Monsoon

Out of no where, it rained pretty heavily and continuously since ermm, 2am or 3am (I'm not sure, I was sleeping) this morning over here in JB. And it is still pouring cats and dogs and buffalos and hippopotamus until now. Very similar to what we normally get during the monsoon season at the eastern part of the peninsular. Rain all day and night with dark grey clouds everywhere.

That brings my memory about the monsoon season we annually get at the east coast.

When I was a kid, everytime the monsoon season came I would wish and pray that it will flood. Why? Because, being a kampung boy where swimming at a pool is a very uncommon opportunity, flood is among the times where we can swim at the doorstep of our house, literally. Other than that, I used to swim at the beach once in a while, namely the Pantai Cahaya Bulan (PCB). I never dared to swim at Sungai Kelantan though. God knows what creatures are inside that wide river. Takut kena ngap beb!

I remembered one of the years long long time ago where it flooded pretty badly at Kota Bharu. The water level in front of my parents house was at about waist to chest. At certain places nearer to the river, the water level was already more than 2m deep. It flooded for more than 3 or 4 days before the flood subsided. So, the best time to swim in the flood was when the water level is at the max.

During that time, I never knew how to swim freestyle. Not even know how to swim breastroke. What I was capable of doing at that time was only dog crawl style. I don't know how to describe the style, but if you ever see how dog swims, that's how.

Being an active kid like myself, it was superbly fun to swim in the flood. Kulit jari kaki dan tangan dah kecut pun masih nak main air lagi. Bila perut dah lapar je baru naik ke rumah untuk cari makan. And during that cool and rainy season, alangkah nikmatnya dapat makan biskut kering empat segi cecah air teh o panas sambil kaki terendam dalam air banjir.

That was long long time ago. Being an adult now, I would always wish and pray it will never flood again at my kampung. Not that I'm jealous for not being able to swim in the flood, but more than that, it is hard to do the cleaning up after the flood subsided. Mud all over the house. Pity my parents if they have to do that.

Alhamdulillah, it does not flood as often as it was 10 or 15 years back.

On a separate note, I swam on Monday and yesterday - at swimming pool of course. Monday was a continuous 45min swim, and yesterday was slightly less because I already ran for 45min, prior to the swim. Penat siot! Brick training in reverse? I don't know. I just feel like doing heavier training nowadays, whenever possible. As long as my body can endure the game.

It is still long way to go until I get the strength and high endurance level like these triathlete friends I have around here. It is kind of a season now for these guys to train more, in preparation for Ironman I would assume. That's why I'm also training harder - it is a penyakit berjangkit maa, hehe. By the way, I have no specific target at this moment, just preparing myself for 2009 races I guess. We'll see.