29 September 2008

sayonarA daviD, Zaijian Marek


On Friday last week the Positivo Espresso gather under the arks of the Yurakucho Yamanote Line. Older members might remember the place as the location of the black market after the war, where we tried to trade HED 4 wheels against bags of onigiris and vice versa.

We gather there because we wanted to say Sayonara, Goodbye, Zaijian und "Zisch ab Du Arsch" to some of the venerable and esteemed riders of our renowned club who will leave us in short time to head for foreign shores. david, who is heading the black market division of one of the financial giants of yesterdays, is heading to London, whereas Marek decided to continue to travel in Asia which, if we understood that correctly, boils down to visiting his new girlfriend in Shenzhen.


I think it is not appropriate here to list up all the achievements and memorable moments both riders presented to the club, I am sure that the whole storage capacity of Google would not be sufficient to capture only a fraction of their marvelous deeds. OK, let me start anyway:

David did many impressive things and I am not getting tired to tell everybody who likes to hear it or not, how he crossed THE ONLY RED LIGHT in the whole district of Okutama in front of the assembled police force and their voluntary helpers during the high season of traffic safety week.
I still believe it requires a very rare combination of courage and fine character to engage on such splendid adventures. Obviously it does also require a complete lack of understanding of Japanese culture and basic etiquette combined with the inability to speak and understand the language.

Marek join us on many fine racing events, notably Motegi, provided that he made it out of bed in time. Almost all members of our club were waiting at one point for him during the early morning hours here or there. Marek was then still in his favourite drinking hole in Shibuya, where the beers were cheap and mates easy to made. I know, because I have been there as well.

He decided to leave the capitalistic shores of Japan to head back to a country full of the political system of his new defunct motherland .


For the last gathering Juliane and david have selected an exclusive restaurant with very good food and beer. But I should stop here and let the pictures speak for themselves. Those who were there know. Those who weren't will never be able to understand.
Juliane and Jerome revisiting their transalp roots.
david, Knotty and two beers.
Everybody started to engage in signing david's shirt. Here we see Ryoko doing her part.
spontaneously some by passers wanted to join. Like this guy.
Here we can see him scribbling right-wing paroles on the brand new shirt. We let him do this to contribute to international peace.
Please also note the tight trousers.
Here we see Marek forming the "O" for Ost-Deutschland (East-Germany), while mob is showing the "W" for West-Gemany and Ryoko make the "I" for Ireland. Stephen makes a smile for smiling.
Here we changed the signs. Marek is making his "I kill that asshole" face, which he does every time somebody is overtaking him on the bike.

We will miss you guys.

1 comment:

the ups and downs of a belgian amateur cyclist in tokyo said...

Thanks Michael for this heartbreaking account!

david with little d...all the best...I bet roads will cross and we will meet again! Take good care of your father.

Tom