The Bicycle Blues

I decided today to get the tram out to East Brunswick, to a initiative called Ceres. Ceres is an organic sustainable living organisation. On site they have a bike shop. Not your normal bike shop. People donate bikes of any standard, usually broken. When the customer (ie me) arrives you pick a bike you want and one of the repair men or women will tell you what is wrong with it and explain how you can fix it yourself. So you do all the repair work and they check up on you as you go to make sure you do a good job. I really enjoyed the hustling atmosphere and learning a fair amount how bikes work too.

As soon as I arrived I spotted a big red racing bike I liked. As I walked towards it, however, another guy picke It up and walked off with it! So I found another, I was 90% this was the one for me. A nice navy hybrid, perfect. Just to be sure I took another bike on a short test ride. 20 seconds later I got back and my new favourite had been sold! Grrrrr!

Eventually I found a good green and navy mottled city bike that I liked. This time I was like gollum with his ring and was not letting go of it for Love nor money!

Whilst I was running repairs I got chatting to Shaila, an Australian girl who had had her front wheel stolen. Then as I was paying I met Laoen, a French girl with Vietnamese herratige. Not bad, I bought a bike for $40 and was given two girls phone numbers. I should get oil on my hands more often!

I was very tempted to stop at the world Lego convention on the way back to town, but the que was too long for me unfortunately.

That evening Laoen and I decided to meet up and went to a little cafe in one of the trendy suburbs where a blues band were playing. It was really excellent. I had a fantastic time and even got up for a little dance to the upbeat jazz/bluesy music!