The excess locks are finally off! I think the bike even feels a bit lighter.
Thanks to Coburg Locksmiths who used their super-dooper bolt cutters to remove them, free of charge.
BTW, if you're renovating, they have a great range of period-style locks available to order. No need to traipse all over town for the right fitting - shop local!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Tips for new players #3
Don't ride your bike in the middle of a storm. You will be drenched by the time you get home.
I so welcome the rain we are having this weekend. After a week of 30+ degrees, the garden is looking a bit haggard and so am I. However, it is not the kind of weather I enjoy riding my bike in. I wouldn't think it was too safe either, with the possibility of lightning, big puddles to skid in and nutty Moreland drivers (the rain seems to bring them out in droves).
This morning however, at about 10.30am, I found myself with no other option. I had to return the Flexicar to its Albion Street home by 11.00am and I'd parked the bike there the previous day when I went to collect the car. It was pouring down with rain.
Gritting my teeth, I told myself 'this is the decision you made when you decided not to get another car. You have to brave the elements and ride, walk, catch public transport whatever the weather may be'. So I drove the car back and retrieved my bike to begin the journey home. It was wet, really wet. I got out of the car and locked it, zipped up my rain-jacket and pulled the hood tightly around my face, fumbled around unlocking the lock, wheeled the bike up to the pedestrian crossing (the one where the whole building fell down a couple of weeks ago) to join the bike path and then realised I'd left my helmet and water bottle in the car.
Damn, damn, damn! This meant I would have to go back to the car, ring Flexicar to open the car for me, fumble around with keys and cards to lock up the bike and unlock the car in the pouring rain, wet the inside of the car as the water dripped of my rain-jacket and just make myself feel more wet and uncomfortable. I needed my helmet, so I did this.
The ride back was most unpleasant. I took it slowly, worried that I might skid in the wet. The rain pelted down, drenching anything not covered by my rain-jacket. My bag, my legs, my feet, my hair were all soaked. I was fantasising about a nice, hot cup of tea all the way home.
The worst part of the ride was the hill up Reynard Street, a slow but steady incline into a head wind today. As uncomfortable as I felt from being so wet, I felt proud of myself as I turned the corner into our street, having braved the rain and ridden home in it. I told myself 'It's not so bad. You're toughening up. That's all you need to do'. The rain was dripping off me as I walked in the back door and stripped off my drenched clothes. I haven't enjoyed a cup of tea as much as I did this morning for long, long time.
I so welcome the rain we are having this weekend. After a week of 30+ degrees, the garden is looking a bit haggard and so am I. However, it is not the kind of weather I enjoy riding my bike in. I wouldn't think it was too safe either, with the possibility of lightning, big puddles to skid in and nutty Moreland drivers (the rain seems to bring them out in droves).
This morning however, at about 10.30am, I found myself with no other option. I had to return the Flexicar to its Albion Street home by 11.00am and I'd parked the bike there the previous day when I went to collect the car. It was pouring down with rain.
Gritting my teeth, I told myself 'this is the decision you made when you decided not to get another car. You have to brave the elements and ride, walk, catch public transport whatever the weather may be'. So I drove the car back and retrieved my bike to begin the journey home. It was wet, really wet. I got out of the car and locked it, zipped up my rain-jacket and pulled the hood tightly around my face, fumbled around unlocking the lock, wheeled the bike up to the pedestrian crossing (the one where the whole building fell down a couple of weeks ago) to join the bike path and then realised I'd left my helmet and water bottle in the car.
Damn, damn, damn! This meant I would have to go back to the car, ring Flexicar to open the car for me, fumble around with keys and cards to lock up the bike and unlock the car in the pouring rain, wet the inside of the car as the water dripped of my rain-jacket and just make myself feel more wet and uncomfortable. I needed my helmet, so I did this.
The ride back was most unpleasant. I took it slowly, worried that I might skid in the wet. The rain pelted down, drenching anything not covered by my rain-jacket. My bag, my legs, my feet, my hair were all soaked. I was fantasising about a nice, hot cup of tea all the way home.
The worst part of the ride was the hill up Reynard Street, a slow but steady incline into a head wind today. As uncomfortable as I felt from being so wet, I felt proud of myself as I turned the corner into our street, having braved the rain and ridden home in it. I told myself 'It's not so bad. You're toughening up. That's all you need to do'. The rain was dripping off me as I walked in the back door and stripped off my drenched clothes. I haven't enjoyed a cup of tea as much as I did this morning for long, long time.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Tips for new players #2
Buy the best quality bike lock you can afford. Because I had a cheap attack when buying our bike locks, I now find myself with three locks attached to my bike. One that has a broken key in it, one that just won't unlock anymore and one that actually works (a new, more expensive one). Bolt cutters anyone?
Tips for new players #1
Don't find yourself accidently in the '8 items or less' check-out queue because the young but apologetic check-out operator forget to switch their sign on. They won't have any home delivery forms and you will have to completely re-pack your trolley and go to another check-out, the kind that serves people buying a lot of items.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Trip chaining - or how to manage your time better
Many people who know me think I am not the best manager of time, in fact a bit of a dawdler. However, when it comes to doing the Saturday morning shopping, I am highly motivated to spend as little time as possible in the exhausting and stressful environment of shopping.
This is what leads me to write about the delights of trip chaining. Even though the link is American, there are 10 useful tips to organising yourself to try and do all the weekend shopping in one trip, rather than multiple trips.
We are fortunate in that where we live there is a good public transport-based shopping centre that contains supermarkets, specialty food stores and specialised businesses that we don't use all the time, but are nice to have. Today we needed to go to all three to do our weekly shop, get some special foods from the delicatessen and drop some clothes off for alterations and finally, pick up our bikes from the bike shop.
It only took about 2 and a half hours to do all the shopping, drop the clothes off at the tailors, pick up our bikes and still have time left over for a coffee and some cake for morning tea. Trip chaining is great, and the 'tasting plate' of cheese, dolmades, marinated mushrooms, Sicilian green olives and tzatziki we made for lunch was delicious!
LS
This is what leads me to write about the delights of trip chaining. Even though the link is American, there are 10 useful tips to organising yourself to try and do all the weekend shopping in one trip, rather than multiple trips.
We are fortunate in that where we live there is a good public transport-based shopping centre that contains supermarkets, specialty food stores and specialised businesses that we don't use all the time, but are nice to have. Today we needed to go to all three to do our weekly shop, get some special foods from the delicatessen and drop some clothes off for alterations and finally, pick up our bikes from the bike shop.
It only took about 2 and a half hours to do all the shopping, drop the clothes off at the tailors, pick up our bikes and still have time left over for a coffee and some cake for morning tea. Trip chaining is great, and the 'tasting plate' of cheese, dolmades, marinated mushrooms, Sicilian green olives and tzatziki we made for lunch was delicious!
LS
Friday, September 4, 2009
A new model of car use.
A few weeks into the experiment of living without a car, we activated our membership with Flexicar. It's a good way to enjoy many of the benefits of car ownership, but without the sunk costs of insurance, registration, maintenance and petrol. Not to mention the repayments on a car loan. In many ways the system runs like a car fleet - filling out logbooks, booking vehicles and centralised fleet management.
Instead of having the fleet garaged centrally, the Flexicar fleet is dispersed among council car parks in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. Fortunately, we have a car park near us, about a 20 minute walk or a 15 minute walk/tram ride away. The Flexicar fleet has gradually been working its way up Sydney Road and it would seem that as demand grows, they'll cross Moreland Road and be even closer. Hopefully our membership of Flexicar will mean there's more demand for a Flexicar to come up our way soon.
While all the cars in our area are Honda Jazz (which by the way are great to drive), Flexicar have a number of car models in their fleet. Like the work car fleet, where I've had a chance to drive lots of different models of cars, Flexicar has given us the opportunity to try some different cars. If we decided to go back to owning a car again, the Honda Jazz would be at the top of list.
The day they took the car away
It was a bit sad when they took the car away. It was all over so quickly. The tow truck man turned up, winched the car up onto the tray and then drove away. All over in minutes. One door closes and another door opens.
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