so i hadn't been feeling well since middle of last week, nothing really serious, just generally tired, dry throat & kinda light-headed, but i did skip an audition on saturday and i didn't have any beer over the weekend, which says alot. meanwhile, my bike's battery had been losing its charge due to prolonged infrequent riding. i've had to push start it several times these past 2 mths, but once it gets running, it'd charge the battery itself. so yesterday, just before 11am on a sunny day, i decided to go get a new battery for my bike. i hadn't ridden it in 10 days. along the way, i was waiting at a traffic light, bike idling in neutral, and it just died. there wasn't enough charge to restart electrically. so, still straddling the bike, i pushed it past the traffic junction, then attempted to push start. after 3, 4 attempts it still wouldn't start. by then i was approaching the next junction. that entire stretch had been flat ground. now i saw there was a short slope on the pavement (outside an NTUC fairprice). so i got off the bike and pushed it over there, hoping the slope would add enough momentum to get the bike started. at this point, a guy walked over to offer his assistance. he had seen me pushing the bike past the kopitiam where he was seated, and being a biker himself, recognised my dilemma (keep trying to push start, or call a tow truck). he could also tell i was pretty worn out, and offered to push start it for me. we both made several attempts but to no avail. that short slope just wasn't steep enough. so we pushed the bike round the corner to the multi-storey carpark to find a steeper slope but it turned out to be one of those really steep spiralling ramps. by this time i had already sweated a ton & was panting heavily. i needed time to catch my breath and figure out what to do next and didn't want to keep him waiting. so i thanked him, and he walked off with my assurance that i was ok. after a short 5min rest, i started pushing the bike up the spiral ramp. progress was literally by the inches. what little momentum i could build up at the beginning was almost immediately cancelled out by gravity. i was barely 10m up, push forward an inch, brake, catch breath, push forward another inch, brake again.... then he returned and together we got the bike a sufficient ways up the spiral. it was at this point i i started seeing bursts of white light. i knew i had to re-hydrate fast so i took off my helmet to go get water but he stopped me, told me he'd do it. so i squatted behind my bike, leaning against the dirty wall, panting like i'd just ran a marathon ( i'd only ever done a 10k).....he came back shortly with a 1.5L bottle of H-two-O from NTUC and, there we were, 2 strangers on the spiral ramp, chatting intermittently while i slowly finished the entire bottle, during which twice i stood up only to squat back down again cos the bursts of lights came back. during those 30 mins or so, i learnt that his name is Vincent. he was moving into that area. he works for Toyota. he has 4 bikes. he is 1 year younger than me and years ago, he used to do sound/lights for events, and he likes beer too. he, on the other hand, had recognised me as an actor right at the beginning and i was feeling quite embarrassed at first to be caught in such a predicament in the first place, which makes me all the more grateful that he came back when he did...eventually, we exchanged numbers, he left, i put on my helmet, got on my bike, rolled down the spiral slope, the bike started, i was revving the throttle like crazy at every stop for fear of the bike dying on me again, got to the workshop, got a new battery and the world was fine once more....well, not really, cos i'm still not feeling well and the heat exhaustion only made it worse but at least i made a new friend and when i get better, i'm asking him out for beer ;)