Red clouds

The sky turned red yesterday evening, and it was beautiful.

Brompton rear sprocket

We get south westerly in the afternoon around here, and to get river from my house, I have to cycle against wind. It can often get quite windy, and it is not easy for a bike with such small wheels and only 3 choices of gears.

So, I have changed a rear sprocket on my brompton from 13T to 14T. It says that this lowers the gear by 7%. I don't know what that really means in terms of the reality, but I did a test drive the other day, and it felt like it was bit easier to travel into the gusty afternoon wind.

I don't think this is still not enough to go up on hills though. Fortunately there are not many hills around Perth, but if I was taking the bike to a trout fishing trip to NZ or any mountain streams, I would have to deal with hills.

I guess, to turn my bike into a hill climber, I will have to change a front chain ring to a smaller one (50T to 44T), but it costs $80 plus all new tools to do the job. In comparison, the rear sprocket cost me only $5. So for now, I will stick with a cheaper solution.

Christmas surprise

One of my graduating students gave me a new fly reel as a Christmas gift. I told him that I cannot accept it as it is too expensive to be something to give to a teacher (let's face it, I have never given anything to my teachers when I was in school).

He told me that it is from his family (who happen to own a tackle shop), and I should take it and enjoy fishing with it. So, I gratefully accepted his gift, and told him that I will catch big fish with it (it is 7/8 weight reel which I am going to use for Kahawai run in April).

Some people say teaching is a hard non rewarding job these days, but it may not be after all.


このリール、クリスマスプレゼントに今年の卒業生からもらいました。ちなみに、僕が高校生の時は、赤点や夏期講習など、先生からもらう物はあっても、こちらから先生にあげた物なんか一つもありません。

「こんな高い物は受け取れないよ」と言ったのですが、家族のみんなからのプレゼントという事なんで、ありがたく頂戴しました（ちなみに、彼の家族は、釣具屋です）。７／８番のリールですので、これを使って４月にkahawai釣りに行きたいと思います（それまでに７番の竹竿を作らなくてはいけませんが）。