So, I bought a bike. I don’t actually have it yet though; won’t be here until sometime next month. Until I pulled the trigger, it had been at least a couple of months of moderately obsessive researching about which one to get. I would’ve thought COVID might mean there’s surplus stock.
But turns out that bikes are pretty hard to come by at the moment. Supply chains are still obliterated, and at the same time, demand has rocketed. Stimulus cheques combined with people not wanting to have to jump on a bus or train filled with their fellow humans.
I definitely could have bought one from a local shop. There are some amazing steel builds that I’ve come across. Some of them were, and are, really expensive though. And to get it to a spec that I was keen for, the amount of money started to become pretty eye watering.
I even came across what I’m assuming was a titanium track bike (fixie). Beautiful. 2 million yen. Which is not far off 30 thousand Aussie dollars. Or over 35 thousand dollars when the AUD fell off a cliff a few months ago. Needless to say, I restrained myself and didn’t spend quite that much.
I’m actually pretty livid. I stupidly decided to pay for it using my ANZ credit card. Didn’t seem like it would be an issue given that the UK seller offered the bike in AUD at close to spot exchange rates. True to form though, ANZ rolled me. For a simple AUD transaction (via Paypal… another questionable company), they enacted their ‘terms and conditions’ and charged me 3%. They’re basically Tony Soprano with a more up-to-the-minute PR machine.
It’s ludicrous though. Paypal has already eaten into the merchant’s take by some stupid amount. Probably similar to 3% (maybe more?!). And then, ANZ have decided, yep, we’re going to charge you extra as well even though there was no foreign currency exchange. The arrogance of how they operate, as well. Nothing’s off the table. Their contempt for customers was partly uncovered by the Royal Commission. But they got off light; their pos culture is the same as it always has been.
I’m done though. The big-4 are just another contemptible example of the defunct Australian economy. Time to close my accounts for good.
Anyway, leaving my livid’ness aside, at least I’ll be receiving a bike at some point. Which’ll be good, because at the moment, I just don’t see how the pandemic will calm any time soon. A bike is probably the most viable option for me to go do a bit of travelling.
Pretty keen to go on some properly epic rides, too. Up a mountain maybe. Or from one side of Japan to the other. Stuff like that. But for even just getting to relatively close destinations, a decent bike will be super handy to go see stuff without having to venture onto trains, buses, etc.
Even without the luxury of wheels, I decided to embrace some mini-adventuring, and see how far I could walk last weekend. Didn’t get too far. Probably not even 15 kms. But I zig and zagged a fair bit so I think I must’ve covered closer to 25 km (my feet/legs were pretty cooked by the time I jumped on a train back home).
The neighbourhoods I ended up in were pretty different to where I live. A heap more nature mixed in with suburbia. And the green’ness is definitely at a high with all the humidity at the moment. Parts of the suburbs I was walking through even reminded me of Newcastle. Kids burning around on bikes. Small, chilled shopping streets. Nowhere near as trendy as where I currently live, and far fewer high rises, which I liked. Will definitely check out those areas more extensively with said bike.
What else has been happening?
Work has been consistently busy. Still working at home, which I’ve become more and more used to. My running has fallen quite a bit. I think I jinxed myself with talk of too much, too soon in the last blog post. Or more likely, I just did too much, too soon. Took a few weeks off due to a sore’ish foot, but now starting to ramp (slowly) again.
Tokyo COVID cases are starting to increase again. But the authorities are fine with it. They’ve even kept to their plans to continue opening things. I think that baseball is even a go’er. Crowd sizes will be limited, but the fact that there’ll be crowds of any size speaks to their optimism. Pretty keen to check out a game. Sinking beers in a grandstand with only a passing notion of what’s happening seems alright to me.
Oh, mask wearing. I’ve relented and joined my Japanese comrades for whenever I have to set foot inside a store, restaurant, etc. Most places don’t actually let you inside unless you have a mask, so it’s kind of hard to get by without one. For times where I’m outside without needing to go inside (walking, running, etc.) I still don’t bother.
I think it’s without question that there’s a lessening impact on the transmission rate by having everyone wearing masks. But it’s at least partly like airport security; a good deal of theatre. Especially when you see plenty of people with the covering down on their neck while they eat or drink, or to just have a breather. And while the cases are somewhat high every day, they’re not crazy high. I just don’t think most people are in virus rich environments for much time, if at all. But, safe rather than sorry and all that.
I think I’ll leave it at there for now. Have been a bit lazy the last few months with blogging, but that’s partly because I’m busy at work. And partly because I’m not doing a whole heap. Will endeavour to rectify the latter.
