Categories: uncategorized
Date: 06 August 2005 13:26:32
In the past 24 hours two eventful incidents have occured on the balcony at the back of my house, and I sincerly hope that they were not seen by any of any of my neighbours, particularly anyone I know - it could turn out to be rather embarassing.
The first was yesterday afternoon. It was a nice sunny, but surprisingly windy afternoon. i had decided to read my Harry Potter book (which i finished this morning!) on the new table and chairs we have on our balcony. After half an hour or so, the wind got a bit chilly, so i decided to go inside. I picked up the book and my bookmark - given to me by a friend from home - blew away, onto the flat roof of next doors house. I stood there for a few moment, going 'ohhh, but..... i really liked that bookmark....' It was then that I decided it was hopeless just standing their looking at it, so I started to think about how i could get it back. It was too far away to reach with a long stick and I couldn't think how else I was supposed to retrive it. I had just about given up and was heading inside, when I realised the solution was obvious - I could simply climb over the fence. After checking there was nobody obviously in the back room of next door, and moving the chair over to the fence to help me over, I quickly started to climb over the above-waist-level fence. I got half way over, when it suddenly stuck me that not only was I barefooted, but I was wearing a short, floatly skirt and it was still rather windy. I paused slightly, but decided it was too late to go inside and change into jeans and trainers, and continued climbing. I successfully retrived my bookmark, hopefully without flashing too much! I was quite excited when i eventually made it inside, after my little adventure!
This morning though the excitment and desperation came the other way round. My bike has been broken for a while now - the back tyre is bent and after consulting numerous friendly bike experts, I concluded that i needed a new tyre. Earlier this week I eventually braved it into a bike shop and managed to, hopefully, purchase the right tyre. With great excitment and antistipation this morning, I decided to attempt to change the tyre. After yesterdays success of climbing fences in short skirts (which I think is a lot harder than in jeans), I decided i was up for the challenge and became excited at the thought of it. Throughout my childhood my Dad has fixed my bike, and always attempted to show me how to do it, in the hope that next time I could do it myself. But it never quite worked like that - he was always there to fix it. Since I've been at uni my Dad has been a phone call away for bike troubles and Richard has also proven very useful (thank you!). But both my dad and Richard are on holiday at the moment, as is a housemate who seems capable of fixing bikes, and my sister was refusing to answer my texts. So i was all on my own. And it wasn't good. I fished out some tools my Dad had given to me before going to uni, in the hope of creating an independant daughter who can fix her own bike, and had bash at it. It wasn't a complete disaster. I managed to deflate the inner tube, lever the old tyre off the rim of the wheel and undo some bolts in the hope of being able to remove the wheel, but couldn't. Its seemed to be impossible to change the tyre without taking the wheel off the bike, but I couldn't get it off. In the end i was sat there, in the rain, with oil ALL over my hands, staring at a bike that looked completely recked. It was at this point that i gave up and decided to have another go, after finding someone who can offer some helpful advice. Anybody got any suggestions?