Day Twenty-Nine: "One Thousand and One Nights"

ONE of the ne'er do-wells found himself one fine morning without aught, and the world was straitened upon him and patience failed him. So he lay down to sleep, and ceased not slumbering till the sun stang him and the foam came out upon his mouth, whereupon he arose, and he was penniless and had not even so much as a single dirham. Presently he arrived at the shop of a cook, who had set his pots and pans over the fire and washed his saucers and wiped his scales and swept his shop and sprinkled it. And indeed his fats and oils were clear and clarified and his spices fragrant, and he himself stood behind his cooking pots ready to serve customers. So the larrikin, whose wits had been sharpened by hunger, went in to him and saluting him, said to him, "Weigh me half a dirham's worth of meat and a quarter of a dirham's worth of boiled grain, and the like of bread." So the kitchener weighed it out to him and the good-for-naught entered the shop, whereupon the man set the food before him and he ate till he had gobbled up the whole and licked the saucers and sat perplexed, knowing not how he should do with the cook concerning the price of that he had eaten, and turning his eyes about upon everything in the shop. [From "The Larrikin and the Cook," One Thousand and One Nights]

Weighing of food sounding very familiar? Feeling a little North African tonight so it's tagine night. Finally fired that thing up, actually my girlfriend did: Chicken, carrots, onions, saffron, chili, cilantro, a few raisins (though none for me) for flavour. Very good and surprisingly easy to separate and weigh, much more so than curry. Definitely a PCP-friendly dish. Aki's been using her tagine more than a few times, I think. Good choice.

Tonight, I finally feel real muscle pain. Because I switched up the previous two days, it's back-to-back workouts including a session at Patrick's studio. I got up in the morning and got in a pre-breakfast jump-rope (1300). Then I met up with former PCPers Jason B and Alex B for a coffee at Starbucks before hopping on the train to Yokohama for a session with Patrick. Met Rich and James for the first time, which was great. Did 1400 jump-rope this time and then on to the exercises. We switched up and went for the more grueling Day 30 session. Squats and creeps after two jump-rope sessions were definitely causing a lot of burn in the thighs. Am I insane for enjoying the chest dips? Liked them a lot and looking forward to doing more of them. A question--why are the trains between Tokyo and Yokohama so packed on weekend afternoons? It feels like weekday rush hour.