Tomorrow’s my scheduled appointment with the specialist. Wonder if he will give me the thumbs up to remove my wrist guard …

This is the resultant verdict -

There’s no fracture in my right wrist, thank goodness for that. There might be a worn ligament / cartilage, which is causing the “discomfort” whenever I move my hand in odd positions.

At the end of the day, it’s $200 out of my pocket and a hand brace for the next month. Looks cool, but riding’s not going to be enjoyable.

At least I now have an excuse for working slower than optimal.

The flight touched down during the wee hours of Monday morning. It was a very exciting trip, with many small events all stringed together. I also got myself “baptized” while I was there too. And I have the signs to prove it too!

Also, my rather old pair of gloves eventually failed, so I had to get myself a replacement.

4 fingered gloves?

I had to cut off the digits of the index fingers as it was already tearing off on one side. The otherside had to go too in order to balance things up.

Can you spot the holes?

There’s actually one on the left middle finger, where I have a ring on, and one on the right palm. That comes with an interesting story too.

Still in mint condition

Pity there weren’t any in Red colour. It would have been awesome.

Guess the material

I may have paid double for this new pair, but at least it’s 90% leathers where it matters the most. Compared to the old pair which is made using mesh material, this should be better. The padding’s better too.

Now to sort out my photos.

I seem to have a sudden interest in classic motorcycles. Classic cars are bad enough, but motorcycles too?

Therefore, I want one of these!

Ural Motorcycles: Red October

It’s not exactly classic, but at least the design is classic, in a similar fashion to the Royal Enfield motorcycles. It’s a limited edition motorcycle with side car, painted with the theme colours from the movie The Hunt For Red October, manufactured by (and very fittingly too) the Russian motorcycle manufacturer Ural.

Too bad the production run is exceptionally limited. Which means I’ll not be able to get my hands on it. Then again, I think I’ll be equally happy with any Ural motorcycle.

I’ve the the Vespa back from the workshop. Apparently, it’s a worn out alternator coil. The plastic insulation for the wires were all brittle and falling apart, which probably shorted the wires and prevented the bike from starting again.

The alternator coil

Close-up

There goes a hundred and a half bucks.

Finally, after 15 or so months, I get to feel the wind in my face. Unfortunately, it’s rather hot wind, but it’s still wind all the same.

Yeah, I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a mate’s motorcycle. He’s not really using it at the moment, and I long to be able to travel via two-wheels again. So far, it’s a great experience. No doubt the vehicle needs some work to be done, notably the signals, but at least it’s ridable. The brakes need some tweaking too. I’m very much used to using the front brake, but this one isn’t very effective in bringing me to a standstill. So much so that I had a near miss this morning! That really woke me up. Thank goodness nothing serious happened.

At least for now, I need to get used to riding once more. It’s going to be fun times ahead! Yeah!

I want to get a motorcycle for myself. I already have something in mind, but it’s not a Harley Davidson. It’s just as good. It costs  a cool 12 grand, which is more expensive than the cheapest HD I can get! It’s a cafe racer bikel retro styling, which will need a bit of getting used to, but it’s sweet. That’s one. My other choice, a derivative of my original choice but with cruiser styling, is a few dollars shy of hitting the 15 grand mark.

I went to test-sit a Yamaha cruiser today. It’s nice, looks huge and not as heavy as I’d imagined. It’s also reaching 12 grand ride away.

All these are brand new two wheels straight from the show room.

On the other hand, I can get a 4-wheel, Honda Jazz, for something close to 16 grand. With all the other additions, I’d put the figure at 17 grand.

I can get my original choice, cafe racer or cruiser, for 12 or 15 grand. This only sits two, and that’s excluding the cost of all the protective gear I’ll need to include.

Or, I can get the Jazz, for 2 to 5 grand on top of that. It sits four, carries more junk in the rear, and shields me from the weather.

The choice should be very obvious by now, but why is it that I’m not looking at the obvious?

Have I flipped my mind?

I had time to myself on Sunday. It was enjoyable being by myself, walking around the Lake Parramatta reserve nature trail. Parramatta, which was another district about an hours worth of bus ride from where I am, is a rather big suburb with loads of car dealers; brand new or second hand? You want it, you can probably find it there.

I arrived well within my schedule, but conveniently realised that the bus I was meaning to take runs only on Saturdays. I could have remembered the wrong bus service which I should take instead. I pondered heading out to the car dealers for a little while, before heading to the nearby bookshops to check for the correct bus service. Heading back to the terminus, I realised to my dismay that I had just missed one of the buses, with the next one arriving two hours later. Yup, there are only three services on a Sunday, and I had just missed one of them. How wonderful. I ended up taking another bus service and walking a little further just to get into the lake grounds.

The weather was refreshing; the un was shining, but it wasn’t uncomfortably hot at all. 15 minutes into the walk, I paused on a big rock outcrop and had one half of my packed lunch. It was a very nice and quiet moment for me, with bottle of wine and good company missing. Otherwise, it would have been doubly enjoyable.

It would have been a well rounded end to the walk, if I had not missed an important turn. From that point on, the trail narrowed a little, and the signs all but disappeared. In the end, I walked an additional half an hour, but still managed to exit the route with enough time to relax at one of the gazebos around the lake.

Better yet, I went to the motor registry to transfer my Singaporean drivers’ license over. The process was quick, and I only had to a eye-sight test. After all the paperwork, I had my spanking new drivers license in my pocket. With that, I can legally drive … and ride motorcycles of any engine capacity! A full license! Now time to hunt for my dream set of wheels!

In two weeks time, the start of my 2 weeks leave will begin. Work is getting very hectic, with lots of things to do, and lots for things forgotten. It happens when you’ve got so many things to keep track of, and is something which I’m not used to doing. I’m traditionally more inclined towards designing, but it’s quite like a mini project management for me.

Still, my time here is also up, and I’ve heard that there has already been some searching for someone to take up my place. I know well enough how things work here, so it remains to be seen if that person will appear, or some other excuse crops up.

I’ve already had my 2 weeks leave approved, so I’m now starting to consider my options for my short 2 weeks break. It’s a mad rush, and I’m not exactly prepared for a trip proper. With a company laptop and some business like shirts, it’s not exactly the kind of things I bring on a trip.

My original plan was to make a trip to Ladakh, in the Jammu & Kashmir region. There’s some turmoil going on there, so I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. Leh, in Ladakh is supposed to be safe, and the unrest is mainly in Srinagar. The initial plan was to fly into and out of Leh. Then I decided to trim the costs a little, and thus changed it to a land route into Leh from Delhi via Shimla and Manali. In Manali, I can probably do some mountain biking or trekking or something exciting for a change.

All that was last week.

Lately, I’ve been researching on something new; not totally but is quite a deviation from the usual. I’m still looking at catching the bus from Delhi to Shimla and Manali. From Manali, I’m now looking at renting a 2 wheeler and then getting myself to Leh. It’ll be something like a 4 day motorbike adventure, which is exciting in itself. Problem is, even though I’ll be riding up the world’s second highest motorable pass, it’ll be my very first motorbike tour of such a scale. Worse still, I’m quite ill prepared for a trip such as this, since I didn’t expect myself to deviate from the plan to such an extent.

I lack a helmet, proper gloves and a jacket. I can probably use my trekking jacket, but it’s not suited for the roughness of a bike trip; a fall would definitely rip it apart. It’s also not easy to find out about organised tours between Manali to Leh, and I guess my best bet would be to hunt around once I get there. I’ll most likely be catching a flight back to Delhi anyway, so I have about two weeks for the entire adventure. Cost is also a minor consideration as I have brought along with me only a few hundred dollars worth.

The bike tour from Manali to Leh is a big draw, but the lack of experience and equipment is making me thing again. I definitely will not do this trip alone, so an organised tour will have to do. I also have a rather big backpack; securing it to the bike will be tricky. My options are not many.

Last alternative would be to head into Leh the normal way, by bus and then rent the motorbike for tours to the attractions around. That will probably be a workable option too. At least a chance for me to gain some experience, and maybe plan for a proper motorbike adventure in the future!

This is actually a rather good resource to learn from. They disabled the embedding of the video into other websites. I’m sure there’s a way to go around that block. Until then, here is the video, which I’d really recommend everyone to watch.

There’s more actually, all done courtesy of the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Good and innovative way to reach out to the world and impart some precious skills. We only need to bear in mind that we drive on the other side of the road (that being he left hand side) rather than the right hand side.

http://youtube.com/user/CaliforniaDMV