Five days to go…

And here it is… “Happenin’ Eve” – because next week (starting tomorrow) is the beginning of what will probably turn out to be an extremely busy and hectic “Happenin’ Week” 🙂 So, we made the most of today, and spent a real fun day on Tarken Glacier, because we’re not sure when we’re going to be able to spend the day playing Rift again – certainly not for at least three to four weeks! Oh! I managed to find a place that actually sells wooden bench seats that, at a pinch, could be suitable for a shower stool. I know it sounds very dim of me, but all this time I’ve been looking for “wooden shower stools” – the sort of seats, or stools, that are designed to get wet – in the shower. OK, so what is a shower? Drops of water falling down that you stand under to get clean… yes? Alright then, what is rain? Umm… drops of water falling down that most people try not to stand under, yes? OK, here’s the hard question: what’s the difference between a wooden shower stool, and a small wooden outdoor or garden bench? No difference, as far as I can see! Both made of wood? check… both designed to get wet? check… Why have I only been looking for bathroom furniture, and almost tearing what’s left of my hair out because they only seem to be sold from “online” places (see last night’s rant!) Anyway, the place I found that actually has wooden shower-type benches that you can (apparently) go and look at was Ikea – and then they went and spoilt it all by saying, somewhat ominously, “needs assembly!” When Julian griped a bit at that, I said “Never mind dear, I’m sure you’ll be able to find someone to assemble it for you!” which was when I belatedly thought “umm.. why don’t I have a look at some outdoor furniture? Some of it doesn’t look too bad, and after all, it is designed to get wet when it rains, as it often does here in Melbourne!” So tomorrow, after checking out some outdoor furniture places online (I seem to remember going through AMart in Nunawading when we were looking for desks and outdoor furniture, and they had some reasonably decent small garden bench seats!) first we’ll go and see what Ikea have got, and then we’ll go looking for small garden seats! We’re also going to “do the strip” along Whitehorse Road, between Mitcham and Blackburn, looking for lighting places, in the hopes of finding some nice floor lamps. Tuesday morning, we have our appointment at Stillwater, to be “shown the ropes”, so to speak, after which we’ll come home and start planning where we’re going to put what. This is likely to take a long time, and copious cups of coffee (or tea, for a change) I’m not sure what’s happening on Wednesday – probably more furniture organising, at a guess… Thursday I’m having my hair cut, and around noon on Friday, of course, we’ll be waiting in the car outside the Real Estate office, waiting for the call from our solicitor to say that we can go in and get our keys! 🙂 Then we get in touch with Tel$tra (Boo! Hiss! Boo!) to organise our (unfortunately) new phone line and number (which they say will take ten days! Why, in this day and age, for all that’s holy! It should be able to be instantaneous!) People getting our new number will receive it via email, as soon as we know what it is – so watch your emails! 🙂 Then we’ll need to get in touch with a locksmith, to get the locks at Stillwater changed… And then we can start breathing again! But we can’t rest… we need to get the en-suite door and the WIR door underway before the following Friday, which is when the furniture will be arriving… so it’ll be “go! go! go!” from tomorrow morning until at least the end of the month!

Rift events today. Well, we didn’t get up to level 65 – we didn’t really think we would, though. We did loads of Carnage quests, and one particularly hard quest where we had to “mend” the souls of Monks who were all spread out along a very long mountain ridge. It’s snowy – everything is white. Shadows range from light grey to soft green. It’s a very high, very steep mountain. You can’t really see the edge of the cliffs that they’re kneeling on, and the only way you can reach them is by working your way through a maze of hillocks, disguised with boulders, and it is just soooo easy to plummet over the cliff while you’re making your way towards one of these Monks! Once you “mend” a Monk, he disappears, and doesn’t re-spawn again for quite a long time – bad mistake, Trion! When a lot of people are doing this quest, as they were today, it can make it very difficult to actually locate a Monk to “mend”! They could possibly re-spawn a little faster, maybe? Please? I remember doing this quest last time, and I kept falling off the cliffs all the time – this time I only fell off once! 🙂 *preen* (Julian fell off twice!) At once stage, we were running down a long twisty canyon, and we stopped for a bit while Julian went off to check the washing and make a cup of coffee. Normally, when we stop like that we find a “safe spot” to stand, and the person not leaving the room is left to “defend” the party, should a roving monster come along. All of the monsters in this particular canyon were level 65 Elites – difficult, but not impossible to kill, with two people plus their pets working at it. Well, off Julian went, and I started going through my baggage to see what I could sell – because we were in a safe spot, weren’t we! All of a sudden, this gigantic level 65 Elite monster materialises literally right on top of me, growling and hitting and biting – aarrggghhhh! So I growled and hit and bit right back, and cast nasty spells at him… Julian’s pet didn’t last long, and it was all I could do to keep mine alive, let alone fight this sod off! But my pet and I prevailed in the end – just as Julian walked into the Den with two cups of coffee! 🙂 The next time we stopped in a “safe place”, we both Feigned Death – just in case! It’s not much fun trying to kill a level 65 Elite on your own, I can tell you! I didn’t die at all today – Julian died once – or was it twice? I fergit… same old problem that we usually have with Footholds! There are usually four or five really nasty creatures surrounding and guarding a Foothold (basically, an idol that spawns Invasions) and we usually try to avoid them – but sometimes they have to be dealt with so that you can continue your quest (i.e. they’re in the way!) The best way to handle them is to “pull” the creatures away from their friends, one by one, but occasionally, they’re so close together that if you pull one, the rest come too! They’re still not impossible to deal with though, as long as you don’t target the central idol instead of one of the creatures – you have to get rid of the creatures first before you tackle the idol, because they’re what give the idol its strength! Well, that’s what Julian did today – miss-targeted the idol by mistake…. and got killed for it! But apart from those few highlights, it was a pretty routine romp through the snowy wilderness, and we both had a very enjoyable day!

Weigh-in this morning. I’m watching my weight with great curiosity! I’m taking different medication, but to counter that, I’m taking double the anti-fluid pills than I usually take, and I’m walking that extra floor, three times a day… I seem to be “holding my own” at the moment (I have one day left of the new pills and the double dose of anti-fluid ones) I stayed the same again this morning – three days at 80.5kg. I’m wondering what my weight will do next week, when I’m not taking these pills? Will I go up? I don’t really think so (but I might! You never know with me!) or will I start going down again? Are these new pills, plus the double dose of the anti-fluid ones, what’s keeping me from bouncing back, like I used to on the old pills? Or, would I have still been going down, if I hadn’t changed pills at all, except for the double dose of anti-fluid ones? It’s impossible to say, really. All I can do is wait and see what happens next week!

And that’s really about it from me again this evening – do drop in again tomorrow night to see what my weight’s doing – or not doing, as the case may be, and also to find out how we went with our shopping expedition – did we find any decent floor lamps? And did I find something suitable to use as a shower stool! There’ll be heaps to tell you all tomorrow, so don’t be shy and miss out! 🙂 In the meantime, please continue to bee good, don’t forget that it is never too late to be what you might have been. Remember to take care of yourselves, to keep warm, and to drive carefully – but above all… remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂