Last weekend, my team at work had an outing at East Coast Park and thanks to @nenggiin we had an awesome time, going on a pseudo scavenger hunt on bikes.  Prior to that, I think the last time I remember being on a bike was when I was 8 years old. Back then, I had pink bike with training wheels. My granddad used to take us out in the afternoon at the plaza beside our house. When I grew older, I didn’t really get into riding bikes and I never went past using them without the training wheels

Suffice it to say that last Friday was definitely interesting for me. You know how they say that you never forget how to ride a bike. Well I was a bit ambitious and thinking that applied to folks who had training wheels on. But the good news is I somehow managed Well, I did crash into a tree and a few bushes a couple of times but nothing more than a few bruises. It was well worth it though, we definitely had a lot of fun that day. And I have to say, I felt proud of myself for being able to ride a bike, even though I still had to learn how to turn and to stop. :p

I was proudly telling my story to the F when we decided to check out some bikes during the weekend. We both thought it would be fun to be able to just cycle around to the nearer-by places we go to and getting some exercise while we’re at it. We went bike hunting on Sunday. At first aiming for Carrefour, we saw a bike shop somewhere around Tanglin Road and stopped to browse there. Sure enough, we found our bikes in less than an hour and were already excited to ride them home. We were extremely disappointed when after we paid, they told us that they would be delivering it the following day.

That was just as well because on Monday when the bikes arrived and we took it out for a spin, I was back to my old clumsy mode and I could barely get going! In my mind, I was starting to regret buying the bike so impulsively :S With F’s patience, I eventually got going again except for when there were people around. For some reason, the more I try to evade them, the more I seem to be aiming towards them. Eventually we gave up for the day, but there was a spark of hope that I might be able to pull this off eventually.

We decided it would probably be better to cycle at night when there are less cars too so I could at least ride on the road sometimes instead of the narrow sidewalk where I can’t manage to maintain my balance enough to let other people pass. Yesterday, we went out and bought some lights for the bikes and today, on my runner friend Eugene’s suggestion, went for the Park Connector nearby. Surprisingly, the ride was much better today, although I still managed to crash myself into a garbage bin but that’s alright. Judging by the way the oncoming biker laughed, at least I made someone’s day by providing some comic relief.

This was the route we took:

and of course, here’ is the bike:

I had an awesome time today, except for the part when we had to ride through a path surrounded with, I would say easily 10-15 barking dogs. I like dogs, and I don’t mind barking ones either. But I realized while I was on that path, the number of barking dogs make a difference. So yes, maybe not pass by that part of the route next time.