Oh wait, no its not!
It's hard for me to get in a really Christmasy frame of mind when its like 90 degrees out everyday. Its like having Christmas in July. In addition, I keep getting all these work emails about meetings on December 25th. That's crazy, but I guess thats what happens when you live in a country that doesn't give a fig about Christmas. However, a few things have contributed to me getting a bit more in the mood as of late. First, my awesome Mom sent me a package that contained a bunch of Christmas decorations and wrapped presents, complete with a fully packed stocking. So while my aparment is still light years away from being Christmas tricked out, it does have a bit of holiday cheer now. Secondly, I went to Toys N Me today, the local equivalent to Toys 'R Us, in order to get some stuff for Toys 4 Tots. I compare these stores with a bit of a smirk as Toy N Me is nothing at all like Toys 'R Us, unfortunately. Luckily for my wallet, it is a million times smaller than a normal Toys 'R Us, and the selection is also quite a bit worse, unless I want to pay $200 for a Leap Frog, which I don't. However, if you know me, you know that I tend to go quite crazy in toy stores, especially when buying them for needy kids. So I walked through the store with one of the clerks following me around and I just proceeded to throw toys at her when I saw something that I liked. I must have made her happy because at one point she stopped and said "I'll give you 10% off anything in the store." It wasn't quite like Black Friday at Toys 'R Us with Mom, but its the best I can do here. And they didn't even have any dolls other than porcelain ones. What little girl gets porcelain dolls to play with (besides me, of course as I had like 30 of them...but they werent for play, I had a bunch of plastic ones for that)?
So on Saturday I'm leaving for my trip for Malaysia, Borneo and Brunei. I'm getting really excited. I started packing...I have my bikini and sunscreen. Do I need anything else? I think not. :)
Merry Christmas all!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
4 days...and I already crashed the moto...
Yep, thats right. 3 days into owning a moto, I crashed it. Literally. Into a building. A glass building.
Now, honestly, it really wasn't my fault (I know everyone says that, but it's quite true in this case). So it turns out that my awesome bright green moto has a few problems (but of course, it looks good on the outside, not so great on the inside. This will teach me to judge a book by its cover, or more appropriately, a moto by its color.). You start my moto and it dies. So you start it, give it a bunch of gas while in neutral... and then it dies again. Apparently, the only way to keep it going is to start it, give it a bunch of gas in neutral, quickly flip it into first and give it some more gas right away. Well, when you do this, the moto doesnt seem to register that it is in first gear right away and then you end up lurching forward at an alarming rate of speed. Yesterday when I did this manuever, I was parked inbetween 2 buildings in my apartment complex on a small foot path. One of the buildings is just a small office and is made up entirely of glass walls and has a bunch of lovely potted palms in front of it. Well, when I pulled my little starting "manuever", the front wheel was turned, and I did not account for the quick lurching of my moto (granted, it doesnt always do this so it is a tempermental lurch). So, the moto lurches, I grab onto the handle bars, which effectively adds more speed as the acceleration is actually one of the handle bar grips and I plow into the glass office and end up in the doorway of the glass office with my moto pretty much on my leg. In the process, I thought I had totally broken the glass, but it turns out that I had only shattered the clay pots and spewed dirt and palm trees all over the place. In addition, I had cracked a small piece on the front of my moto, as well as bent one of the side mirrors all to hell. I had also banged up my leg between the door frame and my moto. Moto = 1, Allison = 0. It was one of those moments where nobody moves and Im still straddling my moto thinking to myself "Holy shit!" and finally one of the guards comes over and pulls the moto up and out of the doorframe. The worst part though- about 8 people from my apartment complex witnessed this little display of moto awesomeness and probably now think I'm a horrible blonde white girl who can't drive a moto (they may actually have a point there...). Either way, I persevered and made it out my gate, after many apologies on my part, to drive on to work. Half way to work the adrenaline must have worn off because my leg started hurting like a bitch. I get to work to find blood running down my leg from a nice shin cut which had a nice large softball size swelling bruise. My knee is also quite colorful and it turns out that the back of my calf has a nice long bruise up it to (don't ask me how the back of my calf has a bruise...no idea). I limped around work for the rest of the day and had to endure bad jokes like "was it one of those fast moving buildings that you hit?".
However, I feel justified this morning as one of the guys from my apartment complex offered to get my moto started for me (probably to avoid a repeat performance of yesterday) and he almost did the same exact thing! The difference is that he has the moto riding ability to be able to quickly pull the bike away at the last second to avoid hitting the building. I'm not that accomplished yet.
Oh me and my bright ideas of buying a moto...
At least I'm still alive and its day 4.
Now, honestly, it really wasn't my fault (I know everyone says that, but it's quite true in this case). So it turns out that my awesome bright green moto has a few problems (but of course, it looks good on the outside, not so great on the inside. This will teach me to judge a book by its cover, or more appropriately, a moto by its color.). You start my moto and it dies. So you start it, give it a bunch of gas while in neutral... and then it dies again. Apparently, the only way to keep it going is to start it, give it a bunch of gas in neutral, quickly flip it into first and give it some more gas right away. Well, when you do this, the moto doesnt seem to register that it is in first gear right away and then you end up lurching forward at an alarming rate of speed. Yesterday when I did this manuever, I was parked inbetween 2 buildings in my apartment complex on a small foot path. One of the buildings is just a small office and is made up entirely of glass walls and has a bunch of lovely potted palms in front of it. Well, when I pulled my little starting "manuever", the front wheel was turned, and I did not account for the quick lurching of my moto (granted, it doesnt always do this so it is a tempermental lurch). So, the moto lurches, I grab onto the handle bars, which effectively adds more speed as the acceleration is actually one of the handle bar grips and I plow into the glass office and end up in the doorway of the glass office with my moto pretty much on my leg. In the process, I thought I had totally broken the glass, but it turns out that I had only shattered the clay pots and spewed dirt and palm trees all over the place. In addition, I had cracked a small piece on the front of my moto, as well as bent one of the side mirrors all to hell. I had also banged up my leg between the door frame and my moto. Moto = 1, Allison = 0. It was one of those moments where nobody moves and Im still straddling my moto thinking to myself "Holy shit!" and finally one of the guards comes over and pulls the moto up and out of the doorframe. The worst part though- about 8 people from my apartment complex witnessed this little display of moto awesomeness and probably now think I'm a horrible blonde white girl who can't drive a moto (they may actually have a point there...). Either way, I persevered and made it out my gate, after many apologies on my part, to drive on to work. Half way to work the adrenaline must have worn off because my leg started hurting like a bitch. I get to work to find blood running down my leg from a nice shin cut which had a nice large softball size swelling bruise. My knee is also quite colorful and it turns out that the back of my calf has a nice long bruise up it to (don't ask me how the back of my calf has a bruise...no idea). I limped around work for the rest of the day and had to endure bad jokes like "was it one of those fast moving buildings that you hit?".
However, I feel justified this morning as one of the guys from my apartment complex offered to get my moto started for me (probably to avoid a repeat performance of yesterday) and he almost did the same exact thing! The difference is that he has the moto riding ability to be able to quickly pull the bike away at the last second to avoid hitting the building. I'm not that accomplished yet.
Oh me and my bright ideas of buying a moto...
At least I'm still alive and its day 4.
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