Pippi Longstocking is an institution in Sweden, actually all the characters and stories by the lovely Astrid Lindgren are sacred, and rightly so. We have tried to keep up, reading the stories, singing the songs, watching the movies, but it is hard when your children prefer to hear stories in another language and soon, they become more familiar and well-versed with Dr. Seuss than Pippi.
This summer we have had a major Astrid Lindgren boost, thanks to Petter 3 1/2 years old. He watches the movies and sings the songs and then like magic, so do our kids as well.
We managed to borrow two bikes for the kids to use over summer; nothing fancy but they work. The small bike is purple which of course suits Amanda perfectly. The only problem...there are still support wheels on it. Support wheels that she has refused to have taken off despite the fact that she learned to ride her own bike without them this winter. The joy of hearing her exclaim: " I'm so happy!" when she rides it is worth it though. "I can stop and start and turn and I'm so happy!" And off she goes singing Pippi's summer song (Pippis sommarvisa), her own version with made up words when she doesn't quite remember.
Bribery always works though and this morning I took the support wheels off with the promise of putting them back on if she couldn't do it. They are still off.
When we lived in China, our bikes were our main way of transportation. We lived right smack in the middle of the city and since Beijing is pretty flat, it was easy to get everywhere we wanted. Ulf strapped his briefcase on the back of his bike and I bought a big basked to put all my stuff in. My first bike I inherited from my first Swedish friend in Beijing who were there for a brief period with her boyfriend, on assignment for Ericsson. It looked like a bike from the 1920's; huge wheels with a big frame and an old lady's seat. A great bike but as we both needed new bikes anyway, we decided to get "real" bikes at the Giant store; bikes made in China but hey, they were DESIGNED in the US.
My husband is a big guy, he is tall, by Chinese standards, very tall. Chinese bikes, though designed in the US, are made for Chinese people and thus, not exactly the right size for a 6' man. As he is a determined man, some would even say stubborn, we went ahead with it and made the store custom build him a bike. The largest frame, still too small, was compensated somehow with an extra tall seat and handle bar. It worked well, we used our bikes all the time in China and later in Japan and in France, then equipped with kids' seats.
When we moved to America, I decided that it was time for a look-over, a complete renovation, and I took my bike to the bike shop next to Target on Frank Lloyd Right and the 101.
"No problems", the repair guy said, looking exactly like a bike repair guy should with a leather apron, long hair and and excited look in his eyes. "So cool!", he exclaimed when I came to pick it up, one week later: "Everything is backwards!"
Ulf's bike never got repaired in America, maybe there are still bike repair men on the side of the road, fixing your flat tire for a kwai, willing to take on his antique. Maybe they even have frames big enough for a normal sized waiguoren (westerner) these days, or maybe we'll just buy him a new one.
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