the bendemeer walking group

finally managed to capture my wednesday and friday walking kakis on digital image. i call this the bendemeer group because, of the six regular ones, five were former bendemeer secondary school teachers. i am the co-opted one; the only one who has not taught in bendemeer though my youngest sister is a former student of the school.


today, we were joined by chuan wee and betty. chuan wee was my colleague in balestier and betty has taught in both balestier and bendemeer. actually of the five regulars, two were my former collegues in balestier - tan tye thong and wong huat cheong. the other three members are loh swee guan, wong kee toh and tan song char. i used to play gin rummy with song char, swee guan and two other bendemeer teachers in the 80s.


we met at the first car park at telok blangah hill. with the opening of the southern ridges, the parking situation is so different. in the past, this car park would be almost empty. i would see delivery men taking a siesta in their trucks or a taxi driver, with the engine idling, having some intimate talk with a lone chinese woman in the front passenger seat. today, when song char reached the place, he was lucky to get the last remaining space.


starting from the car park, we walked up the road slope to get to the start of the henderson waves. when we got to the mount faber side, the directional signs were not so clear. we hit the faber walk and headed for the marang trail. it took some backtracking before we finally found the steps leading to the marang trail.

we had some power food at the food centre next to the bus interchange before making our way back. kwan, who joined us at the end of the marang trail, suggested taking a different route to get to the jewel box. eventually, we split into three groups and took three different routes to get back to the henderson waves.

on friday, instead of meeting at our usual venue at macritchie, we will meet at kent ridge park to do the other half of the southern ridges.