Sunday, January 23, 2005

A day of walking - To chill out

Maybe the rest yesterday was meant to recharge me so that I could go for a whole day of walking today. So I guess it is a sign to show that it helps to try to put things into a perspective that serves one's well-being?

I would like to take this chance to thank mistipurple for the kind and helpful comments meant to help put things back to perspective. Thanks dear.

Back to the topic: This morning, I left home before 10 a.m. in the morning. I went to the Singapore Art Museum again. This time, I had wanted to view the exhibition titled Faith & Being. This is an exhibition showcasing the works of various Thai artists. I must admit that I have yet to have sufficient exposure of the works of these artists to be able to truly appreciate their art. Anyway, hopefully my humble attempt of viewing the exhibition will mark a small step forward in appreciating their art.

I went to view the exhibition featuring Botero's works again when I was at the art museum. The museum guide today was a nice middle-age gentleman, but I still miss the previous museum guide who guided me for the Botero's exhibition. The previous guide was able to be more detailed in his account of Botero's works probably because he only needs to guide the Botero's exhibition. My guide today has to give us a guide to the Faith & Being and the Botero's exhibitions.

After slightly more than an hour at the Singapore Art Museum, I walked to the Marina Food Loft to have lunch. I had the Indian curry for lunch, and it was pretty satisfying.

Next stop was the Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay. I walked down to the Marina Park, if that is what it is called. The sun today was pretty good for photography. You might have guessed that I took a few photographs along the way. I felt quite at peace and in the sync to walk along the park, just enjoying the moments. Maybe such a feeling is what my friend, mystic, terms as "timeless love"? I took yet another set of photographs of the Botero's sculptures which were displayed in the vicinity of the Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay. The photographs do look better under the nice sunny light.

Mystic was nice to be my company for the rest of the afternoon. She joined me at about 2 p.m. We had wanted to meet at the Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay's roof-top, but it was not opened to public for today. Anyway, this is not an excuse for us to have our moods dampened. I requested to go to the library@esplanade, and Mystic very graciously obliged. I checked out the audio-visual materials that the library has for loan, and I decided to upgrade my library membership to a Premiere membership. Such an upgrade will allow me to loan the audio-visual materials, and also more books. I am feeling quite pleased about having a Premiere membership. It felt like a worthwhile investment. The first two CDs that I loaned was a CD of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, and another CD of music by Hadyn.

When I was feeling happy with the two CDs that I have loaned, Mystic and I left to walk around the Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay. Then the next stop that followed was the Esplanade Park. I asked my friend to go there because I would like to take the photographs of some of the Botero's sculptures that were exhibited there. At the Esplanade Park, I did one sketch too. It has been quite a while since I have a new entry in my sketchbook. Today's entry was reasonably up to expectations, I hope. After the sketch, we walked and before we realised, we were at Boat Quay.

As if half an afternoon of walking and sightseeing was not enough, I requested to walk up the Fort Canning Hill after getting a bottle of mineral water from Funan Centre. It felt delightful to be at the Raffles Terrace that was at the top of the Fort Canning Hill. I imagined how the island of Singapore used to look like from this part of the hill before there was any high-rise buildings, and it was rather fascinating. I quite enjoyed walking through the paths of the Fort Canning Park, and listening to the sounds of Nature that I encountered along the way. I wonder how Mystic was experiencing the walk through the park?

For me, the walk was like a way to chill out. I could walk the pace that I would like. I could see the sights that I like. Momentarily, I felt I owned every single moments of the walk that I had taken. Maybe slowing down would help one better appreciate the beauty in the walk?

Soon it was time for dinner, and the agreed-upon venue for dinner was the Le Meridien Hotel. I figured Mystic might have been quite tired from the walk by now. Admittedly, my feet were feeling weary from the day of walking. So we stopped for a short rest at the Istana Park before proceeding for dinner.

After dinner, we walked past the Istana Park and all the way to Raffles City. Hopefully, the evening skies could heal one's hurts and disappointments, and make one stronger? There were quite a lot of questions asked this evening, and maybe it takes much humility to say that we do not know the answers to many of the tests that Life has for us all?

The walk today proved to be a long one. Part of it allowed me to retreat to my internal world, which happens to be a preferred place to be. Anyway, I was a little caught by surprise to see my cheeks quite red by the end of the day. Hopefully, the sightings, sounds and the air from today's walk would help one feel some solitude and peace. Actually, I think it did for me.

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