Monday, November 13, 2006

The frog encounter and other strange happenings

It was a strange but pointless morning. The frog only completed the picture.

I was traveling and staying in this nice hotel on a hill. Feeling guilty about dinner the night before, I was up at 5 am trying to get some exercise. I stepped outside the building. It was raining, not hard, but enough to make me shiver. I kicked myself for venturing outside the cozy comfort of the hotel bed. I had to walk around the pool to get to the gym, which was encased in glass all around. There was a lone guy running on a treadmill inside. Inspired, I stepped in and started running myself. I saw this guy up the speed on his treadmill. Once. Twice. He kept going and going till he was running at breackneck speed. After about 30 minutes of such high-speed running, he stopped abruptly and walked out. Couple of minutes and I heard a splash. He was in the pool now, and he did lap after lap after lap without missing a beat. Mind you, it was raining, still dark, really cold, and not a soul in sight. He kept at till I completed by relatively benign workout and walked back. Strange.

I tried to get back into the building. The nearest door was locked. Walked across to the side, climbed up the stairs and tried that door. Locked. Weird. Walked back down and across the pool again, where Mr. Superman was still at his workout by the way, and found yet another door. This had a slot for the hotel card. Slipped it in and saw a green light. At last. Which is when the frog made its move. There was this tiny little ugly frog sitting on the door. I was close enough to watch him watch me. For some reason, he twitched his head, let out a croak, and lunged at me. I was petrified. I'm not the flexible kind, but thankfully, at that moment, I found it in me to bend over backwards, Matrix style, and let the frog fly over me. Phew! That was close.

A while later, I was walking to the breakfast area, and I heard some splashing in the pool. I knew who it was.

Did I mention it was a strange but pointless morning?