SimonSimple

Hi People

This morning I woke up at 5 am and together with my elder daughter made our way to Changi Prison. No we did not do anything wrong. Hopefully we did everything right. She wanted to run for charity at least once a year. I decided to join her. In fact last year we did one together at the East Coast Parkway, was it Run For Hope? Come to think of it many years ago, the whole family - me, 1 wife and 3 kids, used to participate in numerous charity walks. As the years went by, only the strong survived and nowadays it’s just the 2 of us, my daughter & I.

This morning’s charity run was the Yellow Ribbon Prison Run. Symbolically, the runners broke open the ’second’ prison in the form of an iron gate at the start of the race. My daughter ran all of 10 km. I ran or rather, I ran-walked-ran-walked, all of 5.8 km in a time of 43 minutes. Not bad for a cool ‘retiree’ on a cool Sunday morning. We ended up in the prison grounds. Many runners commented that they thought they would have the chance to see the inside of the prisons and some prisoners. But all in all, it is good that some funds and a heightened awareness were raised because of this charity run. 3 cheers for our ex-prisoners and the people who cared for them and the people who still care for them.

It was a fun morning. There were lots of goodies (Andersen ice cream, iced Milo, Polar Cafe cakes, an orange, a banana, bottled water, games stalls, T-shirts, caps, towels, memo pads, pens etc etc) and fond memories to bring home. We bumped into old friends - including 2 doctors. I shook the hand of our Deputy Prime Minister. We had met before but I doubt he remembered. It is usually the case. We know lots of VIPs but they may not know us. At the end of the run my daughter & I were interviewed by a certain TV celebrity for a TV news bite. I didn’t quite recognise her, until I asked for her name. My daughter chided me. I should not have dented this particular personality’s ego. She didn’t know who I was and I didn’t know who she was either. So it makes us even.

In the final analysis, it is not how many important persons we know around us but it is important for us to know the person within us. I know who I am. I am a child of God, husband to my lovely wife and father to my 3 wonderful children. And that’s very important.