Anastasiya

I felt like Dr Frankenstein as the form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was forever before my eyes. I grieved the loss of my dearest Sophia, who late in June suffered in my arms at the side of a busy highway. Sophia, my Vespa ET4, was unplugged from life support 2 weeks later. She had given me over 47,000km of faithful service. But she held onto life.

Soon news came of a Vespa LX150 which was involved in a rear end encounter with a larger vehicle. She had a broken her steering column and was written off at only 2,400km on her clock. I didn't know her name, but called her Anna, as I ran my hand over her sad deformed body. That was when the plot was hatched to save both of the Vespas by combining them into one Vespa, the Frankenstein way. I purchased Anna for a very reasonable price and the allowed the mechanics to lovely patched the two bikes into one. Although the LX150 is a more modern version of the ET4, it has a slightly fuller body but with a more modern look.

And now I stood in front of this hybrid Vespa, a monster with the spirit of my dearest Sophia inside her. I named her Anastasiya, which means Resurrection. Sophia Reloaded. Her main body, chassis and rear section is from Sophia while the larger front wheel section, the modern instrument panel and headlight, the just about brand new motor and gearbox is all from Anna. Oh I must not forget that Sophia's adventurous spirit is still inside Anastasiya.

So as I rode out of Vespa SA on my nearly brand new Anastasiya, hell froze over as the Phoenix took flight. By freezing over, I meant that it started snowing. Go figure. The South African Weather Service stated that it last snowed in Johannesburg in June 2007 and in the last 103 years of its service it has snowed only 22 days here. So by snow, I don't mean sleet or a light dusting, I rode into a snow storm and it continued on and off all day. The visibility was down to 1m on the highway and I was continuously wiping the snow off my visor. I arrived back at work looking like a snowman on a Vespa.

As Sophia would say, let the adventure begin.