Another day of mixed variables… This morning, after breakfast, I was called to the lounge room. As the people who are going to assist with the moving and re-setting up of our giant TV are going to be here tomorrow morning (bright and early – around 9.00am) the drawers and the cupboards of the old entertainment unit and side tables had to be cleaned out. And by “cleaned out“, Julian usually means “thrown out”, and so to prevent any tears when I find out that my favourite scrap of paper in all the universe (the one with the scribbled drawing by one of the kids when they were four) has been thrown out, I have to be there to “supervise” the culling of the treasures. Five drawers, plus only the top shelf of the old entertainment unit later, our cleaning lady arrived – early (for once! and just when we wanted her to be late so that we could get all the sorting out finished!) After sitting around and chatting for a bit, I came back down here to the Den and caught up with my Auctions and Minion Offerings on Rift. I did get Nuha up to level 20, and started on my next victim character. A Guardian, this time – the ill-named Copperfire, who has now been re-named to Crystalsong, received the waterbreathing necklace from Nuha, and off we went. My goodness, what a mish-mash I’d left her in! A completely jumbled mix of “baby and teen” quests (so to speak) She was level 12 – a little bit old for the starting “baby” quests, but not quite old enough for the next quest chains along. Apparently I’d taken her across to Freemarch to close Rifts and get some planarite (which is simply not possible in Silverwood, as I’ve said in an earlier blog) but I’d totally neglected to get her started in any of the three “Basic” skills – Foraging, Mining, and Butchering. Normally with Guardian characters, as soon as we get to Silverwood, I grab the Porticulum there, train up in those three basic skills, run down the hill and grab the “Close the Rifts and get planarite” quests, then swim over to Freemarch and do the planarite and Rift-closing quests – before I pick up the first available quests in Silverwood. Then I run around Freemarch killing and skinning wolves, mining, and picking whatever herbage there is to pick, leveling up my basic skills, looking for Artifacts, dodging Defiant Guards, and grabbing the only Porticulum over there (apart from Meridian, and that Porticulum is in the very centre of the Defiant capital!) So I scratched my head a bit at where Crystalsong’s questing and skills were at (or perhaps that should be “weren’t at”!) Long story short, I sorted her out as best I could in Silverwood, got her basic training done, didn’t have to swim over – apparently I’d already done that because I had the Denegar’s Stand Porticulum – so that’s where I went. However! There was a fly in my ointment, because the Carnival of the Ascended has entered its second stage. The Parades have started, and all the roads are thronged with Defiant guards, bearing “red name plates” (that means that they are extremely hostile to anything not Defiant – and as a Guardian, they will attack you on sight – so it’s a good idea to stay off the roads!) This is problematical, as there are hostile mobs off the road which will attack you, no matter what faction you belong to. Usually that wouldn’t bother me, but as a level 12, it’s not really a terribly good idea to try to fight off level 16 wolves and wild boars! Six of one, half a dozen of the other – level 45 hostile guards, or level 16 hostile wolves and wild boars – either of them will kill you just as dead! I did a lot of zigging and a lot of zagging… I found a lot of Artifacts, I butchered, foraged, and mined, and I got my “Merchant of Death” title! Then I came back to Silverwood, where I’m gradually getting my quests sorted out and back into order, but it’s been like trying to comb out a plate of soggy, tangled spaghetti!
After lunch I did a bit more graphic work – I’m beginning to see a dim and distant light at the end of the tunnel, at last, but I’m still not satisfied… I’ll do a bit more tomorrow… I also received a new url on pigeon genetics from Josh – it’s extremely interesting and I’m going through it. It’s just a tad more complicated than Siamese cats because there are more variations on a theme, but the basic principles are the same – it’s really just a matter of learning what those variations are, and how they present in the Phenotype (that is, how the characteristics display on the bird) Genetics really is a fascinating subject! Thanks Josh! 🙂
Julian went off to have his scan this afternoon, in Coburg! It was the only place that could do it today, so he got home very late this afternoon, and I did my afternoon Stair Walk on my own. We use a book to prop open the Fire Escape door as you can’t enter the building from the Fire Escape, only leave it; we had a close call the other day – someone saw the book and was about to make off with it, before Julian stopped them. It’s not the end of the world if the door does close on us, it just means that you have to walk all the way down to the ground floor, exit the building by the Williamson’s Road exit, walk around the building to the other entrance, come in through there (if you’ve remembered to bring your keys!) take the lift up to the floor you want the door open on, and let whoever’s stuck in there, out. Well, I had my keys… I also had bare feet, and I don’t think walking around outside in bare feet would have done them, or me, any good. Luckily no-one removed the book this afternoon! I’m going to make up signs to put on both sides of the 5th floor Fire Escape door! “Please do NOT remove this book! Someone is exercising on the stairs and needs to be able to get back in!” – or words to that effect. I’m a little perturbed though – several times in the afternoons we’ve noticed a terrible smell – it’s more of a stench, really – of terribly, terribly strong, acrid garlic. We’re not sure where it’s coming from – it seems to be coming from one of the two apartments on the other side of this floor, and it really is terrible! This afternoon it was so bad I nearly threw up – truly! I had to cover my mouth and nose and try to hold my breath as I almost ran from the Fire Escape door to our front door! (can you imagine? Me? Running?! The mind positively boggles, and I don’t think it would do the foundations of this building much good, either!) I’m wondering if it can be brought up, diplomatically, at the next Body Corporate committee meeting. If it can’t be fixed, I’ll have to get some sort of gas mask (no, I’m not kidding Julian!) to be able to continue my afternoon Stair Walks – or we’re going to have to go somewhere else with stairs for me to do them – but this afternoon was beyond a joke!
Weigh-in this morning. Well, still no lunchtime Stair Walks for me – not yet, anyway. I weighed in at 100.9kg – not as low as I would have liked, but at least I went down (even if only one point) and didn’t stay the same again. Let’s see what tomorrow brings! I’m more than half way through this lot of fluid retaining pills… the end is in sight…
So tune in again this time tomorrow night – find out what the new and improved entertainment unit looks like “in situ”! See if I can eke my gold nail polish out for another day (it’s beginning to chip – just a bit!) and if my weight bucked the trend and went up… annoyed me by staying the same, or gladdened my heart by going down by more than one point! All these questions, and more, will be given to you on a silver platter, this time tomorrow night! So until then, bee good, stop doing that!, and… stay safe! ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 