Walking Tall

After yesterday's exertions I was treated to a day away from coaching.

I'd hardly describe it as a day off though, as I still managed to get plenty of things done (perhaps more than I would have achieved if I'd gone out and coached!)

Managed to get a good night's sleep in compared with last night which helped tremendously, and when I woke up the temperature had remained relatively cool overnight so I didn't wake up praising the Lord for air conditioning.
Thankfully, due to the climate, most of the indoor locations in Singapore are air conditioned; shops, shopping malls, buses, everything allows people a bit of a break from the sun.
The problem I find with it is, as relieving as it can be to avoid the heat and humidity for a while, when you go back into the sun, you have got used to cold air coming your way that you can be overly reliant on A/C to cool you down.

No sign of the rain today which had been falling in the past couple of days. Pretty much every night I have been here, there's been a group of men playing basketball on a court just below my apartment window, and it must have been damp the last couple of nights because they were nowhere in sight.

This morning's first task was go get on with a bit of work that I had been provided by James. We're attempting to make progress with a coaching website, and it seems this has become my responsibility! Thankfully all I'm required to do is decide what needs changing and then delegate onto someone else who actually makes the changes!

After looking through that I moved into my next task which was looking at a program which allows you to create sports coaching drills in 3D format and also convert them into video form. When it comes to this sort of thing, I am pretty "old school" at the moment as all I do is grab some crayolas and draw out in colour the placement of the cones and how the drill will work.
This program is something you can use online to illustrate and share your ideas with other people..... let's just say it's also a pretty good tool for "developing" new ideas too!

Needing a break from all this work malarkey I went out for some dinner and came back refreshed to get some other things done.
I had promised myself a break today to go and be adventurous so at about 5.30pm when it was a bit cooler I headed out towards Sembawang Park for a walk.

Although most illustrations and online sources would have you believe that Singapore is just skyscrapers and apartment blocks, it is actually surprisingly full of green spaces. Sembawang, in particular, is very green and there are plenty of open spaces. The park is around a forty five minute walk away from the house, but thankfully it wasn't so hot that it made going out for such a long time uncomfortable.

The route to the park from my apartment block is relatively simple. Going towards the MRT station in a northerly direction you follow the road until you get to a crossroads and then head left until you reach Sembawang Park. Unfortunately, and disappointingly I forgot to take my camera with me on my latest foray out, but what I saw along the way was quite unique.

For only the second time (yesterday being the first) I actually saw a house...... well a bungalow! But still some residence at street level isn't something you find here very often I have discovered! This era of the town is mostly former British colonial housing so it looks slightly different to the concrete jungle that surrounds you almost everywhere you go.

As you continue walking down the road, there a lot of new constructions being finished in a more modern style, but these don't go in keeping with the modern or colonial housing. In truth they look like something you'd expect to see in a luxury holiday village in Spain or southern France.

Around this area it is also more common to see westerners. We western folk are a bit of a rare breed around this parts, the more you get into central Singapore, the larger the number becomes, but out here towards the north part of the country there is a shipyard which brings in sailors and families from different parts of the globe.

Saldy much of Sembawang Park is currently under construction, but as we continued to walk down towards the water, you are greeted by two sights; One, possibly the smallest and narrowest beach on the planet, and two, Malaysia.
Those of you who have observed a map will realise that there isn't much distance between the two countries, and beyond the small body of water (easily swimable) lies the city of Johor Bahru which is the link point between Malaysia and Singapore. Further to the east, there is a bridge or causeway which allows you to cross between the two countries, but from the park parts of the city are visible.

At one time you used to be able to hoof it across the border but now you have to be in transit using some kind of vehicle. It was pretty strange to see another country at such close proximity, although it looked like another part of the same island because the shipyard blocks your view.

From there I headed back to the apartment for the evening, went out to get some dinner and then prepared myself for, hopefully, another busy day or travelling and new sights tomorrow!

"You know what my new favorite sound is going to be? The sound of you screaming like a bitch!"