Saturday 3009006

Went with the Mrs, Bambi and Michelle to Pierce for this weekend training run. Michelle brought her 2 kids along so I played baby-sitter. The kids are so lovable and friendly very unlike my 2 who will not warm up to strangers.

The ladies are doing very well now. They complete the 11km or so run up the nasty slopes in a fairly good time of 1:25 mins without walking the slopes. Very good indeed for people who have never ran there before.
Had roti-prata at the relocated and renovated Casurina Prata House together with Michelle's hubby, Notme who had ran 30km earlier with the Animiles. Thanks Yu (pun intended) for the breakfast.

I have now been cleared by the doc to go without the brace and to use 1 crutch. It is so much more convenient. Also started cycling at CSMC at yesterday physio. Cycled for 20 minutes. Tried to swim today but rained out after 10 minutes. But the 10 minutes felt good. Will try and do 20 laps today.

Training for the Marathon

Sunday at East Coast. Training for the marathon but not me - the Mrs and the ladies from VRP and Chris. They are doing the half for the 1st time and training hard. With 11 weeks to go, they are doing 12km today (14km for the Mrs). All of them finished in good time (1:18 - 1:34). Target for them is to complete the half without walking in 2:30 minutes, an achievable target I think.

I managed to walk 4km in a record time of 1:01 minutes :(. Came back to the start point and was doing some exercises when saw some sgrunners going past. Managed to stop quite a few for a chat and a drink. They were running from Changi Village in what is known as the 'Demoralising Run'. Wished I could have joined them. The last time I ran with them on this route was only up to the mid point of the runway. This time round, they were running to Bedok Jetty and for I think - Teelee, Real and Dream, even further. Didn't expected so many to be doing the full 28km distance though. Pretty soon, ran out of drinks for them. So paiseh. To those who didn't managed to get a sip, next time I bring more supplies.

This Week

End of the first week back at work. It has been an interesting time moving around on crutches in public places and taking public transport. Now I understand why the handicapped keep on complaining about the lack of empathy by the public and the people in charge of transport and buildings.

At my office, to reach the lift there is a flight of steps no bid deal to the able bodied but to the disabled, it is a mountain to climb. As my cubicle is on the 2nd floor and the pantry is on the first floor, everytime I need to replenish my drinks, it is either go down 2 flights of staircase on 2 crutches carrying the bottle or take the cargo lift which means I have to exit via the back door to use the cargo lift and logged in again at the main office entrance to reach the pantry - no mean feat balancing bottles, ID passes and crutches and rushing to open the door after keying in the key before it shut down again. Interestingly, 2 colleagues offered to get the water for me and both are not from my dept. Not wanting to make my girls feel bad, I turned down their offer.

On the train, it was even more interesting. First day home, nobody gave up their seat to me. 2nd day a lady restored my faith in Singaporean by jumping up almost immediately when I got in the train. 3rd day I was off so nothing to recount. Thursday the train was quite empty so no problem getting a seat myself. Friday morning ha - at Tanjong Pagar MRT was waiting at the lift. There was already some people in front of me waiting for the lift. When the lift came, all rushed in. Nobody seemed to have seen me. Nevermind, since I was behind them, waited for the next lift to come. Then the trains came and discharged another load of passengers. So many moved to the front of the lift door and again I was crowded out. Same thing happened the third time and I finally gave up and walked to the escalator. Maybe I should be in a wheel chair?

Anyway, I am thankful that mine is a temporary problem but for those who are genuinely physically disabled, I now fully understand how they feel and their frustration when they go out. I will consciously ensure that I never behave like these boors and will be gracious and helpful in whatever way possible.

As for those boors, I pity them cos I am temporary partially disabled but for them, I think mentally they are truly disabled.

Back to Work

Sigh, just when I was enjoying myself at home it's time up to go back to work. No more Justice League, Superman, Martin Mystery, Drake & Josh..... No more waking up at 9.30, going to an empty gym in the afternoon for nice quiet workout, no more pampering from everybody at home.

The nice folks back at the office has cleared everything for me. For once, no coming back to a desk full of piled up overdue work. Whew and thanks everybody!

The office folks had a mini wager whether anybody will give up their seat for me on my way home via the MRT. Do they really expect our practical stressed Singaporeans to give up their seats to anybody? After all, they paid the same fare so why should they be deprive of a seat? So as expected, no seat for me even though everybody can see tall old me standing with 2 crutches. Or maybe watch too much cartoons and somehow managed to turn myself invisible so nobody saw me. So got to stand all the way from Tanjong Pagar until Kembangan before getting an empty seat. Wonder who won the bet in the office?