Nearly two months ago, on a unusual warm and sunny winter morning, I woke up and decided to walk to work. Madam was worried, I'll be all sweaty and puffing when I reached there. The children were excited. "Good on you" the son chipped in.
The walk took me just over ten minutes and after the first day I decided I'm never going to take the car unless I'm really forced to. And since then the walk is the highlight of my day. These days, as I saunter out of the driveway, I see the delivery truck from the flower shop pulling in front of the shop. Fresh smell of flowers fill the air. Some times I catch the Chinese shopkeeper from the corner shop putting his advertisement placards outside, as he gives me a toothless grin and a wave.
On the main street, schoolchildren biking to school with their helmets bobbling on their heads and busy commuting cars, struggling to turn from the T junction and being honked by other cars. Mondays, I see the Recycling trucks swooping down on the street and the collection man collecting the plastic bags full of paper or plastic bottles like an acrobat on a trapeze, one handed, hanging from the truck with the other.
As I turn to the road behind the hospital, I hear the friendly yelp of the dog on the third house on the left, he knows I'm coming. The road goes up a gentle incline and I slow down a bit as I pass the now familiar houses on the way, The house with the wheelchair ramp with the blue gate, the house where the students flat with the boxes of beer bottles and cans left outside for collection and the house where the letterbox says no flyer or circulars, but is stuffed full with both. On a good day when the street's a bit quiet I can even catch the birdsongs, but being a ornithological ignoramus, just enjoy them for the heck of it.
By eight and a half minutes, I'm at the hospital gates and inside by ten minutes tops. But I can truly say, that I hate to drive to work these days and those are the days I realize, how priceless and stimulating my walk to work has become in my life.
