Christ on an E- Bike .. that has run out of batteries.

Well that’s a first. Another close shave with calamity.

I came to Portugal ( having considered every single possible mishap over and over again- like I just have to .. ) and when I got here, and after they’d damaged my wheelchair in transit, I then went on the dual carriageway to my wee apartment here… mixing it with the speeding/ hungover holiday traffic.. to find when I got there that I had no battery charger to recharge my Triride. Wtf. I’d even thought about packing a charger… but I KNEW that I had 2 here in Portugal.
Doh! They’ve obviously evaporated to nothing in the heat or just maybe I’d f***ed up and got it wrong ?!

So I now had 50% charge and a 10 mile return trip to the airport 4 days away.
Well I realised that I couldn’t risk depleting my 50% any further so I couldn’t use my Triride.
But wait! I kept an old, low power Tri in Portugal! Weyhey. After a lot of bracket changing and swearing and obviously with Gina being the least practical person in the whole world ( possibly in the whole Universe ) I got the old Triride on.
Fantastic! Until I pulled the brake lever and discovered I had NO BRAKES AT ALL. A full battery with 20 miles of possible travel .. but NO BRAKES.
Bloody hell.
Well there isn’t Amazon in Portugal so you can’t get anything the next day. You have to use Amazon Spain. Ole! I ordered a charger. 2 days it said.

So I then also looked all over the internet for e bike shops, phoned about 20 of them, to find that none of them had the charger I needed? I mean cmon?!

2 days later and we wheeled past a local bike shop. This is a small town and no one has a website… but the lovely fella diagnosed zero hydraulic fluid pressure. However he was officially on Portuguese siesta time ( most of the afternoon) so asked me to come back 3 hours later. I think my ( almost ) bursting into tears possibly helped me at that point and he syringed brake fluid in. I also said I’d pay whatever he wanted just to have a brake.
€5000 later I left with an old triride that had power AND brakes. Amazing!

Then I got a notification that Amazon was just coming to the rescue anyway, with my charger.
Then I got a notification that I wasn’t at home, despite being at home. … like you do.
Turns out that despite me allowing permission to the driver to see my EXACT location.,, they tried to deliver to somewhere else 4 miles away.

Anyway (!) today… I had to Triride in my 50% charged Tri to Faro airport. I felt the strong headwind against me as I set off northwards to Faro.
After a few miles I was already down to one bar of charge. That’s 25%. I’m on a dual carriageway and going slowly to save battery.
At less than 25% charge my MAPS tells me I’ve 4.5 miles to go, and most of it it slightly uphill.
I reckon I’ve a 1 in 10 chance of making it, with no back up rescue plan.

The battery indicator is showing NO BARS and I’ve 2 miles to go. The last half mile is uphill. I expect to break down and have to push along the hard shoulder.
Extraordinarily I get to the airport, to the waiting Gina. Literally as I get there my battery dies and won’t come back on. I had to push myself through the airport doors. Because of all my steelwork in my do spine, pushing isn’t very possible for me, hence my reliance on the Triride totally these last 6 years. The one I have needs replacement. I’ve done 10,000 miles In it. They aren’t like cars that can just keep going.
I need to replace it or it’ll just die on me one day whilst I’m in a very tricky situation ( like on a dual carriageway in the ALGARVE whilst heading for my flight check in… or something unlikely that you couldn’t make up , like that… )

Ok – so I’ve ordered new batteries ( £1300 ) and new spare chargers that I’ll keep in my attached wheelchair bag.

There’s no such thing as a dull moment in my paralysis life. Dull ( not that my life ever had been ) has been replaced with stressful as f***.

But yep, a bloody close one yet again. It could have read ‘ ran out of charge just as lorry came barrelling up behind me and got Squidged ‘

Now on a plane.
When I get to Brentford railway station, I’ll have no battery to get the half mile home. G will have to push me home. What would I do without her? For sure I give her a hard time because she’s not always the sharpest knife in the box of very blunt knives ) but blimey she’s devoted.
Or she’s just a masochist.
Or she’s just incredibly thick skinned and likes the daily dramatic life I lead.

I think there should be a Clap for Gina one night soon.
Pretty sure she won’t have ever had The Clap.

Anyway, thanks to Gina G for being there. Often next to useless, but they’re nevertheless.

She does have the odd unexpected idea. It is totally left field when she does come up with something I haven’t thought of myself… but it has happened!
Just can’t think of an example right now.

Her daughter apparently reads this diary.., Hello Emma! Thanks for loaning me your mum for a few days. You’re a teacher, I understand. It’s not immediately apparent where you got your intelligence from (😂) but I’m thinking you might wanna be extra grateful to your Dad.
But your Mum is a Saint !!

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