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

LJ Friends Meme by coolerq

.embresponse {font-weight: bolder;}

• You must tell 96 people about this game.
• Kate Bush is the one that you love.
• Margaret Thatcher is one you like but can’t work out.
• You care most about Pete Lindsay.
• Elly is the one who knows you very well.
• Ian is your lucky star.
• Comfortably Numb is the song that matches with Kate Bush.
• Drugs for Everybody is the song for Margaret Thatcher.
• The Gunner’s Dream is the song that tells you most about YOUR mind.
• and Knees up mother Brown is the song telling you how you feel about life
Take this quiz

Raise your shields and don your anti-waffle devices (should that be ‘switch on your waffle-iron’?), reader, because here comes another batch of turgid Bruce-prose.

The main alternative activity to my sweating over programming coursework and to my hostess’ employment has been preparing for our summer holiday. We’ll cycle along the Danube from Passau to Vienna then spend a few days exploring bits of Vienna we’ve not yet seen. Both of us are uncertain whether we could currently cycle 40 miles each day for 5 successive days so we’ve been devoting Saturdays to training.

30 March: Edinburgh to Falkirk (32 miles)

Our first foray is chronicled here – nothing more to add.

7 April: Edinburgh to Stirling (37 miles)

My hostess found a a cycling app that draws route maps as you travel, so here’s this trip’s map.

I recall stops at Linlithgow and Larbert Cross. I remain impressed with my hostess cycling over 35 miles on a bike that’s not designed for distance.

14 April: to Broxburn and back (30 miles)

Here’s this trip’s map.

My hostess had wanted to revisit Uphall: there’s a slight but draining incline through Broxburn but it gets bad at Uphall. She also wanted to see if we could revisit the canal towpath without fear or incident. To achieve both in one trip, we did most (and the worst parts) of the Broxburn-Uphall torture incline, before turning north and finding even more challenging gradients.

A couple of miles along the canal convinced us it wasn’t fun: the path was by turns muddy and hence slippery, challenging even Che’s grip, and gravelly, threatening to do worse things to Lev’s wheels. So as soon as we could, we reverted to road: what a relief!

21 April: around Edinburgh (22 miles)

Here’s this trip’s map.

I was only 3 days away from needing to demonstrate and turn in my programming project so didn’t want to go too. My hostess expressed slight disappointment our route being relatively short. A year ago this distance, by her own admission, would have been very challenging. As happens so often, I’m impressed by her determination to improve and her stamina. As we cycled, she mused about getting a road bike or a faster, higher geared hybrid because she was dissatisfied with her speed. She loves Che – and he’s ideal for Edinburgh’s currently-abysmal road surfaces – but she feels the need for speed.

27 April: Bruce’s let-off-steam solo (28·5 miles)

I don’t have the app so this trip’s map is glommed from Google.

I may have mentioned that I’d agreed to help teach cycling skills to some P7 (11- to 12-year-old) students by one of my hostess’ friends. I’d been told that I would need to apply for ‘I’m not a kiddie-fiddler’ certification while the teaching was in progress. So this morning, after the second session, I took my documentation and completed form to the school office and received a strong ticking off for not having the certification in place.

While I understand the need for such things, I was made to feel as if I had done something dirty by even being near the children without this piece of paper. This soon became anger: if it had been the school who had asked me to help, told me the criteria and then changed their opinion, I’d have walked. However, I’d been asked by the parent organising these sessions – and she had been told an en-route application would be acceptable. So I’m not going to let her – or the children – down. I know I’m not evil (I admit I might be stupid – and have acted cruelly to some adults as a result – but that’s another matter) and I don’t think my hostess would have anything to do with me if I was harmful in the way so nearly alleged.

Anyway, utterly fuming, I decided to try to expiate my anger through my pedals. I also wanted to take Lev on a long spin to see if I could begin to learn to love him. He still seems to have friction, even though the brakes have been sorted. (Both wheels spin freely so maybe it’s me.) So I decided to head west and see where I got to. I left Servants’ Quarters at 1:18 knowing I’d need to be back around 5:30 to get ready to go to a social event that evening. My texts to let my hostess know where I was were as follows:

It was interesting that at some points, mostly on cycle paths, I didn’t feel the friction that seems to be Lev’s leitmotiv. At other points, I definitely did. The towns at the far west of West Lothian seem so dead. Their appearance wasn’t helped by the weather: cold dark and overcast. Yet as soon as I passed into East Lanarkshire, the sky brightened. There is a cycle path running along the railway but I’ve yet to see how to get onto it. Instead, I plodded along the A89 until I saw the sign for Caldercruix station. The remaining 4 miles to Airdrie would have taken another 20 minutes, so I could have got there within my self-imposed 3-hour limit – and if I’d realised I’d done under 30 miles I would have pushed on anyway.

Also, until today I’d been scared to take on the Newbridge roundabout. However there’s no need. It has traffic lights strictly controlling who has access, so it’s far safer than, for example, Gogar roundabout. using this means you don’t have to carry your bike over the awful stepped bridge at Ratho. No more of that nonsense ever!

28 April: Edinburgh to Spott (35 miles)

Here’s this trip’s map.

We had arranged to go and visit a friend who lives in Spott in East Lothian. This meant setting off into a biting east wind. Worse was to come. From just outside Musselburgh, the road (A199) slopes up inexorably until the centre of Tranent. There’s a fairly nasty spot where the gradient gets steep as the road crosses the A1. From Tranent to Haddinton the only obstacle was the wind but thereafter a long and grinding gradient and hailstorms forced us to stop slightly west of East Linton. Also, this section of the A199 was treated as an F1 track by everything that passed us. Surely the A1 is the local road for petrol-heads? Anyway, once the weather had abated slightly, we plodded on into Dunbar, convinced the station staff that we really were the people who’d booked the bike-spaces on the 18:41 train back to Edinburgh and turned south towards Spott. We’ve always feared that the road up to Spott would be fearsome. It’s not – we’ve been tricked by our friend’s drive which is. (Broken potholed concrete at crazy angles isn’t good for road bikes!). Thanks indeed to the inestimable Ms B for warmth, sustenance, tea and very pleasant company.

Conclusions

• I can cycle 30 miles one day, then do it again the next day.
• I need cycling gloves with are simultaneously
  1. warm
  2. waterproof
  3. good for wiping my nose en route.

  My current fleece gloves achieve 1 and 3 when dry, while my current waterproof gloves are cold.

• I need to wear much thicker socks in inclement weather.
• Lev will never be a speed demon. I think he’ll always be a sturdy plodder. At 7-8 mph, he can keep going without real effort by me. If I want speed, I’ll need to look into a lower-geared, lighter-framed racer (or speed-centric commuter if it’s to survive Edinburgh).
• East Lothian road surfaces are quite good. They also have cycle paths where they are needed. Edinburgh council needs a time-machine to go back, not bother with the bloody trams (it breaks my heart to say this because I like trams) and invest the money in road-maintenance and cycle-paths. How much fitter would we all be?