Servicing my bicycle after a decade

My childhood can be summed up in 3 words: Legos, bicycles and computers. I still love all 3 activities despite computers take most of my time now. Bicycles as simple as they appear to be, are very complex highly-engineered hardware.

My front tyre got flat. Dad told me to buy the air chamber. So got 1.

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As you can see on the box, it is supposed to be splints. Hope it does what it’s advertised to do. But i guess I’ll have to keep watching for objects puncturing the outer rubber every now and then. The “flat-resistant” air chamber costed me Rs 150 while the normal one is Rs 100.

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It’s not easy to demount the outer rubber and mount it again. I saw my dad do it several times before. So I managed to change 1 myself. But F***. I put the rubber the wrong way. I asked my dad to do the process for me while I was swapping the rubber in the rear tire.

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But almost everything else was non-functional on the bike due to rust. The rear gears derailleur would not adjust the curvature accordingly making me lose traction while could be very dangerous. Dad oiled it and made the springs functional again.

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The front shock absorber was not in the perfect state too. I think it never moves. Dad put some engine grease on it. The handle bar joint was greased too.

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I wonder if i can’t take care of a bicycle properly, what would happen if i were to get a car which is much more complex in it’s nature?

Do service your bicycle in a timely fashion. It can get really dangerous like mine was.

Termination of Employment: Is the Law made for ti-Mauritians in mind?

The “Notice of termination of agreement” is 1 month. You may find the EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS ACT 2008 on this link.

Here’s the advantages and disadvantages for both parties.
The employer:
1. Has 4 or 5 people in the department to easily cover your absence. The sooner he can get rid of you without paying, the better it is.

2. In case an employee is playing a really crucial role in the core business process. The company could just lose the employee withing 1 months without enough time for doing a handing over. This can be very damaging financially.

The employee:
1. Employers can easily fill the void created by you. But who can fill the void of a bread winning father with loans, wife/kids to feed? There is only 1 father in a generic Mauritian family.

2. She can leave her current job for a higher paying one without waiting too much.

3. Are there so many jobs on the Mauritian job market so as employees can be choosy about their jobs? I think job security is primordial.

4. The process of finding a new job can be very long. Can be greater than 4-6 months for some:
– The person has to apply for jobs.
– It can take weeks/months before responses come.
– Interviews are scheduled. Takes weeks. Sometimes more than 1 interviews are required.
– Takes more weeks before the company finally sends a proposal (if you are lucky).
– You get employed on temporary basis on a mediocre salary.
– If lucky again, you get full employment.

However, the new job can be terminated with a 1 month notice too.

Subject to any provision of an agreement, the length of the notice to be
given under subsection (1) shall be of 30 days.

I think i know what laws are passed and in whose favour
It is companies that fund elections. If ministers don’t abide to the demands of sponsoring companies, politicians simply won’t get money.

Is 1 month notice of termination enough according to you?

Trip to Rodrigues Island (Trailer)

It was the first time I ever boarded a plane and flew with it. It was with Air Mauritius flying to Rodrigues and back. Rodrigues is about the half the size of Savanne district of Mauritius; Rodrigues is 108 km2 while Savanne district is 244.8 km2

The first thing to put in my luggage was my mobile charger: the adapter and the USB cable.

Mobile Charger in Luggage
Mobile Charger in Luggage

Arriving at the airport, you get a trolley to put your luggage on. Interesting fact about it is that you need to push on the handle for it to move. If not, it will be on “brake mode” which is very handy in case you just leave the trolley unattended or doing a little descent with it.

Trolley at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport
Trolley at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport

Pictures worth more than thousand words…

Me sitting in the plane
Sitting in the plane
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In bus going to Ile aux Coco
Going to Ile aux Coco on boat
Going to Ile aux Coco on boat
Travelling to an unknow location
Travelling to an unknow location
Going to Trou D'Argent
Going to Trou D’Argent

Time to return to Mauritius now…

Waiting lounge at Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport Rodrigues
Waiting lounge at Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport at Rodrigues

It was raining a lot. But the plane flies above the clouds so i could enjoy the sun and work on my tan a bit :3

Sunlight above the clouds in plane
Sunlight above the clouds in plane

I hope you enjoyed this trailer. Do keep in touch for future posts and much more photos 😛

World of Tanks

Been playing this new Free-to-Play Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game. Very nice game and especially the graphics. Here’s some screenshots.

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What i like:
– No long loading time like League of Legends
– Graphics are nice and doesn’t lag at all. The screenshots above were taken with standard quality. I’m currently downloading the HD assets.

Dislikes:
– Games are short: around 7 – 15 minutes.
– No respawn when dead.
– Some tanks have to be bought with “real money”
– Experience is very slow to earn to be able to do more in-game “researches”.
– Not available on Linux

Download it here

MyT’s LaFibre is a Tortoise

Companies make you stay 9hours in their offices: 8 hours work, 1 hour lunch break. On top of that, 3 hours lost in bus travel. You want to relax a bit when you return home, the Internet just sucks.

Orange Mauritius Speed

Orange Mauritius Speedtest

The page wouldn’t even load sometimes. Downloading a file through wget suck at 5%

wget Orange Mauritius stuck

We pay fortunes per month to ISPs in Mauritius for a service like this? Lot’s of people are complaining about Emtel’s Airbox is not delivering the promised speed on Facebook. Well, MyT’s LaFibre is a pain too after the 50GB limit has been reached.

Orange promises a better life with them. The joke.