Gone to the dogs

Bukit Timah, 59 km. The pack of five dogs in the distance keeps me a safe distance away. They look at me and leave me alone instead of lunging at me. They don't even bark menacingly. But I don't dare cycle into their territory though there's only one way to get to where I want to go - and that's through the pack.

I'm not into chunks of torn flesh from my legs or a torn throat so I head south instead. In broad daylight, I see I've somehow avoided various rods and sticks stuck into the ground when I cycled in the night last week. Just as well I didn't go far in the night: major bridges have been taken out. I suppose it costs less to dismantle them than to maintain them. The "through train" is no longer possible; detours needed to stay on track. No wonder there's only 1 soul around besides me. It's not so fun anymore.

On the bumpy and sometimes muddy ground, I barely make 17 km/h, whereas, on hard packed dirt, 25 km/h is just a cheerful spin.

Tech note: it has been thousands of km since it last happened, but my chain is skipping like a hyperactive kid.  And it has been tens of thousands of km since I've heard "thunk" with crank coming to a sudden halt. Chain suck, that sucks! All these are warning sounds that transmission is winding down and expenditure will rise ...