A long Weekend

A long weekend


My Roommate VJ and I took sides when it came to weekend outing. VJ always maintained that I was the one stopping him from any weekend outing. I was always called the weekend Dozer. Certainly, I would not be the first one to concur.

Cometh a weekend, I stay in the bed for longer time than usual, whining to get up like a kid going to school. The bull of a man that VJ is is equally not awake till I am sleeping.
The real shot in the arm came last Saturday, when I went to Sentosa proving VJ that I was not the one to be blamed for both of us to be bloating around in the house. That is when an ordinance was passed in the house. The decree was to get away from home on at least on Saturdays if not on Sundays.

One such weekend was fast approaching and this time around it had a dividend of an extra day – Good Friday. It was planned on Wednesday by VJ and “no” “hurry” Hari to go on for trekking to Mac Ritchie Nature Trail. There were two others to join us – Thiyagarajan and Nirmal.

VJ did all the research on the Internet relating to the trekking. Fascinated by the photos on the website, I was looking forward to the ambiguous experience.

It was Thursday, the weekend had started early for us. VJ was trying to reach me on the phone in the evening. My evenings are usually loaded with 2 hours in the gym. I would not be available to answer any call during that time. VJ and Hari kept on pinging and I was not around to pick the call. They were planning for a movie – A vantage point or 10000 BC. But, I did not pick until the movie was about to start. I ended up going home and VJ came back an hour later after meeting his friend.

The day next started around eleven thirty in the morning. We slept until the crow croaked in our ears. It was Good Friday. VJ had plans of going to the Bethesda Cathedral nearby to render his prayers. I decided to join him and it was only .5 km from home and VJ felt like he was walking for eternity. By the time we reached the cathedral, it was closed for the day and would open for a drama sequence and service around seven in the evening.
We did not want to accept the defeat and we ventured to another church near my office. We took a taxi and yet another defeat. VJ would not agree to any such defeats. VJ is a swift walker; I was struggling to keep pace with him. We eventually succeeded third time, whoever said 3 is unlucky, I would repudiate. At the break of twilight, we got out of the church; we were out from the spiritual mindset as well.

We were hungry by the time we came out from the house of Worship. We had to choose between early dinner and munching snacks. We chose the former. VJ was insisting on taking sandwiches for the trekking for he had the belief that it would keep us going and will not stall us for any biological reasons. I did think it did not make sense to me.
We had to get some bread slices, tomatoes, cheese and cucumber for preparing sandwiches.


VJ was in elements to prepare the sandwiches for the next day. He ended up preparing 30 sandwiches for 5 of us. He spread the cheese on the inside of the slices and stuffed tomatoes and cucumber between them. I was not sure how many he would have had in between the preparation. We decided to watch the movie thillu-mullu, which we did and ended up in the bed around 2 in the morning. I had set the alarm to ring @ 6:30 in the morning.

The next day, I woke up @ 7:00 in the morning and the alarm was like buzzing and our man snoring was equal to the alarm. Infact, he ended up bettering the alarm. I woke him up and as usual he had the strange expression like someone is leaving for work and he can stay in the bed for some more time. Remember, I was called the weekend Dozer. It is always better to be the underdog.

We got ready by eight o clock and Hari would take a cab and would pick us up on the way. We waited for a cab to approach us with Hari in it. Meanwhile, Hari had in fact taken a bus to reach our place. We took a Cab and reached Novena MRT Station on time.

We met Nirmal, Thiyagu – tall, lanky guys – and gymmers who never went to Gym. We all took a bus to Mac Richie Reservoir and none of us were sure where to alight the bus and which way to walk. The bus driver had told us a stop later that we had to alight at the previous stop. We thanked the driver for the courtesy. Our lips stretched to give him a thankless smile. We were at fault for not knowing the details. The walk to the nature trail started a wee-bit earlier and a place it should not have started.

We reached the starting point of the Denia trail around 10 a.m. I was the one best attired for trekking and also the odd man out. All others were in Jeans. To the contrary, we were the only people with full trousers and t-shirts on. All others were in two pieces practicing kayaking. It was a regular jogging spot for most of them. Rests were the five who came for trekking. Photo sessions started with a big reservoir in the forefront and a infinite number of trees occupying the background.

We entered the Petia trail which was the starting point. We had two sandwiches each and were ready for the walk. It started with a 2 meter wide pavement covered both side by bushes in the foreground and tall, huge trees in the back ground.

I was not willing to risk a thorn in my flesh for a snap. So we carried on to walk through the path laden by leaves and small stones which would never sprain our ankles. It was the same throughout the initial two kilometers. There were few spots which we felt like fit enough to capture, which we did, but my idea of a nature trail walk was completely was far from being fulfilled. I thought there would be trees of varying sizes which were there but had no fruits or flowers in it. So there was no profusion of colours, only green and brown. Brown represented the dead and dried leaves while green was representing the fittest of leaves hanging to the tree trunks and branches.

It was time for breakfast, though not tired; the humid, sultry weather with no air was enough to make us perspire. The irony was we were surrounded by trees and we were sweating. Clouds were gathering to sing in chorus. The passage was not getting any narrower nor was it widening. It remained the same throughout.

Each one of us stuck different postures for the camera. Not much fun this time with the camera as there were no brilliant colour combinations of flowers on the trees only green and brown. Nor did we wear dresses which were striking colours which were fit to be captured by the camera. I was getting so obsessed with striking poses for the camera that every nook and corner I made sure I was on the camera either alone or in a combination.

We walked closed to 7 km till we reached Venus trail and it was time for lunch and refreshments. We had Pulao prepared by Hari and thanked him for the lunch and started again when rain belted down for the next 15 minutes.

HSBC tree top talk was as close as 1 km as per the hoarding. But the 1 Km never seemed to be over. I believe we would have walked close to two times the distance mentioned and still we were a Km away from it. Looked like, a replica of the same board was hung at different places. Our eyes took us to the board nearby which said its only 100 meters away. But, then the same story, we ended up walking another kilometer into a lane which took us to the tree top.

The bridge was suspended with wire cables to a focal point. It was about 250 meters in length made of heavy, squared metal plates with pores that were enough to see through the bottom of the trees 500 meters below. The width of .83 meters was not enough room for one person to come back in the opposite direction. It was one way. If you miss a chance of taking a snap, you miss it forever, atleast I had no intention of walking back 3 km to get into the bridge. Even though VJ found it a picturesque to click a few snaps, I walked my way through the bridge because I could no more tolerate the disgusting odor while walking on the bridge.

I was at one side of the bridge, whilst on the other side the boys were smiling like Cheshire cat who had smelt loads of cheese nearby. A voluptuous female had garnered their attention. She was into their eyes and was let out by the boys. No wonder, they were taking their time to take pictures. The one way bridge served them two purposes – one they could restrict the movement of the people (in this case that of the female) and second posing in style so very enthusiastically to get the attention of the female.

I was waiting for close to ten minutes when VJ appeared in the vicinity and had asked me if I was scared of heights. I said not, and then he started going gaga over the female. I thought I missed an opportunity of a peek at the female. But then, we all assembled and took a group photo and also took time for the blonde haired gal to near us. Man, she was awesome. She went ahead, while we were resting and posing again for the camera. We were to walk another 7 kms to reach the Mac Ritchie reservoir. By the time, we got out of the HSBC tree top walk to a place which was the focal point to start our way back home or head to the Mac Ritchie reservoir walk. Nirmal was too tired for the Mac Ritchie reservoir walk; we had no choice other than to head home. The blonde female went the other way and even that was not inspirational enough for these guys. All were ready except for one. We walked back to the Venus trail yet another 3 km from there and took a taxi and headed to Yishun for a movie. Half the distance covered, it started raining again and no movie to start in the next two hours. We headed home.

The next day was spent with muscle aches and aches in the heart that we missed a golden opportunity to have not seen more of the girl JJJ

Indeed, a long weekend, about 15 kms on the trot for nothing except the beauty you could have seen anywhere in this country.