Since that first week we haven’t heard much from the flu, at least not out of the international news. At one point I read that much of the world was waiting to see how the pandemic would hit the Southern Hemisphere, as most of the world’s population is getting a temporary reprieve from the flu, as immune systems seem to perform better during summertime.

New Zealanders are certainly feeling the impact. If not from the flu itself, then from the constant reminders about how not to get it. This might be most evident when I stop into the University of Canterbury to visit Julie. Literally every bulletin board has a poster about the flu, hand washing, or general hygiene. During finals week, before you walked into one of the exam rooms, there was a meter-and-a-half high billboard with a stop sign on it that told you in no uncertain terms about the procedure for skipping an exam if you (claim to) have the flu. They even have a website with updates and anything you’d ever want to know about swine flu, what to do about classes and no less than four different posters for you to download and print for display in your home, office, classroom or business.

Swine Flu Poster

Swine Flu Bulletin

Swine Flu with Coffee

Swine Flu wireless website

Swine Flu is not allowed in the library.

Swine Flu mega-sign.

Swine Flu at the bus station

Local television rolls public service advertisements throughout the evening which show you how to wash your hands. The library has a sign on every door, and again in each of the restrooms. Coffee shops have little signs posted near the register, and on some walls in the bus station there might be three identical posters within arms reach. Really there is nowhere you can go in Christchurch these days without being reminded of the eminent danger posed by the flu.

Regardless of all the posters, warnings and general chatter about it, I don’t actually know of anyone who has actually contracted the flu. There are some rumors on campus, but so far nobody that either Julie or I know has actually gotten the flu themselves. It know it seems crazy, but there’s a small part of me (the competitive part) that kinda wants to be the first one in the neighborhood to get it.

The latest report is that there have been 183 cases of H1N1 Influenza in Canterbury.

The story suggests that a gentleman cyclist was riding after dark when he was passed by two cyclists, one male, one female. The gentleman suggested to them that they obtain lights for their bicycles, to witch the male cyclist apparently took great offense. As a runner and cyclist, I’ve had a few near misses with invisible bikes after dark, so I can understand why the man took issue. I also know that pointing out someone’s failures doesn’t often elicit a positive response, so when the rider’s girlfriend remarked that he had so many lights, he might just hand one over, I was surprised to learn that he actually did. I guess that wasn’t enough, because the pair followed the man home, threw him to the ground by his head and kicked him in the ribs.

The Capitol Times reported today that the gentleman rider involved was none-other than 51-year old Cronometro owner Colin O’Brien. O’Brien is a fairly prominent figure in the local bike scene, and was recently quoted in the New York Times in an article about bike fitting.

The kid that beat him up was riding his Trek TT bike, and his girlfriend was riding her Orbea road bike. Both fairly high end bikes, witch O’Brien was able to identify. Because I’m not a journalist, and nobody reads my blog, (hi Mom!) I don’t feel bad speculating that these bikes were stolen. First of all, it’s a little late in the season to be training for a triathlon. Secondly, there’s snow on the ground, and I have a hard time believing that anyone who doesn’t have enough sense to have a blinky on their bike after dark is capable of riding a twitchy road bike for any distance in four inches of snow. In an effort to learn more, I google’d for “Dustin Dunlavy” and found that aside from raging on random cyclists, he also enjoys living in Madison’s worst suburb and running very slow 5k’s with his mom and dad. On second thought, maybe it was his bike.

Read more from Bike Snob NYC and The Goat.

Update: They got a picture of the guy on a local news site.