Buying a new body - for me not the bike!

**Trudes** · 18th June 2008, 07:51

Thanks for the update R., keep us posted won't you.

**Nasty** · 18th June 2008, 09:25

Great update Ross ... good to see she has knife number one over and is on the road to recovery ....

We want to hear about what you are up to as well ... seen the piccies ... now what else are you doing over there???? Have you found a cheap bike to ride????

**portokiwi** · 18th June 2008, 10:44

Enjoy the S.E.A (south east Asia) I got goose bumps thinking of what you are going to do.
We will all be thinking off you.

**sweetp** · 20th June 2008, 17:35

hey folks, just to let you know I am still alive and semi kicking. Thighs a bit to tight to kick very hard. Now in an attractive body stocking so keeping things nice and supported so I can walk a bit even if my mum would beat me in a footrace! The hospital was lovely, everyone was very concerned that wannabiker made me wheel my wheelchair out, i was having a great deal of fun, and as he said "the arms work fine, they arent' getting done till next week!".

Ok onto traffic related info to keep this on topic, well we have learnt thailand is the place to go - you can rent a super bike for about 50 riggits a day.

Wannabiker is having great fun exploring motorbike places and places in general. He had dinner at a place called Suzies which was under a motorway overpass last night which slightly concerned me but he said it was good food. The taxi driver who wanted to turn right that went around the car doing a u turn also concerned me but then what do you expect in a place that the speed limits are "optional".

Thats me for now folks, off to nap, which seems to be my main activity of late (well that and watching discovery).

**Nasty** · 20th June 2008, 17:51

Sounds like things are going to plan .. well mostly ... wannabiker and bikeshops on his own sounds dangerous .. but at least he is checking out the food so he knows what you can eat safely.

Those body stockings look great don't they but hey next sugery is a few days away and then he can't make you wheel yourself out

**BIHB@0610** · 20th June 2008, 18:02

Glad to hear you're recovering - Thailand is definitely the place to go! Get there if you possibly can, amazing food, cheap motoring, friendly people, a beautiful country. I was so moved by my Thailand experience, I came back and just had to sponsor a couple of children. While the pace and values of our western world can sometimes be soul-destroying, in Thailand it's anything but - you'll come home a new woman! (oh heck, sheesh, you've already got that one covered!!).

Big hugs

**Nasty** · 23rd June 2008, 19:10

I gave ms sweetp a call yesterday and she was fantastically chipper ... has the next surgery to look forward to this Wednesday and that will be the big one for her .. and probably the most painful .. but once that is done its on with the healing!!

**Trudes** · 23rd June 2008, 19:44

Cool, thanks for the up-date Kari.

**sweetp** · 25th June 2008, 02:09

Hi folks, well it is the eve of the next big surgery so thought I had better give you an update. Sorry it has taken to long, i was in a morphine la la land for a while and couldn't string a sentence together and once that cleared i got right into power shopping.

Yes power shopping, no holding me back, with Wannabiker having done so much recon we hit the malls with a vengeance and had a whole heap of fun. And surprisingly my body kept up with it, but then hey I am a girl and shopping is medicinal to us.

Had a very frustrating day today actually, having seen all the mall sights that we wanted to see (eg the mall with the amusement park, the mall with 900 shops, the 8+ floors of technology) we thought we would settle into one of our fav activities - motorbike shop mooching. Only problem was we couldn't seem to find them.

We had asked around and even looked in the yellow pages but hadn't had much joy. Finally got a lead and jumped in a taxi to follow up on it. Wandered around this mall thinking that it cant be right before thinking we would comb the streets to see what we could find. Stumbled across a couple of police men giving a ticket (to a motorbike) who suggested a place a couple of kms away.

So off we head (thank goodness wannabiker has a good memory for foreign names) and we see some promising sites. As we head down this street we see a couple of rows of shinniny harleys. About 500m down the road the taxi driver signals a big building up ahead and kicks us out. So the plan was to hike back to the harley place (by now we were suffering such bad bike withdrawal symptoms that they would have at least provided some respite) and then work our way back to the building further up the road.

Ok so here we are walking what seemed like a mile to me (wasn't that bad except every 5 or so metres I had to go up and down the curb which is more of a me taking a run at it to get momentum) and we hit what we think is a harley shop. We soon start to browse the bikes when the realisation hit us. Not only were there not price tags but the people staring at us were actually working on the bikes. We had in a way found a harley shop - it was just a harley workshop. Kinda like walking into the back of TSS, ignoring the staff and perusing the bikes there.....

Oh the shame but on the positive side we had gone past a dealer in our walk so we knew had at least one shop to visit. And Air con..... ahhh air con it was bliss looking at sports bikes and cooling down.

Ok back to the bikes. Well it was a ducatai dealer (Wannabiker was in heaven) and they had a couple of 1048's (with price tags!) We can see why everyone rides 125s, the sports bikes are not cheap. They had two models one at 138K and the other at 178K which works out to be which is $56K and $72K respectively. They also had some second hand bikes - a 05 GSX600R was NZ$28K and a R6 $31K. So certainly not cheap and when you are on an income that is around $300 nz per month certainly not affordable.

Which really explains why we haven't seen many sports bikes around. We sore a hyosoung comet today and that is it really. Have seen plenty of other things, like people texting while riding the entire family on the bike (who needs kiddy seats) or drinking from a screw top bottle.

And the fact they were no safety gear and doing it at 60+km makes it all the more scary. But that just summarizes riding here in KL, the traffic is crazy and the bike riders even crazier. And really if they were wearing safety gear they wouldn't be able to do half the things they can.

One very informative taxi driver we had said that in the two weeks between Ramadan and Chinese New Year they had 200 people killed on the road (equivalent to about 20 in nz). And really this is no surprise, the risks they take are amazing and the lack of gear is overwhelming. I struggle to wear sneakers on the bike and there are women here in strappy high heal sandals.

So that is it really, a very frustrating and frankly alarming time with motorbikes here in KL, and i guess the end of my ticky touring as appartently the lypo makes you feel like you have been hit by a truck (and with the way the traffic is here, it is not so hard to imagine). So I might try to post some drug enduced comments but then you might use them against me in the future. But seriously folks, I will ask Wannabiker to keep you informed but don't expect to hear from me till at least the weekend.

Oh and as for the big building up ahead - car dealer, if you had a spare $2.4m RM and was in the mood for a ferari then i know just the place....

J

PS have restrained my self when buying shoes, but the ones I have are soooo pretty.

PPS Haven’t restrained myself much else when it came to shopping - 3 days of 6 hours each in a mall puts a serious dent in your gift list.

**Wannabiker** · 26th June 2008, 02:20

Hi folks. have just got back from the hospital SweetP is out from the second surgery (6.5hrs) and is OK. A bit sore and still very drowsy, as is to be expected. Will visit her in the morning and give update.

Hope all well back in NZ.

R

**Nasty** · 26th June 2008, 05:39

Thanks Ross ... pass on our thoughts to her

**sweetp** · 27th June 2008, 15:34

but got a sawllon jaw so having trouble talking and my arms were done too so cant type much. so just wanted to say hi and going well.

**portokiwi** · 27th June 2008, 15:46

Keep your chin up. Relax let your partner pamper you.
Look forward to your next update.
Its great to hear you are in good condition.

**Colapop** · 27th June 2008, 15:56

You go girl! The cat AND the dog have run away now but I've been out looking for them! There was a small problem with flooding but at least it put the fire out! All in all things are well here... haven't seen the boy for a couple of days either...