Running To the Bat Tower

Venturing out on a Sunday at the crack of dawn filled with the determination of undoing the previous night's excesses reminded me yet again that the early light reveals the different facets of daily life in a more transparent manner.

There is something about that brief window between thinning darkness and pale light that peels away at the thick shells that we foist on ourselves during the rest of the day.

Noisy groups of revelers still clinging to the last dregs of darkness clasping warm cans of alcohol and water. Men and not a few women screaming at the gutters with their heaving guts. Meticulously dressed old men carrying sticks, mahjong boards and other paraphernalia shuffling towards familiar meeting spots to while away a few lonely hours. Stacks of newspapers strewn on the footpath haphazardly as if tossed by a mad giant with their handlers quickly sorting them into neat piles destined for the myriad addresses in a sleeping city still draining out the poison of a busy week . Smartly dressed cyclists slicing through the  morning and panting joggers decorated with ipods following in their wake. Barmen and other creatures of the night standing at desolate bus stops waiting for the public chariots to deliver them to a brief freedom.  Travelers waiting at airport shuttle pickup stops to transport them one step closer to their destinations or one step further away from their homes. Empty taxis scavenging for that elusive last fare before calling time on yet another tiring day.

Amid that milieu, I go from shuffling/walking/lurching with creaky and sleepy joints to smooth strides.  Despair at the general level of unfitness to happy exhaustion stemming from a run well done. Sweat from the lack of aircon to sweat from perspiring muscles unused to regular strenuous work outs. Egging to start to preening near the finish. 0 to 9 kms in under an hour.

P.S. The "bat tower"  refers to the IFC2 building at Central where a few scenes of that 2008 classic The Dark Knight was filmed. My way of paying homage before the final instalment in the trilogy i.e. The Dark Knight Rises bombs the multiplexes in a week or two.