LET'S PARKOUR!

I am pokai again this week. I was thinking of calling up Grandpa Koh so we could go out makan together (with the tab on him), but I just remembered he had gone to church this morning. As much as Grandpa Koh respects my Muslim faith, I respect his Christianity too. But I can't help imagining what would have happened if he answered my call in the middle of a sermon:

"Hello, Gramps! Let's go makan-makan!"

"Amel, I'm in the middle of a sermon. And you have just embarrassed me in front of the priest."

"Oh, uh, sorry. Would the priest like to makan-makan too?"

Jogging. I hate jogging.

A lot of questions came to my mind right now, such as:

1) why am I out here under this annoying sunlight?
2) why am I wearing this ugly tracksuit?
3) why am I wearing a cap? Amel doesn't usually caps!

Stefan huffed and puffed from behind. Face all red and sweaty, Stefan caught my gaze and smirked at me. His excess stomach dribbled here and there underneath his sweatshirt as he moved. Talk about UGLY.

"Stopping already, Amel? What's the matter, can't take anymore sun?"

Alright, that does it.

"You know what," I said to Stefan, "whose girlfriend is it that keeps stuffing him with junk food everyday? If you have dumped Faris, you wouldn't have tortured yourself like this. And why the hell do I have to come along, dammit?!"


Soon after I said that, the park witnessed a gangly guy in cap running across the scene with his blob of a brother chasing madly after him.

A familiar figure strode out of a grove in the park. It's Nymo.

I racked my brain to remember something about Nymo.

"Hey, Naruto!" I called out.

Nymo stopped in his tracks for a while and turned to me. "Amel, you forget my name again. It's Satoru."

Whatever. Satoru and Naruto sounds almost the same.

"What are you doing here?" Nymo asked.

"Jogging. I think."

Nymo looked over my shoulder. "Is that Stefan?"

I looked at Stefan's way, and saw that he was bending over trying to catch his breath.

"Yeah... and any moment now he is going to kill me."

Stefan finally recovered his breath and returned to his mission to tear me apart.


"Love to chat with you, Hotaru, but I gotta run now. Ciao'!"

"Wait!" Nymo called out. "I wanna join you!"

Well, be my guest. Man, you think this is fun? Hell yeah, it does seem fun taunting Stefan like that. Suddenly, an idea formed in my mind.


"Let's Parkour!" I yelled, zooming on to a hand rail by some steps in front of us. I grabbed the rail to support my weight and vaulted over to the next side.

"What?!" Nymo was confused, but followed my lead anyway.

To some of you who, like Nymo, don't know what Parkour is, it's a form of free running in which traceurs (practitioners) traverse any environment in the most efficient way possible using their physical abilities, and which commonly involves running, jumping, rolling and other similar physical movements.

"Aaagh...! No fair!" Stefan wailed as he could only watch us zip in and out around the park like crazy swallows.

The wind beat against my face as I dropped myself down from a ledge. Awesome, I felt like flying.


We jumped past a couple who didn't want to be disturbed, flew over the ice-cream man, whizzed past some female joggers (helloooo, ladies...), bounced off some lamp posts, climbed up several walls surrounding the park and slid down to a footpath near the lake before we finally fall on our backs to the ground.

Nymo mentioned that this was better than the morning exercises he did back in Japan. What I only wanted at that time was a cool drink.

Suddenly, I sensed Nymo grinning stupidly at me.

"What?" I asked him, feeling annoyed.

"I've never seen you in a cap before. Nice cap."

Gee gave me this cap.

"Cut it out," I replied. "Sounds gay when you say that."


"Really?" Nymo suddenly asked in a low voice, staring at me.

"Wonder what's happening to Stefan right now," I got up to my feet quickly and brushed the grass off my tracksuit. "Let's go find him before he calls a search party."


Half an hour later, we found Stefan gobbling down a double cheese-burger at McD's inside the PKNS which is just opposite the park... with his equally fat girlfriend sitting next to him.

"Hello, boys," Faris waved sheepishly at Nymo and I. "Care to join us?"


POP SHUVIT'S "OLD SKOOL ROCKA" is playing in my mind today.