When I was small...

We don't always have to travel very far to get our fix. Some weekends, I'll drive the boys around the countryside, looking for nothing in particular. We've revisited my old kampong many times though the entire area is now void of houses... we see only acres and acres of grassland and vegetation since the land has been reclaimed by the government for military training.

Some landmarks remain though and it's funny how miniscule every looks now. I remember walking for miles and miles to school when I was a little girl, but it's really not that far afterall. Remember that song by the Bee Gees: "When I was small, and Christmas trees were tall."? That's how it is....

The Old Neo Tiew Road that I used to jog to with my best friend so long ago is now transformed into a huge farmland with vegetable farms on one side and a sprinkling of fish, frog, quail, chicken and goat farms on the other.

Cruising along, we often see flocks of lesser egrets perched on the swampland waiting for fish, or taking to the skies in graceful flight. It's not unusual to see monitor lizards basking in the sun or ambling across the narrow roads, and electric blue kingfishers flash before our very eyes.

Turning into small unpaved tracks, we'd notice how grasslands slowly give way to swamps. On some days, when we are lucky, we stumble upon something extraordinary like this ....

A field of beautiful pink lotus, growing wild in the swamp, moving in the breeze...what a sight!