My Hood
I am not annoyed by the lock-down measures introduced to fight Coronavirus outbreak. They can be at times hard on my and everyone’s nerves and the impacts on social life are destabilizing; I also struggle to cope with travel limitations, but there is also a lot of good things to take.
As I explained in the 18th of April installment of these chronicles, gyms closure forced me to change my workout style. I adopted a quick everyday routine to keep muscles active but I did not know how to control my weight. Until 2018 I used to run on the treadmill because I was afraid of the humidity outside, but I had to stop because of knee surgery.
As I started to be annoyed by my weight gain, I decided to give it a try again and I discovered two amazing things.
In the first place, I can still run. Ok, I have to be very careful not to overload my knee, and I might not be able to do it for long, but I can run today.
Second, running outside is great: a few days ago, I and my girlfriend went for an exploration of our neighborhood and discovered a hill full of beautiful black and white houses, a historic heritage dating back to the times the island was ruled by the British. That hill is now my jogging playground.
Black and white houses belong to the State and Land Authority that maintains and manages them; they were built between 1935 and 1940 by the Far East Land, Air and Sea Forces to accommodate their military personnel. Because of their colonial past, these houses do not appeal to the locals and are mostly rented by foreigners in search of an out of time tropical experience.
After circling around the patch of land where the houses are scattered, my jogging takes me into a park that is well known for its gardening workshops. Although the park is open until 11 pm, no one goes there in the evening and jogging surrounded by the calm and the luscious tropical vegetation is a pure pleasure.
Finally, I run up a landmark bridge that crosses a busy road and I am back home.
It takes me half an hour to complete my jogging ring, and then a beer is waiting for me at home to compensate me for my efforts.
Before Coronavirus, I was lacking the time and the courage to try running again, but things have changed now that I do not have to commute to work and social distancing has freed up so much time to allocate on new things.
The virus outbreak offered us an opportunity to re-invent ourselves, re-discover what really gives us joy and break free of social conventions such as the work environment, that sometimes enclose us in a golden cage. What if this was a unique opportunity to break free?
“Look
Lose Yourself – Eminem – 2002
If you had one shot
Or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted
In one moment
Would you capture it?
Or just let it slip?”
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