Went to the Valley last night for dinner and dancing with friends. I cycled in because I, well, really enjoy it. I prefer it above train, bus and taxi. I like the independence of coming and going as I please.

My plan was, should I need to catch a taxi home, I would find a safe place to park overnight or grab a maxi taxi home. Meanwhile, I figured it’d be OK locked up on a post in Chinatown Mall.

Naturally I was anxious about it, but I considered the risks as rationally as I could:

1. Someone would steal the bike right under the noses of a horde of passing party goers. A mean feat given it would require a hacksaw. Kind of obvious. Also, the malls at night in the Valley are massively policed these day. So I decided to risk it.

2. Someone would steal the property out of the pannier bags. I didn’t think anyone would steal the actual pannier bags, but I did leave a bunch of stuff in them. Nothing valuable whatsoever – just stuff that would be annoying to replace. Tools, raincoat, $1 nightglasses etc. So I decided to risk it.

What I didn’t factor in was arriving back to collect my bike to discover Sheldon not only on his side looking a bit sad and sorry for himself, but on his side with a broken stand!

The stand was snapped right off! So strange. Someone must’ve come up and kicked the stand as hard as they could. I couldn’t find the remains of the stand anywhere – so that was weird. Must’ve been flung too far to find.

Naturally my first impulse was to check if my belongings were still there. They were. My second was to check the battery hadn’t been tampered with. It hadn’t.

So this was just a pure, unadulterated, thoughtless act of violence. For no personal gain than the joy of kicking something and breaking someone else’s property.

Do people really hate bicycles that much?

Did this act of violence really provide that much joy to the perpetrator?

Did it impress their friends?

Sheldon was just sitting there, minding his own business. Poor thing.

People are weird. Vandalism is weird. The way some people release their aggression is weird.