To think this was once my GYM..

Fallin Hyde Park, originally uploaded by foezoe.

Summers are spent abroad like any other Khaleeji running away from the killer heat in search for cooler places. Sometimes I feel we're like migrating birds, that do the exact opposite migration; in the summer as opposed to the winter.

I've tried a new routine for the past 2 years, exchanging my mornings lazing in bed to going out with a personal trainer and hitting the asphalt at the park.

Mornings are spent running by the Serpentine, doing push ups on benches, laying on the grass doing crunches, and just soaking up the green-ess and good vibes reflected off the park.

Between me and my trainer, we have a couple of words between us. She being a South American I tried out and befriended a year ago, who knows what my strengths are and when I nearly am near passing out, has become my daily morning partner. We bond over broken English, as she asks me about life back home, and I quiz her on her new found life in London.

Everyday is different. Sometimes the ducks all do a fly in parade over the pond. Other days the underground passage homeless Guitarist plays that repeated tune, but changes the words around. Sometimes about love, sometimes about something I can't quite catch whilst she makes me power walk under ground across to the park.

It's a peaceful time, I don't feel that lethargic pull the bed has on me as the alarm rings beckoning another morning and the arrival of my personal trainer 30 minutes later. I don't feel as tired as I do when I'm on the treadmill. Crunches become a pleasure as I lay down on the green sometimes sprinkled with dew ground and set my sights on those fluffy clouds and those amazing scattered green canopies of trees.

Life stood still. It was beautiful. It was familiar. It was something that I could go back to everyday with my South American friend and just chill away from all the noisy roads and stresses. It would always be there waiting for me everyday, rain or shine. That peaceful, crispy fresh and clean spot amidst a hustle bustle city.

Makes it all more beautiful, worthwhile and memorable.

Sometimes I wish I could bottle that experience up and uncork it when needed, or at least get somewhere similar right here.

xx

Baroque