The dish I ate most in India – and enjoy almost every time I go to a south Indian restaurant – is masala dosa. Dosa is a think crispy pancake made with rice flour and a little bit of dhal. The masala (spice) part is a mild, tangy potato curry, which is wrapped in the middle of the dosa, vaguely akin to a christmas cracker, but much tastier!

So, having found a packet of instant dosa mix, I was keen to try it. I found a recipe for the filling here and a recipe for the coconut chatni such dishes should be served with here.

My filling ended up a lot more mashed than the illustration (and my memory) show, but tasting just how I remember. The chatni tasted just right to me, even though I used desiccated coconut and hence a lot of water. The only problems were using a hand-blender without a lid – stuff ended up everywhere and not having a proper tav (a flat griddle: think of a large frying pan but without any walls). So it was difficult to pick up and flip over the dosa – they ended up in shreds. However, they were together enough to dip into the ‘filling’ and chatni, and provide a crisp and tasty counterpoint to smooth yet spicy food.

There’s plenty of chatni left over so I’m making a brown chickpea dhal tomorrow to go with it.

Last night’s spinning session was one of the best I’ve experienced: possibly second only to my first ever session. Andy’s infectiously-grinning personality gave the key: the music was all inspiring but with easily-followable heavy beats. There’s a track he often plays which is a cut-up dance version of Another brick in the wall part 2. Usually I’d hate any interference with perfection but this cut-up just works.

Other tracks included an extended, beat-enhanced version of Coldplay’s Viva la vida. Somewhat cheesy, maybe, but again perfect for this situation.

The only flaw was the inclusion of Johnny Cash’s cover of Hurt as a wind-down track. For me, this brings back memories of some crazy painful events in India. For my hostess, it’s associated with even worse things. Even without these personal associations, the lyrics aren’t at at all relaxing.

Despite this, both of us were positively affected by the session. I was gibbering and happy, and free of pain.

What a change this morning. I woke several times during the night from ongoing pain in my arm. By 7am, it was screamingly bad: it felt as if individual lumps of muscle in my upper left arm (just below the shoulder) were performing scallop-shaped spasms. Topical pain-killing cream provided little relief, and physiotherapist-supplied exercises (which usually help) were nigh impossible. This is a week on from a steroid injection which was supposed to unwind the inflamed rotator cuff.

The only relief was to get up and attempt to get mentally active. Resting my arm on my desk as I type helps, as does copious amounts of tea. I hate this and am scared it will interfere with future employment – if I’m mentally incapacitated by pain and tiredness what use will I be?

So it’s back to Argyle-speak for this one. A couple of weeks ago the pain (especially overnight) in my arm became so bad, despite regular exercises as recommended by the physiotherapist, that I opted for a steroid injection.

I was told that steroids can raise blood sugars so I should monitor more closely than normal. So the next day my meter died. The next day was a Saturday. The maker’s helpline only operates during office hours on weekdays. So, as requested, I left a voicemail with my name, address, phone number and meter serial number.

By about 11am yesterday, my call had not been returned. So I called the maker (Abbott Diabetes Care) and was put through a script by their advisor. Today I took delivery of a shiny new meter, spare battery and box of test strips.

I also received their software and USB cable for downloading readings from the meter into the software. (So far I’ve used an Excel spreadsheet.)The software is for PC only. It works fine on the VirtualBox XP incarnation running on my mac. However the cable doesn’t, so the advantages of the software are lost to me: if I must enter data manually, I’m better continuing to use a simple system I’m used to.

Scorecard: all scores out of 10

For those of you who don’t know Argyle-speak, the title of this blog article translates to ‘Diabetes serendipity of an unpleasant nature’.

One of the reasons I maintain an OS9 mac with an optical drive is to play Carmageddon 2: it allows me to drive and be violent when I prefer to avoid both of these in real life.

I’m very pleased to see the Beeb reporting that the original studio is working on a new version – and that a mac version will be forthcoming (admittedly after the PC version). I’m so pleased that I’ve pledged a contribution to the studio’s Kickstarter appeal. If you want to get into the game that predated and probably inspired Grand Theft Auto, I’d urge you to do so too.

The weather took a turn for the worse overnight. However, I wanted to take what might be my last opportunity to stay in Corrie and attempt the String from east to west without stopping. So while my hostess set off in the car to go shopping in Brodick, I girded my my loins and mounted Lev.

I was quite damp by the time I got to the junction of the String and the around-Arran road (A841). Thanks to the nature of this junction, I had to start the ascent from stopped – this forced me to use the easiest range of Lev’s gears to get up the first slope. However, I didn’t need them for long and got back to the hardest range long before the right-hand bend that presages the exposed and hardest part of the climb.

Thank goodness lev had these ranges – I needed them in the exposed part. From the bottom, it appears to be a gentle slope. It isn’t: I needed to swear a lot at my legs to keep them pedaling. Just before the top, the gradient increases then the road takes a left turn into another gradient-increase. This was where I most feared I’d put my feet down. However, more swearing and the knowledge that I was so near to the top I could taste it prevented this.

The roll down the other side only takes you a couple of miles – and the surface is very worn in places: there’s another 6 miles of varying undulations and surfaces (from potholes to smooth tarmac) to get to Blackwaterfoot. I met my hostess there: she’d been shopping back at the Old Byre in Machrie.

We then both started traveling back east to Brodick. The wind and Lev’s ongoing friction problems were against me so this time I didn’t make it up the String’s ‘easy’ side without using all of Lev’s gears. By the time I met my hostess at Eilean Mor again, my hands were wet, my pinnae were complaining and my toes were cold. (The uppers of my cycle-shoes have thin mesh to let the sweat out – and the rain and cold in! Without the SealSkins socks, my feet would have suffered a lot more.) We thawed out over lunch before heading back to Corrie.

The weather was still foul and my gloves were still wet, so I stopped at Arran Active and bought some winter cycling gloves. (These have lots of padding on the palms, silicone-covered finger-tips so that they won’t slip off wet brake handles and nose-wiper areas on the thumbs. They’ll be a bit clumsy but will feel far better than freezing wet fingers.) I also bought an insulated windproof skull-cap to keep my ears warm and some lightweight fleece gloves so that I could keep my hands dry and warm but still usable at the end of a damp cycle.

Just as I left Arran Active, I received a text from my hostess: she was was setting out from the house in Corrie to jog to Sannox and back. So I pushed my legs as hard as I could and caught up with her just as she had turned round to come back to Corrie. This was the worst leg of today’s travels: into a biting wind with rain stinging into our faces. I’m amazed anyone could keep above a walk into that weather.

Here’s some times:

I didn’t record times for Brodick to Sannox and Sannox to Corrie. Here’s the cyclemeter app map of coming back over the String.

I’m now back in Corrie: the only clothing I’ve not changed are my shorts (it was too cold to consider removing them) and the skull-cap. Oi veh! I’m having slightly nervous second thoughts about cycling from Glasgow to Edinburgh tomorrow. Ah well, that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger – but that which kills you kills you!

Well, today my hostess took on her hardest cycle yet:

1. north from Corrie,
2. up and over the Boguille to Lochranza,
3. along the north-west coast to Machrie,
4. up and over the String (YouTube video),
5. into Brodick
6. then back to Corrie.

We were hailed on as we started up the Boguille and froze in the wind dropping down to Lochranza. We stopped for a well-earned cup of tea at a small refreshment stand near the ferry terminal, then headed on to Machrie.

Here’s the map. The speed at mile 30 is almost certainly wrong – that’s one of the steep downhill bits.

We had a further stop at Machrie to look at a clothing shop belonging to the sister of one of Elly’s friends. The road soon pulled away from the coast and began to ascend before joining the main cross-island road. The road then ascended hard up to the highest tarmac on the island – it took about 40 minutes. The descent to Brodick took less than 5 – it’s the hardest Lev’s disks hard worked yet.

We stopped for lunch at Eilean Mor – I can’t recommend their rich pasta dishes enough before doing a bit of shopping at the nearby co-op and returning to Corrie.

I’m very pleased that my hostess made this trip and quite pleased that I got up the String staying in the top range of Lev’s gears. I hope to do the String from east to west tomorrow: this is slightly harder and more exposed. I’ve never yet done it without stopping: here’s hoping for this time.

I’ve just received my results for the programming coursework: 79%, so the lowest level of distinction. The detailed feedback is here and my marks infographic is here. My average mark so far is 85&middot91%, so I’m on the middle level of distinction.

There’s a map and list of where Brenda’s visited during her reign, with an invitation to compare one’s own travels to hers.

Here’s my list:

I guess I’m a lucky bugger with an embarrassingly large carbon footprint!

The following were posted today to a mac discussion/help list I’m on:

1. Actual real-life helpdesk request that we got JUST this morning:
   “I walked into the lab this morning to find the dreaded blue screen on . It is first time it has come up, so I simply restarted the PC. Is this an indication of potentially bad hard drive?”
2. The one thing that drives me absolutely nucking futz as a IT support person is:
   “got an error message (can’t remember exact words).” (or my favorite: “I got an error, I didn’t write it down because it was all computer gobbldeygook”) followed by the clear expectation that I am clairvoyant and can magically know what went wrong.
   At this point my only possible advice is this:

Never EVER do either of these to me.

Update

Here’s another one:
Someone had a problem.
I asked “Have you changed anything recently?”
Response: “No”
I looked down and picked up a Software package (I think it was an OS upgrade).
I asked about it.
Response: “Oh, yeah, I installed that.”

It had been 2 years since my last trim…

Hairiness

Bits were cut off: end view, side view

Halfway

All the way. Why is one of my ears missing?

Aftermath