It was a 'to ride or never' kind of a situation. Right up till 06:30pm, there was still no news of any ride for this weekend. Then just after 8pm, the phone rang - Sanny confirmed a ride for tomorrow, Saturday the 21st of October.

FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) - so it is, not willing to let go off this ride since tomorrow (Sunday) most people would be too busy not wanting to miss the finals of the F1 race. And moreover, I would be away next week, in Hong Kong – meaning another week of ‘no mountain biking’ for me!

Boys will be boys – even before the start of the ride, Kevin and Thomas was already busy exchanging views and notes on their respective GPS (Global Positioning System). This seems to be the latest craze among many mountain bikers. Hopefully, with the help of Kevin and Thomas, we will soon be seeing charted trails on the site! But sometimes, even with the use of a GPS, one can still get lost as ‘almost’ proven by Kevin!

The usual ride along the stretches of stalls selling flowers and pots. Then it was the ride up the hill into the FRIM grounds. It all sounded and seemed easy enough. But somehow, what you have for breakfast in the morning seemed to affect the day’s performance after that! I had 4 pieces of flour bean cake with a glass of warm Milo drink. With this combination, I could already feel my legs going weak as I struggle up the hill! Must remember never to have such stuff for breakfast again!

Today’s ride also was geared towards a more family caring outing. I believed that we did much more longer stops and longer ‘yakity-yak’! There seemed to be so much to ‘yak’ about! Even high up on the ‘Steroid’ hill, we guys were so busy talking and exchanging views while poor Coke was waiting below! First it was the GPS, followed by somebody’s bicycle gear, shoes, clips and the list could have gone longer had I not asked the group to continue riding!

The ground for the day, on the whole was terrible. It was very hard and on certain stretches, slippery too! I was also encountering a major setback problem coming from my mountain bike. It was skipping and jumping away at practically every corner! Had it rained the previous night, I think the ride would have been more comfortable! Or was it me, who after last week’s crash, am still mentally telling myself that I would crash again!  Without much hesitation, I was extra careful as I sure would not like history repeating itself for me! After all, the fresh scars have still yet to ‘disappear’ from my body!

From ‘Steroid’ hill, we headed down to the grounds of FRIM. Surprisingly, there were many people around for a Saturday. I was ‘dying’ for a can of nice ice-cold coke drink so it was straight to the sundry shop. Here, everyone ended up drinking iced drinks with the exception of our father and son team – they had ice cream!

The ride back to the hospital car park was not too bad as it seemed quite soon we were back in our cars! Today's ride will go down in my mountain biking book as a real family outing trip for us. Just as Sany said, it is alright – once in a while, we must have rides like this!