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!
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