In my last \u2018Weekly\u2019 \u2013 sorry, already four weeks ago\u2026. I\u2019m not supposed to be doing that anymore \u2013 I wrote about the new man in my Succession Plan in the event of me not, and I used the example of; \u2018don\u2019t-make-it-across-the-highway-one-day\u2019. Well\u2026.. this past week was very close for collecting on this plan. Right down to the very example I gave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sunday I was riding my motorbike up to Johannesburg, where I\u2019ve been for the week, when my front tube gave notice. I\u2019ve never had a front wheel blowout at 120km\/h. There is no control. Those are probably enough words to describe it. Somehow, after 200 meters of weaving all over my two lanes, plus crossing the white line a couple of times and somehow missing all vehicles, I managed to slow down and get to the side of the road and stop. The first thing I did was go sit in the veld and watch the traffic go by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a couple of minutes of reflecting on all that had just happened, I thought, OK, who do I phone now. I could see Warden in the distance, so I could walk if I had to. I phoned AA, thinking my membership was still valid. It was not. \u201cWe\u2019ll help you,\u201d said the man, \u201cyou\u2019ll just have to pay\u201d. I was sure I had Roadside Assistance somehow and that it was probably through my short term insurance. But this person here hadn\u2019t read all the small print properly neither saved the details to his phone. You know that attitude of, \u2018it won\u2019t happen to me and I\u2019ll get around to it one day\u2019. However, while I was going through the AA call, a guy pulled up in his white double cab and hopped out to help me. He owned the Warden Truckstop, a 24\/7 vehicle recovery business for anyone breaking down on the N3. A friend of his had passed me by and phoned him to say; \u201cdaar\u2019s a biker wat langs die pad gestop het.\u201d Being a biker himself, Jannie was quick to come looking. He took me to his depot first but then after examining and chatting about fixing options out there in Warden, he took me all the way to Johannesburg with my bike on a trailer. Obviously I had to pay for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have now checked up on all this. And yes, I have roadside assistance through my short term insurance. Which I have now saved to my phone and labelled Roadside Assistance, not the name of the insurance company or the name of my short term brokerage. Someone else can help look if need be and the label is logical. After contacting them on Monday and admitting stupidity, they have told me that I can only claim a small portion of the towing costs after the fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway\u2026.. my point of this letter is not for everyone to have pity on me, or for Adrienne and Jacki to learn that they nearly lost their jobs, but to question whether we have all done this? Have we all prepared for a breakdown? Do you have the necessary contact numbers; have you ever practiced changing a wheel; do you need to keep a block of wood in your car to put your jack on when you\u2019ve got to change a wheel on a loose surface; when last did you test your jack; do you regularly check the pressure of your spare wheel; do you have jumper leads in your car\u2026 etc. On the wheel issue, I will now always ride with spare tubes and tyre levers (to take the tyre off) and my small electric pump. Then I can change a tube on the side of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am also going to save the numbers of two people from different spaces of my life under Emergency Contact 1 (and 2). Just maybe one day, you\u2019re able to tell someone \u2013 or you cannot and someone just looks on your phone, and finds these numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I have a self-made business card kept in a transparent pocket on my bike jacket sleeve, with contact numbers and blood group and medical aid etc. I am now thinking that surely I should also have one of these in my car. You could do something like this too. Let\u2019s take a moment, and check we\u2019re sorted for an emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On an reflective note\u2026. On Sunday evening I wondered what music had been in my ears when the action happened. I went and listed to what song I had stopped my ipod on. Journey: Wheel In The Sky Keep Turning\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In my last \u2018Weekly\u2019 \u2013 sorry, already four weeks ago\u2026. I\u2019m not supposed to be doing that anymore \u2013 I wrote about the new man in my Succession Plan in the event of me not, and I used the example of; \u2018don\u2019t-make-it-across-the-highway-one-day\u2019. Well\u2026.. this past week was very close for collecting on this plan. Right … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-thoughts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150,"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinmurray.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}