Scootering and other transports of delight


La Serpiente’s school finished its regular term last Friday, but to stop my wife going mad over the break until January, we booked La Serpiente into the holiday programme, which consists of her doing art and making stuff (and is thus indistinguishable to me from her regular school days, but I’m just a philistine, I suppose). Now that they’re moving out of the Tiong Bahru Community Centre, her holiday programme is in a different campus, which we walk to down a footpath and then up a big hill. So rather than taking the bus, La Serpiente gets to ride her scooter to school.
She was almost manically happy about this. She listened to me and slowed down when I told her not to scythe through pedestrians, and she made me race her for part of the journey, and throughout this she had a beatific smile upon her face. When we got to the hill, I felt we were too close to the road for comfort, so I carried the scooter. Then she saw one of her teachers walking up the hill, and again La Serpiente headed off, this time sprinting up the hill to be able to embrace her at the top. It is wonderful to be young and so filled with excitement and wonder at the simple things like seeing your teachers outside of the classroom.

I plodded up, tired and slow, not sure if I’ve got a cold or if I’m just worn out.

I had my own wheeled adventure today though, riding a two-tonne hire bike from the office to my physio, and then back again. That takes about 15 minutes door to door, which is the same as taking the train, except that, just like La Serpiente, I have in inexplicable feeling of joy and contentment whenever I use a person-powered wheeled device to transport myself.

Physio was agony, as before. Either my pain threshold is dropping or it’s hurting more, but I yelped a few times today, and my shoulders are still horribly sore. Maybe I should root around in my drawers and find some super powerful painkillers, although the last time I did that, I was out of it for a week.

But then I am on holiday soon. Decisions, decisions…


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