Heaven & eggs...and anything in between: Summer feels, and my relationship with water

I love the water! In fact, it came to me while doing laps yesterday that 'I actually have a relationship with the water!' And there's no other perfect time to think about dipping oneself in cool waters than this summer. Yes, after a cool period in the first quarter of the year, temperatures have begun to rise here in Singapore. Makes me wanna hit the beach or the pool pronto!

Seems like I am not the only who has a relationship with the water!

Perhaps that is why I have been dragging my family to swim for two Saturdays now at the nearby club. Oh, I finally tried the kid's water slide there, and gosh it has rekindled my longing for water slides. I was pregnant in the second half of last year when I discovered that water slides can simply make me happy. 😁😁😁 But I just couldn't do it then for the sake of safety. Since I have given birth and gotten my OB's approval to swim, now is the time!!! I told Rene I am going to hit the Adventure Cove Waterpark at Sentosa with the kids one of these days. 😎😎😎

The heat has also put me into reminiscing mode. 'Coz again, I already have quite a longstanding relationship with the water. Track record? This and this! But also, reminiscing is what happens when you are on maternity leave and refuse to leave the house because you're building a milk stash for the time when you return to work (and you told a friend that you refuse to meet him because your confidence is very low???).

This is how much I love the water: I immediately get the urge to swim when I see a body of water. What a waste to have that much water when you cannot swim in it! That's what I felt when I first visited the MacRitchie Reservoir. I totally get it that not all water here in the planet is for swimming - it's for drinking, too!!! - but but...

Ironically though, I am very lazy to take a shower at home when there is no reason to go out! Hihihi! But taking a shower is different from swimming or simply dipping in the water. Wahhh!!!

So I remember, on my second and final year of graduate school (thesis time so I already had my own schedule), I would hit the university swimming pool in the morning for an hour's swim after having my breakfast; how I loved the warmth of the sun on my damp skin. I would like to think that my obsession "culminated" in a recital - a chance to participate in a charity swimming event, where participants were given 20 minutes to swim and every lap completed was matched with a certain amount by donors. Since then, I have made it a habit to swim, made it a practice from one pregnancy to another; more so post-pregnancy, as is the case now.

That's endorphin-filled me after the swim, almost a decade ago!

Two days ago, I was completing my usual 1-km swim in the pool when this special request occurred to my mind: When my time is up here, please throw my ashes into a body of water that you'd imagine me enjoying a good swim. Where? First thing that came to my mind was the beaches of Capri - I can just imagine how lovely it would be to swim in the warm Mediterranean waters in the summer. I could have done it when I visited last July - in the midst of the heat wave - but I got seasick in my attempt to get into the Blue Grotto. It took me about three hours to recover from the nausea so I missed the swimming in that day's schedule of activities. So that's one option (but I can also imagine dreading to swim in the thick of winter! Haha, as if my soul would be bothered!).

This was the closest I could get to Bagni di Tiberio - a view from Anacapri
(I had a reservation for a sun bed but missed it!)

An alpine lake or river would do, actually. (In fact, it would not just do, it would be a delight to my weary soul...just that Europe is so far away. But I think I now prefer fresh to saltwater). One of my fondest memories was when the family had a dip in the river Isar at the English Garden in Munich during our trip in the summer of 2015. Looking back, I was really delighted that Rene and the kids welcomed the idea of taking a dip, just like what the many others were doing that one sunny afternoon. Silly us, we ended up rushing to our dinner appointment with our wet clothes on (Rene's and mine)! Thankfully, the summer heat dried our clothes quite fast.

Wouldn't you want to take a dip, too?

Us four, back in August 2015

Pax didn't complain at all!

And Umi was such a trooper!

The after-dinner photo with our now-dried clothes =)

Having said that, I do not mind hitting the beach these days. Sentosa would be good, we're just kinda busy in the weekends with Paco's baptism and our trip to the Philippines coming up. Anyway, I am already happy that I get to do my laps in the pool these days. As for the beach, I am already good with our Krabi trip last January, which in a way was already like celebrating summer 2018 in advance. =)