039 Enjoy Your Rides

Throughout my adulthood, I have an on-and-off love affair with bicycles. I fell in and out of love with cycling more times than all the romantic relationships I had. (sighs and laughs).

• Rekindled Love

Once again, that love was rekindled recently, after a lapse of a more than a decade. Why that long a break you might ask?

It’s all because the previous relationship ended badly. My left foot was fractured after I tumbled off my speeding bicycle. Scarred by the painful experience, I fell out of love with bicycles for a long time.

Surprisingly even to myself, I have made a comeback. Every day, I cycle twice. Cycling has become a substitute for my regular one-hour morning run. After work, I alight a few stations ahead of my destination and use bicycle as a “last mile solution” to complete the final lap to home. Over a span of 36 days, I have covered 260 km, twice the distance to cycle round the Singapore island!

But the greatest satisfaction came just two days earlier when I set myself a challenge: how far could I cycle along the MRT downtown line route from Bukit Panjang?

I found my answer after 1 hour 23 minutes: The Botanical Gardens of Singapore, a UNESCO Heritage site!

• Enjoy The Little Things In Life

I was so elated that I had to grab someone to take a picture of me. But it was barely 7 am in the morning, passersby were few. It seemed rather inconsiderate to bother commuters who were trying to beat the early rush hours.

Fortunately, I chanced upon a young, beautiful and helpful lady, Jasmelia who was willing to spend a couple minutes to help a stranger. Jasmelia made an extra effort to take a few better pictures of me with the bicycle using her better quality mobile phone. Almost immediately after we parted ways, she sent me the pictures with encouraging words.

I meant to reply her, ” You’ve made my day, pretty and helpful lady!🤗” But I was filled with hysteria of joy that I couldn’t compose a simple thank you message properly.

In contrast to my awkwardness in expression, Jasmelia’s reply was thoughtful and heartwarming. She wrote, “It’s good to see that you enjoy all these little things in life.”

Like many others, I am often bothered that our once squeaky-clean pedestrian sidewalks are now littered with smart bicycles. Jasmelia’s words reminded us it is how we think and act that decides our quality of life.

Friends, get a sharing bike and enjoy the rides! Just make sure that you ride responsibly and park it right. And don’t overdo it too. Simply ride occasionally for the little joys in life it brings. Surely, you remember the good old days of cycling with friends along the East Coast road when we were young.

William W K Tan

7 April 2018, Saturday

10:45 pm