Dogs, Trees and Changes

On Dec 1, I woke up late. I showered and dressed and packed double quick. I flagged a taxi and thought 'Mister taxi driver, I am gonna make you quite happy this Saturday 7am'. "Changi Village, uncle". He took a second look into the rearview mirror, and he stepped on the accelerator. Thus began Pedal Ubin episode 4 of the year.

I was forewarned that there would be girl guides attending. About 50 of them. I prepared for them by having a teh tarik kurang manis and 2 epok-epok, one sardin the other kentang. Ah, the classic Changi breakfast of the people. Having sugar and carbohydrates processing in my tummy, I scooted along to the ferry terminal and lo and behold, young females in bright orange being organised by older members of the species in red t-shirts. Oh dear, were they thinking they would have problems finding themselves in the verdant green of Ubin. "Hey look, there's an orange thing in the jungle. It must be one of us!".

"You going Ubin ah?", asked a ferry operator/driver/brown-skinned uncle.
"Yah", I went.
"One ah?"
"Yah, one."

One the red-attired ones come forward and tell the same ferry man that her troupe of 13 were ready to depart. He waves at me and asks me to join the bright scheme of moving teenagery colours.

As I take my seat aboard the estrogen-swathed vessel, the red-one asks the ferry man in Chinese "How come there is one more person?". He dismisses her as he is more keen on my $2 than her disgust that another man may sit alongside her fair, angelic maiden of community service and knot-tying. Do they do that? Well, I dunno. It was just weird that she was concerned. I was obviously too sensitive.

By the time, we, the Pedallers Ubin or Pedal Ubinners or Jungle Fowls, made it to the basketball, some of the girls recognised the odd man out as me. Anyhow, I wasn't assigned to bring the maidens around. So all was not tense or unnervy.

The ride was ok. We did the Sensory Trail, looped around the old plantations, headed West and up to the former Thai temple and to a might-be-reopened quarry. A lot had changed on the island in the 6 months since I last been. An "official" bike track had opened up near Pulau Ketam and the Thai temple had relocated to the mainland. The latter was an action related to the re-opening of the Kekek/HDB quarry as a result of the granite shortage brought about from the Indonesian embargo. Tsk tsk. The temple was not only an obvious religious entity but an economic one too. Devotees paid for taxi rides to make the few kilometer journey and later ate their fill at the few restaurants. Now who's gonna fill the registers when the holiday season ends? Tsk tsk.

I also found out there was new puppy around, a new viewing area was set up at Pekan quarry that hosts a heronry, and that the boardwalk at Chek Jawa was already receiving visitors. Please don't go and mess it up with trash and pollute intentions with a misplaced longing to get in touch with nature for 20mins before the mozzies come and suck you dry. Think before you act.

At the end of 4 hours plus of cycling and stumbling over my words, we were back at CV having lunch - a satisfying meal of nasi lemak and lime juice. Ah, the calories of joy. Well, that's it then isn't it?

The doggies are still cute and the trees are still around to sway in the breeze. Catch all of them at my Flickr.