Time for Another Bike

Today's weather:  High = 19 Low = 16

Rain

 

The nice thing is that my financial situation has somewhat returned to normal.  I was able to get a major lump sum back from the former apartment agency which reimbursed the former deposit and a month's rent.  I used that lump sum to quickly pay back all the friends who bailed me out last month, and am still making a profit from the school's housing allowance situation.  More on that in another post.

 

Meanwhile, the selling of the Yamaha YBR125 bike to a German guy has now left me bikeless, and life is rather inconvenient.  Regretably, my new place is now a 12-15 minute walk to the subway, which was a detail I overlooked since I actually had a *bike* when moving in the first place.

 

The old place was only a 7-8 minute walk from the subway.  May not seem like much, but I've been having super bad luck this past week where I consistently MISS trains just as I walk up to the platform.  This delays another 4-5 minutes, and of course, interchanging trains I have the same bad luck which puts me further and further behind.

 

So to make a long story short, a 20-minute bike commute has now morphed into a 45-minute subway commute, and I ain't liking it.   It's time for another bike.

 

The financial situation is still rather tight as I'm recovering from October, so a brand new bike upgrade won't happen until well into next year.  But a cheap transitional scooter is certainly on the cards, and I'm making a trip this week out to Sino Canada and picking up a cheap bike from a teacher who is selling a whole score of bikes.  That school is where I used to teach 3 years ago.  It's way out in the boonies, but close enough to nip over there on a bus and then scoot back home across the provincial border.

 

I'm basically throwing the towel on the Shanghai subway at this point, as truth be told, the system is crap.  Despite having 11+ lines of operation, the whole system is riddled with flaws and delays.  They are purposely running the trains slower out of fear of more accidents.  On top of that, they have extra security precautions at all stations now, the interchanging is not convenient, and they no longer give discounts if you have a prepaid card.  Of course, most of the time there are long walks to the station, and it's just not worth all the delays, frustrations, and hassles.

 

So once again, the scooter and motorbike trumps all other transport, and I'll soon be back on the horse.