July 24, 2021
July 24th
the hardware store with Debbie
The typhoon only brushed Taiwan before it veered north towards China. Yes, there was some serious rainfall, but thankfully no destructive wind that you expect to accompany such meteorological phenomena.
It'll be sweltering hot again soon enough, but the thing is, Debbie worries about the water that tends to collect on our flat roof whenever there's inclement weather. This morning, while I was having a Zoom class, she was up on the flat surface armed with a length of thick wire and one of my long screwdrivers, poking around in the rainwater outlets, trying to clear the downpipes of hardened silt.
She got me up there this afternoon to take a look. It all seemed fine to me, but - as I said - she worries there'll eventually be ingress causing structural damage. I informed her that the wire and screwdriver won't do the job (in my opinion it's a design fault, possibly compounded by shoddy workmanship during construction) and that we need to buy a more specialized tool.
This means we need to pop to a hardware store in town. Our commuter bikes will suffice.
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The road surface is now dry as we cruise down the 114, which is wide with a meridian and always a bit busy, but fairly safe for cyclists. It's basically the direct route into town and one I cycle on almost daily when teaching in a classroom.
Within a handful of minutes we're pedalling past Carrefour and over the ring road, then stop at a pet shop to buy some bags of bird food, as we get a pair of light-vented bulbuls and a few pigeons frequenting our 7th floor balcony. The pigeons gobble up the seed, but the pretty bulbuls prefer some cookies that I usually get from Carrefour. These excruciatingly plain cookies are very cheap, but rock hard and not something I'd offer guests. As the saying goes, they're strictly for the birds.
We follow the 114 straight into town, then turn onto a main road that has a few shops catering to builders. The tool I want is a long, flexible metal coil that can be rotated and we stop at the first place - one that we've been to in the past.
It's a typical shoe-box shape shop - long and narrow - and we walk up and down the couple of aisles but can't see the item so ask for help. A woman appears and escorts us into an area at the back, which has stuff that looks like it's been on the shelves for years.
Debbie explains what we're after and she produces a couple of the tools and we settle on one that comes with a compartment with a handle to turn and which houses the coil of spring-like rod. It should keep Debbie busy for a while.
Just 50 metres down the road is a nice temple and Debbie wants to pop in, but it's still taped off due to Covid restrictions - the news is these will be eased next week, and maybe coffee shops will be allowed to have customers sit inside. We'll see.
We head for home, but cycle a different route - one that goes past a charity shop. It's always worth a look.
Debbie soon finds a metal grill to place over one of the rainwater outlets on the roof. It's only about 30 cents.
There's a new cycling top that looks to be my size, but the design is slightly garish - green with a bold, white bolt of lightning. While it's inexpensive, it doesn't seem quite 'me'. What also gets my attention is a 1997 NBA final T-shirt. Maybe it's valuable and it seems wise to just take a punt on it - if it's not worth reselling on eBay, I'll just wear it to bed. It's XL and cheap.
After 20 minutes we've pretty much scoured the place and decide to get going.
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I'll have another look the next time I pass the shop. Looking at the photo, it doesn't seem as tacky as I imagined.
2 years ago
The road takes us past a few vendors after a few minutes' of riding. They sell fruit and veg and the guy who I've bought mangoes from has lots of sugar apples, but Debbie isn't really in love with them and we settle on buying three big, ripe mangoes he has left. They go in Debbie's pannier.
The sky ahead is now looking gloomy and there's that feeling rain could arrive at any minute. Hopefully we can make it home before it does.
As we veer along a narrow footpath between allotments and what little is left of the countryside near our apartment, over to the west there's a nice pink glow. It could be a glorious sunset.
Today's ride: 6 km (4 miles)
Total: 567 km (352 miles)
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