The Road to 40 Day 206/365: Walking in Nature Day

I got the chance to take a walk again after quite some time, and it was a pretty long one.

While others have been running or biking, I’ve mostly chosen to walk like the seniors who probably share the same knees that I have. I’ve always planned to run, but so far, I haven’t tried going for it yet.

Walking allows me to listen to podcasts better, think clearer, and enjoy the sights of the paths.

On this day, I thought about walking along Hort Part via Kent Ridge, but I tried going to a different path. I ended up in one of the other paths I’ve taken before, so it felt like I took a wider turn that I had to.

God knows how many times I wanted to quit and just take the bus going home. My knees were killing me, I felt really tired already, and it felt like it was going to rain anytime soon. I walked along a path where I could catch buses on purpose, but I managed to fight off the urge and walked all the way home.

It took me about two hours to get home, passing through a mix of concrete and soil paths and a variety of elevations.

Vino had CCA this day, so I knew I had a bit of time at home. I wanted to prepare something for dinner, but I felt I wanted to rest a bit. Instead, I went to conquer my usual nemesis – the unfolded laundry.

After getting that done and cleaning up a bit, I headed off to eat lunch. I went to Fat Saigon Boy, a restaurant I chanced upon a couple of weeks back. It was in consideration to be the final stop of my scavenger hunt for Che.

The story I wanted to write was something about revisiting the significant places of our lives here in Singapore, as a nod to our 10 years of being married here. One of my final stops was supposed to be Iskina Cebu, where I worked before.

That was when I thought I could draw a lot of people in. When they weren’t available, I thought I could change the venue. Fat Saigon Boy came up, and I thought it would be nice because Vietnam was a big leap for all of us. It was when I gained the courage to fully embrace the dad life. It was when Vino was forced to no longer have Ate Jen in his life. For Che, it was a time when I saw her grew as a leader at work.

Of course, my plan ultimately ended up around our block instead of multiple bus stops. It still worked, I guess. Things have a way of working itself out when it comes to Che. Even my wedding proposal had plenty of variations, but the final one turned out to be the best way for it to happen.

Fat Saigon Boy’s menu showed me familiar food, and I thought I was ordering bun thit nuong when I got the lemongrass pork with vermicelli noodles.

Unfortunately, it was nowhere close to what I expected. The meat was dry, and the noodles didn’t have the beautiful sauce that is a signature of bun thit nuong. The staff were Vietnamese though, so maybe I’d still give their pho a chance next time.

I went straight to Vino’s school to pick him up after I ate. Before we left, we saw a couple of hornbills making a nest in a tree near their canteen. I’ve heard about them from Vino’s old teacher assistant, but this was the first time I actually saw them.

Vino asked if we could ride a car, and while I would usually decline, he did have football this day. Luckily, Zig was not too expensive and we were able to catch a ride.

When we got home, I asked Vino to do his homework before I cooked. I’ve allowed him to be on his tablet playing with his friends because I feel like he should enjoy being a kid. However, it seems like he’s not thinking as critically as he did before, and he’s no longer able to answer simple questions as quick as before.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to spend at least an hour with him to work on academic things. For this day, we had a discussion about division. I never would have imagined I’d be teaching math, but here I am. Hopefully, he gains enough math skills so I don’t have to teach him when the more difficult math comes later on.

He struggled a bit with division, and when Che arrived she said Vino might be finding it difficult to understand my questions. Ultimately, she asked Vino to do a workbook on division while I cooked our dinner.

I made a simple dinner of minced pork and carrots, with a side of kailan in oyster sauce. Vino surprisingly had a lot, and even asked for a refill of meat from Che’s plate.

We watched an episode of our K-Drama before heading to the room to get ready to sleep. Elio was the choice of movie for this night, and when both Che and Vino fell asleep, I looked for a show that I could play in the background.

My legs and knees still feel tired, so I don’t think walking or running on the treadmill will be an option tomorrow.