Monday 3 November 2003

Pic of the day: Final resting place.

Arms, burgers & Danes

OK, I was overconfident. I should have stuck with 2000 words a day, and perhaps I would not have ruined my arm (and my voice) on the first weekend. On the other hand, as it were, I would have lost out on some fun. (One more chapter today! "Island of light" sounds like a nice place, but is actually the darkest and creepiest chapter so far. Have to make the male miserable, you know.)

I bought some paracetamol, only to discover when I got home to the Internet that paracetamol is not an anti-inflammatory drug. It was an honest mistake, since the competing mild painkillers ibuprofen and acetylsalicylic acid both are nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs. The problem with both of the above is that they also weaken the stomach lining. This is bad if you suffer from acid reflux, which I occasionally do. So we have a dilemma here: Do I risk my stomach lining in order to save my arm?

Alternatively, of course, I could try to save my arm from further pain and degradation by not typing. Yeah, likely!

***

In happier news, I went to McDonald's today and found that they had introduced a new burger in my absence. (It is a while since the time when the McDonald's girl recognized my face and knew what burger and shake I wanted. Not that my elderly stomach would be able to hold both a McFeast and a medium strawberry shake anymore.) The new wonder is called Big Tasty. It is not all that big, kinda like a Big Mac squashed flat. Evidently it has dawned on them that not all people like to yawn while eating... The taste is indeed stronger than in the average McDonald's burger, and not in the Mexican meaning of strength. I am talking about the taste of meat and vegetables and their triumph over wheat flour. I clock this on in at approximately half the taste of a Whopper Cheese from Burger King, possibly 60% although I doubt that. That's about the double of a Big Mac. I am favorably impressed that they took this route instead of just drowning the burger in burning "salsa" sauce, like they did with their last large burger (the name of which I have reasonably forgotten, but it was marketed as their heaviest burger ever). The salsa burger is now mercifully gone.

***

To further complete my day, I came home and found a letter in my physical mailbox. It was a plain brown envelope with my name and address in handwriting and Danish stamps. This was surprising, to say the least. I briefly wondered whether it would contain an unidentified white powder (inspired by a court case recently on the news), or perhaps unrequited porn from one of my innumerable female readers... Well, that wasn't too bad a guess; then again it was from Denmark. It turned out to be unrequited porn. But, alas for all involved, it was gay porn. Perhaps from one of my innumerable male readers? Except according to my statistics I don't have any regular readers in Denmark. Anyway, there was no sign of white powder. I washed my hands anyway, just in case. I might say that a more subtle approach would have been preferable; but in truth it would make no difference. So to save on envelopes and stamps, people, read my FUQ.