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An amazing woman shows up at the gym every morning, whether it’s cardio, HIIT, resistance, strength, or everything day, even though she’s fighting breast cancer on her own, in a country she’s just moved to. When she’s done, she feels like she’s earned the right to another day, and then she goes get ‘em.

I’m not a morning person but I love mornings enough to have become someone whose eyes flip open at 6.59am when the alarm clock is set to 7.05am. Fifty-three percent of the brain and 41 percent of the bones will tell me to go back to bed - and if I listened, I could - but I think of Suzanne and people who would trade infirmities and disabilities just to be able to run a kilometer or cycle for 10 minutes, and I jackknife onto my feet.

I prefer sunrises to sunsets for all the possibilities, and time for a morning mulligan as needed. Sundowns are great on the beach or in the mountains, two of my favorite places to be, but that’s not everyday. In another time, another dimension on this earth, I have drank US$1.50 mojitos on the Zanzibar coast and watched the fishing boats drift in; been speechless as the dusk curtains came down on another day of adventuring the Himalayas, Kilimanjaro, Rinjani; sipped beer amid 50,000 other people in legendary stadiums waiting for Springsteen to play a summer show.

I don’t like spending time on make-up, but I love powdering my face with sunshine - the outdoors would be my milieu if life permitted. I was born fair, but ever since my parents plopped me on a Tanjong Pinang beach at age three on our first family vacation, and finding my stride in sports not long after, my complexion has never seen the pale side of the moon. And yet, I’ve gotten more tanned since Circuit Breaking began, because of all the almost-empty road cycling that’s replaced my 7.40am F45 Training routine. The natural light is pristine, the air sweet, the streets serene. I’m hitting 23-24km/h rolling speed because there’s hardly anything in my way.

On a few occasions, I’ve cycled in the evening instead (the brain and bones had won those mornings - quarantine can be a conduit for sloth and weak will). The ride finales have mostly been under a sky glazed with sunset so enchantingly golden, you couldn’t believe there’s a Coronavirus brazenly stalking the planet. It’s made me embrace this magic hour more, because it draw us one revolution closer to the vaccine we need, the finish line where high-fives and hugs await.