Ralph the Wonder Llama

You’ll be glad to know, I’m sure, that I’m feeling a lot better. I’m certainly pleased about it, I can tell you, and I’m feeling stronger by the day. Hoorah. The ten days or so I was sick seem a bit of a haze now – I don’t think I was all that with it some of the time. Still, I’m feeling good again, back to Tai Chi of a morning, and back to work as of yesterday.

One contributing factor in my recovery has so far, shamefully, gone unrecognised, and I feel I ought to correct that right now. You see Amul, purveryors of ice-cream to the sub-contintent, make these:

As you can see, the health benefits of the Amul Chocobar are many and varied. Not only is it Probiotic, it has other, more specific, benefits too:

These would be foolish to ignore, as I’m sure any doctor would agree. I have, therefore, over the past few days, been aiding my recovery in the areas of immune system, osteopathy and, not least, making my brain bigger, by eating at least one of these a day. Having lost a bit of weight I can afford the fat and calories, discreetly tucked away on a (very small) panel on the back. All this and it’s political, too: see, it’s pro-life? Well, everyone has a right to choose I guess. And I choose Amul Chocobar – it’s good for you!

In other news, we’ve been having some fairly spectacular thunderstorms here, with more rain, which is welcome. Last night’s lightning show was pretty special, even if it did blow all the fuses. Again. Great entertainment, assuming one isn’t standing under a large pylon or something daft. With or without an ice-cream.

Health update: after another rough-ish night last night, I ummed and ahhed this morning about whether or not to try to ride out this bug, but in the end I felt fed up enough with it to let Im and Penny take me up to the local hospital to get it checked out. The hospital is up on top of the ridge i.e. the most difficult place for water in a place that’s dry enough as it is. Still, the views of the Himalaya are spectacular, I’m told. When they can be seen at all, that is.

We were seen very quickly, and dealt with very well throughout. The hospital itself could use one or two tweaks, it’s true, but then it’s just been taken over by a new company who have a good reputation in the field. In fact we met the new director, on his first day. A very nice chap. His first action, witnessed by Im and Penny, was to tidy up the appearance of the reception seating, since he didn’t think the first impression very good. He also welcomed our feedback on little things that needed improvement. You know, soap in the toilets, for example. In general, though, a good facility.

Anyway, the doc examined me and sent me for some tests. The results came back a couple of hours later and we went back to find out the results. I don’t have a stomach bug at all, in fact, so Penny getting ill was a coincidence, it seems. No, what I have is Malaria. Uh huh. I was quite surprised too. Apparently it’s not a terribly virulent infection, and I have antibodies on the case already, but nevertheless, I now have a whole new set of medicines, slightly more targeted this time (separate things for pain relief, diarrhoea, stomach cramps and malaria parasite), to help me get better. The anti-malaria medicine is on order and should be in Almora tomorrow afternoon, and then the prognosis is that I should be better in about three days. Needless to say, I’m quite glad I decided to go to the hospital today.

A big thank you, by the way, to Im, Narendra and Penny for looking after me and doing so much running around on my behalf over the past few days. Also to the folks here at Tara’s for all their concern and care, especially Som who’s been quite worried, I think. Finally to Lyn and Patty for lending me lots of new books to keep me going when I could do little else but sit in a chair and read. Thanks all.

Oh, and just as a PS, the doctor said that the anti-malarial tablets I’d been advised in the UK to take while in Goa are completely useless anywhere in India. There’s a strain that’s come over from SE Asia that’s resistant to them apparently. So much for that seven weeks of mild nastiness, then. By the way I still have three weeks’ supply left, if anyone wants some. Going cheap. All offers to the usual address…

I am indebted to new RtWL correspondent Morag for this story which appeared (where else, eh, Jan?) in The Irish Times:

Traffic chaos as circus llamas take to the highway

There’s also live action footage of llamas at lliberty on youtube:

The policeman (and don’t they look young nowadays?) looks none too keen to get involved…

What heresy is this? I won’t have it. Surely if whatever supreme being’s RSS feed (Godcast?) you may or may not subscribe to had meant us to worry about such things, s/he/it would have sent some form of messiah to warn us all of the error of our ways, spreading their gospel via some populist broadcasting medium like, say, reality TV.

Oh wait. Hang on a minute…

So this evening I treated myself to the chinese take away I’d been promising myself for, ooh, a month and kept forgetting about. Very nice it was too – minced pork and shrimp steamed buns and a garlic chilli beef chow mein. Imagine my surprise, then, when I opened my fortune cookie to find not one, but two – two – fortunes. What luck! Destinies are mine.

One reads “The game is nothing: the playing of it is everything“, which is suitably mysterious. The other reads “Take time to think. It is the source of power“, which I don’t get at all. Is thinking the source of power, or time? Does it matter, in the end, as long as I think about it for long enough, thus having played the game, not really knowing what the game is? My double fortune has left me doubly confused! Egad!!

Answers on a postcard please.

Props to Mr B for sending me, instead of his usual, erm, avant garde jokes, this:

Ike ‘Beats’ Tina to Death

I’m sure this will have been memed to pieces already, but I don’t care, I think it’s funny

There are some things I wish I had done that I didn’t. There are other things I have done that I probably shouldn’t. Then there are things that I avoided doing for ages, always said I never would and then eventually, for reasons better or worse, caved in and did anyway. Like owning a mobile phone. Like going to see Star Wars Episode 1. Like cutting off my nose to spite my face. No, not me. Never.

And now this. A blog. For goodness’ sake. Does the world really need another bloody blog? Probably not. And almost certainly not this one. We must be nearing the blog event horizon, when the whole of the Intarweb will collapse under a critical mass of drivel fascinating personal accounts. We’ll all be too busy reading to write, or too busy writing to read. Either way it could all disappear in a trice and no-one would really notice. Or something.

Things having come to this pass however, I’d hate to disappoint anyone, and thus a light-hearted yet curmudgeonly tone seemed appropriate to start with. I was merely trying to find an excuse for this happening, despite my best intentions. There are reasons why, and some of them are even relatively sound, but while this might be the place to go into them, it certainly isn’t the time. I suppose I – and you, for that matter – might as well get used to it.

As the good Doctor used to say – buy the ticket, take the ride…