Wednesday 15 August 2007

Swimming in Lunar 7th month

Today is the first time that I went swimming in the Lunar 7th month. The Chinese believes that the 7th month is the "Ghost Festival" and one should never go swimming as there will be "water ghost" that will be out there pulling your legs. I was never the superstitious type but due to my mother's constant reminder, I avoided all forms of water sport during the month.

For a long time, I was afraid of the water, the sea particularly. I have always felt the sea to be intimidating, especially during the nights, where the sound of the waves are like the monster's roar, telling me that it is ready to swallow anyone into the bottomless dark waters .

I could never forget an incident which happened when I was still in primary school where I almost drown at east coast. Once, I was playing with my cousins at the beach and I could barely swim at that time. Being a curious child, I walked out to the open sea as far as I could, until the water touched my chin. Something happened, and within a second, I found myself struggling in the water. Thank goodness my uncle saw me a gave me a hand to help me back to the shore. As I tried to recollect what actually happened, I remembered I felt a hand grabbed my ankle and dragged me down. Scary isn't it? Over the years, I have come out with a theory that it was a prank my cousins played on me. But because of that incident, I never like swimming in the sea anymore. The next time I did swim in the sea was in 1996 in Phuket where the water was crystal clear and I could find my feet at all times.

I have gone to the swimming pool today with an intention to break the superstition belief. However, I was only able to complete 75% of the number of laps that I typically do due to a muscle cramp. 邪门! Please lah, it is probably because I didn't do enough warm ups.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i still maintain a 宁可信其有attitude...