I will start today's blog by generating some hate-mail with the
following statement:
FRANCE - 20 ALL BLACKS - 18
Let the hate-mail flow!
Riiight, anyhow, lemme continue the National Day story from the
last post. (It is still National Day Week, btw... just... we have to
go back to school tomorrow, and there ain't no more holidays til
January!! :-( ). After wandering through town eating
disgusting glop and not watching any parade, we decided to high-tail
it to Sabrina's, a foreign goods store in the south of Chengdu.
Lan Ya and Hu Wen Bo wanted to pick up various stuff so they could
cook up some curry. Lin Yue Xin and I tagged along, but I don't
recall if we bought anything. They do sell Pop-Tarts at
Sabrina's, and we have stocked up, but that was much later (like,
Friday or something).
Blah blah blah I'm getting to the main story. Lan Ya and Hu
Wen Bo headed off, leaving Lin Yue Xin and I to look for bicycle
helmets, which we were told could be purchased from a Giant store
nearby (Giant the bicycle, not the adjective, duh...). We go
into said Giant store and find some helmets, yay. And
then........... (wow, a lot of full stops)
We saw this:
Whaoh. Or is it Whoah? Either way, I mean, whoha!
That thing got some style! So we leave the Giant store... yes,
that's right, we walked out. Twenty seconds later and we were
straight back in. Wossa price tag? 1990yuan. Hmmm.
Shall we? No, we should give it some thou - okay, why not.
We have helmets now, so we won't die.
And then there were two:
Man do these need theme music. I'd go with the Knight Rider
music, coz it was cool, but not as cool as these things. This
photo was taken in our allocated "bicycooter testing area",
which is about 15 mins away from the south gate of SNU and is, quite
literally, in the middle of nowhere. Very strange that we'd
find a massive vacant street just down the road, but it makes a great
place for driving-lesson practice. I, on the other hand, am in
no need of practice, for I can do THIS cool stunt:
And this:
AND this:
Notice the aerodynamic shape of my torso and posterior? It
ensures maximum airflow over the surface of the bicycooter and
minimum drag. High speeds can be attained using this method.
You can almost hear the cycooter going
'eee-eee-eeescrraOOUOOURRRRWHAAOAOSSsssss' as it flies past,
achieving super-sonic speeds without use of afterburner. Not
bad for an electric bicycle.
So if you are unable to posture yourself in the necessary manner,
you may resort to assuming the following position:
Notice the upright position of Lin Yue Xin. Both hands place
firmly on the handle-bars. Reflector lights turned on for
maximum visibility prior to departure. Undercarriage lowered
for maximum stability (in this case, Lindsay is using the
non-conventional one-carriage retracted form, in order to ensure
minimum effort is required prior to take-off. Not recommended,
unless you have flown a bicycooter before (which Lin Yue Xin has
(man, there's a lot of parentheses going on at the moment (lol, bet
you lost count (there's now 5 btw))))).
After rotation, Lin Yue Xin demonstrates level flight, with all
controls trimmed up quite nicely.
Note that the aircraft - er, bicycooter, I mean - is holding a
steady compass heading. However, she is also heading straight
towards me. That's okay, I am an expert in bicycooter avoidance
policy. Consequently, I was not killed after this picture was
taken.
The very next day after purchasing Lin Yue Xin's fighter jet , we
went on a grand adventure around Chengdu and, of course, forgot to
take photos. Sorry. We will repeat the excursion at some
stage and clickety-pix for you's all. Stay tuned!
Pies tip of the day: If you are traveling, take lots of
pictures! I had a fun time ushering Ernesto out of the bathroom
yesterday (after he had disappeared for some time, and my, had he
grown!) and into the garden, but didn't take any pictures. I've
seen vehicles and bicycooters lumbering past us on the 'cycooter
lanes encumbered with the most incredible things (so far, the best
have been: 1) a refrigerator and air-conditioner, with a
repairman fixing both of them, on the back of a scooter; and 2) a
full-sized scooter on the back of a bicycle (the rider was very
well-balanced!)) and didn't take a pic. Sigh.
Pies pic of the day: Yes, today you get not one but
two "Pies .... of the day". And you didn't
even have to pay extra! Anyhow, the pic.
After purchasing the bicycooter, I was feeling pretty happy, and
so was Lin Yue Xin. In fact, we were feeling more than just
happy. We were feeling purky. Yes, that's right.
Purky. In order to celebrate our purkiness, we went here:
This is where you can feel as purky as you want, and not get
arrested by the purk-police. Awesome.
