June 23, 2021
June 23rd
Eva's home
It's doubtful the junior high school pupil I taught up until lockdown began will resume his classes and the woman who hired me - Eva - owes me for the last two lessons back in early May. I've been meaning to cycle out to collect the bit of cash and with the weather being not too bad, today seems like as good a time as any and when Eva emails to say come over before 1:00 I grab my bike and wheel it outside at just gone 11 o'clock after telling her to expect me at around noon.
This is my first time to go to Eva's place, so a few weeks ago I zoomed in on Google Maps to find a decent way to get there, as riding on the main road to that side of town is not what you would call quality cycling. Edited and saved Streetview screenshots are on my 7" tablet and the device gets plonked in my bar-bag before leaving.
The ride into town takes me about 20 minutes and not wanting to be late, I don't pause to take any photos except one of a tall building while waiting at some red lights.
Initially, the route through town is very familiar to me as it's along roads that I used to ride when working at a cram school some 20 years ago - teaching elementary school children basic English. However, after going under the highway, I take a left and start cycling on back streets that are new to me. Having viewed the Streetview images a few times, I don't need to use the tablet and my Cateye computer says my speed on these quiet roads is around 30km/hr. This is whizzing.
Some sinuous banyan tree roots growing over a 6' wall catch my eye and although I could take a snap on the way back, my watch tells me there's easily enough time now to make it to Eva's by noon and it only takes less than 100th of a second for the camera's shutter to capture them.
Drizzle is coming down steadily and my glasses are speckled with droplets and my clothes are sightly damp, but it's still around 30 degrees and the humidity is right up there. Wearing a mask doesn't help the situation.
At a junction with a main road I cut straight across and before taking a lane about 50 metres away, a large sign pasted to the gates of a construction site catches my eye, mainly due to the colours of a stylized woman's head. Text in English says the project is Trendy Home and the middle-aged man in a hard hat standing at the gate must wonder why a foreigner on a bike is taking a photo of it, but the thing is the 14-storey block being built right at the back of our apartment is called 'Twin Lakes Manoir' and it seems Taiwanese construction companies love to come up with wonderful names.
It's ten minutes before noon and Eva comes out to greet me as I brake in her yard and a minute later I'm off with an envelope containing some cash tucked into my bar-bag, hoping that the drizzle doesn't get any worse.
The lanes are nice and quiet and my speed is now slower because there's no rush and I look about to spot things to photograph. The flat rural landscape isn't very exciting, but there must be something.
A series of open-sided workshops where stone statues for temples are made has an array of dragons and lions standing around outside, next to the lane. They're too heavy for anyone to lift into the back of their car at night. The man who probably owns the business sees me stop and get my camera out and comments in Chinese about the rain. He likely thinks I've got a screw loose.
There are a few homes and other warehouses dotted around the countryside and I pause at one old place that looks abandoned simply because a window opening is formed with two rows of five bricks that are laid as soldiers, sandwiching a single horizon course. It's bad feng-shui to have even numbers for any type of window grille.
Just down the lane I stop again when I see a bike lent outside another place that looks uninhabited. It's a cheap mountain bike that obviously has been there quite a few years. It's scrap metal.
A bridge across a small dyke is one I took a screenshot of and I set up the camera and tripod on it for a self-timed shot of me riding along the lane beside the water. It strikes me that the area has a very rural ambiance with next to zero traffic, yet the city centre is only a handful of kilometres away. It must all be on the main road.
I get to town and take a riverside bicycle path that will reduce the amount of time on busy roads by about 10 minutes.
My mind is wondering about lunch as it's gone 1:00 and my stomach is empty. Another coffee would be nice and I decide to head across to my side of town and get a döner kebab.
En route I briefly look around a charity shop and pick up a new, black baseball cap that should come in as a gift for someone in the future, and also a still packed mouse pad that has Noddy on it. It's only costs the equivalent of 30 US cents. Winner.
A street vendor I sometimes buy fruit from has bags of mangoes for sale and I stop and get four and take his photo with a large jackfruit that he has on the ground. These spiky fruits grow on trees. If you landed on you it'd be game over. This one is about 45cm long.
After the Turkish guy hands me my kebab, it's just a block away to Louisa Coffee to buy an iced cappuccino and them I ride past the university complex and its scooter parking area, crossing over the ring road to get to the small temple where I've sat under a tree and had lunch a couple of times recently.
Unfortunately there are a few people around the temple and a woman is sat under the tree, so I keep on riding for a few minutes to a backstreet crossroads that has some seating under a metal roof adjacent to it. No doubt it's where older men sit and play board games, not that I've ever seen any congregating there. Maybe they only go in the evenings.
There's nobody sitting at the small table that has markings for a game on it and my lunch gets unwrapped and tucked into. I do wonder about sitting here because my mask is off and it'd be a pain if a police car drove by.
I decide to edge my bets by sitting on the low wall while finishing off my kebab, but mosquitoes soon start to nibble my legs. It was to be expected, so the paper cup of coffee gets wedged into a bottle cage and I drink it while riding back home - just five minutes away. You might ask: Why not have it in the comfort of your own home, but al fresco floats my boat.
Today's ride: 24 km (15 miles)
Total: 264 km (164 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 3 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |