Only nine more Stair Walks…

*Here’s an interesting, and I’d venture to say, not terribly well-known semantic fact that arrived in my email this morning from Dictionary.com – the difference between “presume”, and “assume”

I discovered something this morning! Everything looks the same – dark – at six o’clock in the morning, and your eyes are still shut! Well, that’s what I saw when the alarm went off this morning and Julian told me it was time to get up… Dark. So, as I said yesterday, it was a very early morning for us today – and as I had suspected, I didn’t have time for my “before breakfast” Stair Walk – in fact, we didn’t even have time for breakfast! We took breakfast with us and had it when we got to Stillwater. Nor was I able to do my lunch time Stair Walk – and not wanting my evening Stair Walk to feel left out, I decided to give it a holiday too! I do feel very guilty about it, really, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. We arrived at Stillwater just before seven thirty – Paul, Clarke’s offsider, was already there waiting for us, but of my little fishies, there was no sign – I think the clever creatures were still asleep in their little “caves”! 🙂 The first thing I did when I got inside was take off my shoes – the second thing I did was turn on the heater… and the third thing I did was go off and brush my teeth! That’s right, I hadn’t even had time to brush my teeth this morning – I had to take my toothbrush and toothpaste with me, or live with furry teeth for the day! Then we had breakfast, and we were in the middle of eating that when the Miele people arrived with the new dishwasher and the new clothes dryer. They were very grateful that we’d tried our best to set things up so that everything would install properly first try, and mostly we had… there was a small drama with the dishwasher though – one of the connectors? valves? something-or-other was too long and tangled up with the pipes – Clarke was dispatched to the nearest plumbing supply place to get a right-angled one, and then everything fitted and worked perfectly. Julian didn’t have all that much work to do over there today, and of course, all I could do was sit around and look decorative, but we’d both brought our Kindles so we sat there reading, most of the time. I sat on one of the two “emergency” folding chairs that Julian had bought the other day, and while they’re very good “emergency” chairs, they’re not exactly comfortable to sit on for hours at a time – so I ended up sitting on one of the chairs from the outside table, which was much more betterer, but still not ideal. The hall table, dining room table and chairs, and the lounge-suite arrived just after one thirty. Naturally they brought in the hall table first (naturally, because I was hanging out to sit on something comfortable, like a lounge-suite!) The hall table has two drawers in it, and much to my surprise, when I opened the drawers I found that they were lined with some sort of short, fuzzy, “velvety” material – not unlike the way Julian’s head feels just after he’s had a haircut! 😉 I think it’s supposed to stop things from sliding around if you slam close the drawer very firmly. The dining room table and chairs are “on loan” for the duration until the ones we’d ordered are finally ready. As a “loan” setting, they’ll do, and the chairs are quite comfortable! Finally, “la pièce de résistance”, the lounge-suite, was carried in! Well, the dining room table and chairs are dark brown (and so are the one’s we’d ordered) and the lounge-suite is grey, but it really works out well, because the kitchen cupboards are… dark brown, and the drawers are… grey! 🙂 I think I was sitting on the new lounge-suite before the delivery men had left the building! It came with two loose leather cushions, too – and the whole thing is really very, very comfortable! All of the bed room furniture wasn’t going to be delivered until later in the afternoon, so after lunch, Julian drove me home, and so, here I am! Home a bit earlier than I’d anticipated! 🙂 I processed my Minions, which I wasn’t able to do this morning – hopefully they’ll be ready again for me this evening. Then Julian rang me to tell me that the bedroom furniture had arrived and that he’d sent me some pictures of it all – and I think that just to nark me because I hadn’t waited around for the delivery, the chests of drawers were put on the wrong wall! Oh well, they can be moved easily enough… When I left, Paul was still fussing around with the Walk In Wardrobe door architrave, and Clarke had gone off to pick up the sliding en-suite door – it had to be made-to-measure because it was so much wider than your normal, run-of-the-mill “standard” sliding door – anyway, next time I’m over there, hopefully both doors should be in place 🙂 Julian fired up the cable modem this morning and has managed to get things set up in all the “important” rooms, so we’ll be able to play Rift as soon as our computers get there! (er… as well as surf the net and stuff like that…) Would you believe that I just received another one of those damn Windows messages, telling me that I had to re-boot now – or did I want to do it later? I said “Later”, but this time (as soon as this blog’s online) I’ll re-boot my machine so that I don’t get caught like I did last time! Tomorrow we’ll be off shopping for a new doona set – I mean, we can’t have a brand new house, and a brand new bed, and brand new bedroom furniture, without having a nice brand new doona cover on the bed, can we! 😉 and we’ll also do our final load of washing here… I’m not too sure what we’re doing on Sunday – we may start ferrying things over to Stillwater – things we don’t want the packers and removalists handling, like computers, precious breakables, etc. Possibly clothes… On the other hand, Julian may prefer to have our last Rifting day over here! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. *sigh* Same old, same old… When I get down to this lower end of the kilogram zone, I seem to linger there… it’s almost as though my body doesn’t want to let go of my fat! And yet, up in the higher reaches of the same kilogram zone, my weight goes down faster than the first cold tinny at a butcher’s picnic! Go figure – it doesn’t make any sense to me! Anyway, I went down one measly little point today – from 78.4kg to 78.3kg – and who knows what I’ll weigh tomorrow (or the next day) because I didn’t do my Stair Walks today! 😦

I got my Warfarin blood test results back last night. My wretched INR has gone down again (maybe it’s getting confused with my weight?! Listen, body, get it right! We want my INR up, and my weight down – got it?!) It was sitting happily at 2.4 – it’s back down to 2.0 now, so they’ve upped my rat poison Warfarin dosage (again!) and it’s much more complicated this time – I’ve had to write it into my diary so that I don’t forget, or get the dosages muddled… Anyway, I have no idea where Julian has got to – he should have been home by now – or at least rung me – maybe Clarke came back with the door after all, so he’s stayed back to see it installed.  And once again I guess it’s time for me to say that that’s about it from me tonight – I don’t think I’ve forgotten to tell you anything – the fishies were out in their pond this afternoon – I guess they must have still been asleep this morning (I don’t blame them! At that hour, I wished that I was still asleep!) but don’t forget to drop in again tomorrow to find out all the latest progress and news from chez nous – will my weight have suffered from a lack of Stair Walks today? Will the two doors be hung? Have the two chests of drawers been moved to the correct wall? All these questions, and more, will be answered here for you tomorrow, so don’t miss out! 🙂 But until then, please bee good, remember that what you do today can improve all your tomorrows, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to keep warm, and to drive carefully – but most of all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao all! 🙂

Only twelve more Stair Walks…

Hmmm… actually, I don’t know about “only twelve more Stair Walks” – at this point in time I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to handle tomorrow – I don’t think I’ll even have the time to squish in my “before breakfast” Stair Walk before we leave! The rest of the new furniture will be arriving tomorrow, in bits and pieces all day, starting before 8.00am, I think (not literally in bits and pieces, I hope! Dribs and drabs, maybe…) so it’ll be a very early start for us I do have to be there when the furniture arrives because I’m our sort-of “de-facto” Interior Designer, and, with my fingers crossed behind my back, I’m supposed to tell the delivery men where we want everything  put (until I change my mind – then there’d better be someone there who can shift it all around for me! Crikey, I wouldn’t want to put my back out or anything! 😉 ) So we’ll probably be getting up when the sparrows are still asleep, choking down a cup of tea and our breakfast, and high-tailing it over to Stillwater – where I shall remain until after five o’clock, probably! Julian says I might just have to walk up and down the corridor a few (hundreds of!) times, but as I pointed out to him, I’ll be doing that anyway, chasing after the furniture, and where’s the “resistance” to make my muscles really work? I started looking up Exercise Equipment Rental/Hiring places this afternoon – once again, there are lots of them – but no real information on the equipment they hire/rent out, though a few put what weight they’re rated to (between 100 and 120kg, as it turns out – a couple of months ago I would still have been too heavy for them, but I’m not now! *smug look*, *preen*) Some of them have an adjustable incline, some don’t mention one – but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have an adjustable incline, it just means that they neglected to say anything about it! (see? That’s what I mean – no real, detailed, information – I suppose they expect you to ring them up or something! 😉 ) So, I don’t know whether I’ll be able to fit my Stair Walks in tomorrow – I’ll do my best, but by the same token, I ain’t a-goin’ ta fit tha three full daily Stair Walks in when I get back tomorrow night! No-way, no-how! One, I’ll do… happily… but three? Nah! (I really feel bad about it, too! 😦 )

So, the Stillwater progress report – Clarke has just about finished the en-suite sliding door – though I don’t think it’s been painted yet. It shouldn’t take too long, or be too difficult to hang a standard sized door for the Walk In Wardrobe (the en-suite entry was at least 1.5 standard doors wide!) and it also shouldn’t take too long to swap my bathroom taps over to the swivelly ones. Clarke’s off-sider Paul has removed the Bosch dishwasher in preparation for our Miele one being delivered and installed tomorrow, and I’m not too sure what the electrician has been doing – we’re not having the extra power points put in my bathroom yet – I’ll just have to rough it with extension cords and double adapters for six weeks, but there’s no point installing power points if there’s the very strong possibility that they’re going to have to be moved in a month and a half! I’ll just have to be extra careful – because extension cords and double adapters in a bathroom where things get wet and steamy are really not a terribly good idea!

We’d been a little concerned about using the glass-topped tables as desks, thinking that they might not leave enough space for us to set up a nice little “reading corner”, with a couch, or a couple of comfy chairs, a small coffee table, and a few bookcases… We needn’t have worried – after Mr. Flat-Pack Assembler had set them up, with their little chests of drawers underneath them, there was heaps of room to put in our cosy little “reading corner”! 🙂 I suggested two recliners, or at least something where we could put our feet up – Julian, however, seems to think that they’d be too “formal”, and thinks a couch would be better (actually, the words “bean bag” were heard to issue from his mouth!) I can see a little contention over this decision! 😉 Mind you, first he said that we’d have to start looking for a nice “lounge“, which was when I suggested the recliners, because although we are fairly “lovey-dovey”, I don’t want to have to cuddle up to him if I’d rather be in my own space – which was when he countered with “bean bag“. But… we’ll see… There’s no hurry…

So it’s nearly all ready for us. The new furniture will be arriving, as I said, tomorrow – the rest of our furniture – the things we’re keeping – will be arriving on Tuesday with the removalists. All the stuff we’re not bringing with us will be remaining here, to be sold in situ – anyone want a nice, comfortable blue two-recliner, 3-seater couch and two very comfortable matching recliners? As I said a while back, a list of “availables” and their approximate asking price will be posted on the blog later, when we’ve got everything organised…

I’d better get Julian to charge up my Kindle tonight – at least I can read while I’m walking up and down our fairly long corridor, which I most definitely can’t when I’m walking up and down stairs! (Winter thinks: “I wonder if I can read while walking on a treadmill??”)

Weigh-in this morning. Not the best, and in fact I was really quite annoyed! My body seems to be smugly “resting on its laurels” – I stayed at 78.4kg – the same as yesterday 😦 Not good enough, body! And this is another reason that I really don’t like the idea of missing out on my Stair Walks tomorrow! I can’t afford to! I’ll probably go up quite a bit as a result! 😦

I did a bit more Rifting this morning, and got Satai up to level 42 – I also managed to get this header to fit – I made it the day before yesterday and really liked it, but haven’t been able to use it on any of the templates I’ve used lately – I had to go searching though all the Free templates, looking for one whose layout I liked, but which didn’t insist on adding a dark grey-green gradient to the header! Only your own header, mind you, it doesn’t do it if you use one of their uninspiring combinations! I have used this template before, but you know me – I like to fiddle with graphics! 😉 So, what do you think of this one?

I’m not looking forward to tomorrow! I mean, I am looking forward to the furniture arriving, and all of that, but that’s not going to be happening continuously – there’s going to be a lot of “blank space” in between arrivals. At least after the lounge-suite arrives, I’ll have something comfortable to sit on! (and knowing my luck, it’ll be the last piece of furniture to arrive, somewhere around 5.30pm!) Oh well, Julian says that the deck table’s chairs are quite comfortable – I might have to drag one of them inside and sit on that until something more comfortable is delivered! 🙂 I won’t even be able to sit on the bed when it arrives, either, because it won’t have a mattress, it’ll just have the slats that the mattress sits on, because we’re keeping our old one (actually it’s not old, which is why we’re keeping it! It’s really fairly new…) Oh, I went and had my Warfarin blood test today, but I probably won’t get the results and my dosage instructions until tomorrow – I was supposed to have the blood test tomorrow (Friday) but because of the furniture deliveries we went today instead. Julian came home around lunch time and we went over, then he dropped me back here while he picked up the cable modem which has been disconnected from this place and turned on at Stillwater (don’t ask me! I’m totally non-technical!) I usually have my blood tests fairly early in the morning and get the results in the mid to late afternoon – but 24 hours isn’t going to make a lot of difference, especially as I wasn’t supposed to be having the test until tomorrow anyway! Tonight Julian has his last Body Corporate meeting, where he’ll officially hand back his secretary’s cap and gown! I tell you, if I were still a drinking person, I’d be opening a bottle of champagne when he gets home! Thank goodness he won’t have to deal with that any more – though they’ll probably ring him up for the next six months or more, asking him how to do “this”, or who to contact for “that”! And with that “that”, once again that’s about all I have for you tonight! But be sure to call in again tomorrow night to find out if my weight has started behaving itself again, if all the furniture arrived unscathed and unscratched (the lounge-suite people just contacted Julian to let us know that the lounge – suite, the dining room table and chairs, and the hall table will be arriving between 11am and 2pm!) and with luck, there might even be some pictures up for you to look at! 🙂 Until then, though, please continue to bee good, remember always that God helps those who strive to help themselves; don’t forget to drive carefully, to keep warm, and to look after yourselves… but above all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Only fifteen more Stair Walks…

I suppose I really shouldn’t let the occasion pass unannounced, because this is an important milestone for me, and I have accomplished a lot (I think, anyway!) 🙂

This time last year, on August 19th, I began my journey into “Slimdom”. On that day, I weighed in at 134.7kg, and my then goal weight was around about 90kg. I’d fussed and fretted for months over different methods of reaching that weight – which to be totally honest, I probably used more as a means of “procrastination”, rather than “consideration”. I considered several types of bariatric surgery, from the most extreme (the irreversible physical removal of most of my stomach!) as well as the less invasive and traumatising lap-band methods. I halfheartedly thought of getting a “personal trainer”, in order to force myself into exercising (that didn’t work terribly well and only lasted about month – my arthritis is too bad, and I’m too slothful to exercise unless someone’s standing over me with a whip – and even that doesn’t always work! 😉 ) I’d considered meal replacement methods in the past (many years ago before one could Google such things) but always discarded them, thinking that as soon as you started eating normally again, the weight would simply go back on. No-one – or should I say no weight-loss specialists (and I had been to a few!) ever bothered to explain to me about ketosis – why didn’t I ask questions? Because I didn’t know that there were questions to ask! I’d never even heard the term “ketosis” before, let alone how it worked! Still, water under the bridge! In the end, after Julian (not my GP, who should have!) told me about ketosis and how it worked, I decided to go on the Optifast VLCD (Very Low Calorie Diet) – with modifications. It’s not advisable to stay on the full VLCD (where you replace all your meals with Optifast products) for long periods – it’s largely designed to “kick-start” your weight loss program, and you should have regular medical check-ups while you’re on it (which I do!) Julian had researched ketosis very thoroughly, now it was my turn to research Optifast and their VLCD. They have a really excellent website which explains everything you could ever want to know about Optifast, ketosis, VLCDs, and medical issues; they sell their product online (you can also buy it in specialist Chemist shops, and no, I am not getting paid to give Optifast some good press!) They have fruit and vegetable lists, meal planners, recipes, diet planners – heaps of stuff. From those lists, I worked out my weekly meal plan – I took their recommended daily calorie “allowance”, and chopped a fair bit off it (well, it was imperative that I lose weight as quickly as possible!) I grabbed one of their breakfast suggestions, and replaced my lunch and dinner choices with Optifast alternatives. To round out the daily calorie intake I’d allowed myself, I also added a diabetic jelly to my dinner, as a “dessert”, and to provide some extra fibre, three prunes. It’s a good diet – well, it works for me, and it’s also working for my favourite eldest daughter, although she’s chosen quite different options from mine. And here’s another thing: no-one ever tells you that even if you do get hungry at first, your stomach shrinks quite rapidly so you no longer do feel the need to reach for something to eat. I was a bit different though – I didn’t eat because I was hungry, or because I craved something, I ate because it was there, in front of me – and because I didn’t care whether I was fat or not. It looked nice, I knew it tasted nice, so I ate it. Simple as that. I’ve learned a lot over these past twelve months – I’ve learned to care, for starters! I’ve learned that if it’s not there, you can’t reach for it and eat it. I’ve learned that it’s no hardship being on the Optifast VLCD, in fact, if anything, it’s just too easy! I’ve learned that I can do more and move around more easily, despite my arthritis, and I don’t mind exercising too much – though I still feel a little resentful about having to drag myself away from whatever I’m doing, to go and do my thrice daily Stair Walk – but I’m a lot more philosophical about it than I used to be, because I can actually see how much more I can do now, and I don’t want to go back to the way I was! Ever!

In these past twelve months I’ve gone from 134.7kg to 78.4kg – in other words, I’ve lost 56.3kg! I had almost decided to take my goal weight down to 60kg, because looking in the mirror, I figured that it’s going to take more than another 8kg to get me looking slim (especially around my thighs and calves!) but my favourite youngest daughter reminded me that when I have the excess skin removed (which I must – it’s too uncomfortable!) I’ll be a lot lighter and thinner (but I knew that anyway! 😉 ) so I’ll compromise, and go down to 65kg. Then I’m going to have to go on a maintenance diet until my body gets used to eating more and I finally plateau out at a stable weight, hopefully somewhere between about 62 and 66 kilos…

Weigh-in this morning. I lost one point – going from 78.5kg down to 78.4kg. I don’t think the earth would shake and cause a tsunami if I dropped it on the ground, do you?! 😉 *sigh* Oh well, maybe I’ll do better tomorrow…

This morning Julian had to be over at Stillwater very early because everyone was starting early, and our outdoor table was being delivered. Everyone turned up except for the electrician – Julian rang me a little while ago to say that he still hadn’t turned up! *grrr!* The flat-pack assembler has finished all of Julian’s office furniture – I can’t wait to see what it looks like! 🙂 He’s now starting on our table-desks in the Den… Clarke has only had to take the plaster down from one side of the wall for the en-suite door, and apparently that’s all going well. The mirror place rang Julian just before he rang them – Julian was going to ask them “please don’t deliver it until next week!”, but they got in first saying that it’s been delayed, and they won’t be able to deliver it until next week! 🙂 (“curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice) Oh, and I’m actually going to be having my bathroom “done” a little earlier than planned! Clarke has had a cancellation and asked us if we’d like it done then, so work will be stating on that in six weeks, so it’ll be done before Christmas! 🙂 I’m still not sure if I’ll go over tomorrow – I’ll talk to Julian about that tonight… I sort-of feel that there’s little point in going if I’m just going to be sitting around twiddling my thumbs all day – and I actually did manage to get some Rifting in over here today – I wouldn’t object to a reprise of that… Oh, I almost forgot! The phone (one of those old-fashioned land-lines 😉 ) at Stillwater is now functional and operational! We have a dial tone, and Julian actually rang me on it the time before last 🙂 However, for those of you who have received our new number, don’t bother ringing it until we’ve moved in, unless you want to talk to Julian or Clarke! 🙂 So anyway, that’s about it from me again – a great big milestone in my Weight’s Steaks… er Stakes, I’m pretty chuffed, actually, and it looks like great strides are being made over at Stillwater (apart from electrically, says Winter darkly!) I tell you, that ruddy electrician had better have a good excuse, or a note signed by his mother (preferably both!) But do call back again tomorrow night – find out if my weight is celebrating the Important Milestone in grand style, with caviar and champagne (i.e. it’s gone up!), or if it’s busily carving off more chunks of fat and getting on with the job (i.e. it’s gone down!) I just hope it doesn’t decide to rest on its laurels! (stayed the same!) I’ll also be able to fill you all in on the Progress at Stillwater, and how much is still left to be done – so stay tuned! 🙂 In the meantime, please endeavour to bee good, don’t forget that wisdom has never made a bigot, but learning has. Always remember to look after yourselves, to keep warm, and to drive carefully – but most importantly, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Only eighteen more Stair Walks…

Depending on what time we actually leave here… but officially, only eighteen left. It’s half past three, and I’ve only just come back from my “lunchtime” Stair Walk! My favourite eldest daughter didn’t come over today as planned, she had a bad cold was not feeling at all well! As much as I love both my daughters, I think this would be a very bad time for Julian and me to catch whatever cold bug it is that she has, so there was a “slight” change in plans. We’d also had a call from the people we’d bought our new lounge-suite from – ours was still stuck on the wharf and would not be able to be delivered on Friday after all. Our dining room table wasn’t ready yet, either! We were not impressed. They did have a grey lounge-suite of the same style and aspect (with the “chaise” on the right hand side, so that it would go along the wall)… So, off we went to look at that first. They didn’t actually have the grey one there – but it is in stock – so they showed us the leather swatch instead. We also asked about getting a matching extra lounge chair, because quite frankly, I don’t think we’ll have enough sitting spaces if everyone’s over for Christmas or a Birthday… They did have plenty of the dark brown (The colour we’d originally ordered) lounge-suites, 2 seater and single-seater chairs in stock, only all the couches had the “chaise” on the left hand side. Well, the guy’s a damn good salesman, I’ll give him that – because going on our floor plans and dimensions, he very nearly talked us into getting one of the left-hand “chaise” couches and a two-seater chair – and if the room had only been a meter longer, it would have been almost perfect! We had to go to Stillwater anyway, to re-measure the dishwasher and clothes dryer cavities, because Julian hadn’t been able to find them over here – so we told the guy that we’d measure up the lounge room and let him know if we’d take the left-handed lounge-suite and two-seater chair or stay with the grey right-handed one. We spent quite a while at Stillwater, measuring up the lounge room, marking out where the table would go, and how far out the lounge-suite would come. There’s a marble-topped sideboard (currently living in our hall here – people who’ve been here will know which one I’m talking about – the one that had the two bronze busts on it) that has to fit comfortably between the lounge-suite and the kitchen bench, without impinging on the dining room table area. The lounge-suite, together with a small side table, measures 4.1m – we’d have 2 meters left for the sideboard. It would all fit, but it would be a very tight fit… There wouldn’t be much room between the “chaise” of the couch and the dining room chairs, and the sideboard would be almost on top of the kitchen bench – something that I didn’t want because I want the sideboard to act as a “demarcation” line between the kitchen and the lounge room. So we rang the guy back and told him we’d take the grey, right-handed “chaise” lounge-suite – which will be delivered on Friday, as ordered – and we’ll wait to see how much room we have to play with before we buy an extra single or two-seater chair. A “loan” table will also be delivered with the lounge-suite on Friday, until ours is ready. Then Julian measured the dishwasher and clothes dryer cavities, and we headed off to Harvey Norman. Both the dishwasher and the clothes dryer we’re getting are by Miele, so we only ordered them at H.N. – Miele themselves do the deliveries and installations – and just as Julian was heading out again this afternoon we got a text message from them saying that they’d be delivered on Friday… and delivery times for Vermont South are between… 7.30am and 10.00am! Aarrgghh! *sob* It looks like another very, very early morning for us on Friday, if we have to be there at 7.30, “just in case”! 😦 However, from Harvey Norman we then headed off to Reece, Burwood branch, to see about getting my two swivelly taps, the kitchen tap, and a new shower-hose head because I don’t like the one that’s there now. Julian’s is one of those big, flat “it’s raining again!” hanging from the ceiling-type shower heads, and although he’s not waxing with enthusiasm about it, he says he’ll see how it goes before changing things… We managed to get pretty much the same type of kitchen tap, only without the hose inside it (they only leak water into the kitchen cupboard, anyway!) and I got a reasonably nice shower-hose head. The “water leaking” part is fairly small, and it does three pulse-type thingies, which I forget what they are now – the main thing about it is that it’s not heavy like this one here, it’s quite light! The one here is fairly solid and heavy, and as soon as it gets wet and I get soapy hands it tends to slip around in my hand so that it’s pointing every way except the way I want it to! I’ll be interesting to see if I have the same problem with this lighter one… Unfortunately, they didn’t have my swivelly taps there – apparently they’re kitchen taps – all the swivelly bathroom basin ones are goose-neck ones, and we can’t use those in my bathroom (besides, they wouldn’t match the rest of the plumbing hardware in the house!) They did have two of them at their Rowville store though, so that’s where Julian was heading out to before. He’s just rung to say that he has them, and was on his way home – however he was going to stop off at the Vet’s to get some more pussy-biscuits (read: kibble) for Flipper, and to discuss with them the best way of boarding her overnight there from Tuesday morning until Wednesday morning, and they can do their usual checkup of her at the same time (she also has some “wool-mats” under her right ear that we might get them to cut out for us) As soon as Julian gets home it’ll be coffee time – and it even looks as though I might be able to go for my evening Stair Walk at around the usual time (we’d been thinking that I’d have to do it after dinner, which I hate doing!) I don’t think I’ll go over to Stillwater tomorrow – I definitely need a break – or should I say “my back” definitely needs a break! (well, it feels broken, anyway!) I’ll go on Thursday and Friday – or maybe just Friday – I haven’t decided yet. Julian still needs to ring the man who was going to “install” the mirror, to tell him that he won’t be needed to hang it – with the plaster coming off the walls between the bedroom and the en-suite, there won’t be any where to “install” it!

Weigh-in this morning. I knew it – always…. always… when I get to this point in a “kilogram zone”, I slow right down to almost zero movement – unless it’s upwards, of course! I zig-zag backwards and forwards – it drives me nutz! This morning I went down the point I went up yesterday – from 78.6kg back to 78.5kg – where I was on Sunday! Stupid!

So I’m not sure what I’ll be doing tomorrow – with any luck, I might even get a bit of Rifting in! Who knows? 🙂 Moving day is looming on the horizon, and as well as being excited about it, I’m also starting to get a bit scared… and full of “what if’s?”I have to start looking for some sort of Treadmill, too – I won’t have these handy-dandy stairs for much longer! I don’t have a clue where to start looking, or even what I’m looking for – but once again, I’m sure that “it’ll be alright on the night!” 😉 Julian is arrived home – coffee is on its way! Julian has made Flipper a date with the Vet – she’s being dropped off on Monday night, and picked up again on Wednesday morning. She’s going to be furious with us, but she’s also going to be confused and frightened by her new surroundings – hopefully, with us coddling and making a big fuss of her, it will help to not only calm her down, but also to get over her annoyance with us for sending her to the Vet’s for the night in the first place! And with that, once again it’s time to say “and that’s about it from me for tonight!” 🙂 But do call back again tomorrow night, and get a blow-by-blow description of all the things that happened both here and at Stillwater during the course of the day. Like what my weight decided to do, or not do, and how the work on the en-suite door is progressing at Stillwater, and lots of other bits of gossip and news as well. Until then, though, please continue to bee good, don’t forget that it is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance, remember to look after yourselves, to keep warm, and to drive carefully – but above all, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Only twenty-one more Stair Walks…

…After this evening’s Stair Walk, that is! 🙂 Just think! Only seven days to go! A week! 🙂 (Winter jiggles up and down in her chair in excited anticipation) This time next week the packers will have been in to pack up everything that we won’t be using between Monday night and Tuesday morning… but I’m getting a week ahead of myself, aren’t I! I’ve had the house to myself today – Julian’s been over at Stillwater waiting for the pallets to arrive (they’re to put in the shed to keep cardboard boxes off the floor in case water gets in – I told you all about that already!) There’s a hard rubbish collection on in Vermont South at the moment, and I was a bit worried that they might have been delivered early, and then picked up by the Hard Rubbish collectors before Julian got there, even though he’d told the delivery people that if there was no-one home, they were to leave them in the drive, in front of the garage. But, well, I mean we all know how much notice delivery people take of the instructions they’re given, don’t we! (Uhhh… to any delivery-type peoples who happen to be reading this – sorry, I do know that it’s only the bad-uns amongst you that tarnish the rest of you – and I’m quite sure that you put things where you’re told to! 🙂 ) Anyway, the pallets hadn’t been taken by the Hard Rubbish peoples, they were just… quite a bit later than they said they were going to be (try several hours!) But the cleaners were coming too – and they were on time. It took them the full five hours to clean the place – I tell you what, this place will be cleaned twice after we move out – once to satisfy the charming Carmen and the stupendous Sharron that the place is fit to be turned into a doll’s house, and then once again, after they’ve moved all their doll’s house furniture out, and we’ve collected our books… Yesterday even Clarke commented on the cleanliness of the place – he said that you might expect that from renters, who were probably resentful, getting kicked out of “their” house that they’d lived in for years because the nasty landlord was selling it – but that house owners usually had a bit more pride… *shrug* still, not our business – the place is ours now, and it’s clean! Julian thinks he knows how the island bench came to have such big chips knocked out of the caesarstone! Caesarstone is hard and durable – it has to be, to be used in kitchen and bathroom benches and so forth – but I don’t think it’s really designed to have a cast-iron trivet from the stove top dropped on it, which is what he thinks might have happened when they were being carried across to the sink for cleaning. Anyway, Clarke says that the chips, although quite deep, can be fixed – apparently the caesarstone people make up a mixture of the substance, blend it until they get it about right, blob it on like spakafilla, and then when it’s “set”, polish it back to blend in with the rest of the bench (Note: Readers! Please do not use spakafilla to mend chips in caesarstone! Get your caesarstone professionals to do it, as we will – I only meant that from what I was told, that’s roughly the type of method that’s used – OK?!) So the pallets are in the shed, the house is (finally!) clean, and Julian’s just arrived home and brought me a cup of coffee 🙂 So once again, it’s all “Go! go! go!” – tomorrow we’re tap and shower head hunting. My favourite eldest daughter will be over, and we’ll likely be watching… something… and that will be our last day of semi-relaxation for at least a week! Wednesday’s going to be the busy day this week – Clarke starts his work, Julian has just organised for the Flat Pack Assembler to start assembling the flat pack furniture on Wednesday, and he’s just this minute got off the phone from speaking to the Electrician, who will also be starting work on Wednesday! I’m not sure whether or not I should be there – I suppose I can sit in a corner and look decorative or something, or make the guys cups of yukky coffee… or I can stay right out of the way and sit around here making new headers and playing Rift – something that I really haven’t been able to do for ages now (I hate starting to play and then have to drop everything because we’re going out, or I’m needed for something! I’d rather not play at all than be constantly stopping and starting (which is why I haven’t been playing much lately!)) The trouble is, I do want to be over at Stillwater – I want to see what’s happening, and be part of it all – but at the same time I know that most of the time I’ll just be sitting there, twiddling my thumbs… I’ll see how I feel on the day, I think!  Thursday I might stay home – it’ll only be Julian, Clarke, and probably the Electrician. We need to have another, probably double, power point put in the laundry – underneath – the bench, for the clothes dryer to plug in to – there’s a power point above the bench, but I don’t think Julian wants to drill a hole through the bench for the power cord to go through (I don’t want a hole drilled in the bench for the power cord to go through either!) and I need a double power point in my bathroom, close to, or next to the bath. There’s a double power point on the right hand wall next to the vanity unit, but the vanity unit is terribly small, and with two basins there’s not very much acreage left on which to put things like toothbrush chargers, or my nice Dyson hot/cold fan… but they’ll sit very happily on the “capped” bath, if we have another double power point put in! 🙂 The switch for the automatic light in the Walk In Wardrobe has to be installed, and quite a lot of cables have to be thrown for computers and all Julian’s electrical stuff… On Friday the rest of the non-flat-pack furniture is arriving, and I do want to be there for that, because it’ll be (mostly!) me telling them where to put it… er… telling them where it’s supposed to go… I suppose with the main furniture in, Saturday and Sunday will be spent unpacking stuff and putting what we can away… And that’s the rest of our week! Wanna swap with us? 😉

Weigh-in this morning. I was not pleased, and I was certainly not amused! Most of yesterday was also spent on my feet, standing and walking around, and once again, it played havoc with my back – however I’m beginning to suspect a sinister conspiracy at work! You know the old adage that people throw at you about losing weight – “energy in, energy out!”, meaning that the more you eat, the more you have to exercise to counteract what you’ve eaten – or words to that effect. Well, over the last few days I’ve been a hell of a lot more active than I have been for at least fifteen to twenty years – I’m certainly spending a lot of time standing and walking around (not slowly, either!) and although standing and walking around isn’t “exercise”, it is using energy because of the [heavily censored!] pain I’m constantly in when I’m standing and walking – but even not counting the standing and walking around, my “energy in” factor is a lot less than my “energy out”! …So why did I go up a point this morning, hmmm! I went from 78.5kg to 78.6kg! Quite frankly, I think that “energy in, energy out” business is a load of ruddy hogwash!

(grumble grumble) I’m going to have to swallow some more Panadol before I do my evening Stair Walk – I don’t like taking it on top of all the other stuff I have to take, but my back’s really been taking a pounding, and I have more to do tomorrow… *sigh* Never mind – this time in a fortnight it’ll all be over. We’ll be moved, and settled in… and the two of us might get time to stop and have a breather for five seconds. Julian won’t though – I know him too well! He’ll fret and fiddle and fume for the next six months before he’s satisfied that everything’s been done properly, and to his standards! 🙂 And so here we are once more – this is the time of the evening when I say to you all “and that’s about it from me for tonight!” – because it is, 🙂 and you’ll have to come back again tomorrow night to find out what my favourite eldest daughter and I watched, or if you want to find out what my stupid weight did (or didn’t!) and to find out if we found the right taps and shower hose head for Stillwater – let’s just hope that Reece’s Plumbing Supplies are more comprehensible in-store than they aren’t on-line! I went looking for taps and shower hose heads the other day, and yes, they have little teeny pictures of things that might, or might not be what you’re looking for, and yes, you can “click to enlarge” them – but all you get is a slightly bigger image of a teeny little… whatever it is! But until then, please try to bee good, remember to always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to keep warm, and to drive carefully – but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Only twenty-four more Stair Walks…

Well, here it is, late again *sigh* all because I was fiddling around with this new header (and new template… so what else is new, hmmm?) I’m not sure if I like it or not… so at the moment, you can expect it to change without notice! 😉 This morning we went over to Stillwater to wait for Clarke – I turned on the heating, and I timed it… it took fifteen minutes for the kitchen-dining-family area to start warming up, and twenty minutes for it to be nice and warmly comfortable! It was already nice and warm in the other rooms, but the kitchen-dining-family area is completely tiled, and quite enormous, and has a long, folding glass door facing onto the entertainment deck and back yard (as you can see from the photographs on the “As Seen On…” page!) Clarke arrived at about twenty past twelve, and after a bit of chit-chat we presented him with our list. The bath in my bathroom will be “capped” for the moment – that is, the faucet standing proud from the bath will be removed, as will the tap and flange from the wall, and a thin sheet of caesarstone or veneered wood will be dropped over the whole lot, giving me a very big bench on which to put things. Early in the new year the bath and its surrounds will be fully removed, and the bathroom will be re-modeled, with a vanity unit along one wall, and somewhere I can sit to do my hair and put on my makeup. I don’t think that they make a vanity unit in the shape that I want, with a diagonal corner section where I can sit as at a desk, with my legs tucked under the bench – I’ll probably have to design it and have it built, unless Clarke can come up with a better suggestion. At the moment the plan is that Clarke is going to make me a Cedar shower stool – it only has to last until the bathroom is re-modeled early next year, anyway. On Tuesday we have to go to either Reece’s or some other Bathroom place to get a new shower hose-head (? is that what they’re called?) because I don’t like the one that’s there, two new swivelly taps for my bathroom, and a new kitchen tap for the kitchen sink. So that took care of my bathroom (and the kitchen tap!) Next we went on to the en-suite. It, too, will be re-modeled early next year – and at the moment, all it needs is a door! Clarke did a lot of measuring, and I never realised that putting in a wall cavity sliding door was so complicated! The plaster has to come completely off the walls on both sides of the wall before the door can be installed – I suppose it makes sense – you really don’t know what might have been stuffed in the wall behind the plaster, do you? I mean you might electrocute yourself if it was live wires or something! Anyway, that’s being done. There’s room in the Walk In Wardrobe to put a standard door – there is a light switch on the wall where the door would open, but that’s going to be turned into a pressure switch so that every time you open the door, the Walk In Wardrobe light will automagically turn on. Next. Julian wanted a small hot water service installed in one of the island bench cupboards, like we have here, to facilitate the arrival of nice hot water faster than the pipes would normally carry it *rolls eyes* Julian thought it was terribly slow, but I pointed out to him that (a) it’s a lot closer to the hot water service than the Doncaster kitchen is, and (b) my Doncaster bathroom is only half the distance from the hot water service than the kitchen, and I have to wait twice as long as the Stillwater kitchen does for hot water to start coming out of the tap! The Stillwater kitchen hot water is not slow at all, it’s just that he’s spoilt here in Doncaster with the extra hot water service in the kitchen – because it is needed here! So we’ve decided to see how we go without the extra hot water service in the kitchen, and without an insinkerator for a “trial period” – if he feels he can’t live without one or both items, they can be installed any time! The kitchen does need a new kitchen tap though – the one that’s there is wobbly and wonky – so we’ll get that along with the things for my bathroom on Tuesday… Clarke is full of ideas though – the room designated “Library” really isn’t very big. It could work, if we quite literally lined the four walls with bookcases – even all around the windows, leaving the windows “framed” with bookcases (it could actually look very attractive!  (that was one of my suggestions…)) I also suggested that we turn that small room into the third bedroom, and knock the wall down between the first two bedrooms, and turn that new large room into the Library. That could work, too… Clarke’s suggestion was to knock down the wall between the Den (which is gi-normous, anyway!) and the Library, turn the major part of the Den into the Library, with two recliners and a table, and move the Den/Computer area into the second, smaller part of the room (smaller, not in actual size, but because it’s a bit of a funny shape) that way we’d have a very comfortable and pleasant sitting and reading area, extending into an attractive computer area overlooking the entertainment deck and the back garden! That would work even better! And that was just off the top of his head, on the spur of the moment! I can just about guarantee that he’ll have even more and betterer ideas when he comes back next Wednesday! There are a few “odd jobs” for him to do outside, but that’s why we have to go and get the taps on Tuesday, because he’s starting on Wednesday! 🙂

And that was the Clarke visit!

Weigh-in this morning. Still no sign of the dreaded Bounce Back! Hopefully it’s been side-tracked by something else… *sigh* but no doubt it’ll catch up with me sooner or later – it always does! But today, I went down another two points, from 78.7kg to 78.5kg – and of course, this is where I really start to slow down… or stay the same… or go up… depending on my body’s whim (not my whim, you understand, it’s my body’s whim that does these terrible things to me!) We’ll see what tomorrow brings… but… “Please, father Christmas, if you love me at all… bring me a couple more points off first – I have got a pocket-knife, that almost cuts!” (as paraphrased by me from A.A. Milne’s “King John’s Christmas“) 😉

It looks as though I’m going to have to cancel my hairdresser’s appointment on Thursday 😦 Too much is happening. I have my Warfarin blood test – which only takes as long as it takes to wind a tourniquet around my arm and bung a needle into my vein – however the mirror will probably be arriving (ooo-er! The mirror people who were going to “install” (read: “hang”) it when they delivered it won’t be able to, because Clarke will be ripping the plaster off the wall it was going to hang on!) Clarke will be there doing “stuff”, and there’ll probably be other deliveries, like the clothes dryer, and the dishwasher… In fact, my suggestion is for Julian to take me over really early for my blood test, drop me back across the road, and then head off for Stillwater, leaving me here in Doncaster. I’d only be in the way over there, I’d have nothing comfortable to sit on, and I’d probably be bored silly (and besides, I don’t like Moccona coffee! It has an after-taste of, and smells like Marmite!) And that’s about all from me again for tonight! I’ll keep you all posted as to what’s happening, and when – as usual, subject to change without much notice – so do check back again tomorrow night to find out all the latest news at Chez Nous – or maybe Casa Nostra 🙂 Until then, however, please endeavour to bee good, remember that discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment, and don’t forget to drive carefully, to look after yourselves, and to keep warm – but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Only twenty seven more Stair Walks…

*Just added! Photos taken at Stillwater on Friday 14th August – just after settlement – are available on the “As Seen On…” page!

Woo-hoo! Well, I might be starting a bit later than usual, but I did my evening Stair Walk before I started writing, so the number of Stair Walks is correct for the number of days left. Mind you, there’ll probably be one extra Stair Walk involved – I simply can’t imagine walking out of this apartment and off into the sunset (or should I say “the dawn of a new era”? 🙂 ) without one last Stair Walk… but really, a lot of it depends on the time – if we don’t leave here until, say, twenty to twelve or something, then it’ll probably be two extra Stair Walks – it’s just habit – f’rinstance, at such-and-such a time, I get up and go for my (whichever) Stair Walk – regular as a rusty old piece of clockwork! 🙂 Actually, I very nearly didn’t go for my morning Stair Walk today – remember I told you about going to look at mirrors the other day, and after that, out to Rowville to look at the Stair Walking machine, and that I’d done a lot of standing up and walking around? All the time, Julian’s saying “Why don’t you sit down on that chair over there”, and “Are you sure you’re alright? You can sit down…” blah, blah, blah… *sigh* And of course, I have to be tough, don’t I! I have to show everyone that I’m strong – I don’t need to be coddled and cosseted and sit down, do I! There’s a special word for that sort of independent stubbornness – it’s called “stupidity”! and I’ve been paying the price ever since. The reason I nearly didn’t do my morning Stair Walk today was because my damn back was so… buggered and sore! It’ll be better tomorrow (it will, truly! especially if I sit down a lot over at Stillwater tomorrow…)

Anyway, today… well, last night, really. We got a phone call from the Hardly Normal delivery people at around twenty to ten last night, to let us know what time they’d be delivering our flat packs. They told us “between 8.30am and 10.30am” – ye ghods and little fishes! 8.30am! I’m hardly even awake by then! So… another early start! (methinks we’re going to be having quite a few of those over the next couple of weeks!) However, because Clarke had put today off until tomorrow, I elected to stay home, and do my morning Stair Walk after breakfast, instead of before it, as I usually do – Julian only had to be over at Stillwater to take delivery of the flat packs – there was nothing else that needed to be done over there today… and if the delivery arrived early rather than later…? Julian was home by about a quarter past ten, so we did have our day on The Tarken Glacier, after all! And a good day it was, too! 🙂 We dinged level 65! 🙂 I died twice 😦 and Julian died three times – and it cost us a pretty platinum for healing, too – but there’s plenty in the Guild Bank at the moment, so we weren’t too distraught 🙂 But despite dying so many times, and despite the fact that we started late – actually, you know, we didn’t start late at all! We’d had an early morning! We usually don’t start playing until after about ten thirty on Sundays, because we allow ourselves the sheer luxury of sleeping in for an hour, and don’t get up until 8.30am! But I think we did well – we both had about two and a half “bubbles” to go before we dinged, and usually those bubbles grow at such as slow rate as to be almost imperceptible! But we did it! We made it to level 65! 🙂 Now the sixty-four thousand dollar question is, of course, “what do we do now?” We can keep on playing – there is more to the game than just getting to level 65 – we’re in the middle of a quest chain at the moment (which we have done before, but I can’t remember exactly what happens next!) and there are other quest chains after that – but do we really want to keep playing, without the sense of achievement, or the thrill of gaining experience? We’re both max’ed out on our Skills – nothing more to learn there (well, there are new “recipes ” for making things, but they’re things we either don’t really need, or that don’t sell well, and besides… the materials for making high-end items can become extremely expensive!) So what we’ll do from here on in is up for discussion – it’s very highly doubtful that we’ll have a chance to play next Sunday (the 23rd of August, not tomorrow!) and very possibly, not even the following Sunday, either! I’ll be sure to let you all know what we decide, anyway! 😉

I think I need another cup of coffee… Well, we don’t have to be up early tomorrow – we’ll still get our “sleep-in”, because we don’t have to meet up with Clarke until noon. Which reminds me – I’d better make a detailed list of all the things I want him to do for me in the bathroom… … …ummm… that doesn’t sound very… er… good, does it! OK then, “I must make a detailed list of taps to be changed and “cosmetic” reconstruction to the bath that I would like Clarke to have done for me” – there, that sounds a bit better! 🙂 I also want the shower hose changed – I don’t like the one that’s there…

Grrr! Windows went and installed some updates a few days ago. Yesterday it told me that it was shutting down, (right while I was in the middle of writing yesterday’s blog!) or did I want it to do that later? I, naturally, said “I don’t want the ruddy updates anyway!” – well, I didn’t really say that, but I thought it – and I told it “Later”! And then I forgot all about it (as one does!) …until a couple of minutes ago, when my machine gleefully informed me that it was shutting down in fifteen minutes! No “do you want to do it later?” this time, this time it was out to get me! I had files open all over the place! A new header I was working on, the photos of Stillwater for the “As Seen On…” page… dictionaries… calendars… files scattered from here to eternity, and I had to rush around and save them all – including what I’d been writing here – before I lost them! I was not amused! (but I have my coffee, so I do feel a little better! 😉 )

Weigh-in this morning. Much more betterer! If anything, a little too betterer! I went down four points – from 79.1kg to 78.7kg! So while I’m very pleased about the drop, I’m also just a little worried that it might bounce back to bite me! We’ll see… I guess my body is still trying to acclimatise to only one anti-fluid tablet instead of two…

*sigh* – I’m sorry, I’m afraid it’s this time again…

+————————–+ * Dinner & Television Break * +————————–+

Well, that was quick, wasn’t it! 🙂 Here I am, back again, almost before you knew I’d gone! Julian and I were just “blocking out” next week – I can’t say “planning out”, because really, you can’t “plan” anything when too many things depend on something else happening, and if they don’t happen, then neither can anything else that was supposed to follow on after it! We’re seeing Clarke tomorrow at noon – then we’ll come back here and Julian will continue packing things up. On Monday, the cleaners are coming in to give Stillwater the sort of cleaning that its previous owners should have given it before they handed it over to us. Julian spoke to the “Professional Flat-Pack Assembler” who had been recommended to us, but he was vague, said he had the flu, and wouldn’t be able to do anything before “Thursday or Friday” anyway – hardly the sort of response to inspire certainty and confidence – so we’ll see if there’s anyone else who can competently bolt together our glass-top table-desks, Julian’s office desk, filing cabinet, bookcase, and the small sets of drawers… before the rest of the furniture arrives next Friday! And that’s pretty much what I meant about things having to happen in a certain sequence… Oh well, “I’m sure it’ll be alright on the night!”, as they say in the theatre! 🙂 Then we’ll have the weekend to glue together all the things happening at Stillwater, because the packers are supposed to be coming over here on Monday 24th August – though exactly what they’re going to pack I have no idea – I don’t think Julian plans on leaving them anything to pack! And the next day, Tuesday 25th August, we move out ourselves and re-locate at Stillwater! If everything goes to plan! And with that, once again that’s about all from me for tonight! 🙂 Do drop in again tomorrow night to see what Clarke had to say for himself, and whether he can install an en-suite door, a walk in wardrobe door, and put a “cap” on the waste-of-space bath in my bathroom – all before Tuesday week! (no, I don’t really expect him to be able to get all that done by then – just…. most of it! 😉 ) It’ll also be interesting to see if my weight bounces back up again after a nice drop of four points! (Oh! I hope not! I rather like being in the 78kg zone!) and I’ll let you know how my little fishies in the TinyPool are 🙂 There’ll be lots of other news and stuff to tell you about tomorrow night too, but until then, please bee good, always remember that a day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work, and don’t forget to keep warm, to drive carefully, and to look after yourselves… but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Thirty four more Stair Walks…

Until we move. After this evening’s Stair Walk, it’ll be 33 more Stair Walks (that’s three per day @ eleven more days, plus this evening’s Stair Walk) This morning we managed to get ourselves ready in record time – I even did my lunch time Stair Walk before we left! We got to Vermont South shopping centre around 20 to 12, so we milled around a little, then settled into one of the two coffee shops there, grabbed ourselves a cup of reasonably decent coffee, and settled down to wait for “The Call”. I honestly don’t know how we managed to sit there so patiently, just talking! I don’t know about Julian, but my stomach was churning with nervous anticipation! “The Call” finally came around twenty past twelve, and we shot off to the Real Estate Office to collect our keys (at long last!) The place was officially ours! Our names are on the title, so it’s ours, I tell you, ours! 🙂 Then we came back and played Rift… and if you believe that, I have a lovely one-owner bridge to sell you! 🙂 We went “home”, and checked out all the things I’d kept meaning to check, but always forgot – like: did the windows open? And if they did, were there any fly-wire screens on them? Where were the power points in the bathrooms? And other such trivial generalities. Anyway, yes, the windows open – some of them, anyway. Some are slide across’s, and some of them are wind-out’s, and all the windows that do open have very nice, well made – no spider or mosquito could penetrate them – fly-wire screens. Tick! The power points in the bathrooms… hmmm… well, there’s one double power point in each bathroom, on the wall next to the vanity unit, but the amount of space between the vanity basin and the edge of the vanity unit is only about six inches (approximately 15cm, Julian tells me) so wide enough for a small electric toothbrush charger, but not, unfortunately, wide enough for my “squirty” (the water pick I use to clean under my implant bridges) Luckily there’s enough room just behind the vanity basins for the power cord to be threaded (and in fact, will hide the messy cord very nicely!) so the “squirty” can sit in the middle, between the two basins. I’ll need to get the faucets in my bathroom changed – the ones in the en-suite can swivel, the ones in my bathroom can’t, and I want swivelly faucets! I don’t have them here, and I grit my teeth in annoyance every time I need to turn the stream of water away from what I’m washing! Yes, I have chosen the main bathroom rather than the en-suite as “my” bathroom! Why? Well, the shower is bigger and I will be able to fit a shower stool in it, and although the bath is a nuisance and a waste of time (as far as we’re concerned) I’m going to see if Clarke can “cap it” – cover the whole thing with a cut-to-measure sheet of marble, or caesarstone. That would give me a lot more room, and should look nice, with some ferns, perfume, lotions and potions, and “generically pretty things” sitting around on it 🙂 Of the three bedrooms down one side of the house, one will be a “spare bedroom-slash-Flipper’s room”, one will be Julian’s Commodore 64 room, and one will be a “Library Spillover Room”, or “Library #2”, or maybe even “The Little Library”, as the room we’d designated as “the Library” probably isn’t going to be big enough to house all our books. We’re extremely impressed with the heater – it’s ducted gas heating, and it took about twenty minutes for the entire house to go from “arctic refrigerated” to “comfortably cosy and warm” 🙂 Let’s hope that the refrigerated air conditioning works as well in the summer! 🙂 We had our lunch there today, an Optifast Chocolate bar each (I was supposed to have had a Cappuccino bar but Julian inadvertently grabbed two Chocolate ones) and a cup of Moccona coffee – while Julian wandered around taking photos, and we wrote a list of things we wanted Clarke to look at or do for us. We’re meeting up with him tomorrow morning over at Stillwater to talk about what we want done, and to find out how long all the work is likely to take – and on Monday morning, we’re getting the cleaners that the captivating Carmen says are so good, to come and clean the place thoroughly. After our visit there last Tuesday when we found the place so… grubby (I’m trying hard to be very polite there!) I would have thought that the previous owners would have at least made some attempt to clean the place up a bit – but no, it was still as filthy as it was last Tuesday (quite disgraceful, really!) We’re getting three people, for five hours, and as the place is empty they should be able to do a pretty good job in five hours! When we got back here, around 2.30-ish, we had a proper cup of coffee, and himself went off to “make some phone calls”. Whilst we were at Stillwater, Julian had done a little fiddling with the phone on the kitchen wall there, and managed to get the telephone number of the previous owners. When we got back here, he rang Tel$tra armed with that number, which was still “in the system” (that is, it hadn’t been re-allocated yet) the nice girl at Tel$tra was able to give us our new number, and the phone there should be on as of next Monday morning…. so all you “Persons of Interest”, watch your email, OK?! because the number is “Silent and Unlisted” so I can’t send it to anyone any other way. We just had an SMS from Clarke – he wants to meet with us on Sunday, rather than Saturday because he forgot that he has a family sports day, or something, so I think Julian and I are going to have to fit our Rifting in whenever we can At first I thought “That’s OK, we can make Saturday our Sunday on Tarken Glacier”, and then I remembered that we have furniture being delivered tomorrow, so we can’t… We won’t even know what time the furniture is arriving until tomorrow morning, either! So, double drat!

After the place has been properly and thoroughly cleaned next Monday, we’re going to start ferrying boxes over and putting away what we can until the rest of the furniture arrives – then we’ll start putting the furniture and things we’re not keeping up for sale – probably on Gumtree – I’ll post a list of items here when we get all that organised.

Oh, and I saw two little orange and white goldfish in the water at the base of the water feature (which we left running for them when we left – Julian thought it would aerate the water a bit for them) and I was right – they do swim off and hide in the little “caverns” between the blocks of stone that the water feature stands on! So we’d parked the car in the garage… and as Julian was backing out to come back here… he backed bang-smack into the letterbox pillar! Ooops! Well, at least it wasn’t my fault (he’s trying to make out that it was my fault, because he couldn’t see over the top of my wheelchair in the back of the car – strange how he never has trouble with that when he’s reversing here, or over at Shoppingtown, though! 😉 )

Weigh-in this morning. I think I should go back to taking two anti-fluid tablets every morning again! I was most unhappy this morning – after all my walking around and standing up yesterday, killing my back, I stayed the same! The same! It’s not fair! Why?! *pout* **cry** *sniffle* So I’m still sitting on 79.1kg for the second day in a row… 😦 I really hope I do a bit better tomorrow… We’ll see…

Well, tomorrow we’ll be back at Stillwater – once we know when the furniture is arriving, so we’d better take some more lunch with us again – we left the coffee, the mugs, the teaspoon, the tea-towels and the el-cheapo kettle (that Julian bought in Coles this morning) over there, we only brought the milk (and our rubbish) back here. This time I’ll make sure I have the Cappuccino bar… despite being a chocolaholic, I don’t like the Optifast Chocolate bars very much – they stick to my teeth! Anyway, once again, that’s about all I have for you tonight! You’ll notice that the countdown at the top has changed – I decided that rather than count down in days, I’d count down in Stair Walks… just for a change 🙂 Do call back again tomorrow night, find out if my weight has changed (“just for a change!” 😉 ) and if our furniture arrived. Unfortunately though, the furniture that is arriving is in flat-packs, and flat-packs are really boring and uninteresting… boxes… They only become exciting and interesting when they’re assembled – and alas, that won’t be until the week after next! 😦 But there’ll be an awful lot going on, and I’m sure none of you want to miss out on all the gossip 😉 Until then, though, please bee good, don’t forget that what you do today can improve all your tomorrows, and remember to keep warm, to drive carefully, and to look after yourselves… but most of all, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

No more days left, settlement’s tomorrow! 🙂

Hey, guess what! I’m starting this very early today because I have to have my hair cut at 4.30, and by the time we get home I’ll probably only just have time to do my evening Stair Walk before it’s dinner time! You’ll probably notice, too, that there’s no featured “Quote of the Day” from Goodreads today – that’s because I thought today’s quote was pretty “blah”, and not worth showing you!

After a pretty slow start this morning – I couldn’t find the right brushes to use with my mauve-toned eyeshadow, so I went and wasted a good fifteen minutes searching through the “use sometimes” shoebox where I’ve “packed” (read: thrown) all the gunk I don’t use very often. Well, I found a lot of brushes – more than I thought I had – but I didn’t find the right ones *sigh* which means that now I’m going to have to wash the lot of them, get them dry (before tomorrow morning!) and start all over again, this time labeling them all correctly. Putting on make-up is such a bore – it takes ages to apply (trust me, the older you get, the longer it takes!) and half the time when you go to all the trouble of trying to look “presentable”, no-one notices anyway! This little rhyme was found in my maternal grandmother’s Autograph book: “A little bit powder, a little bit paint, makes a sweet lady just what she ain’t!” – I often find myself thinking about it when I’m sitting in the bathroom, trying to decide on which colour eyeshadow to use… and whether I can even be bothered! 🙂 So… we had a slow-ish start this morning, but we eventually finished breakfast, Julian had his shower, and we’d drained our first coffee cups of the day… then we took off to go to “Mirror Mirror” in Collingwood. It’s on Hoddle Street, and it’s hard to miss, with all the mirrors they have displayed on the gravel naturestrip – but there are roadworks going on right outside the shop, and as I suspected, parking was… problematical! We drove past, thinking to drive around the block for another attempt, however the “block” sorta grew… and grew… because a lot of the little twisty side streets which all look the same were one-way streets that emptied into Hoddle Street, but wouldn’t let you get off Hoddle Street… Let me just say that this morning, we saw an awful lot of Collingwood that we never expected to see, and will probably never see again! Crikey, there’s a lot of renovation work and new buildings going on in those twisty little lanes! It’s almost as though Collingwood is being torn down and re-built/re-furbished from the ground up, right in front of your eyes! We eventually made our way back to Hoddle Street (see!? Miracles do still happen!) and to Mirror Mirror – and this time we were lucky enough to get a park right outside! My goodness! I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many ruddy mirrors in the one place! There were about a dozen parked, as I said, on the naturestrip, and I thought that was a lot! But inside, they were stacked fifteen to twenty deep in some places, along walls, against make-shift partitions, “out the back”, and into an adjoining barn of a workshop. They were hung on walls, draped over windows, attached to cornices… And then there was upstairs! That was the more “modern” section of the shop! Crammed here and there between, and sometimes partially behind mirrors, were sample corners of different sorts of frames… It was confusing, awe-inspiring, amazing, and breathtaking, all at once! We found three mirrors that we liked – the one I was really keen on, but had to leave behind because it was really a bit too big, had a frame of pressed silvery-coloured metal filigree – light and flimsy, but very opulent, it could have been used for the Wicked Queen’s mirror on the wall in Snow White!! it would have been absolutely the right one, if it had only been a little smaller… alas… they only made them in that size… 😦 The second mirror had a slightly thinner frame made out of what appeared to be some sort of thick woven straw? (it wasn’t – I think it was actually made of wood) It had a silver-gilt finish, and although we thought it would “go”, we decided in the end that we really needed something in “cooler” tones – the wallpaper in the bedroom is in shades of grey, black, and silver, and the “gilt” on the silver really wouldn’t have toned in properly. The ladies in the shop really knew their mirrors and their frames – they referred to the mirrors by style, and the shop hands always knew immediately which mirrors and frames they meant. Anyway, the mother (it was a mother and daughter team working the shop) suggested a type of frame which was brought out for us to look at – it was maybe just a trifle wider than I really wanted, but it was wood, very plain – even a little austere – and painted black, with a very faint silver “antiquing” applied to it. It was very nice, and we’d almost decided on that frame, when the daughter said “It comes in silver too, you know!” so off she went to fetch us a piece of the silver frame. Of course it wasn’t silver silver, it was wood too, but the paint jobs had been reversed. This one was painted silver, with a very faint black “antiquing” applied to it. Sold! 🙂 The mirror will be ready for pick-up and installation next Thursday! That’s fast, for those sorts of places! I’ll post before and after pictures of the place and the furnishings once we’re in and settled! 🙂 Oh, and they had the most beautiful “floor lamp”! I wants it, my preciousssss! It’s an Art Nouveau/Deco  mermaid, standing up on a loop of her silver scaled tail – with a classic Art Deco head and nude torso, she has one arm raised above her head holding the bowl of the lamp, the other arm lies relaxed at her side… she’s absolutely, stunningly, gorgeous! Julian said “Where would you put her!” – with no hesitation, I replied “in the Den!” – I think she’d look fabulous in there, she really would… *sigh* (she was also extremely expensive! 😦 )

After we left Mirror Mirror, we went off to Rowville to have a look at these Stair Climbing machines… only they didn’t have one! They had brochures with pictures, and they had a couple of second-hand older models – ex-gym machines which wouldn’t have been at all suitable – so we’re really still at square one with those, as this time we’re going to insist on seeing the actual machine, and if possible, have a “test stair climb” on one – after all, this time we’re not talking about a $250 shower stool which might, or might not be suitable!

As I suspected…

+——————–+ * Hairdresser, Stair Walk, Dinner & Television Break * +——————–+

And now, here I am back again! 🙂 Quick, wasn’t I! 😉 This time tomorrow night… the mind fairly boggles! 🙂 (Winter jiggles up and down in her chair with excitement) We’ll have a new house! My hair looks good – it was really in need of a decent cut! We did a bit of shopping after that, then came home – as I said, with only just enough time to have my evening Stair Walk before the 7.00pm news. Julian and I talked about the Stair Walking machine a bit this evening too – we’re now thinking it might be a better idea to hire/lease a treadmill for a while, to see how I go with that – he says that it doesn’t have to be stairs, and that hiking up and down the stairs three times a day isn’t really burning any significant calories, but that it’s more of a means of stimulating my metabolism. Tsk! And here was I, foolishly believing that it was actually helping me lose weight! The thing is, I can’t go for long walks outside because (a) my back gives out, and (b) I can’t walk very far wearing shoes – and you can’t walk outside and cross roads and rough places without them – or at least, I can’t. However, as he says, I can walk inside without my shoes, so I could just as easily go for long walks in the country on the treadmill, inside, without my shoes, and in air-conditioned comfort in the summer. Apparently you can angle them to adjust the resistance you have to work against… Anyway, that’s something to look into later. Well, not too much later – I only have 36 more Stair Walks before we move! 🙂 12 more days, Stairs 3 times a day = 36 more Stair Walks! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. This morning was my last morning on two anti-fluid tablets – tomorrow, I go back to one – I’m curious to see what effect it has on my fluid and weight loss, if any, now that I’m not taking the other wretched pills. Anyway, I only went down two points this morning – from 79.3kg to 79.1kg (the scales did teeter down to 78.something for a second or two, but then I moved a foot a little bit and they went back up to 79.1kg! Boo! Hiss!) We’ll see what tomorrow brings! (hopefully good news!) 🙂

I said earlier that we did a bit of shopping on the way home, and I said to Julian “Now, what are we taking with us tomorrow, when we get the keys?” and guess what! he’d forgotten to buy a cheap kettle to take over so that we could make ourselves a cup of coffee! I told him “Never mind, we’ll be right outside a shopping centre while we wait for the keys – we can get one then!” Before we leave here tomorrow, we should pack ourselves a “picnic lunch” – er… and remember to put a roll of toilet paper in the basket as well, just in case (I’m quite sure that the Vendors won’t have left any there for us!) Anyway, tonight’s blog episode is starting to become encyclopaedic in length – though I’m sure I could probably babble on for a few more paragraphs, if you wanted me to – No? Oh, alright then – spoil my fun then, see if I care! 😉 And so this is where I shall leave you this evening – don’t forget to look in again tomorrow and find out how the settlement went, and if we had our picnic lunch over in our new house, and if you’re lucky, I shall be able to fill you in on lots of other fun and interesting news (like my weight!)(and other things!) but until then, please continue to bee good, don’t forget that the Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility, and we can all do likewise in our own way! Remember to look after yourselves, to keep warm, and to drive carefully – but most importantly, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Two days to go…

This is totally amazing! If it keeps up, I’ll have to start putting these up on the “As seen on…” page again! I can go for months and months and months, without seeing a single worthwhile (or what I consider worthwhile, anyway!) “Quote of the Day” from Goodreads, and now, all of a sudden, it’s the third day in a row with a decent one!

“Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you.” ― Alex Haley, “Roots”

The blurb reads: Roots author Alex Haley (born August 11, 1921) served in the Coast Guard during World War II. Impressed by his writing skills, his fellow sailors would pay him to write love letters to their girlfriends.

I don’t quite know why it’s “two” days to go – there’s really only one – tomorrow – and then it’s Friday, settlement day! And then, of course, the countdown starts all over again until Moving Day! It’s getting so close now, I’m starting to get nervous… anyway… Last night and this morning I went looking for “stair climbing” machines… I found heaps of them – large trolley contraptions for carting big heavy items up flights of stairs, both mechanical and motorised. I found one (yep! Only the one!) exercise machine that had rotating steps. There were about three or four that had two “paddles”, I suppose you’d call them – that you stepped on, left, right, left, right – a bit like riding a unicycle of some sort? which is definitely not what we’re looking for! I can’t ride a bike, anyway, even if they’re exercise bikes firmly attached to the floor – I just fall off them. My balance is abysmal – it’s almost as bad as my maths – but I never get sea-sick! The rougher and bumpier the water is the better I like it… however, I digress. For climbing stairs, I need to step up onto a stair with my left foot, then bring my right foot up so that I have both feet on the same step – rinse and repeat to the top, and then I do the opposite going down – I step down onto my right foot, then bring my left foot down to the same step. If I try to lead with my left foot on the way down, I’ll fall – I’ve tried it a couple of times, and each time I’ve ended up clinging white-knuckled to the stair rail, with my back painfully twisted. My left foot doesn’t seem to be able to “reach” that far down, for some unknown reason (Julian says it’s because my spine has fused in such a way that my left foot really can’t reach down that far on its own – my right foot has to be there first!) If I step down with my right foot first, and step up with my left foot first, everything works just fine, and I’m like an elderly mountain goat – I’m just concerned that these stair climbing machines either won’t be able to be set slow enough for me to do that, or that I’ll be told that I have to wear shoes to use the machine safely… well, I suppose I should really wear shoes to climb the stairs here “safely”, and I can, if I really have to, but I’m definitely a lot safer without them! *shrug* As usual, I’ll probably put my shoes on (so that I’m not lying) and tell anyone who asks “Yes, yes, I’m wearing shoes, just like you said I should!” and then take them off before using the machine… 😀

These machines are at Rowville, wherever that is, and if we have time between going to the Mirror place tomorrow morning, and my hairdressing appointment at 4.30 in the afternoon, we might see if we can get there to look at one – there are three different models… Time is getting short, and after we’ve moved, I don’t think Julian will want to drive me over here three times a day to climb stairs… You know, I’d try walking a couple of blocks three times a day – I reckon I could probably do that now in bare feet – but for something like walking around outdoors, I would have to wear shoes, and if I was wearing these shoes I don’t think I’d even make one block, let alone several! Now, if I could get a pair of shoes made like socks, but with thicker and more protective soles, that would probably work… (except in summer, when there’s no way you’ll be able to prise me out of the house and away from the air conditioner, if it’s over 25C!)

Weigh-in this morning. It seems that I truly am a person of extremes… someone told me once that I was like a volcano – lovely and calm and serene one minute, then the next, *BOOM*, I’d explode and disrupt everyone within several desks of me – usually because of someone’s incompetence and/or stupidity (and sometimes because of my own!) But yeah, I am an “extreme” person – and so is my weight. I probably triggered another Big Bounce Back this morning – I dropped four points! From 79.7kg down to 79.3kg. 🙂 Well, at least it’s going in the right direction, at last! 🙂 While my favourite eldest daughter was over here yesterday the three of us were talking about how much weight [people in general] should attempt to lose, and how the much-touted BMI thingy is supposed to work, and how often it gets it totally wrong – and I was idly wondering how much more weight I’d have to lose to be considered “slim”, generally. After quite a bit of discussion and a great deal of rubbishing the BMI methodology, myself and I reached a consensus that 70kg was probably not quite enough for me to be considered “slim”. I’d probably be considered almost slim at 65kg, so I’ll see what happens, and what I think, when I get to 70kg, because I’m quite prepared to go down to 65kg. if I think I need to. I’m also very aware of the fact that skin isn’t weightless, and at the moment quite a lot of my weight is tied up in the excess skin that’s hanging off me like ratty old curtains. It has to, and will go, once I reach my goal weight – if only for my own physical comfort! (having a lot of excess skin is very uncomfortable, you know – I really hope you never have to experience the creepy-weird sensation of excess loose skin around your body!  )

So… tomorrow it’s off to look at mirrors and possibly stair climbing exercise machine (the alternative to the machine is to find a decent shoemaker who can make me a pair of shoes that I can actually wear comfortably and walk around in, without feeling crippled, hobbled, and self-consciously ugly!) then in the afternoon, to have my hair cut. I think by that time I’ll be so worked up about Friday that I probably wouldn’t even notice if Elliot shaved all my hair off and tattoo’d hair on my head (like they tattoo eyebrows on people who’ve lost them because of chemotherapy) Flipper has managed to clamber up onto the desk behind me and is busy spoiling her dinner, and making a real mess of the bowl of pussy-biscuits (kibble) that we keep there for her. Poor old girl – her arthritis doesn’t seem too bad at the moment (she had her injection for it about a week ago) but she seems to be losing a lot of strength and/or muscle tone in her back legs (I wonder if cats can get osteoporosis?) because lately we’ve noticed that she seems to be “missing” her jumps up onto the couch – that is, she’ll get her front paws up onto the couch, but then she doesn’t seem to have enough strength to be able to get her back legs up as well, and she ends up just… sliding back down to the floor again. It distresses her when this happens, and she stomps off complaining bitterly! She’s not hurt, I don’t think, but her dignity is definitely smarting! Anyway, that’s about it from your extremely voluble and long-winded blog writer for tonight – it might be quite amusing to drop in again tomorrow night to see what sort of a state I’m in, and whether I can write coherently or not, on Settlement Eve! Still, I should be lucid enough to tell you what my weight’s up to (or hopefully down to!) and whether we were able to find the sort of mirror we’re after. If we had the time to get there, I might even have some good news about a possible rotating-step stair-walking machine! Who knows! 😉 Anyway, there’ll be lots of news, so don’t miss out (and you can all laugh at me if all I can do is babble on about Friday! 🙂 ) But until then, do continue to bee good, always remember that the power of imagination makes us infinite, and don’t forget to drive carefully, to keep warm, and to look after yourselves, but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂  ciao, all! 🙂