Fixed

5 June - First day working on a fixed gear today. Have to admit I was a little apprehensive about it - even though she had a front brake put on, basically, the only way to really slow down is by just pedalling slower, which is not very easy when you're barrelling down a steep decline. Celeste certainly got a fair bit of attention once I took her downtown - there was a bit of sighing and shrugging of shoulders because i'd abandoned the mountain bike class and had joined the growing army of fixed riders but nobody could deny that I had a pretty stunning bike. Another really slow day, which is getting kind of annoying - probably a good way to start because I don't want to be hustling too much when i'm just learning how to ride but this job is only enjoyable when one is rushingfrom place to place, when its busy enough to force you to think about routing and timing - now, if I wanted to sit down and drink coffee all day i'd be doing it an office whilst surfing the internet (isn't that what people do in offices these days?). Rad gave me a little bit of a lesson in how to do a skid stop - it's much easier to practice on wet grass so we did out the front of the art gallery but we were getting some puzzled looks from the security guards so didn't do it for too long. I was stranded over on the side when I was given a lunch break (i don't DO breaks) so I found myself at Subway - where a very sweet little kid looked up at me and asked 'Are you a bike courier?', I responded in the affirmative. 'My dad used to be a bike courier too, do you know him? His name is jonathan.' - It's not often you get such good little children - respectful of the courier (me) and more importantly, respectful of the profession. Still, the crappiness of the amount of work put me in a bad mood that could onlybe alleviated by riding my new bike - climbing hills are easy and long flats are just amazingly fast. A couple of times on the decline I found myself going so fast that my legs just couldn’t keep up with the pedals - lotsafun. Also, I nthe end I hardly ended up usingthe brake at all - still a good idea to have one though. Did have a flat, wwhich comes with the territory - probably due to the second hand tyres, but fixed it without too much trouble (needed to radio in for a spanner (nobody knows what a spanner is in this country) - other than that, perfect.
Had a pterodactyl sandwich for dinner at Fets with Casey and his ex and put some bar tape on Celeste when I got home. One of the housemates, Mat, has decided to mke his own switch - from a normal skateboard to a custom built longboard for downhill street racing and we admired each other's creations (mine's much prettier than his). Summer's here and it's a good time for a change.