Alas I have a tail.

This weekend has been rather, umm, interesting! It was really good all in all, though slightly adventurous. Saturday morning began with heavy rain and strong winds. We are not such hardened Dutchman yet to go biking in all types of weather (at least not 40 kms) so, 45 messages later, we (Val and I plus two others from the church) decided to go instead out for lunch and later to the local pool. It was a blast, and I think we managed to rope in two of Holland's kindest, most generous tour guides for this. This would come in very handy a little later. After having a great time in the pool we headed back via bus and metro.  We arrived at the Alexander station, where we had parked our bikes a few hours before. Suddenly Hannah began digging frantically through her purse. Yes, the classic lost keys! Every pocket was searched multiple times, pretzles spilled out of the bag onto the ground, the purse was completely searched. No keys. And no way to get her bike unlocked. Well, that wasn't a huge problem, she could sit on the back of Val's bike, as it had a decent 'seat' on it.
We went over to unlock our bikes. I began unlocking mine when I noticed something peculiar. As my previous bike had been stolen the past week, I was riding this new spare bike. I had not looked at it closely yet, and so had missed seeing a key on the back tire, which is a theft-prevention device (basically it stops the tire from turning.) Not having seen the key before, I hadn't taken it out of its lock when we left our bikes. As I bent to unlock my bike now, I saw this lock. And there was no key in the lock, it had been stolen as well. I tried to turn the wheel, just in case the lock was broken. It was stiff as a tomb.
"Umm guys, I think I might have a problem..." echoing Hannah's words of a minute before. We couldn't leave the bike at the station or it would have been stolen. So Rob who is really very kind offered to carry it.
So I rode his bike to a place a few metro stations down, while he carried mine to the next metro station. He carried it on, found out he had taken the wrong metro, and to make a very long story short, eventually ended up at my metro station. This hunk of metal probably weighs about 40 lbs, and most of the weight is on the back which needs to be lifted up, while somehow steering the front... a very awkward load.
So we locked up the wretched thing and headed home, me on the back of his bike somehow. And then we got home, where Val and Hannah had just left in search of us (who had the keys of course :) So we called  them and they came all the way back. They had been hungry and had eaten the pretzels (off the ground which I had put back in the bag unknown to them, it adds a nice touch to the story!)
And then we ate cookies. Which was the finishing touch to an overall very good day, in spite of all that had happened!

Yesterday I decided to deal with the bike, and take it to the shop. The shop is about a km away, which is a very long way to carry a bike with only one tire. Finally I got to the shop. It was completely dark. "Closed on Mondays" said a big white sign with red letters. I could not believe my luck.
But I needed a break from hauling the thing, so I decided to the bike, then walk the 2 kms to my bank to deal with some things. This bad luck continued. I had been a little misinformed a few weeks before, so it turns out basically that my bank cheque had not deposited... in any case it is a big pain! And then the lady didn't have a single envelope to mail my cheque so I had to buy a whole pack (anyone want a pack of envelopes that are square shaped and huge?)
And then I headed back. By this time my legs were a little sore, as I had also in a moment of inspiration decided to jog the 16 kms to and from school that morning. It was a lovely jog, but the legs were a little sore. Kind of discouraged I thought maybe an icecream would be nice. It was very cheap which was a score! Until... I dug into the icecream and it had chunks of warm. I think they make it out of marshmellows and ice. But it was also sugar, so I gulped it down. To finish the story I was heading back with the same most wretched bike under my arm, when I noticed it had a flat tire on the back. From dragging it, the rubber had worn off the bottom of the tire.
But on the positive side, a lot of people smiled at me while I was walking. I think they felt a little sorry for this girl. I even had an old colored man laugh as he biked by and yell something at me loudly in Dutch. I simply put the corners of my mouth up for him. Plus another guy rolled down his car window as he was going by, pursed his lips and made kissing noises to me. I thought maybe he was a knight in shining armour who would suddenly pull out a white horse and carry me (and the wretched beast of a bike) home. But he wasn't and this damsel plodded onward and forward.
And that, my friends is the story of the tail of adventures that seem to have been following me lately! But this morning the sun was streaming through the attic window, and I am now sitting with my sunglasses in the open window. Its a great day to be alive!

I hope you have a wonderful day!