Happy birthday to me :o) Thank you all for the birthday congratulations that reached me here !!!
As a birthday present I treated myself to a flight to Sri Lanka.
But before that my bicycle Arthur got some treats. In the morning I brought it to Oman bicycles, the best (& only serious) bike shop in town. While Arthur got his treatment I spent some hours at the nearby Radisson hotel - mostly trying all vegetarian options from a huge buffet. In the late afternoon I got back to the bike shop and the Sri Lankan mechanic Lucky (great name, though neither he nor anyone else in the shop seemed to be waiting for Godot) was still working on Arthur. As he is running the shop alone he got distracted by every customer entering and it got later and later. As he was nearly finished one screw of the new back carrier broke. Aaaargh, I knew that it always took me a very long time until I got the half of the screw out of the screwhole whenever this happened before. And I had to catch an airplane which I really really could not miss - else my wonderful visitor would arrive in Sri Lanka and I would not be there! Luckily Lucky knew what he was doing and after 20 more minutes Arthur was ready with new carriers and completely new drive system. I cycled as fast as I could to the Airport where my bicycle caused much more confusion than was promised to me when I bought the ticket. In the end I had to wrap Arthur in plastic and off he went with the other luggage. I really really hope that he will survive this !
In the Airplane I immediately realized that I am out of Islamistan: Hard liquor available ! Stewardesses in very revealing clothes ! Uh, after 5 months in muslim countries this feels like a small Sodom & Gomorrha to me. I gotta get used to this again (but I guess that won't take me tooooo long).
Yet another broken screw. I met recently Christian Bomio one the road. He got me thinking of you when he told me the following trick. For the rear luggage carrier the screw hole goes through the frame, in this case you can use a longer screw that stands out on the other end. In this case if the screw breaks, you can take a saw and make a guide trench into the bottom of the screw and use a screwdriver to get the headless screw out. That's easier than welding stuff to the screw and ist manageable with more basic tools.. I hope this is an understandable description.
ReplyDeleteGood luck and bon voyage.