Monday, May 05, 2003
helo.
i just had my first bike lesson in my life and it was a total disaster! Haha..i think i am really too small and not really cut out for riding bikes. But what the hell, there's nothing you cant do if you put your mind to it and well, if u have sufficient $. Hehe. Don't worry. I still love bikes. :)
Actually, the lesson wasn't sooooo bad. The only thing was that i kept dropping my bike and that got kinda embarassing after a while cuz i seemed to be the only one dropping my bike so often. And it was
really
often. Fortunately, at that point in time, i was too busy concentrating on getting my bike to move to really care about being embarassed. I think my instructors got pretty fedup and tired of helping me pick my bike up. Haha, i guess i really got my money's worth today man..haha, i really made my instructors do work. Heh.
So here's what happened:
I arrived at SSDC at 11am and went for my orientation. Thank God there was another female who was really friendly and we managed to "cham xiong" (for the uninitiated, it means to find a fren in adversity and feel better cuz we're in the same boat). The orientation was good, i understood everything and at that point, things were really smooth sailing (maybe because we only had to listen and not do anything). But boy oh boy, at 12.45pm, we were on to our first practical. Now, I'd like to point out what i think is unfair.
Number 1: The bikes are too BIG! I could hardly touch the ground. I had to practically go on the balls of my feet. Like that how to balance??? Cannot balance, drop bike
lah. Drop bike then fail lesson
lah. Fail lesson means blow another $20 and come back another day
lor.
Number 2: Bikes are designed for a right handed world. I had SO much difficulty putting the
bloody
main stand up. Im left handed you see and you got to pull real hard with your right hand. So, cannot lah. Actually, i could do it but it really took much more effort than required.
Damnit. I think i just need to be bigger and right-handed. *piqued*
Oh btw, i got like (wait, lemme count).... SEVEN bruises. Yes, seven. Two of which are the size of small oranges. Pretty bad huh? MY right leg hurts when i put weight on it becuz of this GIANT of a bruise above my ankle. Man oh man. I just realised that all my guy frens were lying when they said i didn't have to worry about the bike crushing me.
Huh! It didn't exactly crush me, but i hurt pretty bad now. Ow.
Erm, we had to learn how to engage neutral and 1st gear today. Supposed to have learnt 2nd gear too but got nowhere near there. I was made to forwards and backwards for an hour to figure out how to get the bike going and to not drop my bike. Basically, the one hour went something like this:
Instructor: K, open throttle, GO! Left leg up. Leg UP!
Me: Ok, left leg..left leg...erm...Left leg Up..Got it!
*wobble wobble*
Instructor: Okay! CLOSE throttle! Clutch in. BRAKE!!!
Me: Okay....left leg up now..time to stop so need to clutch in, back brake, front brake..steady steady..whoops..yikes..uh oh...CRASH!
Yeah..that was pretty much what was going on in my head for most of the lesson. Apart from that, i was dripping sweat and wondering at the same time if my makeup was all ruined. (i know what you are thinking..why the hell am i thinking about makeup when im learning bike right? Besides, nobody is gonna look at me right now. Especially since the bike keeps dropping)
But..i managed in the end to go a few rounds in first gear and didn't drop my bike there. Phew! I think i only drop it when i am stationary or when i need to push it. That's when the weight really proves too much for me.
Ah well, i signed myself up for a repeat session on weds. Hopefully i won't be aching too much then.
Righty then, im like mighty tired from all the physical exertions and i guess i'll be turning in now. Wish me luck ok? :)
XxX,
audrey at 23:25