chased by a Bow Woww

I'm telling you. It's NOT FUNNY. It's NOT FUNNY ONE BIT AT ALL.

There I was, pedaling happily away in the dim street lights, looking about me curiously- first time there and all- and then, from I-don't-know-where burst out this dog barking like mad, chasing my wheels and scaring the s*** out of me- all at the same time.

Okay, I get it that this has happened before, and that it has happened to many a cyclist so it isn't so big a deal. I also get it that this is no more different than what used to happen decades ago during the kampong days where anyone and everyone who wasn’t familiar to the dog meant he or she was a Stranger and he or she Stranger would be obligated to self-subject themselves to the possibility of ferocious, threatening barks from the village dogs cos' yunno, these fellas WERE the guardians of the village. 

But hey, this wasn't a village anymore. Maybe it once used to be, and maybe these dogs are the descendants of those who guarded the village entrances at one time and no doubt, I was a Stranger in these parts, but still...

You know what the funniest thing is?

The funniest thing is that this part was the last leg of the ride, and normally at the last leg, you don't really expect anything to happen anymore. The whole ride thus far had gone on relatively routine, easy, comfortable even, and i thought it would stay that way.

Why, nothing had happened all the way through the entire stretch of East Coast Park, nothing had happened whilst we were eating chye tow kuay and char kuay teow at the Food Center. Nothing had happened along that stretch of Changi Coastal Road, nothing had happened at Changi Village where we stopped for coconut and sugarcane, nothing had happened on the road passing by the highway entrances and exits and nothing had happened on the road bypassing Paya Lebar Air Base.
 

So why should I have expected anything different on this one single road?

Of course, as all things go, *something* did happen- and I got my lesson. Like... never, ever, ever, will I slow down when I'm biking inside an industrial zone. Don't think that just because it looks quiet with all the equipment asleep and the factories silent and dark, there won't be this growling bowwwww wowwww...
 

Because they're there.

And they're watching you.