Have you heard of any 58 year old who wants to go on a diet? I know of one – my dearest mummy. Well, for all i know, my mum is not fat at all. She weighs about 54kg (which is lighter than me anyway), and the only thing that belies her small frame is her slightly protuding pot belly (which is actually characteristic of me too, something which i would like to attribute to heredity, and not a result of me overeating!). So it was no surprise when I met up with a long time friend, Gwen, who happens to work in the same school where my mum teaches. She told me she saw my mum jogging on the spot one morning while doing ‘morning assembly duty’. I immediately burst out laughing. Jogging on the spot?!? That sounded like an old school PE term! While doing morning assembly duty at that?? Gwen then went up to my mum to chat, supposedly to ask her why she was jogging on the spot. I mean, my mum is supposed to be doing assembly duty (although I seriously do not know what that entails – probably checking if the students had their shirts tucked in??), and not jogging on the spot! And according to Gwen, they carried on a conversation while my mum continued jogging on the spot!! When I went home the same day, I asked my mum why on earth was she jogging on the spot and she said she was so bored of doing morning assembly duty so she decided to jog on the spot, plus, she could also shed some weight in the process. I really hope she doesn’t do the same thing while waiting for the bus in the bus stop.
Yihui’s first foray into the outdoors was climbing a snow-capped mountain during a Technical Mountaineering Course in New Zealand back in 2003. She has since developed a passion for hiking and climbing mountains in extreme places.