maihum mindset

marathon man had a full day last sunday. he took a one-day package trip to johor with his fren ah pao. they started at 6.30am, reached home at 10pm. the high-lite of trip was durian buffet lunch - eat until you drop. the place was oasis bay, in muar. according to the guide, it's still early in the season, the durians are not so good. middle-season durian are the best(middle of june to middle of july for southern malaysia). both of them ate at least 8 durian, 3 big ones, 5 small ones. small ones were the best, which tasted only slightly sweet, but the flesh so stickly creamy it's one of the best they have tried.

the guide mr puah, is a young 20 something chap. when the bus passed by yong peng, he brought the reason the place was name yong peng. during the 2nd world world, there's a lot of violent deaths of the local chinese by the japs. so after the war, people wanted peace, so they name the place yong peng(peace forever).

they had breakfast at gelang patah; marathon man had penang charkoaytiao, mot so good. they stop over in an organic farm in .... there's dragon fruit plantation, vegi like kangkung, spinach, bitter gourds, and a herbal lane, where different types of herbs were planted, with placards displaying the names and the what's what of the different herbs.

they also made a couple of stops to let people to buy local stuff. finally they had dinner in senibong, perma jaya, jb. the dinner was the low-lite of the trip. didn't worth the mention. but it didn't matter for marathon man, he had already eaten so much durian, the load of it in his stomach could last him for another couple of meals.

as usual weekend, at the singapore side, even the second link took an hour to clear. obviously the singapore gahment does not take cross-border travel between singapore and malaysia as anything worth the effort to develop. just like, efforts from the gahment to foster local sme's are lip-services.

marathon amn's fren ah tong said, "when economic downturn, gahmen would say, cannot help, because singapore is an open economic, relying heavily on exports. so when other countries are in recession, singapore will be affected severely. why can't they think out of the box of this open economic model, and let the people be more productive with their own ideas, to take on the world from their own effort instead of relying on others' left-overs?"

"oh, this is called maihum mindset - when there's more opposition in the pariahmen, he would have to spend all his time thinking of how to fix them. when their's a 5 million-people to feed, he similarly would only think of how to keep them fed from hand to mouth. no vision at all!"

cheapskate

when you focus, you banish all nerves, cut off all the other stuff, - like trying to impress people, like paying attention to the surrounding happenings and people, like trying to think about what wld happen if you did not make it, you just switch from the hyper-mode to the slug-mode.... you just have to look at the line again and the distance again, and take a snap shot of that into your mind, and tell your hands to start the motion to roll the ball with force and direction as mapped out in the mind.....and look at the ball leaving your putter and wait for it to stop .... and bingo, you make a par!

well, easy said than done.

remember everything needs a process, and a system to get the thing done. you cannot just step up onto the green, and look at the hole, look at the ball and just push your putter without that mental picture.

MENTAL pICTURE, that's IT!

marathon man lost all the sixes and even lost an easy chance to make a winner of the 2-hole skin, just because he did not not know how to grip a putter properly and how to put the reality in front of him into a mental picture to execute it.

george and his wife and son and daughter in-law was kind enough to invited his golf kaki's for dim sum lunch with his customer john.

as usual, david the winner talked a lot. alan was as steady as ever. marathon man ate and did not do much talking.

david touched on the subject of his american fren going thru a divorce with his wife and she was asking for an astronomical sum for that. david said, " you see my philosophy is it's better to treat you wife well, buy her good dinners, good birtday, anninersary gifts, take her to nice places.... than to go thru a divorce, which is so much more expensive than all those gifts and trips and dinners...."

marathin man said, "well, don't tell that to your wife."

"why not?"

"that she's cheap."

"sure, i did not mean that."

"the cheapest way is to sign a prenup."

"then might as well keep it single?"

"no marriage no divorce, no divorce, no price to pay."

"ha.... but the gal is not going to go for that."

"then go geylang lah! you want cheap."

water

the water stops to flow. the thirsty remains thirsty.

in the enclosure of a small room, marathon man huffs and puffs on the threadmill. just because it rains so hard that he cannot make his usual round in the open air, he has to pace his heart and invigorate his lethargy body with a jock from the physical activities. sweat will also liberate his cogged-up soul. though it's just a 30 minutes run, it's good enough. anything longer would bore him to frustration.

the water stops to flow. the thirsty falls into a frantic state of dehydration.

walking and swinging - 18 holes under the fierce sun, one hand pulling a cart, the other holding up a big umbrella, up hill, down hill...... it's no joke. he did not play well for the 1st nine holes, but he got his driver swing corrected in the back nine, and had some pars that made the overall score decent by his handicapp.


the water really dries up. the thirsty would not even dare to open his mouth....


why must we be anxious? anxieties are the root of schizophrenia. why can't we be patient and let things take their own courses? there's nothing we can gain out of wanting to know impatiently what will happen on the thing that we have just done. so he lets go whatever that makes him go anxious and just lets it be.


the water......


if you were not an animal but a bird, would you stop over in sungei buloh wetland reserve on your migratory journey?

the flamingo says, " i would becuase singapore is a red dot, i will be very safe since i could get enough camoflage."

the geese says, "i would, because singaporeans are banned to sell geese in restaurant. i'm also safe."

then the swallow says, "i wouldn't. everybody will be after my nest."

the whole world is running out of water - yet we do not care abit!

choice

stevens road is not any unfamilair place to marathon man as orchard road is to all the singaporeans. the traffic is always heavy. marathon man criss-crossed it a couple of time to revisit the few nooks he had run before. he went into balmoral park, now with more condos since the last time he was here, very secluded and perching at a higher place, made them look more classy. he had an urge to pee, and he did it into the longkang beside the pine-tree club fence. he was in robin road, a shorter street than the previous he was here. somehow, it's not the same, something is blocking his way to the other part of the place he knew. he went fernhill road, turned into ladyhill road, all the way to the top. he came out from nassim road, then lermit road, and stumbled into the botanic gardens in the liane gate. not far from the gate there was a board walk(new to marathon man) stretched far into the wood - the rain forest walk. a balck stray dog greeted him, it was not the agrresive type. he came out to the amphitheatre end of the walk. the big lake is clear of all water plants except at the bank of the lake. the fish - yes, almost all are tilipia except a few miserable look kois - the last time he was, it was a koi pond! the small pond beside, still had a lot of water lilies, with flowers mostly in buds, would probably full bloom in a couple of weeks time - summer is here! a couple of groups of people had their morning breakfast picnic on the sloping lawn.... a few people takiong their morning walk...

marathon man exited into tyersall ave. he remembered, moving forward to the right, there's this little place where the old-time french embassy was..... and gallop road appeared infront of him, and there that colonial stilted, wooden white building still sat oddly on top of the slope.... not so much older, thought the roofs were in quite a shabby state - torn off roof covers, missing tiles....

he was quite surprised to have found out that one end of gallop road, gallop close was so secluded, he did not think he been here before. a big bungalow 'ownerless' project was in progress on lot 14, gallop hill. he went into all the small dead-ended roads in the area, just to find out what he missed out the last time he was here - just like he started the email conversation with an old-time fren just to see where it would lead to - another dead end again - this time fully prepared for that. even dead-ended lorongs have surprises that touch the heart of marathon man - like those exclusively designed houses, that's truelly magnificent but he sometimes wonders are these for families? how would the kids think of oving in these houses - locked in the high-walls, with aloft neighbors, no access to any amendities with walking distance..... no playmates except your own siblings...

he turned into cluny park road, thru tyersall road, in the cluny hill junction he hesitated whether to go up the hill.... this area was familiar to him, he might be here umpteens years ago..... when you face a junction, no need to hesitate to decide which way to go. you think you are MAKING a decision, but in fact, the junction decide for you which way you have to go! you don't choose your way, the way chooses you!

so cluny hill chose marathon man, and the choice turned out to be as satisfying as anything he has done so far. the area was away from all city noises and dins..... basked in warm sunlight, birds chirping away, plants growing exurberantly..... within the high walls of the bungalows, stories unfolded according to the book of...... destinies....

sorry....

keranji park is not a very developed park. there's small patches of greens for people to roam, and two sides of the road that forms the dyke have chair for people to sit down and enjoy the jb view, or the reservoir view. the kranji reservoir sits tranquility on the northern part of singapore, with the people coming here to take it all in, the sunrise the sunset, the sea the wetland and the open sky.

marathon man bot a can of beer and a glass of thick home-made barley, mixed them up with alot of ice..... seeping the concoction in the seafood eating shop next to the park, after his hour-long jog around the area. memories of the past began to float into his mind.... the years of innocence and spontaneity, the peak of youthful joy..... and the encounter of The Sorrows of Young Werther ..... he moved on..... like many other things in life, he had to choose not to stop living because he did not get what he wanted.

after so many years, she said sorry.....although nobody was in the wrong, that sorry did mean something for him. for at least she did not forget him.

the sun set over the wetlands..... shades of fiery colors in the sky making the trees a silhouette gently swaying with the wind. the tide moved in...... some foreign workers were busy picking up some sort of shell-fish, cum swimming in the twilight sea.


the moon rose, it was a full moon, the sky was very clear. as the eating shop became more crowded, marathon man has finished seeping his barley-beer and his mind running out of memories to reminisce..... he had to call it a day, and a part of his life.

tampines hill

the tembusu fragrance at nite(last two nites) was so strong, it smelled like rotten sewage. as they said, too much of everything is no good. like food, good food. to binge on food is bad. marathon man has been trying to control his weight ever since. but too often than not, he sucumbs to the irresistable pull of relishing on those sweet and oily stuff. when he has all his creative juices cranked up but cannot get it out to produce some solid result, he has to fall back on food to tame his wild thots. when he encounters things that bother him, he yearns for a mouthful to let him focus his mind to take on the problem. when he finds that the food is really good, he would tell himself no harm to break the diet just for once....when he is inivited to meals, he doesn't want to miss the opportunity to have free makan, he would not hesitate to give his tummy a sumptious treat. he needs to take care of all the consequences of letting himself loose on the mouth, somehow.....

he starts out his morning jog down in shenton way at about 10am, the street on this weekday is not particularly busy street is not busy, probably breakfast time is over, even the corner kopitiam in robinson road is quite empty. shenton way, marina bay area is full of construction activities. new buildings are being put up... the nbiggest of all, the three hotels of the ir....some new buildings, very tall and sleek, like the sail, the marina bay suite, the marina 1. the raffles .... in afew years time, this area will be the downtown of singapore.

and time takes him to serangoon central, under big rain. he stops over in a kopitiam for his lunch - mixed rice. after the rain he continues on towards tampines until he reaches tampines bus terminal. he enters the food court, and orders cheng-t'ng. an old lady wants to get a bowl of bubur hitam. she asks, "how muhc?"
"1.50."

"wow, very expensive. i thot 50cents only. don't want."

marathon man says to the vendor, "give this lady a bowl of bubur hitam. i will pay for it. "

the old lady says, "unlce, you treat me?"

"yes."

"thank you." she happily takes the bowl and finds herself a seat.

the cheng-t'ng with a lot of ice is always marathon man's favorite dessert. it's not so sweet and very cooling and with a variety of little titbits to munch upon.
he then presses on towards sun plaza park, then towards the direction of the little hill, on the left of the park. the path is full of stones and debris from shattered concrete slabs. he sees nobody around. he reaches the ridge of the hill which is about 100 feet high. it's very windy up there, like wuthering heights...he feels like he is in the open space in the show - the sound of music, except that he is not july andrews nannying a group of kids, instead he shouts aloud..... to the sky, hellooooooo.... at the same time, the thunder cracks, no lightning though. it is getting cloudy. he follows a wide dirt road, ends up in a dead-end. he turns back and goes by a very winding track into the woods below. he jogs along the fringe of the jungle for about 1.5 km. the road comes a to blocked end. at the same time he hears dogs barking in the bushes which signifies he has to turn back. instead of going back where he comes from, he comes out from the jungle by a shorted-cut side track of a constuction site. he finds himself beside tpe, where traffic zooms by him. somehow he turns into tampines link - ending his jog in court megastore.

too much food needs some wild runs to take care of the calories. too much loneliness needs some windy hill to yell it out......

the kampung - calming growling dogs

it rained early morning - big one, lasted several hours. this year, the month of may is wetter than the previous ones. though day-time under the hot sun, still as hot as before, the nites are cooler. the grass over the many public places are greener, unlike the typical month of may, where grass everywhere turns yellow. after the morning rain, marathon man noticed the green pigeon still there in its nest, that its partner had built, with tweaks it picked up tirelessly, sometime flying low, by marathon man, when he was reading in his newspaper in the patio. you can see how much the animal kingdom has evolved in terms of taking care of their procreation; continuing their gene pools into the future. the big bird, the male one was hardworking building and mending the nest, foraging for food, while the smaller one, possibly his partner, sat in the nest, probably over some eggs, for hours, amidst some disappearances in between, for whatever reason, marathon man couldn't fathom.

birds reminded marathon man of the jog he did yesterday.

he started from buangkok green, where the imh is, passing thru sengkang east road, where he saw a lot of newly built hdbs flat across the road, with modern look of grey, played up by a little bit of orange, shaped like private condoes. this area is quite different from the usual public housing estate, from the look of it. it's refreshing, though more congested than the old estates. he turned to sengkang east ave, sengkang w ave, fernvale link, where he was fascinated by the side facades of the hdb block. instead of the normal flat surface, apparently there were 3-d features painted beige on the surfaces of the outside walls. from afar, marathon man man thot they were just illusions made by painting different shades of beige on the flat surfaces, not 3-d as perceived by the eyes. but when he was near the blocks, he was quite surprised to find out that they indeed were 3-d features. it made the blocks look so artistic. these block were not there the last time he was here.... things change in big ways, in singapore!

he found a path connecting to gerald park, where he happily entered. he saw three birds the size and shape of minars, but with yellow body, black wings, black tails, with yellow wing-tips, calling sweetly from a tree nearby. then he went thru bk mugliston, gerald cresent, gerald dr, mugliston walk,gerald dr. he found the way to cross the sungei ponggol into lorong buangkok, and once again for the third time, he entered the KAMPUNG, by a small obscure side path. the bohemian, thrown-back-in-time haphazard setting of single-story houses, some wooden, some zinc, some combination of both, some combination of wooden, zinc and concrete..... with dirt roads and compounds.... gave marathon man another feeling. this time the kampung looked re-vamped with some newly renovated houses, unlike the last time he was here, they were all old shacks.

he wondered into some body's back yard, and saw a dog, showing its aggressive grin, ready to pounce onto him. the owner of the house and the dog stopped it. then when he walked out of the place, he met with 3 more dogs, whose owners were nowhere nearby. all came sniffing up on him and about to show their aggression. out of instinct he quickly turned his gaze away from them and dropped his head down,with his eyes looking at the ground, and slowed down his steps, trying to walk as slow and relax and possible just to show to the dogs, that he's not going to be a threat them. at once the three dogs stood their ground, and stoppe their aggression, wagging their tails, panting as usual, and shaking their head.... he walked out safely.

he stumbled further along lorong buangkok and arrived at the end of it. he saw a couple of paths leading into the woods, wanted to go into one of it. a 60-something man told him, they were not tracks. he entered the alliance international hostel, just to be chased out by a chinese care taker.

for as long as he could remember, he used to go all places in singapore, whether jungle of mcritchie, bukit timah hill, woods in the old sembawang area, or jurong area.... meeting illegal immigrants.... fallen tree branches right behind him.... peck of wild, strayed dogs, going after him.... losing his way just for the fun of it.... now, he's more cautious where he goes.... and by doing so, he has missed out a lot of opportunities to explore the many hidden gems and morsels in this little Paradise of the east!

bigger buaya

when the office encounters a re-org, people get uneasy. they don't know what their new boss(es) would be like. most often than not, these new bosses would 1st try to establish themselves, by doing things like rearranging the office layout, review of the dept goals and set new ones, review the job functions of the key people, and do a re-org among his subordinates.....

and marathon man's new bosses came in today. without as much a fanfare, but straight away working on looking into new ways of cutting costs - working with the subcons to improve their efficiency so see they could give better pricing on their services. good idea. but in doing so, the big bosses who don't know the details of the operations, would tend to bulldozz their ideas into the team, and wasting a lot of the team effort in looking iton things which already had been looked into, and ignoring the issues with obvious low-hanging fruits. bottomline, new bosses, new directives, and more work.in time to come, the bosses have to jive into the team and the team has to suit the working style of the new bosses. meanwhile, the office sharks take the opportunity to scheme for their big preys; opportunities for them to climb the corporate ladder higher....

marathon man's colleague ah lian said, "you know, the new boss seems good. better than the old one."

"why you said so?"

"he did not give me any hard time. only give hard time to the engineering manager who used to give me hard time..."

"i don't know. i have not had any encounter with him yet."

"he's a strict, no mess-around guy, though. i heard he rejected a present from a subcon outright. and he told me he would not go ktv with the subcons.... pretty straight hah."

"oh... so let's see how far he could resist the temptation of doing biz in a straight-jacket way."

"but he likes to jog. he has asked me where to do it in singapore. i think you should be better in telling all the places, since you are marathon man."

"me? oh... i would say, jog here." marathon man was referring to sungei buloh wetland reserve, where he and ah lian were doing their evening jog. they reached the place just before 6pm, so they don't have to pay $1 for enterance. but the park closes at 7pm, so they had to finish their jog in less than an hour's time. there's some changes, more routes were added.... but they did not have time to explore these new routes, just the old route which was the shortest among them. they climbed up the observation tower, and ahd a good view of the surroundings, it was very refreshing to see the johor straits, the kranji reservoir the sungei buloh, and the wetlands aorund it....

the sun starting to set... sky has turned technic-color, the tide had come in the blackish ponds, the birds busy flying back to their resting places for the impending nite, the whole place was going to be shielded in a shroud of shadows and eerieness soon. when they got out of the park, ah lian said, "ya. we should ask the new boss to jog here.... maybe he would meet a buaya, or some snake.... to remind him of our office environment."

"oh... it too early to tell who is the bigger snake, or the bigger buaya, we the office workers or him, the big boss?"

bird paradsie

pandan valley, the condo that looks like hudc, rather a privatized hudc, has tucked marathon man's fren, ah suyong's heart string. he told marathon man, some years back, he was looking for a house. after looking over many places, he came to pandan valley one nite. the broker showed him a low-rise 3500sqft house with a verander. after some bargaining, the last price was $1.1mil after the broker called the owner, on condition that suyong would have to write a check for the option money. he liked the house and the surroundings, but his wife was not that enthusiastic. further more $1.1mil was stretching his tight budget of below $1mil, though in terms of per sqft it was a very good deal. he called his fren ah suiyong. he had helped him financially before, so he thot of asking back for a favor from him. but he told suyong, he's very tight finacially, must sell his company stocks he held to give him the loan. suyong's enthusiasm of purchasing this property was dimininshed by his fren's unforthcomingness and his wife non-commmital attitude, so he dropped it. if he would have bot the unit then, a year ago he could have fetched more than $2mil, earning him at least $1 mil, net.

marathon man said, "what's yours will be yours. no need to cry over it."

they came out from pandan valley, into mount sinai ave, holland dr, jln kebaya.... when he saw "yuan fu tian" a small temple , he knew he had been here before, quite some time ago. the temple and its surrounding hadn't changed. they contiune their jog into halland grove view.....

in his area, there were a lot of small birds flipping their wings, like the way of the swifts, flying from one tree to another like darts in curvy lines. there were also other bigger birds, perching on bracnhes eating the rippened cherries, or just calling their partners, hopping around in search of their favorite worms..... this place was just like a bird paradise.

ah suyong said, "you see the birds, like little angels, so happy, no worries..... abundant of food for them, who said city life is not conducive for the wild lives?"

"aya, these birds are clever animals. just like monkeys, stray dogs, mice, ants, cockcraoches, they can survive anywhere in the world. but animals like pandas, elephants, whales..... have very specified living environments..... once destroyed, their survival will be affected greatly. we have to protect these anaimals."

"ya-loh. birds are really clever, i saw a parrot in the shop the other day. when i asked it, how was he. he said, 'kanina'. i asked the owner, why taught bad word. he said, that's how they taught parrots to talk, like human, first must teach them the bad words, easy to learn. i asked why bad words were easy for birds to learn, they were not human. he said...... those people who pick up bad words easily only have bird brains!"

as they came out from ghim moh, after their break for some bean-curd water, they crossed the road in the direction the ghim moh cc. they saw some small durian trees planted by people like lim swee say, ..... 2 years ago... still looked like seedlings, no body took good care of these trees or what? not if they were planted by somebody like lky, one would think twice to let them orphaned. btw, the palm tree in sporttiswood park planted by lky also looked half-dead... not so fantastic. even trees also sensed they were been squeezed hard by the pap people.

they crossed the bridge spanning across the malayan railway track, into east sussex lane.... climbed the slope at the side of north buona vista road, then ended up in the famous holland v where they saw their ang moh frens drinking in a pub - they joined them to drink, not beer, but mineral water.

why you may ask.

the weather was really too warm - only water was the best cooler under this heat, the ang mohs said, and they concurred.

the art of .....

kaki bukit, a predominantly industrial estate.... marathon man has done a numbers round before; seemed like nothing new for him to explore. but not today, when he pushed himself right to the end of kaki bukit where he hit kaki bukit ave 3, 4, 5 and 6 kaki bukit road 4, 5, with his kaki, ah siraj. he saw kampung type of setting in ave 5, new buildings in ave 6, training ground for novice drivers, civilians and also for military personnel(in an enclosed camp, at the end of rd 4). he went by the famous bukit pasir(sand hill) - a man-made big heap of sand reserved by the hdb.

perhaps kaki bukit(foothill) should have a new meaning - at the foot of this sandy hill?

siraj said, "this sandy hill thingie reminds me of a story.... a story about some king who sits on the top of a sandy hill, but unawre of it, less so, that one day his kingdom may just be slipping away under the sand.... by what he did - putting himself higher and higher up with more sand...."

and the story begins.....

meritocracy is the pivotal principle this red-crab kingdom runs its affairs with. that, everybody knows.

one day, the king asks his son, "what is the most important knowledge you have to learn to rule the kingdom?"

"politics?"

"no."

"economics?"

"no."

"how to fix the oppositions?"

"no. it's the art of meritocracy."

"what's that? never heard of such course."

"of course. it's taught only to the king and his successor. since now you have taken over the throne, i would have to pass the knowledge to you also."

"i know meritocracy is what we emphasize in running our kingdom, but what is the art of meritocracy? like science is what the scientist practise, not the art of science!"

"ok.... you know why the senile minister recommended your wife to head dramasick?"

"well, she is the most qualified person!"

"yes, in a sense. if somebody else would have run the group, and made mistakes like what she did during her tenure, that somebody would have long gone..... these people recommended her so that the group can move forward, and nobody gets blamed if something goes wrong."

"you know what she recommended mr good-ear to replace?"

"he's had a pair of good ears - very atuned to the investing atmosphere?"

"no.... we could have nominated one of our ministers who we have always boasted how good they are. but we did not. because if mr good-ear later on failed, then your wife's reputation would have remained intact. but imagine if we recommended people like mobok tan to head dramasick, and he failed..... all ministers' ability would be tarred! now if he succeeded, she would have been praised for chossing a good succesor. but if mr mabok was picked and succeeded, than it have confirmed that she's a jinx!"

"hmmm.... you really think so?"


"ah, why i picked george agogo instead of antoneo tankuku to be my successor when you were not ready yet? not because george is better than tankuku.... if i would have picked tankuku, you would stood less of a chance to become the king later."

"ah.... but you said, tankuku didn't want to be king."

"of course, he must say that. else he would lose face when george was picked. further more he would not want to offend me."

"hmmmm.... you really think so?"

"ok... why you think we put up another presidential candidatealthough ah ong was obviously a choice preffred by the people?"

"he was sick?"

"you were sick also. we did that because he's stepped out of line."

"so, you are saying...."

"what i'm saying is ..... yes we uphold meritocracy as a numble one principle to run the kingdom.... but meroitocracy is not a science.... it's an art. the art is when to know how to appoint the right people to the right posts n teh right time.... and make it look like we are infact following the rule. mr george knows it, mr tankuku knew it, even your wife learnt fast, and should have thot you a thing or two...and of course your father, me is the jedi of the art of meritocracy!"

"but i still think how to fix the oppo is the most important thing to know, in order to rule the kingdom."

"yea.... but you DON"T HAVE TO LET THE WHOLE WORLD KNOW, you dummm.... if not for the practice of the art of meritocracy...." the king shakes his head......

"papa.... don't get angry. i know i'm so so... i'll learn the art of meritocracy from today.... but surely you don't mean you yourself don't deserved what you have achieved?"

"only for the fact that the art of meritocracy is not age-limited, son." after along talk the king feels a bit weak.....

old tampines road

do you know how refreshing a coke is?

especially when you drank it after so many years!

marathon man told the waitress "give me a diet coke." "what?" "diet coke."

"what? what coke? zero?"

"ok, ok.... zero lah."

then he realized, diet coke may be out of date already, the latest coke is zero.

after an exhausting jog under the mid-day sun, he stumbled into this kopitiam at the junction between tampines rd and old tampines road. the kopitiam was quite full, lorry drivers and what-not stopped by for their meals and some just to quench their thirst. the mixed-rice stall was doing quite good business. after his drink, he continued his jog, into old tampines road. not so long ago he was here, but did only a small portion of it. this time he wanted to find out what's at the other end of the road.

the image of a couple came to his mind. the couple were walking infront of him, at the big, long bend of the old tampines road that meets up with tampines road... and marathon man jogged pass them. yap, that was what happened the last time he made his journey here, and somehow this image just got stuck with him. or was it another place, another time? he began to doubt his memory. this road looked like leading to nowhere, so why the couple chose to have their midday walk in this out-of-the-world kind of place? were they like marathon man, doing things defying normal logic?

this time, the bend seemed longer. much longer. after the canopy-covered bend, he strode into a straight boulavard, with a double carriage-way, trees lining both sides, and young trees in the divider path, with the payar lepar airstrip on his left, and a jungle on his right. before the road met kpe, there's this little old housing estate in jalan terap.... 20 or so double-story semi-d's. other than the traffic noise from kpe and tampines road, this island estate was like tampines quarry park lake, existed on its own, isolated from the rest of singapore.

marathon man had a full day. and his dream that nite - the subdue feelings of keep getting into some sort of sleep, sweet-dream kind of sleep..... that's because marathon man was having some flu-like(not swine flu?) kind of tireness......