Those people who know it all, "They," say that you never forget how to ride a bike. That of course presupposes that can ride a bike in the first place. Over the last few days, with the assistance of Grandma Sausages, I have been trying get Rupert to ride a bike. On Monday he tried and tried and eventually managed ten metres in a straight line. Great news. There were only two elements of cycling that he struggled with though: cornering and stopping. Whenever he attempted to deviate deliberately from the straight and narrow he fell off. Whenever he considered stopping he simply had to grind to a halt and trust to good fortune, which usually meant he fell off. In one spectacular move he did manage to steer completely off course, pick up speed, slalom between two large rocks and come to a vertical stop on a gravel path. That was Monday.
On Tuesday we hoped for improvement. Setting off on the path to the park the determined man did his best to understand the concept of straight line, despite the path being curved and off he set. Amazing over the first five metres. Not so amazing in the sixth metre as he steered straight into a lamp-post. I had expected a clang as bicycle hit metal. Instead we heard the dull thump of small boy against illumination. Applying the get back on quickly approach he set off again, held in starting position by me, and soon picked up speed. Again veering off the path he managed to avoid a concrete bench and hit a tree instead. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and some tears from Rupert as well, he did complete a successful straight line again.
Today he had a go on Trixie's bike instead, sans stabilisers,and mastered straight line as well as putting his feet down on the ground to stop too, but all of it involved me dashing behind him shouting wildly and gesticulating madly. A little bit of progress. Time was limited today though as Trixie had expressed a desire to try her bike without stabilisers. Various crunches and crashes later she decided that today was not the day.
All Lawrences and Grandma Sausages are currently in Melaka, showing the old city off to our guest before she returns home on Friday. We then set off on our Thai and Cambodian sojourn on Saturday.
Lexi finished school today and I broke up last Friday for our summer holiday. It has certainly been a busy year although the jury is out about exactly how tired I may or may not be. Lately I have found it extremely difficult to stay awake when at the cinema. I am blaming some shocking films, although tiredness could have a part to play too. Despite Kuala Lumpur cinemas being chilled down to very low indeed I managed to nod off when watching Monsters University pretty soon after I discovered they Sully and Mike were learning how to scream. MU was meant to be a pre-qual but the fact that screaming had been proven in the first film to be less effective than laughter made me lose interest and find the seats very comfy indeed. I found "Turbo" just as challenging this week. The concept of a cartoon snail racing against fast cars was initially quite amusing but could not stop me from dozing. However I had learned my lesson from MU though. I knew that Rupert and Trixie would ask me what my favourite part was so I had quickly made a mental note of the Samuel L Jackson snail before having a bit of shut-eye. At least I had managed to stay in the for the whole of these films though. On a mission to see Epic recently the film was so bad that I left Lexi and children watching while I went to do the shopping instead. I did finally manage to get to see Man of Steel at the weekend and did stay awake for all of it. However I was prepared. I took Rupert, who regularly jumped out his seat at the bangs and crashes, I also took a large cup of coffee in with me and went to the 1115 showing. The combination of a small boy's jumps and squeals, caffeine and developing hunger did the trick. Oh, and the film was better too.