Tuesday, November 29, 2011

New bike!
















Hi Bloggers,

Well, here goes again. I've bought another expensive bike (above). Third time lucky, I hope! The last two both got stolen, i.e. the Mongoose and the Gary Fisher. Every one had told me that Bahrain was virtually crime free, so I confidently parked my bike outside my apartment block at night (locked, of course). It took thieves a mere two months to discover it and duly one morning I experienced that horrible sinking feeling you get when you realise you've been robbed. You always try to kid yourself there's some logical explanation. The apartment administration have moved it for security reasons or something absurd like that. Or you parked it somewhere different last night. Or you'll suddenly find it just around the corner. Such is the nature of human hope and optimism. That said, thank God we do have hope. It's such a basic and important human emotion. Once people lose hope, then surely they are lost.

The top picture is the new bike. Probably the best of the three, it even has disc brakes, so you get none of that terrible squeaking when it's wet. It's also got nice click into place Shimano Tourney gears. 21 in all, though, to be quite honest, I can never understand why they bother with that small one at the front. If you use it, you go so slow, you might just as well get off and walk! That's not my apartment, by the way, but the foyer outside the reception area. I don't have my own pool table, unfortunately!















The yellow bike is the Gary Fisher I had stolen here in Bahrain. I'd even had it specially shipped over from Thailand. That, incidently, is the view from my lovely 14th floor flat in central Bangkok. At the end of the day, I probably miss the flat more than I do the bike.

Finally, here's the Mongoose (below), which I had stolen from right outside the British Council in Bangkok. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the security guard himself. One day I locked it in the wrong place. He was very quick to put his own lock around it and demand 300 baht (ca $10). No tickets or anything. Presumably the money went straight into his pocket. That's the Chao Praya river I'm standing in front of.















Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed this time!

Cheers,
Rob