Overdoing it?

Last night we were both asleep before 10pm, because we believe in making the most of every minute in this thriving metropolis. Oh, and because I had to get up this morning for a 16 km run.

Really it was just ten miles, but measuring it in kilometres makes it feel like more of an achievement. I got up at 6:05, was running before 6:30 and home by eight, which gave me time for a shower, some breakfast and a nap before going back out again and catching a taxi to Changi and a boat from there to Pulau Ubin.

Pulau Ubin is an island off the coast of Singapore, blessed with a tame wild boar, and some mountain bike trails that aren't on a mountain. They're IMBA-certified, but since that stands for I'm Not Bloody Anything it turns out that the Double Black Diamond trail is like the stuff we'd ride on Leith Hill, but falling apart because nobody read the bit of the manual about trail maintenance, and seemingly built to have as much grinding uphill and as little fun downhill as possible.

I may have been spoiled by the 'special' trails on Tai Mo Shan in Hong Kong, which could properly hurt you, or I may have been grumpy from exhaustion, or it may just have been the bike I had, half a tonne of scrap iron with the brakes the wrong way round. Still, sanitised trails are better than no trails at all. We did a lap of the whole thing, had lunch and were back having our bags x-rayed at Changi ferry port before 2pm. So efficient, so Singapore.

Another nap, then as much food as I could fit down my gullet, and finally stand-up comedy before bedtime. Well, that wasn't quite the end; on the way home a drunken Singaporean tried to give me a hug and then asked me if I had $7,000. I resisted the urge to give him a happy-slapping and walked home, past the hordes of idiots riding bicycles. Perhaps I'm being petty, but if you're riding a bicycle the wrong way down the street, with no lights on, your sins are not ameliorated by the bicycle being suitable for a eight year old child rather than a full grown man.

And so to bed.