Everyday Happiness. Waking up happy and healthy on a sunshiny day. Cycling through morning mist and empty streets and parks for a morning barre class. Getting takeaway coffee from Ronin and, for the first time really, check out the street art in the small alleys off Hong Kong Street. Discovering, as my phone is dead and I therefore can’t get a bicycle to go home after barre, that I can actually run again now. Properly, normally, RUN. It hurts a tiny bit in my knee, and I need to learn to relax and be confident, but the basic motion is there. Just like that, it seems. Well, it’s been a long time coming and I have trained for it… a lot… but I almost got used to not being able to really run. Now I can. When I get home, S has made breakfast, and after we’ve eaten, he’s kissed me goodbye and left for work, he messages me to say that we’re going on a date tonight – oysters and champagne at Black Swan. I promise to shower and change my clothes before then. Otherwise, all day, I’m working from home in my yoga pants. Super productive from 9-17, with one short break to eat leftover chicken frikadeller (Danish meatballs) and chickpea salad, which I made last night, with my writer friend who lives around the corner. After we’ve eaten, we walk down to the bakery to pick up a coffee and then part ways to go home and continue our respective work. Lovely and easy. After work, I get ready to go out with S as soon as he gets home, and we walk in the warm golden hour sunshine to get to the CBD for our treats, which are then followed by octopus, steak and Malbec at Bochinche and a nightcap at Humpback, before we walk back home in the dark, just in time for my work call at 11pm-01am, after which I chat with my brother until I fall asleep on the couch.
Postcard from Copenhagen. My sweet English friend, with whom I spent a weekend in Copenhagen in November, sends me a postcard from Copenhagen… so sweet.
Girls’ Morning. We have a Danish friend staying over for a week before she’s leaving to meet her mum in Tokyo and then going back to Copenhagen. She has only been here for 3 months, and we didn’t know each other before – a mutual friend connected us when she moved here, and we immediately liked each other a lot. She has been staying in a condo in Club Street, but as we want to maximise the time until she leaves, she’s crashing in our guest room. On Thursday morning, we cycle together just before dawn at 6:50am, below a thin layer of tiny cotton clouds, to Hong Kong Street for a barre class and breakfast at Punch. Friday morning, we run along the river to the waterfall at the end of it, down by Alexandra Road. My first attempt at a good old morning run. Especially with her her, an avid morning runner, I miss one of the most magical things I know. Get up early, simply put on shorts, top and shoes and go out… sense the morning, wake up with the day. Ahh. Wonderful as it is, it really hurts in my knee, though. I need to properly warm up to be able to do this… I’ll have to take it slowly and run in intervals. My friend is patiently and lovely. We run, walk, cycle and hop along interchangeably. She loves the place as much as I do… and we chat the whole way. It’s lovely even if I’m still recovering.
No Bali This Time. A few months ago, we were supposed to go to Bali for my birthday, but decided to go to Phuket instead as Mount Agung, the largest active volcano on Bali, was threatening to erupt. Back then, we moved our tickets to this weekend, but ironically, the volcano has only started letting off steam and ash within the past few weeks. We wouldn’t have traded that surprisingly wonderful weekend in Phuket for anything, though, and we decide to stay at home this weekend, as we can go to Bali anytime. We have been travelling enough lately – we are perfectly fine staying here. Some of our friends do decide to go to Bali this weekend, and they report back how blissful and calm it is there, how perfectly safe as well, and how sad the locals are to be losing lots of tourism. Well…
Instead: Google Christmas party at Gillman Barracks on Friday… Sustainable Christmas Market off Orchard Road and watching Paddington 2 at the cinema (that level of creativity, inventiveness and talent… the messages of compassion, friendship, love and community… aw, it’s just so GOOD!) on Saturday… Danish Christmas Party in Tiong Bahru on Sunday. Hanging out with S the entire time – dancing together, talking and laughing together, being quiet together, cycling through our leafy art deco neighbourhood, going for early morning walks and spontaneous meals and drinks in new or familiar places, reading and napping on the couch…. ahh.
Camilla's highlights 