Wedding, Work and Wending my way Home

In hindsight, maybe best that the last post got deleted and put me off writing til I got home to my laptop. Because the next three planned installments are short enough to fit into one.

First the wedding. It was beautiful. My cousin looked gorgeous, the groom can dance like Travolta, the booze flowed freely and everyone was happy. I did a scripture reading at the service which I only remembered I was supposed to do about 3 seconds before my name was called. Despite being atheist and the whole idea of an atheist reading scripture made me want to laungh, I was told I pulled it off with sufficient parts gravitas and drama. Then the bride made a last-minute request for me to play a song, something else I was unprepared for. But I did, and it turned out well. It was an Uncle Mike staple (Mike taught me my first four chords on the guitar) and some in the audience who know and remember him fondly were moved.

from left to right: the Groom, the Maid-of Honour (also the bride's youngest sister and me). I love this picture.

Then we drank and drank and drank until the wee hours of the morning, and after having only 3 hours' sleep the night before and staying up til 0330, I slept and slept and slept til 1100 in the morning. I only woke up because my mother said they were going to stop serving breakfast soon.

I woke up to a delicious and healthy home-grown and home-made breakfast and surprisingly good filtered coffee. We said goodbye to the rest of the wedding troupe who were all heading home that day. My mum and I spent the rest of the day chatting and catching up with work, all in all a pleasant time doing nothing urgent in beautiful surroundings.

The resident osteopath offered to consult, and I took him up on this. Great person with a deep understanding of the doctor-patient relationship. While I am not a believer in the "magic" of alternative medicine, there are some practices that do work to some explainable degree; I think osteopathy might be one of them. It is no miracle cure, but did give me some insight into how to manage my ingrained bad habits to improve my posture and chronic muscle aches.

Next day started bright and early; it was Monday morning, first day of work in Kuala Lumpur after the Hari Raya break and long school holidays, and I was about to ride right into the middle of it. Also, I wanted to get off the mountain as soon as the sun dried up last night's dew on the road and before the forecasted drizzle came in.

Another lovely breakfast at 0730; french toast, garlic bread and a few other delectables, and saying goodbye to mother, I was off.

photo taken by my mum as I waited for the engine to warm up

The ride was plenty easy. Great weather, plenty of signs. I repeated half of what I did the day before, then followed signs to Pusat Bandaraya (town center), then KL Sentral, the central railway station where the hotel was located. Got to the Le Meridien and after some confusion with security I parked in the lobby driveway and got to relax for a bit before the real work started. 

After four days of meetings (Tuesday to Friday) which I was dressed nicely for despite limited luggage space, I woke up on Saturday morning more than ready to get back on my bike and head home. I was seriously short on sleep and was feeling a bit foggy, but in general I knew I was going to enjoy it. It would be my first time doing the Kuala Lumpur - Nusajaya journey, and also the first time I would ride 340kms on the North-South Highway.

Woke up at 0830, and was ready to go at 0945 after a very quick breakfast (bircher muesli, nasi lemak and two cups of coffee) and an even quicker check-out. Finding my way onto the North-South was easy enough, I just followed the green signs to Seremban.

I was feeling slightly thick in the head, and was extra cautious all the way. I knew my reflexes and concentration were not at optimum, so I rode to make up for that. Made four stops; first one for fuel, second for a bottle of water and a cigarette, third for a coffee, fuel and a cigarette, fourth for a drink of water and a cigarette. Notice a theme?

The ride took me 4.5 hours, exactly what I expected. Traffic was light, plenty need for overtaking and plenty of opportunities to do so. 

I have come to a realization that I find difficult to explain, and it comes from my early days of driving (too fast), my early days of riding (too slow) and watching my wife drive (sometimes fast, sometimes slow). The best way to explain it is this: The ideal speed on a highway for optimum maneuverability and safety is the median speed of everyone on the highway. And this is usually at or around the speed limit. I did most of the journey at 110km/h, and could easily increase and decrease speed when necessary, and because I was at the median speed, could position myself safely among other vehicles and ensure they could see me and - more importantly - anticipate me.

And that was that. Had lovely weather all the way and got home about 10 minutes before it started drizzling.

In summary? It was a very different ride from my truncated #midliferide; I had less days on the bike, I was riding for a purpose, riding in hilly country, on the big highways and in the city all provided different aspects of riding. I feel a lot more confident on the bike now, although just as cautious.

And the question I always ask myself at the end of a ride. Would I do it again?

You betcha.