When life throws you yet another curve ball...

Look at the love people have shown us along the way! Mr and Mrs Terui, who both work in the 7-11 at Kitakami, showered us with their "ganbattes" and more! I returned their love with an invitation to take them sight-seeing by scooters when they come by Singapore, haha!

We left Ichinoseki after a big brekkie at Macdonald's and clocked a mean pace despite the slopes! The lovely hotel receptionist came out to cheer us off but not before trying out our scooters. Her happy smile was enough to warm the cold morning

Everything was progressing smoothly until somewhere along the way, we hit a dirt path and some construction signs. Both sides of the road were closed off. Dang! We stood under the bridge and stared at what felt like one minute at each other. When you're already so tired and then life throws you yet another curve ball...

We were faced with only one choice and one choice alone-to back track at least 5km and lose more than an hour. Times like this stress me out to no end because I am extremely nervous about scooting in the dark. Backtracking 5km equals exactly that. So... entrepreneur's rule 101, when faced with an unavoidable problem, what do you do? You think of a creative solution. We whipped out the drone out for a reconnaissance scouting mission!

I have been asked many questions by family, friends and people along the way. One of them was how I deal with the stress of the unknown aka things going potentially wrong. Just this morning, the receptionist asked where we were heading. We both looked at her cluelessly and said with a grin that we hadn't decided. This response usually leads to astonished looks. It has happened oh-so-very often I have almost memorised the way their eyes pop open and their mouth does an "Ooo" shape

Yet it doesn't mean that I'm not afraid. In fact many times, I feel that same sense of nervousness and uncertainty rise within me, for example, when we found out we couldn't move forwards at the construction site. Perhaps the only small difference I can think of, is the willingness to lean into discomfort. Through years of conscious practise, I set aside immediate comfort for future gain. In that acknowledgement, I opened up, the opportunity to choose and respond to situations rather than react to them.

And little by little, through all that practise and training since I was young, it has given me the confidence that when life throws me another curve ball, I can handle it.

And so that construction obstacle, guess what happened? We found a way out of course, through a little forest dirt track. We had to lug our scooters about 1km but that was better than backtracking 5km.