What??! It’s the end of the week, already??! But… but… it was Monday, only a couple of days ago, surely?! Where did the week go! *sigh* Oh well, I must have been too busy to notice it… Today was a lot better all round – we went over to Shoppingtown to have my Warfarin test – the results have just been SMS’d to us – seems my INR* is creeping back to where it should be, in order to prevent my blood clotting too readily (the cause of my two bouts of multiple blood clots in both lungs) and I’m to continue on my current dosage of rat poison (Warfarin – it thins your blood, which is exactly how rat poison works) My next test isn’t until May 15th, which means I’m doing well at the moment.  I also had a chance to have a good play around with all the new “cosmetic toys” in Rift  – and I had a look in the Shop for the new 30, and 36 slot bags! Fergit it, Freddie! The cost of those bags makes the new fangled Dye Buckets wot I bought for 16200 Credits yesterday look cheap and tawdry! (er…and I’m not going to tell you how much it cost in real $$ to buy those Credits, either! Let’s just say, as my maternal Grandmother and her sister used to say: “It cost a lot of money!”) and anyway, you can only buy the bigger, 36 slot “Crafting” bag with special, extremely difficult to get, and hard to make Craft rewards. Nah… I think I’ll give those two a miss for the moment! When I make my first million platinum on the Auction House, then I’ll buy… one… Our cleaning lady arrived at about 11.30am, and sat and chatted on about how good my hair colour was, and how different I looked (having lost a bit of weight in the month since she saw me last) I got exactly the same reaction from the blood test lady, and from one of the guys over in the Valet parking area across the road (I like using the Valet Parking facilities – it’s clean, it’s quiet, it’s uncluttered, and you don’t have to drive, bumper to bumper, around the parking lot a few times, waiting for someone to pull out so that you can grab what is probably the most inconvenient parking space in the whole of the Shoppingtown parking area! In the Valet area, you pull up, get your bits and pieces out of the car, and walk off – the guys there park the car for you, and it’s all quick, clean, and efficient. It costs about $12 to park there, but it’s true value for money, I reckon) Anyway, I haven’t seen one of the guys there for yonks – but he was there today, and gushed on about how different I looked (and how nice my hair colour is! I hope you’re reading this, Josh!) and how much weight I’ve lost… which is all well and good, I pointed out to him, but I still have another 24 kilos to lose! There’s got to be some sort of moral to all that, you know, how you feel proud, and good about yourself, because you’ve accomplished something – and then you think of how much further you still have to go, and with a mental screech of brakes, it sort of pulls you back down to earth again with a painful “crash (tinkle tinkle)” *sigh* Still, this time next year will come! I should be through with this diet before the end of the year, hopefully (“should” being the operative word there!) Just think! I’ll be able to have some Christmas Dinner this year! 🙂

After lunch, I started doing a bit of work on my Bookmarks wallpaper… it’s not working out quite the way I wanted it to, or expected it to, either – it seems to have taken on a life of its own, and is insisting on going its own way… surprisingly well! It’s… very different – what else can I say? It’s (probably a bit like me, actually!) extravagant, flamboyant, eccentric… slightly paranoid, definitely neurotic… but nice, in an overblown sort of way 🙂 I can’t wait to see what it’ll be like when it’s finished! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. Much more pleasing! Down three points to 94.7kg – but don’t worry, I’ll probably go back up again tomorrow… However, I’m happy to report that finally… finally… I can see a difference in my stomach and thighs. I’m definitely thinner, and about two dress sizes less than I was when I first met Julian, back in 1986. Up until now, I’ve looked at myself in the mirror and thought (to myself) “I can’t see any difference – I still look like a blimp!” Now, I look and think “Oh look! My legs are actually beginning to look thin(ish)!” Mind you, without the clothes to hold everything in and make me look “neat”, I really do look pretty horrendous – lots of loose skin, looking like raggy-daggy, badly hung drapes… I feel that there are going to be a few tummy, thigh, and arm “tucks” in the future! (and a face lift! Don’t forget the face lift!) 😉

So there it is – “My Day, by Winter Thyme!” – a somewhat better day than I’ve been having, anyway. Let’s see what the future brings… Tomorrow, I believe we’re going rug shopping. I said to himself, “Where?”, to which he replied, somewhat impatiently, “Well, we’ll have to look, won’t we!” – so I guess that’s my next job – researching rug shops online! (Why do I always have to get the “fun” jobs!) I also have my letter writing to do – I think. Yesterday was an extremely difficult day – I’m not sure where to go from here. Sort of “Full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes!” (actually, the correct quote is “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”, but why quibble?) So, from rugs, to writing, to… looking for antique restorers. And Optometrists. Himself and I both need to have our eyes tested again – I can hardly see the screen, with these so-called “computer glasses”, and he’s in the same boat. Over the years we’ve been to just about every Optometrist over the road, and a few elsewhere, but they always seem to get it wrong! I mean, they test your eyes, one at a time, and try to get each one right, individually. But does anyone look at things with only one eye at a time? I don’t! However, if I do close one eye and look at the screen, after a second or so everything comes into focus, and I can see the screen. Then, if I close that eye and look at the screen with the other one, the same thing happens – and I can see the screen fairly well. But… if I open both eyes and look at the screen – bingo! Everything’s blurry! So looking for a good Optometrist, and looking for a good antique restorer is somewhat like buying a pig in a poke. You just don’t know what you’re going to get, which can sometimes turn out to be an expensive business! Anyway, tune in again tomorrow night, and see if we’ve managed to find a suitable rug for the lounge room. Look for news on my upcoming Bookmarks wallpaper, and what my weight decided to do to surprise me this time! There’ll be lots of news for everyone tomorrow night, so don’t miss out! But until then, please continue to bee good, “watch out for that tree!”, and above all…. stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

*INR = International Normalised Ratio (the rate at which one’s blood clots)