Of Bikes and Burns
Posted by spunky | Filed under Monkee Moto
No I didn’t pass my TP.
It rained. I should’ve been more confident in the rain cos I always was during my lessons when it it.
It could’ve been cos I did revisions 3 days in the hot blazing sun, getting used to riding on super dry conditions that when it rained I rode in the same way I would when it was dry. As I throttled my way into the S course ( figure 8 ), I was confident I wouldn’t hit neutral as I kicked up to gear 2. Thanks to the wet floor I was going a little too fast, as I pressed the rear brake with my right foot and leaned towards my left, the 125cc Yamaha YBR ( brilliant riding.. indeed..) skidded and yours truly slumped off sideways.
The deciding immediate failure. I was down and defeated and an instructor had run to my aid. It was the suckiest feeling cos I was so bent on passing on my third attempt. Another ridiculously early TP (after a late night at work) was already looking at me in the face. The instructor muttered, ‘Why you so kan cheong?’ as he helped me pick up the bike. All I was thankful for was that I was able to carry on. I finished the course in 1st gear, had the bike stall when the sleeve of the raincoat got caught in the clutch lever, finished the crank course barely. Man I’m just glad I didn’t hit the curb this time!
The plank and slalom. The rule of thumb here is not to look at the people ahead of you. Just wait for the instructor’s hand signal and gooooooo.. It’s impossible to do that cos he’s sitting right AFTER the plank. You don’t wanna look ahead cos when someone FALLS, the chances of your nerves getting the better of you would be pretty high. A lady (two numbers ahead of me) fell off the plank, skidded at the slalom and was pregnant to boot.
Everybody was freaked out. She’d been warned not to go ahead with TP at the beginning when the testers arrived. ‘I will be responsible for my own actions.’ she said. I felt a sense of admiration for her. She’s like.. 4 months pregnant man!
E-brake went well without a hitch. As I rode my way to the roads, I felt my right ankle burn, like a bad abrasion. It was so annoying it got really hard to ride. No matter, I had to finish the test.
Getting out onto the road is always a better feeling than doing monkey tricks in the circuit inside the driving centre.
After I finished the test and returned the rain gear, I looked at my ankle expecting a patch of blood and some raw skin. Nothing prepared me for a BURN.
A ‘minor’ exhaust burn, they said. In my opinion no burn is EVER minor. A nice instructor washed my burn with cold water. He went through the steps the burn will take to heal.
Blistering.
Popping the blister.
Skin turning black.
Aaaaarrrgghh.
Eeeeek.
Oh well. Remember this?
Work went pretty ok except I felt the burn now and then when I walked. It was friday that shocked me. I woke up to a huge blister on my ankle, it was soft and watery, the skin was tuat enough not to burst yet not thick enough to prevent injury if say, I walked into a sharp edge of a table. I saw all the home accidents in my head that would lead to a flap of skin hanging off my ankle. I shuddered as I made my way to Roy & Rachel’s.
Yes I can take a lotta things, bursting a huge blister I couldn’t. Rachel was pretty enthusiastic about popping it, Roy had a zen like way of doing it with a nail clipper and I was sitting there with my hands over my eyes and hoping I wouldn’t kick Roy in the process. My wrist was beginning to hurt. Clearly I had twisted it some way as I fell off the bike.
Alamak! How to play guitar lidat?
Sometime ago, I bought myself a wrist guard after a scary bike lesson. That shall do, meantime ice, ice, ice the wrist.
Playing guitar was tricky indeed.
The next day after being followed by a cameraman for hours, I finally went to the doctor after confirming with the insurance agent that this would be claimable. Brandon was a sweetie and came to the clinic with me. He also sat in the consultation room like a parent. The doctor suggested CUTTING the skin off as opposed to poking another hole to drain the fluid out since it had closed and formed again.
CUT??
Spunky: Will it hurt?
Doc: Nah, just a little.
Spunky: Will I scar?
Doc: No.
I just wanna say doctors are blatant liars when it comes to the degree of pain. He didn’t even prepare anything to numb the area around my burn. As he walked towards me lying on the clinic bed, with some bandage and a giant tweezer and a pair of surgical scissors, I seriously felt like I wanted to faint.
Brandon, being the responsible ‘parent’, stood next to the doctor. I was, once again, covering my eyes with my hands. Suddenly I didn’t feel so spunky anymore.
Doc: *snip*
Brandon: Hmm
Spunky: *shaking a little*
Doc: *tear skin off in a circle*
Brandon: Wah SHIIOOOK!!!
Spunky: FUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!!!!
Well, I managed not to kick the doctor. You don’t kick someone with sharp objects in the hands.
Today the burn has been attended to again in the same clinic, by a different doctor and has a bandage and waterproof dressing over it so no one has to see my raw flesh in its healing process.
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Here are some pics from trail day.. days before TP..
Going through the trail and seeing those mud puddles got me really excited! I haven’t been riding a while so I was actually a little freaked at the beginning… which is why we rode on flat land for a while before attempting the trail. Getting in the dirt is fun, the blistering hot sun is not. 
Makes one very mang zhang..
Washing these boots take a while..
I have many thoughts and blogs in my head.. I’m just taking my time to do it…
5 Responses to “Of Bikes and Burns”
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Wen Says:
July 13th, 2006 at 10:29 amya man … that was some nasty blister. I got the *clench* everytime I saw it.
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Jill Says:
July 13th, 2006 at 6:16 pmOoh…we wondered about the wrist guard when we saw u on saturday. Hope blister and all heal nice nice
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unreal Says:
July 15th, 2006 at 2:43 amThink it’s been a while for a long blog from you. But, you were excellent on that particular trailday. You rode great, good on you girlie, made me really proud of Bambi’s new mom.
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spunky Says:
July 15th, 2006 at 2:49 amThanks dude.. I need to ride more.. licence or no licence.
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phantom of the road Says:
July 31st, 2006 at 11:47 pmowwch!! if it really left a “souvenior” on ur leg (god 4bids) at least u hve an interesting story to tell ur grandchildren nex time..positive happy tots..cheers!!
