the beijing project » Blog Archive » Lose some, win HEAPS!

Lose some, win HEAPS!

October 20th, 2008

At 7:55am this morning, I was mock-wailing down the phone: “This isn’t supposed to happen to me! I don’t GET bad luck!!”

Yes, what is allegedly inevitable in Beijing had happened to me, despite my optimism totally ignoring the possibility: my bike got stolen. Last time I saw it - I didn’t even give it a gender or a name! Poor little It - it was sitting down in the basement bike garage with the other tenants’ bikes, on the end of a row of them, the shiny red bike lock around its rear wheel. And this morning: nothing. Did I actually leave it up near the entrance like I sometimes do, but forgot? No. Did someone move it because it fell? No. Did someone move it.. just because? No. Is there any other place it could’ve been moved to? No. Fuck..

With an exam on today, I decided to stop searching for It and face reality. Someone had stolen my bike. Some ASSHOLE had stolen MY bike!! I ran out and hailed a cab, and in the subsequent traffic snare the taxi driver and I swore concurrently and (probably) beautifully in sync albeit in two different languages.

The ironic thing was that another friend who’d left Beijing had left me his bike lock - a much better and more expensive one than my plastic/metal thing, his parting words being “yeah, take this. Yours is shit. Someone’s gonna steal it”. And yes, for the past 2 weeks I’d left that very same awesome bike lock just sitting in my apartment.. just because. It was heavy. I’m lazy. I don’t know!

I got to uni still seething. Sat down. Then suddenly my mood began to change - I felt equal parts annoyed and amused. I’d been through a quintessential Beijing rite of passage - I know people who’ve had THREE bikes stolen from them, so it’s not actually that bad - I can almost pretend I’m a real Beijinger!

And then, just as I’d gotten used to the funny side of the bad luck, the good stuff kicked back in. After hearing about the situation, a classmate leaving Beijing tomorrow insisted I take his bike, which he didn’t have time to sell anyway. His electric bike. His AWESOME electric bike, only 2 months old. And he said he’d feel bad selling it to me, so I bought him lunch.. and took his bike.

So now as a result of having my regular bike stolen, I have a sweet new electric bike (woohoo! best lose/win EVER!). Her name is Sheila. She’s big-boned with shiny silver and black metal bits, and has a big padded butt for a second person to sit on comfortably and unobtrusively. She makes a pleasant whirring noise when she speeds up, and has a funny duckish honk to part the crowds. Sheila also has two hardcore locks on her, which is reassuring. I take out the electric engine too when I leave her, so hopefully no one will ever part us.

Sheila and I - yeah yeah! Watch out, pedestrians, lest I swerve politely around you! And also - told you I was lucky. (KNOCK ON WOOD, KNOCK ON WOOD!!)

And on request..

Sheila in the complex; the mudflap advertisement for her store

Left handle buttons for the headlight and the BEEP BEEP; right handle lights indicating battery power (note right handle also known as the “revving handle” - pull it backwards and feel her go!); the detachable battery under the seat; the two bike locks I’m using in an attempt to trace-buster-bust

posted by vivien at 4:46 pm & filed under Transport, Beijing |

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Lose some, win HEAPS!

October 20th, 2008

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