It’s funny. They many not be complaining to you but they could still be complaining. 
Here where little people in
Dead dude done complainin
that his feet like Titanics in
a limited range of fashions in
-hibits his dedicated followin
You people got me got me questionin
Where Is The Wack?
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Quite soon after arrival here I formed a theory that there was a fundamental mental disconnect between cause and effect.
I.E. They Just Don’t Get The Connection
I admit that this seems unlikely, and I based it firstly on my early English lessons using cause and effect connectives like because and so, which requires an understanding of the connection, and which they couldn’t do, and secondly, on the impressive equanimity with which they drove quite fast around blind corners on the wrong side of mountain roads.
Since then, the evidence has mounted.
Combined with They Just Don’t Care, (unless access to the nightmarket/delicious food is somehow affected), this becomes a powerful force for fuckuperry
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Interesting. Along with a lack of foresight.
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And spacial awareness.
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First 26 fines didn’t do the trick, but surely the 27th one will!
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Authorities are currently investigating whether the storage facility stored an excessive amount of gravel that eventually broke the wall, per UDN.
Thank God.
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Having put several patches on the too-long inner tube I broke down and went to a bike shop to buy a new one.
I avoid any dealings with Taiwan mechanics of any kind if at all possible, and I think this is only the second time I’ve been to a bike shop here
Bloke seemed very reluctant to leave his TV, and my pointing to the tyre, which I’d brought with me, then pointing to an inner tube, then running my finger aound the inner circumference of the tyre, seemed to open up a baffling array of possible alien interpretations to his mind.
Very slowly he minutely examined the tyre, like an Egyptologist with a newly found clay tablet.
Did he think I wanted a tyre? - I pointed to the inner tube again.
Did he think I wanted the tyre repaired? Is that even possible? - I pointed to the tyre, said “OK, la” (I really shouldn’t say anything in these situations, but that wasn’t really an attempt at Chinese so shouldn’t be too dangerous) and pointed at the inner tube again.
Did he think I wanted the tyres inscriptions translated into Sanskrit and engraved on the tomb of my ancestors? - I pointed to the inner tube again.
Tension built. Eventually he says “Chi ba?”
WTF? Thinks I.
Isn’t “chi ba” a Hokkien obscenity? (Turns out that’s chi bai)
Whatever it is, why is he asking me questions about the bloody tyre? Its a bloody tyre and he’s a bloody bicycle mechanic. Whatever the mystery isn’t the key to it in his hand?
Bit more non-communicaion along these lines and I gave up and went somewhere else on NCKU campus where they wordlessly sold me an inner tube for 150NT. I guess they’d seen a foreigner before. Havn’t tried it for fit yet
Wickipedia has
“In Taiwan, chi is the same as the Japanese shaku, i.e., 10⁄33 metre (11.93 in)”
So “chi ba” would be 8 times that, or 95.44 inches. Obviously not the diameter, and it doesn’t seem to be the circumference either (which would seem to be about 81.7 inches)
So I dunno, and maybe never will.
BUT if that IS what they are working out the circumference of a 26 inch wheel as, its TOO BIG, as are most of the 26 inch wheel inner tubes.
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Wait … do people normally patch bicycle inner tubes? Am I horribly lazy and environmentally criminal by just buying a new one?
(My logic is I don’t trust my repair skills.)
It’s only one death, he’s going to have to wrack up a few more in a short time to get a major punishment.
I think it’s that things don’t go wrong just enough to where things are generally safe enough, so they just kind of figure whatever, even in situations where it doesn’t make sense…sometimes it’s just a general lack of common sense and others it’s a bit of bravado or it won’t happen to me attitude…see it all the time when out hiking when people try to stand some place to get a photo at a dangerous spot or creep to close to the edges on slippery sections.
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Well, if you don’t trust your repair skills, that’s perfectly logical.
I don’t trust mechanics. Specifically I don’t trust Taiwanese bicycle mechanics to use the right size inner tubes, because they often don’t.
I’d think local people here generally never fix anything, because they come from a culture of kack-handedness, and mechanics are cheap.
With expatriates, its more decadent indolence than cultural. “I have a little man to do that”, Bertie Wooster stylee.
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You don’t need them in the plural; you need to find one good guy.
I was delighted to find a magician with bikes (and a friendly smile) not far from my campus. That guy is worth his weight in gold!
Guy
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No I don’t. I just need an inner tube
Alright then. Carry on!
Guy
Sometimes the Japanese legacy is useful though, because a lot of the Japanese engineering loan words originated in Britain, cradle of the industrial revolution.
Trying to buy a universal joint extension for use with my 1/2"drive socket set, I did a really quite detailed and true-to-life sketch and took it to the laoban of the relatively good Kaohsiung tool shop.
“Meio la!”, ses he, dismissively, but with enthusiasm.
“Hmm” ses I (to myself, but audibly) “Surprised they don’t have a universal joint, pretty standard thing”
“Ah!” ses he “JOINT-OH!”
They had several kinds, looking exactly like my sketch, but without the magic Japanese word…no dice
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Taiwan English News gets a better grade for saying it was soil. Taiwan News labels two photos of the soil as gravel. Taiwan English News also mentions that heavy rain could have been a factor. Perhaps the stored soil was already sodden, or maybe there was one of those roofs that only leaks in torrential rain.
Either way, poor bloke. What are the chances? No wonder everyone rides in the middle of the road. With the “safety barrier” to prevent that it looks like he didn’t stand a chance. In fact if it hadn’t been there, he may have been able to swerve out of the way to safety.
Nice story, but why is it in this thread?
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Because it’s a whack story in Taiwan?
I don’t get what’s wack in that story.
A foreigner that doesn’t speak a word in Chinese and wants a bicycle mechanic to understand finger pointing gestures?
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