October 3, 2022
October 3rd
a couple of local recycling yards
It's been hot these past few days - too hot to venture far on the bike. Besides, I've also been proccupied with the track lighting project I previously mentioned. Remember I said we had everything? Well, after checking prices online, Debbie realised we'd paid a lot at B&Q and decided to cart it all back and get a refund, so we're now back to square one.
The stainless brackets have been made as required and this morning I suggest we stroll to a nearby lighting shop. Before we do, Debbie calls and checks to see if they have track and they do and the price is OK. They have 3m lengths of it in stock and by 11:00 we've gone and carried home six of them.
It's too late in the day for me to start work and instead I decide to see if I can locate an old window grill in any local scrap dealers or recycling centres. Google Maps shows two not a million miles from home and as lunch time has come around I get on the bike and set out to see if either has any - as well as getting a bite to eat.
There's a Carrefour supermarket just five minutes away and I ride there and go to the tappanyaki place and order fried chicken. There's only me sat at the long metal counter that serves at a hot plate and I watch the cook deftly toss my greens and bean sprouts around before getting stuck in.
There's always something on offer and cans of beer and lager are discounted and I get two cans of pils. I know it's from Hungary by its name - Pecsi - because when I was a teen I had a penpal in Hungary and eventally flew over to see her. Once off the plane, I recall asking for a train ticket to Pecs - pronouncing it pecks - and not getting anywhere. That's because the city's name is pronounced pitch.
As I said, it's hot. It must be about 35°C today.
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I ride south along the 114 away from town and make a left turn down a side alley on the lookout for grills, as it'll be much easier if I can just show someone working at the recycling yard a photo of what I want. Most houses have new, steel grills, but sure enough, there's an original steel grill with a geomeric pattern on one old home, which would look nice hanging from our living room ceiling.
I veer along more back lanes to see if there's anything interesting to snap and spot a couple of chairs, but most houses have been modernised and extended and retiled, with alloy windows fitted. They're not photogenic.
The yard isn't too far and it look squite promising when I look at teh stuff scattered about - a few mountain bikes and various domestic itmems. The woman takes a look at my recent snap and frowns and shakes her head. She's quite adamant.
The second recycling place is just along the road and it shoudn't take more than 10 minutes to ride there.
I take a wrong turn but it's not a big deal as I quit elike loking around neighborhoods off the bust thoroughfares. It's on one of these random detours that I come across a few guys ripping the guts out of an old house. Leaning up at the front wall is a wooden screen door that looks interesting one the guy sees me and says I can have it. I'm tempted, but it'd be a job transporting it home on the bike but as he's helpful I show him the snap but he says he doesn't have such a grill - certainly not from this home. It has clearly had beed improved at some point, and maybe never had any fitted back in the day.
Adjacent the other recycle yard is a house that looks to be about 100 years old. Te bas eof teh walls are on large round stones which I guess acted as a damp-proof course. These have been cemented together, this likely cancelling that out.
It's not clear if anyone now lives in the place as it has that abandoned look to it. I walk into the front yards and take a photo of one of its windows - formed with columns of single bricks.
The are a few eldely people pushing trolleys loadedwith recyclables and the yard has a mountain of cardboard that a forklift truck fitted with a shovel is working on moving around.
The young woman in the office speaks to me through a small window like the ones you get at train stations and she looks at the photo and shakes her head. I get the distinct impression she regards my request as absurd and my guess is cardboard is the yard's thing, not scrap metal. There are a few old washing machines to the side, but not much other than the giant stack waste paper.
I need coffee and somewhere to chill.
Monday is a day in Taiwan when a lot of cafes and restaurants have a day off, as they stay open on Sundays. I opt to call at a new place on the chance they will be open, but it is also locked and dark, so I cycle on past the lighting shop that Debbie and I got the track from this morning and settle for sitting outside 85°C, just at the end of the street.
Being at a wide junction, there's a bit of breeze blowing and I dig out the novel by Ishiguru and have an iced drink and a wedge of chocolate cake. Thirty minutes soon go.
Tomorrow I'll be busy drilling and fitting the track to the concrete ceiling, but the weather is forecast to cool down a bit later this week. By then I should be free to get out for a rural ride - maybe go back to the scrap yard in Longtan to see if they have a window grill.
Today's ride: 8 km (5 miles)
Total: 1,764 km (1,095 miles)
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