Picatho's causeries

I think most seniors love Gurney Plaza and Queensbay Mall in Penang, even with its cold air conditioning inside. Maybe it's because nowadays the sun is too shining out at our clime and people are dreading stepping outside. Mall walking, or ambling around a shopping center for exercise, has become an option other than the fitness club.

Mall walking began when the first fully enclosed U.S. mall, the Stockdale, opened in Minnesota in 1956 and local doctors counseled patients recovering from heart attacks to exercise there, away from the snow and ice of Minnesota's harsh winters.

Since I've had given up badminton 2 years ago, exercise to me has become less and irregular. Sometimes it's just hard to summon up the enthusiasm to make it happen, sometimes it's a lost track of time, or perhaps the love of home exercise has faded year by year and gradually letting my treadmill be laid for dust.

So walk the mall or ambling around a shopping center has become my main exercise, and as usual, I went for shopping for exercise at Queensbay day before yesterday with my old partner as well as my youngest granddaughter. I walked tier by tier for several km from the south end to the north end. Not only she, my active two-year-old had given me a chance of non-stop chasing around exercise, her occasional annoying preferences to be carried up with demanding directions had also worked up my old bones.

As I think, by walking the mall and at the same time pointing out the things around her, such as the guard wearing uniform or the shop painted in red color, is grateful!