I never knew he had this much patience.

I never knew he had this much love.

When one’s marriage is >10 years old, we tend to take things for granted. I know i sometimes do but i try my darnest not to.

When i had a very serious bout of food poisoning 2 weeks ago, the husband took care of me like he had never before and we weren’t even on a good term because i was unhappy for dunno-what-reason-already.

Without a word, he walked into the bathroom and patted my back gently when i vomited for the first time that night. Within 15 minutes, the vomiting got so bad that i propped my head over the stinky toilet bowl in between the few second intervals because i can’t even afford to rest proper on the bathroom floor itself. Whenever i was done, he would walk in from coaching the boys to clear the toilet bowl for me. Just when i thought the whole situation couldn’t get any worse, hmm, let’s just put it this way, the contaminated food decided to come out from the other end too. Whoa.. i tell you, for that 1 hour, i thought i might just die for real.

Right then, i knew some words had to be uttered even though I had to make MAMMOTH effort to do it.

Call ambulance.
(if you know me well enough, i am someone who refuses to see the doctor unless i absolutely, absolutely have to but most of the times, i still don’t. So, for me to utter these words, it really says something)

I said it not once, not twice but thrice because the husband didn’t do as i say to my astonishment — i found out why the next day. He didn’t show any reaction at all in fact (except for that calm face of his) but quietly, cleaning up the mess. And the fact that i didn’t ask why then probably makes you more curious eh? As dramatic as it might sound, i couldn’t summon enough energy to ask why and when i almost did, i passed out, twice.

Then, i was no longer in the bathroom but on the bed. I was too weak to be kneeling over doing all the barfing. Hubby placed a pail right next to the bed and whenever i was about to barf, he would rush over to hold it up for me with one hand and the other, my hair. When i was done, he would diligently clean it proper so that i’d get a fresh better smelling pail instead of a stinky one.

Knowing how important sleep is to the husband, i thought he might just abandon me when the clock struck 11pm, 1.5 hour past his bed time but he did not. Then, things slowed down and we managed to catch some sleep in between. However, every time i wanted to do a Merlion, he would spring up and rush to my side again and again and again…

No complains, no sighs.

I never knew he had this much patience.

I never knew he had this much love.

But now i do.

For the longest time, i wish Darcy was a little more outgoing and adventurous. Apart from mountaineering, hiking and trekking, i have always wanted to do cycling as well, both road cycling and mountain biking.
(scuba diving to be done by year end!)

One fateful day when the moon was blue, Darcy looked at me and whispered, “Let’s get ourselves 2 proper bicycles!”

WHOA!

I was ecstatic to say the least.

My baby, which is now old and rusty but still trusty, works just fine but you see, Darcy and i have been fighting over it lately, with both of us showing interest to send the boys to classes with it at night. Not sure what got into the wrinkled boy but man, he sure enjoys cycling quite a bit these days! It has always been me, me, me and more me you know.

A few trips around the country (Singapore’s a small country!), 1 swipe across the credit card machine and a couple of days later…

The bikes arrived, coincidentally, on my birthday!

But of course, i refuse to accept the bike as my birthday pressie this year, so… technically speaking, i still haven’t received my birthday present this year, my birthday present last year and my birthday present the previous year before last year!

Hmph!

pssttt : if i don’t get my birthday present next year, you can be sure that “HUSBAND FOR SALE” ad will be in the national newspaper next year.

our failed attempt on night mountain biking 3 days ago

To date, we have been cycling around a few times, mostly at night, just for fun.

The longest trip to date gotta be our over-ambitious, our very first ride which, also happened to be my very first fall into a longkang (drain). Heh.

So what exactly happened?

It was 1am, dark, not pitch black but dark enough. We had no other way out but to take the off beaten path/trail on a muddy, rocky and bumpy slope. Right after the slope was a drain and to cross it, we had to use the pathetic wooden plank which was just 20cm wide! Seeing how the husband managed to cross the plank so easily, i did the same as well, thinking i shouldn’t have any problem at all.

I mean, if Darcy could, why couldn’t i, right?

WRONG.

Hahahahaaaa!

I couldn’t.

You see, after the slope came a bend then the drain. As i was turning onto the plank, i didn’t maneuver it too well. Halfway crossing, i felt that a small part of my back wheel might not make it onto the plank and i panicked!

Guess what i did?

I stopped.

Damn right i did.

I cleverly stopped in the middle of a 20cm wooden plank, without realizing what i did! (i blame my quick but useless reflex! but methinks being a perfectionist has a lot to do with it. i mean, if i’m the bochap type, i’d have rode on! -_-)

Obviously, when one stops cycling, the feet come down. So where can my feet go?

NOWHERE!

There was no space for my feet and the next thing i knew was………

1. ‘oh shit’ thought flashed by

2. a friggin’ high pitch scream escaped in the dead of the night and…

3. the bicycle was on me in the drain.

Heh. What baffled me was my reaction right after. The first thing i did was to ask if my bike was alright?!, followed by 2-3 minutes of non-stop hysterical laugh, remembering my own stupidity. Lol!

Miraculously, i was not hurt. Not even a tiny scratch. As for the bike, it was OK too! PHEW!

That night morning, we reached home at 2am, tired, worn out and all we wanted to do was to drop dead on the bed and sleep. But we didn’t of course. The clean-freak Darcy was adamant to make me camp in the balcony should i Zzzzzzz away without taking my bath! >_<

Aaaahhhh….

What a ride.

More night cycling?

You bet!

ps : had i not stopped but to continue cycling across the plank, nothing would have happened because 97% of the bike was already on the plank!

pps : i was pretty darn pleased to see how quick the husband had reacted when he witnessed the whole episode. grin. he almost tripped while coming to my rescue but dropped the intention after i started my maniac laugh. :P