Tuesday 2 October 2007

I like to ride my bicycle I can't ride my bike...

Yesterday morning, 1 October Malcolm was driving to work and he saw a young girl riding her bike who looked surprisingly like Kirstin, he snapped to attention as he realised it WAS Kirstin! Her little legs were spinning and she was whizzing along, Malcolm said he was almost scared to call her from the car in case she crashed into a tree! Well he took a chance and they had a little wave and a moment and Kirstin carried on riding to the luas. She called me from her mobile all excited because she had seen her dad in the traffic. Ahhhh living in Dublin is so SWEET! But wait....after school I got a call from Kirstin, which is the norm with her, but this time she was crying. Her bike was no longer at the luas, yep some *^%$#@ had stolen it, her 2 week old bike, the one she cannot get enough of and absolutely loves. I felt so sad for her, worst of all I could not jump in the car and go and fetch her, I had to tell her to start the 20 minute walk and I would also start walking and meet her, but all I wanted to do was put my arms around her. She told me she was going to get back on the luas and get off at the next stop because it is a little bit closer. When I walked out the front door Geraldine and Martin were working in the garden and Geraldine insisted on taking me to fetch Kirstin when she heard what had happened. I called Malcolm and told him the whole sad story and he then gave Kirstin a call, apparently she was already calm and very matter of fact about what had happened and there were no tears. He told her to wait at the luas stop for me, and that is how we found Kirstin, standing waiting, bag on her back with a rueful smile on her dial. Of course Geraldine and I were doing what we all do in these situations....if your bike had not been stolen, you would have been in an accident/fallen off/etc. knowing we were just trying to make it be okay! But it really isn't is it? I did report it to the Garda (police) and they took down all the details and promised to call me back once they had checked their storeroom (just in case)and with a reference number. At around 19h00 I got a call back, he had been checking on a known bicycle thief in the area, but he is in prison at the moment so it could not have been him. At least I felt like he had tried, made me feel a little better to know that I had a reference number and a little detective work had taken place! The good things that came out o this...the support from Geraldine and Martin and Jessica's reaction to it, shame when she called and I told her what had happened, she was so upset and the first thing she did when she got home was give her little sister a big hug and then offered her bike to Kirstin, she knows that Kirstin is very discerning about her bicycle purchases and it took us ages to find one that she likes, when Jessica bought her bike Kirstin had pointed it out to her as a bike she also really liked. So may the wheels fall off, the chain snap and may you only pull the front brakes when you are going really fast you thieving piece of rubbish.

2 comments:

Rozi from Jozi said...

Aaah so sorry to hear about Kirstens bike, what a bum thing to happen. The Dubliners will tell you that this place isn't what it used to be and you can't even walk around at night anymore. But don't believe them it was just unfortunate and who knows it may still turn up. Sorry Kirsten!

Malcolm said...

Thanks Rose, we were warned about bicycle stealing and hoped it was the locals being over the top...but alas it was not! For now the girls will have to use their feet, maybe second hand old bikes, but I am scared we end up buying stolen bikes....catch 22