Fear no more

One of the things I feared most happened this morning. I was rushing (as usual), having been delayed by Neesa chan who refused to take a shower and eat her cereal, when I noticed that I had a flat tyre. I was thinking of another plan, which was to take the bus when I realized that I had to run a few errands after dropping Neesa chan at the nursery. I could not possibly go to all those places if I were to take the bus. I was contemplating between calling a cab and asking Idhamu-san to send us, when it suddenly hit me that both options were not feasible. I would be spending more than 1500 yen for a ride to school. And Idhamu-san would not risk having to drive with an expired driving license. Besides, we would still have to go to the car park, which is a 5-minute cycle from our apartment. After giving it a careful thought, I called Idhamu-san hoping that he would dash off to take the car (while we wait patiently in front of our apartment building), and drive us to school with his expired but renewed license. But my hope vanished when he appeared with an air pump in his hand. What a hero!

Neesa chan and I waited for 10 minutes while Idhamu-san tried to pump some air into the punctured tyre. He assured us that amount of air he injected into the tyre would buy us enough time to reach the university. He wanted me to fix the tyre at the university's bike shop today as he would need to use the same bicycle for work tomorrow morning (the faithful bicycle has a dual function ever since Idhamu-san's driving license expired recently. Kesian the old bicycle... No wonder la dia meragam.)

So, off we went. I cycled really fast since we were already late. As soon as we reached the 7-11, the bicyle started to sway a little. Soon after, it was getting more difficult to balance. So, I decided to push the bicycle with Neesa chan sitting like a queen at the back. A few minutes later, the tyre could not even hold Neesa chan's weight any longer. I was so relieved that Neesa chan did not complain when I asked her to walk with me. She even helped me to push the bike!

After walking for about 15 minutes, we reached her school. I could hear the taisho song being played when we parked the bicycle in front of the gate. All the students had already started their morning exercise. After kissing my hand, Neesa chan ran to her class, hung her bag, grabbed her red cap and joined her classmates. I felt kinda sad because the 'fellowship' had been broken. From then on, I had to continue my journey alone...

I walked for another 15 minutes to the bike shop. There was another shop near Neesa chan's school but I would rather walk the extra mile to the university's bike shop not because I needed the exercise, but because I value my money. Haha...

I didn't have to say anything to the man at the bike shop. He knew what to do the moment he saw the flat tyre. He just needed to tell me the amount he was charging, and the wait time. I basically knew how much it would cost coz the same thing happened to a friend of mine recently. However, I was surprised that he managed to finish his job ahead of time. Talk about punctuality!

I really hope that this will be my first and last adventure with a flat tyre in Japan. My bike is like an extended bionic legs for me. I value it more than my other harta benda. "Andai dipisah basikal dan bubur caca, lemah tiada berdaya hampa nak kemana2..."