the luxury of walking

was on course this afternoon, and thankfully it finished earlier than anticipated. this left me with the happy problem of not knowing what to do after. hadn't made plans but was relatively near chinatown so i hazarded the koi queue before visiting a friend.

the wonders of googlemaps told me to take 970 to said friend's house and it's a luxury to be able to take my time. one of my worst habits is being overly ambitious and trying to squeeze 101 things into my day. my second worst habit is being wired to be punctual. these two habits combined see me in a general tizzy, rushing from one place to the next. it's really not as hip and haps as it sounds.

so you can imagine the elation welling up inside me when i realised i'd no plans and could take my own sweet time because i'd all the time in the world to queue for koi. and then i could take the slow, meandering route to my friend's. didn't need to cab from A to B because there was no hurry. being able to deliberately choose the slower option like the bus is a luxury, never mind that i'd to walk in 2km from the main road (again, this is what googlemaps tells me). as luck would have it, i alighted at red house (the bus stop right after east sussex lane) and was overcome with nostalgia. took the bus home from that same stop in jc and looking at the red house resplendent in her newly painted glory brought me back in time. i like how she still looked the same :)

and as i trekked in, i walked slowly so as not to break a sweat and to check out the very beautiful houses that lined the road. caught wafts of dinner as it cooked, someone was going to have laksa, someone else was having fried chicken. the scent of the tembusu flowers intermingled with the smell of dusk and i was secretly pleased to be young, footloose and fancy free.