While having a backpack on my back while riding:
“aha, that’s your parachte?”
-> “Hey you missing your handlebars”
<- “handlebars are for sissies”
-> “And you are an advanced sissy?”
-> “why are you riding on one wheel?”
<- "Well some have a company car, other companies are doing
company bike projects (common in The Netherlands), and I’m
working part-time…
Or a police-officer yesterday in the centre of Amsterdam:
“dismount and come over to me, I’m gonne give you a penalty for riding on the pavement”. (which is only correct according the law that she obvious did not know).
The comments i’ve received have been mostly positive, with one elderly gentleman i met thinking my uni, (which i was wheeling along, I know, get on and ride the thing) was one of those wheels you run along the floor to measure distances. When i told him it was a unicycle and i could ride it, he was more impressed.
Other times me or one of my uni friends have been converged on by large groups (10-15) of 14- 16 year olds (Scallies for those of you in UK, not wishing to stereotype, but you would understand if you’d met the groups in question) who could otherwise be looking for trouble, but instead are quite pleased to have a go on our unis. Its quite satisfying to stand by and listen to how they just got in a fight, and know that for the next few minutes they should be kept out of trouble as they try to ride on a 20". The disarming effect of unis extends even further, as me and my friends are sometimes classed as smellies (Metalheads, moshers etc which, incidentally we are not) and these other groups are invariably dressed in tracksuits and reebok classics (standard issue footwear). By our towns standard, they should be starting a fight with us, or at least trying to steal our unis!!
Unicycling’s good like that
Today a man that looked like he was 70 years old
gave me the “hang-loose” signal, where the hand is
waving with the thumb and pinky out. I did a double-take
on that one.
At 4 am in the Leidsestraat (streetname in Amsterdam) I ride next to a
handsome girl, and
she: “I think that’s skillful”
me: “I think you’re cute”.
(The pun is lost in translation.)
BTW I like your sig file but the automagic doesn’t seem to work
(or the database is very small)
>
>Any Dutch’ who can explain/translate this to the rest:
>
>4 a.m. in de Leidsestraat, 'k rij naast een knappie, en
>zij: “Ik vind dat knap”
>ik: “Ik vind jou knap”.
>
>
>–
>leo - errorist
>
>Leo Vandewoestijne.
>
>+1-866-UNI-CYCL
>www.unicycle.net
>
>“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been
>picked automagically from a database:”
>“Leo, unicycle, Cherry-Coke”
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>leo’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/224
>View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/16834
>
–
“To trigger/fool/saturate/overload Echelon, the following has been picked automagically from a database:”
“PFS, Masuda, SEIDM”
(Sings) “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do…” (they usually don’t know the rest of the words.)
“Can you ride tandem?” (UK readers of a certain age will remember a PG Tips advert where the chimpanzee used this memorable chat up line to the lady chimpanzee who gave him a refreshing cup of tea after he fell off his bicycle.)
“Can you ride A tandem?” (From those who inaccurately remember the PG Tips advert.)
“She’s not pedalling.” (Assuming the stoker to be female, of course.)
The Siamese unicycle comment is, in my experience, unique. I think we once had a “double decker unicycle” comment, but that probably came up in a conversation between tandemists.
Mikefule wrote:
> “Can you ride tandem?” (UK readers of a certain age will remember a PG
> Tips advert where the chimpanzee used this memorable chat up line to
> the lady chimpanzee who gave him a refreshing cup of tea after he fell
> off his bicycle.)
Completely OT: the best thing about this site was that I found my
favourite advert of all time, which I’d been longing to see again for
over 20 years. When I saw it, I was surprised to recognise Stephen Fry
and Tim McInnery. It’s the Whitbread Best ad on the T-Z page.
