do this one day, just take a bag (with granola inside) and some good music, and just keep walking till I have to stop. And then wake up the next day and keep walking, and singing, and being in the world around me.

At Nat’s place, we made Acai bowls (after she laughed at my hat and we watched a Masterchef episode in which the only vegetarian chef lost the vegetarian challenge sigh) and then went to Bukit Batok, which promised Breadnut trees, a Quarry and…figs!

Between the bus stop and the Nature Park we encountered two Primary school boys, one of whom seemed quite hysterical. He shrilled something I can’t quite recall about water and photosynthesis, and then began laughing at such a high pitch that it sounded close to screaming!

Bukit Batok Nature Park has winding trails that are easy to hike up, which lead to an abandoned quarry, a lookout point and a memorial of two war memorials. We spotted beautiful leaves, some squirrels, a flock of White-crested Laughing Thrushes, a sign warning us of falling Durian, and a few other park-goers who we were quite sure were looking for Pokemon. As we were coming out, we spotted the figs that the guide had mentioned! They were small, green, and grew out of the trunk of the tree, but were unmistakably figs.

Nat came to my place for dinner, and we sat round the table with Mum and Tim (Dad was having a hair cut) and ended with a game of categories, which always means fierce debate and plenty of laughter, especially when Dad, unclear that the central rule of the game is that you must answer each category with a specific letter given at the beginning of the game, tried to make one of the categories ‘The 5 longest rivers in the world’, forgetting that there are 26 letters in the alphabet.

Safe flight, God's love, and all happiness in Majorca, dear friend.

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