I can remember when i was growing up in Tamworth in Country NSW Australia my birthday was approaching. I think it was my 10th or 12th year in a tiny town on this tiny planet. It was the height of the BMX Bike Craze, and I being me! Wanted a BMX! I of course new exactly what one I wanted! I dont think i had been in the "Peel Street Bike Shop" ever in my short 10 years. Yet there was something which just attracted me to this BMX Bike! It was Red, It was New, and It was Expensive! Far more superior than the other bikes that my older brothers had been given at the same age! I had to have it! My parents were always very very generous to me, not sure if it was that I was the youngest, my valuable set of lungs, or the fact i just could "nag and negociate better". But on this birthday I got the Red BMX Bike and I thought I was "the man" Every thing was perfect in my life!
Like all kids (i think) I got what i wanted and played (rode) with it for a while - and then the novelty soon wore off! I was lucky during my limited BMXing around Trealor Park I did not sustain any injures! I was quite envious of the kids at school who had broken their Arms, Legs and so forth and were in plaster casts. They always seemed to have special treatment, along with all the colour and movement on their casts! Yet I never broke a bone in my childhood.... burns and stitches yes, Bones No!
When you land in Asia, one thing you notice is the people are very in-genius in the way they use and approach things with very creative lateral thinking. From street stalls selling every type of food you could imagine, cooked to perfection to every type of vehicle and mode of transport in order to get from A to B and then to C as quickly as possible! I was always amazed by The Motor Bikes in Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket and Samui and just about any where there is a need for a short distance run from A to B. Their little Orange, Red, Pink, or Green waist coats with their designated numbers stiched on their backs! They were allways ready to take you where ever you wanted (almost) and for a price of course!
I landed in Koh Samui, Thailand in Late February. I hired a car, yet I quickly realised a car was NOT going to be the best means of transport. So I decided to hire a Manual Motor Bike. Then after a week i decided to try a automatic Motor Bike. The Automatic won! Much easier, less concentration! Maybe that was a mistake? I would jump on my Honda Wave and zoom to work, to dinner, to shop! One of my Goals was to train one of my cats to sit in the front basket as I cruised around! The Thai people here have this amazing ability to carry, hang, poke, stick and juggle almost anything from a motor bike. My favourite is the Middle Aged Thai guy with almost no teeth, who delivers the newspapers to the Guest-house, He has his little White Silky Terrier Dog riding with him on the front of the Bike too and from his clients delivering papers, Happy as, with the biggest tongue wagging slippery with slop dripping as the bike gathers speed, he almost begs for his master to go faster and Faster!
I was very very proud of my "Bike Tan" along my Arms, Legs, Face and Neck. I was finally crisping to a warm Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Light Brown, something i had wanted all my life. A nice golden brown tan! Yet if you lifted the shirt sleeves or shorts too far up you would see I could be from Denmark!
I had mastered my bike! Parking, hanging shopping, doubling people, reversing and stalling! I had the hang of it all! I loved mornings! I just loved getting up, with no one on the road, and being able to have a nice leisurely ride to work, the wind rushing through my hair! There is no need for a Hair Dryer on this Island! What ever style you are able to masterfully achieve which of course resembles the models from the runways in New York or Paris created by those talented souls from Goldwell, Redken or Schwarzkopf, YOUR Style will END UP 100% better by the time you get to work via the Honda Wave! The Wind at 45-km hour has a way a Sunbeam (despite the name) could never achieve.
Yet Confidence can be a challenge to handle sometimes. Last Sunday "Mothers Day" was my Birthday! Every 4 years I think May 14 falls on Mothers day! I decided to get up at 7am and go and have a yummy breakfast on the beach. Whilst travelling down my usual road, I could not stop looking at the Crystal blue water and view and thinking about all the changes I had made in my life and where i was now today on my 36th Birthday - I then missed a sharp corner! Woops! I guess a lack of concentration and too much confidence! Guess what! My Right leg now has a cast, Ankle to Groin! Adrenaline is an interesting hormone, it all happened in slow motion. I was lucky i was not going fast. The bike was not damaged at all. I was!
Most Thai people are so nice, a Chef on the way to his shift stopped and picked me up (bloody and all), I quickly fell again (due to my right leg) then another wonderful Thai Girl stopped, and they both promptly positioned me on the back of her bike ( like a young FAT calf on the way to slaughter ) she took me to the ER of Samui Hospital........ then a further 2 ER's, 2 Hospitals and 4 X-rays later, I discovered I had no broken bones, thou I had tore completely all 4 ligaments left and right and through my knee - hence why i have a cast and now walk on crutches! I have to say in some silly weird wired wonderful way i was excited when the Dr told me I was going to have a cast for 4 weeks! I had never experienced that, and really wanted too! I have no regrets, thou it is slightly inconvenient, sore, and a consistent challenge.
Yet I move (well limp) on! I now have a very interesting Taxi driver that picks me up at 9.30am from my house and delivers me to the lounge in the guest house where I have mastered delegation from a distance. (pointing crutches can help!) Every now and then I get a urge to stumble up the stairs to check on the maid and the rooms to make sure all is 110% perfect. Coffee is my best friend.
Patrick (my cat of 16 human years) is a god send, funny how they seem to know when you are not well. He follows me every where I go in the house, and has slept with me for every night since my "accident" We talk often during the night whilst we roll and change sleeping positions.
The cast comes off "so they say" in 3 weeks! (which i doubt) so who knows! But I know you can picture me on my BMX bike back then in 1982 in my thinner days ..........
Bye!
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