Financial frolicking

Today's been an odd day. Firstly, the museum tour was cancelled owing to the fact that only four of us had booked for it so they couldn't get the group discounts. Fair enough. So I cycled over to the Sports Centre to sign up for one set of badminton sessions. Cycled back €66.50 lighter. This cycling trip reminded me of (i) the fact that it's getting hotter here again, and (ii) that I really needed to sort out my bike.

So I cycled back into town and took my bike to the bike shop. Bad news. In Holland, they've had the great idea of building the brakes into the wheel itself, rather than just haveing them seperate and clamping onto it. This means that my bent front wheel can't simply be replaced with another wheel. No, instead the brakes need to be replaced as well. I pointed out that my front brakes don't work anyway as they've been cut, only to be told that the bike wouldn't be safe without front brakes and that I needed to have them replaced.

But someone working in a bike shop would say that, I thought, but then it's probably true, especially as the back ones aren't exactly brilliant. Total damage = €€65. Yes, that's right, €€10 more than the bike cost me in the first place... I'm now going to be riding a €€55 bike with a €65 front wheel. I console myself by thinking of how nice it'll be to have a bike that doesn't squeak incesantly, that will actually stop when I tell it to, and whose lights will actually work. But €65? Would have been cheaper to buy a new one and merge them somehow, might even have been able to create a tandem. Fingers crossed that this one wont get nicked.

So that's over €130 so far, and it's not even 15:00 yet. It's an expensive business this Erasmus lark.