this morning, watched a movie with his gal fren in the cinema in amk hub. "little soldier, big general" ..... good show with the cast of jacky chan and leehom.
started his jog in punggol rd, turned left into punggol dr, apart from the surrounding hdb project(at least 4),there was a big project on his left , the punggol waterfront project(punggol 21), turned into punggol east. saw a group of gals snapping shots on the swaying long grass with fluffy, snow-white flowers. did a detour, stepping onto an untraveled track that led to a slightly elevated plain with wild shrubs, all the way leading to a river. there was work in progress along the river. he asked an indian worker, "is this the punggol river?" "yes."
there's an uncompleted bridge spanning across the river. on his left side about 500m away, there was a dam, with the flood gates, opening to the sea. he ran heading to the direction of the dam. but did not find a good track to continue from there on, except some very fine-red-dust track which didn't look auspicious. he reversed and headed towards the other direction along the river. he came to an end of the track, he came out to the road, and was lured away by a temple, "tian tze gung" that had just done with some celebration the nite before. he found a track thru some trees and get himself back to the river track, where the surface was newly tarred. after about 300m, the tarred track ended underneath a road-bridge, where a bull dozer was digging to continue building the new track. he side-stepped the newly dug track, and continued forward to another section of tarred track, into sengkang east. along the way, there was a zinc-wall erected to secure the work area along the river. he saw signs on the wall, that clarified to him what the whole project was all about - it's the national park's project of building a linear park along the SERANGOON river, not the punggol river that he mistook it.
he continued on. now he remembered the last time he jogged along the seranggon river was quite sometime ago(may 3 years ago), and he did not jogged until the dam, maybe a couple of mile before that, because there was no track then for that couple of miles. he passed sengkang east into upper serangoon rd. just after tampines expressway, people were fishing. he went down to take a look. and then moved on, but was blocked again by a zinc-wall. he bypassed it from the side, and continued on, all the way until hougang ave 7. he was hopelessly dehydrated and very thirsty by then, he bot a 1.5 L bottled water from the grocery shop of block 6, and finished it as he continued his jogging thru haising scresent where there were some landed houses, into lor low koon, where Holy Innocent's primary was.
there were quite a few obstacles along this partially new route..... he thot he had to turn back a few times, but after surveying around, decided to move ahead, he found the track that lied ahead of him....
just like the saying that goes:
山穷水尽疑无路，柳暗花明又一村
just about giving up hope finding a way out, amongst the folds of the mountains and rivers
a village shows up beyond the shades of the willows and the brilliance of the flowers
which derives from :
《游 山 西 村》 [宋] 陆游
莫笑农家腊酒浑，丰年留客足鸡豚。
山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村。
箫鼓追随春社近，衣冠简朴古风存。
从今若许闲乘月，拄杖无时夜叩门。
which translates to:
a visit to WEST-HILL village
laugh not at the farmer's rustic wine,
a year of bumper harvest provides enough food for the guests
just about giving up hope finding a way out, amongst the folds of the mountains and rivers
a village shows up beyond the shades of the willows and the brilliance of the flowers
blowing flutes and beating drums to celebrate the up-coming spring festival
simple and basic village attire preserves the old tradition
there after, if in the mood to take a moon ride
with a walking stick, you're welcome to knock at his door whenever you feel like
by: LU YU of the Sung Dynasty
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