Isn’t it terrible, how quickly old habits can take root again, just when you think you’ve eliminated them! This morning, I went for my hill climb on the treadmill, and that was OK – the socks that I got the other day aren’t as good as my old running socks, so I guess Julian has inherited four pairs of semi-thick soled socks! But this afternoon – after lunch – I almost forgot about my lunchtime walk! We’ve been here almost two months, and we got the treadmill a week after we’d moved in… since then I’ve been doing three walks a day, every day, and what’s more, enjoying them – except for last week, when I hurt my foot. I was well and truly primed to stop what I was doing and head off for my walk without needing any sort of reminder – it had become automatic, or so I thought! In those few short days when I wasn’t walking because my foot was too sore, all my old, lazy habits poked their noses out of the closet and giggled maliciously! “Let’s make her lazy again!”, they chortled to eachother “Let’s make her forget to do her nasty, energetic walks! Hehehehe!” And they almost succeeded today! I should have remembered and gone for my walk before lunch – but I only belatedly remembered it after lunch, when I was drinking my tea and just about to get back into Rift! Still, at least I did remember! I’m still plodding along at only 3kmph, but I’m doing 700 steps (about 13 and a half minutes worth) instead of 600. Tomorrow I’ll be back to fifteen minutes (about 800+ steps) and 3.2kmph, so those nasty little habits can just put themselves back in the closet where they belong, and if I can find the key, I’ll lock them in there and throw the key away!

We did go off to have my blood tests done early – after breakfast we didn’t wait for Julian to have his shower, and we decided to have our coffee when we got back – actually I think it’s probably the earliest we’ve gone off to have blood tests done! Anyway, we got there and went in – and the place was jam-packed, just as the x-ray place had been the other day. We took a number, rang the bell (even though there were three girls in the office!) and sat down to wait. I didn’t even get a chance to get my kindle out of my bag before I was called in! Julian told me later that there was also a dental clinic there – which I had failed to notice, and I guess one had to ring the bell to let the blood taker knew that she had another victim waiting outside. So in I went – the nice lady took three (3!) test-tubes of blood from me, wrapped up the leaking hole in my arm for me, and we came home and had our much needed cup of coffee… then I Rifted! 🙂 Tallissia is now level 31 (almost level 32!) and finished off Scarlet Gorge in absolute record time! One day! Less than a day, really – I could have finished off Scarlet Gorge yesterday afternoon, but it was night time, and I hate playing in the dark, so I logged out. Anyway, she’s just got to Scarwood Reach, which is quite a long quest chain – I’m wondering how long it’ll take her to get through it all? So far, so good, playing a Primalist. In a lot of ways it’s like playing a very powerful Mage, without a Pet. You have to “balance” between two different… strategies, I suppose you could call them? As a Primalist you can either use your “Rage” abilities, one of which is a very powerful and effective spell ability that can take on five enemies at once. It’s very impressive! I used it in the last Boss fight in Scarlet Gorge, and you can use it as many times as you have enough “Rage” for – but! Using “Rage” abilities pushes your abilities towards your “Cunning” spells and abilities, so unless you alternate “Cunning” and “Rage” abilities, you can allow yourself to be pushed too far into one or the other, losing your advantages, if you get pushed too far towards the types of spells you don’t need. Anyway, I’m finding that I do like this new Class a lot – even if I do think that they’re w-a-y too powerful at the moment! 🙂

In the middle of lunch, Dorevitch, who monitor my Warfarin dosage, called to speak to me! The Doctors are quite puzzled as to why my blood is continuing to get thicker, instead of thinner! The girl asked me a lot of questions, like ‘were the Warfarin pills I was taking old?’ ‘had I had any medical or dental procedures lately?’ ‘what did I have for breakfast on July 23rd in 1965?’ – stuff like that – the answers to most of which were “No!” She thanked me, told me that the Doctors were a little concerned, and that they’d SMS my INR and dosage through later – which they just have. Remember, the lower the INR, the more easily your blood clots. Normal INR is 1 (one), but we don’t want my blood to clot too easily, so my INR is supposed to be high – anywhere between 2 and 2.6. Last test, it was 2.1, which was good. Today, it was 1.9 – which is not good, because it’s getting a bit too low. So they have changed my Warfarin dose – I’m taking the same dose, 3.5mg, from Monday to Friday, but I have to take 4mg on Saturday and Sunday 😦 Next test is due on November 5th – Guy Fawkes Day – which is a Saturday this year. I think I’ll probably go for my test on the Friday though, because I don’t think the Vermont South Collection Centre is open on Saturdays…

I’ve had Julian move my treadmill around again 🙂 It originally started out facing the inside wall, where about all I could see (apart from the wall!) was the door. As there was a nice big window right behind me I thought it might be nice if I could look out the window, at the side fence, half a tree next door, and a bit of sky, while I was mindlessly walking… So Julian turned it around for me, and I had a lovely view out the window, which was great… until Julian walked in – the door was now behind me – so I didn’t see him, and as he was in bare feet, I didn’t hear him, either, until he came up from behind me, touched my arm, and spoke. I got such a fright that I yelled, and almost fell of the treadmill – which wouldn’t have been a very good look, seeing as it was going along at 3.2kmph! Since then I’ve been so nervous about someone coming in behind me and giving me a fright again that I found I was constantly looking over my shoulder to see if there was anyone in the doorway – so I’ve had him move it again. I now have the window on my left, and the doorway on my right, and if I look straight ahead I have a lovely view of two wardrobe doors! But that’s OK because I still get my glimpse of blue (or grey) sky, a bare fence, and a bit of the tree next door, a good view of anyone creeping up on me through the doorway, and best of all, no monsters can leap unexpectedly out at me from the wardrobe! 😉

Weigh-in this morning. Was boring. I went from 69.7kg to 69.7kg – that is, I stayed the same… but at least I didn’t go up! So I’m not sure if you could say that my weight was behaving itself… The scales did to a merry little flutter up and down between 71.something kg and 65.something kg before finally settling on 69.7kg – again!

I’ve decided, seeing that this is the Year of the New Me, that I’m going to change the time when I write this blog. I normally try to start writing at around 3.30pm (Sundays and days when my favourite eldest daughter are over are the exceptions to the rule!) and I seldom finish before dinner time, especially as I also have to fit in a fifteen minute walk – so I’m going to start writing straight after my lunchtime walk. Not today – because having almost forgotten my walk, I started that late, and so this was late too – but tomorrow I won’t forget my walk, so except for Sundays and days when my favourite eldest daughter is over, the blog should be finished and up between 4.30 and 5.30pm. Hopefully! No guarantees, though! 🙂 Tomorrow I should be able to get a good bit of Rifting in – I wonder how far into Scarwood Reach I’ll get? Well, I’ll be able to tell you that tomorrow, because that’s about all I have for you this evening! 🙂 Don’t forget to drop by again tomorrow to see what my weight has inflicted on me, and how far into Scarwood Reach I managed to get, and whatever else I’ve been up to! 🙂 But until then, continue to bee good, remember that you can tell whether a man is clever by his answers, but you can tell whether a man is wise by his questions… don’t forget to drive carefully, to keep warm – or cool, depending on the weather, and to look after yourselves – but most of all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂