Monday, October 5, 2015

Your Dutch best friend... Or not?!

When you live in the Netherlands, even if you're not a materialist, you'll find out pretty soon that your best friend has become nothing less than an object!...
Indeed: your new best friend, with whom you will have a deeply love-hate relationship, will be your bike.

Take me a few weeks ago for example...
My bike takes me almost everywhere: to the office, the gym, the grocery store, etc. So when I got a flat tyre the other day, just rushing to a meeting, I didn't feel too happy to say the least. Fortunately, I was just leaving home and could take another bike. But that other bike was too high... Well, I still had to go to that meeting and didn't want to be too late, so I did my best to get my bottom on the high saddle and I biked on the tip of my toes.

Thanks to my husband and nephew's help, my bike was fixed and I could go to the office the day after... until my chain got stuck! It was so stuck that I couldn't fix it myself, so I walked to a bike shop.
Can you imagine how long walking seems to take when you could be biking?!...
A very kind man at the shop got my chain loose and off I went to the office... until my tyre got flat again!
Really?! Are you kidding me?

So I had to walk again... to another bike shop where I had to leave my bike for a whole weekend.  A whole weekend?!

At that exact moment, you feel it: even though you've been cursing this bike a few times on your way to the office, you hate the idea of being apart from each other for a whole weekend. What to do without it? Where to go? And how to get there?
Yep, that's true: it's your best friend and you don't wanna miss it.

And what about the week after?... When you get it back from the shop. You've paid a significant amount of money to get your beloved bike fixed and you can finally get back home together. You're happy the tyre is now strong and the chain all greased.
But of course it's raining cats and dogs! You're soaking wet. Trying to bike as fast as you can, holding your hood with one hand. Biking right behind three young girls, so close you only see the pole in the middle of the road when they get to the side and when it's already to late to avoid it.
And you know what your first thought is when you fall? Even before feeling the pain in your leg and fingers? How's my bike?! Is it still ok and can I still bike home?

.... That, my friends, is true friendship, Dutch style!!