![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
| I will have to say that the snow that Helsinki has been experiencing can be considered as "a lot" even by local standards. On some days it's been clear that the people who take care of clearing off the roads, sidewalks, etc. were just overwhelmed and some parts of the city never even came close to being cleared off. It seems that as of last week I even managed to develop a sixth sense of when the snow would not be cleared off the cycling paths decently (as in, there would be more than just one or two centimetres of snow left in the morning… alas if it snows during the day, the centimetres can add up quite quickly). Last Thursday I just decided to walk to work (Finland: that country where it's normal to sometimes just walk 7.5km to work in any weather conditions) and, boy, was I glad I was not on the bike! Deep snow everywhere! And deep snow is hard to cycle on. Sticky wet snow is even worse, it gets stuck to everything and you bring back tons of it attached to the bike. As my road bike is domesticated (wait. what?) it has to stay in my tiny bathroom while the snow melts off a bit as not to soak the rug by the front door.  That's pretty much all of my bathroom. Tiny Finnish bathrooms, how do I love you...  This is, perhaps, a better angle. I'm standing sideways in the doorway, my bike is in the "shower" section. You see the sink right under the tiny mirror cupboard, and the toilet is in between those two. I should measure the full surface of the bathroom, it wouldn't surprise me if it were under 2sq.m. |
This is what makes life amazing!
May. 13th, 2012 10:23 am| Dear world, I am in love. In love with my new bike. Yes, I caved in and finally got a bike worthy of decent-length weekend rides (all in the hopes that my PhD will be over and done with soon and I'll be able to enjoy long rides all the time, possibly even in the evenings and not just weekends). It's not even that good of a bike, it's an entry-level road bike but it is amazing nonetheless because it is mine and it is shiny and sparkly (a shade called "midnight blue" and it really does sparkle) and if this is what riding a decent road bike feels like, riding a 2Ke road bike must feel like flying. And so my latest theory is that whenever someone refers to the feeling of riding a unicorn, I'm sure that they actually mean riding on a good road bike. This morning's ride was slow, I'm still adjusting, but so satisfying. My legs felt so light! On the Helkama the same ride would have left my legs dead! The problem with bike rides though is that one actually has to get off the bike to take decent photos... not that it helped me today, I couldn't even get a good shot of the whole bike in. Oh well, we all have days like that.  ( +3 - so you can see the sparkles ) |
