What We Gain From The Gym

Last week, just before National Day (9 August 2008 for Singaporeans), I hesitated to hit the gym downtown. The reason being that the afternoon "crowd" had a certain fancy - as if a certain type of brood of male archetypes dominate the scene - and these were "muscle Mary" types who were highly narcissitic, were browsers (they were always looking around) and tended to have very unfriendly stares (possibly from testosterone and anabolic overdose). Any way, I felt the urge too strong and found myself doing a good full body work out which was not too indulgent, ensuring I would be injury-free for my personal training sessions with Chris Ong. As I was leaving, a particular guy got my attention and I boldly gave him my number to call. I left the gym and got about two blocks away to get my car from the Grand Hyatt car park and as I was about to start the car and move off (home? or Sentosa?), I receive an SMS and it's from this cool guy. It turns out he's teacher at a local primary school located North-east Singapore. I invite him to take time off the gym and head with me to the beach at Sentosa, then dinner at VivoCity. After some persuasion, he agrees and I divert to fetch him. It turns out to be a very pleasant meeting and lovely late afternoon at the sea side, with a warm and pleasant time just conversing and exchanging ideas. We have dinner instead at HarbourFront, and I send him home on the long drive North via the CTE and Ang Mok Kio Avenue 5 to Sengkang's Riverdale. During our conversation, I talked about setting up new alignments in my life, which included being more spontaneous in making friends and making more effort to keep them. His response was a direct suggestion, "Go to the gym more often." It should have sounded cryptic, but I think he was simply factual - if you wanted to hook up with a certain type of crowd of people with simlar likes, hang out at the right places is a good place to start. The thing is, the crowd at the gym in town is not quite the sort I would get glued to for long, and they are at best too superficial. But reflecting back at the crowd we get at the private health clubs, it would be much more refreshing. For that reason, I have enjoyed seeing the hotel guests trudge in and out of the club, as they add flavour and short-term variety. I guess it depends on what you like and what you shop for! I suspect we might stay in touch for a while, and maybe see each other again on Teacher's Day.