survivor

so, you are all holding your breath, waiting for news of siggimus — did he survive or did he not?

well, we won’t give away the ending, but it was indeed quite an ordeal

it was a test-run to see if siggimus was up to bicycling to job #2

see, on may 6 a country-wide ‘bicycle to work’ program starts. the people at siggimus job #2 are fanatic about this (frankly, a few of them are bordering on insane). they do not take the shortest route. they take the longest route possible that still lets them get a couple of hours of sleep in between working & bicycling, visiting remote places. some are rumoured to be upset they live on an island

the threats were of course vague & unspecific, for those are the most powerful

anyway, let’s just all agree that not participating in ‘bicycle to work’ is not an option

so, siggimus decided to do some warm-up

going there was nothing & siggimus does not worry one bit about that bit

none of the 7 or so km, as 95% of it is downhill

returning, on the other hand …

well, there was headwind

not a light breeze, or even a gentle breeze. no, you wouldn’t even call this a fresh breeze!

this was the real stuff. you’d call it a fresh to moderate gale

in case you don’t know, for a big man like siggimus this is like bicycling uphill with the brakes on

& after about 15 mins of that, it was time to ascend the mountain, on top of which siggimus bought an apartment a few years back, as if he never even contemplated owning a bicycle

well, siggimus paid the price for such foolish thinking, or should he say, such foolish lack of thinking

there was a near-death experience

but at that point, siggimus simply got off the bike & walked for about 50-75 metres or so – catching breath & drinking water to drown out the taste of blood. not bad, walking 75 metres out of 15 km

legs were a bit rubbery as he got off the bike, but they worked & that’s what matters. managed to get him into the elevator

so, to finally give away the ending, siggimus survived, for he is a survivor