Sunday, September 13, 2009

Wizzing on My Bike

I bought a bike today. It's pink. It was the only one there around my size. But my mum always tells me pink's in. Like the time I forgot my school hat, and since I didn't want to be kept in at lunchtime, she grabbed her pink John Deere cap from the backseat for me to wear instead. As I walked into class, she yelled from the car, "Pink's in! Brad Pitt wore pink in Cannes!!" I don't mind. I like my new bike. It has a little white basket too that I'm trying to attach. It will really come in handy.




I thought I'd try to tie this post into something French and the Tour de France seemed like the obvious choice. I googled it but found all the "interesting facts" about it were nothing of the sort.

Number (or miles) of barricades erected and torn down for the race: 217 miles

Number of gendarmes (French military police officers) on the Tour: 13,000

Number of chains worn out by a single rider: 3 (Armstrong went through a chain a week)

Snooze....snooze

That is until I came across this question:

Tour De France: How do they pee? And other interesting facts.

Apparently, although they sometimes have a quick break themselves, othertimes the entire peloton stops and takes a leek on the side of the road together. They decide as a group where and when they should stop. There is also an unwritten rule that riders don't "attack" when someone is answering the call of nature.


A peloton, for those of us who don't watch the race with the other 2 billion people on the planet (though I find that statistic hard to believe), is a "group of cyclists who ride closely together to achieve victory through efficiency and team effort". It's a french word. And this is actually interesting - everyone in the peloton gets the same time, no matter where in the pack they finish. And as for the attacking bit, I can only assume it's attacking someones position in the race and not coming after the widdler with a steel pole behind his knees.

I kept reading however and learnt something very disturbing. Some cyclists, in the heat of a race, just go. While on their bike. Still riding. In the race.

But I suppose it is actually a very french thing to do. It's not uncommon to see men squeezing the lemon in the street. In fact, I saw a guy doing just that a few days ago in Paris. In broad daylight.

Which brings me, coincidentally, to this outhouse I saw today in Eymoutiers. It turns out that dunnies were built over running streams in the old days. (According to the The Toilet History, it was only in the 16th century that a technological breakthrough came about that allowed clean toilets inside houses.)

This in turn reminds me of another story Granma once told me. (She'll no doubt deny it, just like she did the French/Hilter comment - don't read that part to her Katty.) When she was a little girl in Toowoomba, their dunny backed onto the back lane so the toilet man could come and empty it. She said that if he came when you were in there, you'd try to be as still and quiet as you could so he didn't know you were there. I always smile when I think of that story. It conjurs up such a lovely picture.

I just realised that this is the second post that ends with toilets and not so much to do with bikes. Hmmmm.... What else can I say but weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! (Or should that be ooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii?!)

Combien pour le vélo rose? How much for the pink bike? Note how the adjective "rose" comes after the noun "vélo". (And it was a lot, but I guess it does have a basket and a pretty cool bell.)

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