Taking care

My bit of jungle

I suppose the first duty is to take care of oneself. It’s a sad truth that with an ageing body at least a modicum of exercise is essential to keep rapidly ossifying joints mobile. Fortunately the tropics is an ideal location, as the heat and humidity somehow miraculously loosens previously inflexible joints . So before the sun becomes unbearably hot,  I set off on a  a four mile walk in the jungle, well those bits left behind after KL’s  mad dash to join the cities of the ‘ first world ‘ . 

I suppose that means those cities that have covered their bit of our world with far more of their fair share of concrete, and emit the greatest levels of CO2 . Anyway , back to my route along country lanes which happen to be in the centre of this city . Needless to say they have become something of a ‘ rat run’ , but with these rats mainly of Germanic origin . The Chinese do like to exhibit their wealth. So I take care , walking against the on coming traffic ready to flee into the ditch . Fortunately these morning commuters have, to date , shown courtesy. 

I am in a tropical jungle , and despite its unban location , it comes with tropical inhabitants . The monkeys of which the babies look so cute , but dad gets a wide berth; Cockerels that inhabit the trees , a jungle fowl that have retained their flight capability. Squirrels scamper though the trees , looking sweet , but doing as much damage to the profusion of cables as the trees  . The biggest risk is however from a potential python curled,  waiting for its’ next meal to arrive. The other week one was in the tree above our grand daughter’s  bus stop. The fire brigade removed that one with a hessian bag and fire hose ( they don't like water apparently ) . 

As well as checking up in the trees , for wild life and falling coconuts , and then  forward,  for traffic ; I also have to check down , for the normal trip hazards of broken pavement ; but also for  exposed electricity cables . Despite the near  perpetual rain , there is a fairly relaxed approach to these , a bit of insulating tape seems to suffice. Hopefully there is a bit more attention paid to the many  127,000 volt cable connection boxes. Then today was a larger hole , a road collapse , probably the result of a broken drainage pipe, exposing those very high voltage cables . With all this rain , erosion happens very quickly .  This reminded me of my time with ‘ the Water Board ‘, when a high pressure jet from the water main bored into the adjacent gas main causing surprised customers to receive two utilities at the same time! The gas board had to replace a lot of ruined domestic appliances. 

So back to the trigger for this blog , nearing the end of my perambulations , a police car approached , blue light flashing . It stopped and out jumped four boys and one girl in blue. Oh dear ; during my walk I had photographed the very posh town house of one of the country’s Sultans . More exactly , as an  ex-water engineer , I was interested in the lack of water meter; I guess the exalted do not stoop themselves with payment for mere utilities. It did however have a radio monitored pressure gauge to ensure he got the stuff!. 

But no….They were smiling , and unarmed . The girl , still smiling , explained that they were from the local police station ( actually the main one in KL ) and were stopping joggers to check if they were happy with the environment around their exercise.. My son and his daughter had also been recently stopped to ask if they minded to take a selfie of them with these clearly looking foreigners. There must be virtually no crime around here; a good place to be for the law abiding , if not the lawless.

On the return I passed an elderly gentleman , that is someone looking in worse shape than the author. He was accompanied by his youthful looking female carer, ensuring that as he doddered along , he remained upright . He was wearing a broad smile , and a back brace ; perhaps his back was suffering from  a surfeit of ‘ care ‘. 

Posh house

Less water meter

They were leaving without me 

Electrical safety?

Collapsed road , and 127,000 volt cables