I was planning to be in Deventer (Ov.) today. My friends would move and I wanted to help. But since travelling there would take 2.5 hours I would be late. They would start moving at 8:30am and I could show up around noon. They would have finished moving then so it made no sense to go there then. So I slept in and decided to do some shopping in the afternoon. I had to buy a new tyre because it was bad. I biked through broken glass and got a puncture. Because there are holes in the outer tyre, patching holes wouldn’t help a lot, I would have a new puncture in no time. Therefore I went to Halfords to get a new tyre. I also bought new kitchen utensils of stainless steel, replacing some crummy stuff owned by my room-mates. And I got some yummy stuff to put on my bread in the morning: organic peanut butter by Albert Heijn, organic (and fair!) chocolate paste by Albert Heijn and Fair Trade chocolate bread sprinkles. I also bought Italian rolls and some cereal. I decided to treat myself with organic vanilla yoghurt too. I hardly can’t wait until tomorrow! :oops:

At 4pm the mall got crowded with little children and their lanterns, singing songs about St. Martin. It’s an age-old tradition in the Netherlands. It’s similar to trick-and-treat, but here the children make their own lanterns and they don’t dress up. I don’t like crowds, so I decided to go home early. I got nearly everything I wanted. And also some things I didn’t intend to buy like more socks. I have enough socks, but I just had to buy socks with little roses on them.

After having my bobotie from the freezer I decided to have a look at my bike: remove the rear wheel, patch two or three holes, place tube and tyre again and reattach all nuts. Then I discovered 3 additional smaller leaks in my tube. It was wasted. Plugging the holes wouldn’t help. It would for a while, but because some holes are very close to each other, the rubber can tear connecting two holes. Patching very large holes isn’t worth the effort: you keep patching and patching, in the end you have to replace it anyway. So I need to go to Halfords again Monday to buy a new inner tube The one that’s broken I bought new in August I can’t stand it when people break beer bottles in the middle of the street and leave everything there for the non suspecting biker at 8am in the morning to bike through it causing a puncture and a lot of trouble repairing it. Sweeping the glass in the gutter isn’t so much of an effort, is it? It seems like it’s hard to imagine for some people that they’re not the only one out there in the world. In the mean time I’ve got a bike shaped ornament standing in my room. I need a new bike anyway. Both my bikes are 3rd or 4th hand bikes with mechanical problems. They work, but for how long isn’t sure.

I looked around for a new bike recently. My initial thought was to buy a Gazelle city bike. It’s a very plain bike with nice colours. But I changed my mind. I want a transportation bike, specially designed for lugging cargo around. So it sounds like my ideal bike. It looks like this:

I can attach a basket with tie wraps at the front and you can choose to have a conventional one or a bike with three gears. I think I choose the one with gears. It costs €749 and comes with theft prevention chip. The chip is registered and if the bike is stolen and changed colour, it’s still recognizable as my bike because of the chip that’s installed on it. It’s a new hype, the transport bike. But I think it’s a stayer, because the Dutch just LOVE to bike.

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