Aiden's latest thing is riding bikes around the village with his mates. It gives me the absolute heebies, but they have a great time, and I think it's good for their independence. He's been riding a mate of his' ex bike, which would be about right for a 6 year old, and nasty rusty. Ange and I decided we would get him a bike. This morning, the 7.30am Sunday sports-regime afoot, we went off to rugby - how utterly cool was this light below? Once that was all sorted, I headed off back into old Sai Kung, thinking that I'd walk across to the mighty Sun Ping to see if there were any vaguely reasonably priced bikes (on Saturday I'd seen a second hand one in Hang Hau village for ... HK$12,600 - a really nice bike no doubt, but its engine seemed to be missing).
Of course Sun Ping was closed, which I anticipated, but thought I could take a squizz through the window. Not. But man I do love how grungy old Sai Kung is (plus a nice fishy smell on the early morning breeze courtesy of the wet market near by); the typhoon door obscuring the windows made the walk absolutely worthwhile. How cool - a picture of me, one eye closed squinting through the window? Bloody hell.
So after rugby, off into the dark city - to track down the cheap bike store that the 12,600 dollar man had told us about when he could see the dismay in our faces at the price. And we found it too - a classic hole in the wall, my-shop-is-the-pavement Chinese sort of set up. The guy who owned it was infinitely lovely, he had a really nice bike which fitted Aiden (a new one of which just needed to be assembled) - savagely though, nothing that fitted Ev. Ev however is so wonderfully good natured that he wasn't phased (he tells me afterwards - "It's ok; I'm not that confident on a bike". How sweet?) Aiden promised him a go (promised pretty much anyone anything who was asking) - the dude in the shop tried this and that bike for Ev - and then said that maybe he should come back in four months - he just needed to be a little bit taller. He is sort of between sizes as it were.
And so here it is; with one very very happy owner :
Plenty of zooming up and down in the parking lot followed, looking suitably determined. All the gears initially were a bit befuddling - but hey, like a video game - eventually you work the controls out enough to go. There was a bit of bike trauma a bit later when he went down the driveway to Robyn and Pieter's house to ride in the bigger area, and promptly got chased by Zoe, their Jack Russel. The perils of cycling. I went back a bit later with him and Ev to play some cricket. Aiden took his bike. Zoe started barking and carrying on. I grabbed Zoe and commenced a light spanking, and that was that.
Later in the afternoon, I asked him if he wanted to ride down the hill to Tracy and Simon's house - you may recall the gradient. Ange said she couldn't watch, must say I was dreading it a bit too, so I followed him down in the car just to check it was all OK - which it was. Afterwards he thought he might come back in the car. None of that child. So up the hill again he rode - and this below is the aftermath of that (though of course also not one to miss an opportunity to lay it on (or is that down?) for the camera). He was sweating like an absolute beast, in his defense
So all's good so far. He's negotiated indoor parking (which has been allowed for the time being in light of a nasty rash of new-thing-syndrome).
Finally below, back to the beginning - cool pic of his mate India that I took at the rugby field. She's lovely - and about 6 inches taller than Dude A. Slightly worrying that her shirt seems to say Dick - which of course it doesn't in its entirety.
