Well, today’s been a fairly quiet sort of a day – not really all that much happening at all, for a change… Julian’s been busy in the Office, spending a fair bit of time arguing with United Energy about the our electricity bill. We had those so-called “Smart Meters” installed some time last year (I think!) not at our request, I might add! and since then we’ve been given excuse after excuse as to why the meter hasn’t been read, ranging from “they don’t have a key to get into the Utility Room”, which they do have, to the idiotically naive excuse that they don’t know how to read the new meters yet! If we can read the damn things – and we haven’t even been trained – why the ruddy hell can’t they?! They keep on giving us “estimated accounts”, which are just plain wrong! They insist that the meters have been read correctly (that’s why the account reads: estimated amount”!) and we keep insisting that they’re wrong! All they have to do is come and read the wretched meter and the whole mess could be cleared up – and if they’ve “mislaid” their key (again!), we’d be only too happy to escort them into the meter room so that they can get a correct reading! We keep telling them – we’d be very happy to pay them what we owe them, but we’re damned if we’ll cough up an exorbitant estimated fee! The dispute continues… (we’re not the only people from the apartment building who are going through this “estimated” account business, either!) So while Julian’s been busy wrestling with that little fiasco, I’ve been busy with my usual pursuits, namely Rift, and “tidying up the shards (yes, still at it! 🙂 ) I’ve also been busy looking through a new book (“gift”) that I got for subscribing to the “Delicious” magazine. It’s a gorgeous book, as you can see if you follow the link there, and it’s full of wonderful recipes, and lovely, glossy photos of the food… But when you stop and think about things a bit more deeply, you have to wonder about some things… The food photos are all beautifully plated up to look as professional and enticing as possible – of course! This is a recipe book and They’re selling you something – therefore it has to look “perfect”, right?! Wrong! No-one… no-one is going to go to the trouble of trying to present a dish that looks just like the one in the picture, not even if the ruddy Queen of England was coming to dinner – because the picture is a lie! It’s been doctored, sprayed with oils to make the sauces look glossy, has had fake ingredients piled on the plate to make it look fuller and healthier – in other words, it’s not the sort of food that you could just pick up a knife and fork and start eating, if it was suddenly and miraculously placed in front of you! I said to my favourite youngest daughter yesterday, while we were looking through this beautifully presented book, that if I ever do get around to actually writing and compiling my oft-threatened “Family Recipe Book”, I will take photos of the plated up food – but it will be plated up and presented in the book… exactly the way it would be plated up and presented to the rest of the family sitting around the kitchen table! No fancy and fake glosses to make sauces look richer or more mouth-watering, no fake browning colourants to make chicken look perfectly cooked, nothing made up or not the genuine article, but just as we would see it when we sat down at the table. The other thing that struck me was that in the introduction part of the book, the author, Valli Little, I think, stated that she limits herself to only one cup of coffee a day – WHY?! – but she makes sure that it’s really good coffee! And that in turn made me think of the segment in The Age, and on the ABC News, or the 7.30 Report (I forget which!) It was about foetal alcohol syndrome, which really is a very serious, terrible, and totally avoidable outcome for the baby of a mother who drinks too much alcohol. But… total abstinence? What are we all still alive and reasonably healthy? Since mankind discovered how to make wine and spirits, people have been drinking alcohol. Even women, and more specifically pregnant women. Throughout recorded history! Way back when it was far safer for a woman to drink wine or ale with her meal because the water was far more dangerous to drink! My mother drank when she was pregnant with me. And smoked! I drank while I was pregnant, and smoked too! No-one thought that there was anything wrong with either drinking or smoking – most women did! So, as I said, how come the human race has survived – nay! Thrived!? How come we’re all pretty normal, intelligent, functioning human beings? Most women (who could afford it) ate soft cheeses, with no ill effects, ate all sorts of shellfish, smoked – some more heavily than others (I was one who smoked heavily) drank all sorts of alcohol, and not just “socially”, either – so is all this exhortation to stop smoking, stop drinking, and to avoid certain types of food if you’re pregnant a load of scare-mongering, just in case anything bad happens? As it seems to be mainly medical practitioners who do the lecturing on these possible harmful side effects, and which is then picked up by other do-gooders in the community who continue the barrage of dire prophecies – I find that I have to ask myself – is this just a defense mechanism? A way to protect themselves from any possible legal action if anything untoward happened to the baby? ….More food for thought, and… all things in moderation!

Weigh-in this morning. Not so good 😦 Those ruddy Gremlins! I tell you, if I ever manage to catch any of them, it’ll be instant dismissal! “Begone, foul Gremlins! And never darken these doors again!” – that’ll larn ’em! 🙂 I went up a point, from 68.6kg to 68.7kg *sigh* It really isn’t fair! Now I only have five days left to lose as much as possible before my all-important appointment with Dr. Y.! I would really have liked to be in the 67kg zone, but I don’t think that’s going to happen now, especially as I’m on those damn fluid-loving and fluid-retaining pills… 😦

At this stage I’m not sure if my favourite eldest daughter is coming over tomorrow – I hope she is – I haven’t seen much of her over the past week, so it’ll be good if she can come. If not, then I suppose I’ll continue fuddling around neatening up some more shards, though truth be told, I seem to do more writing and walking than anything else! In a rather vain effort to save my toes from further blisters, not only am I heavily band-aiding the balls of my feet, I’m also wearing not just two, but three pairs of running socks! It’s helping a little – I think – but the Podiatrist’s secretary called today with my next appointment (November 27th at 4.30pm) and the phone number for the guy who makes such good shoes – well, the Podiatrist recommended him highly, anyway! 🙂 So I shall call him tomorrow, and ask about having several pairs of shoes made… And I’m afraid that once again, that’s about it from me for tonight! 🙂 However, do drop back again tomorrow night to see if I’ve managed to catch, and fire, any of those naughty little Gremlins who went and snitched on me to my body, which promptly went and made my weight go back up again (I’ve always wanted to yell, Donald Trump-like, “You’re fired!” at someone – haven’t all of you? 🙂 ) And also to find out if my body is still listening to their soft sneaky voices (that is, has my weight gone up again?) or is it turning a deaf ear to them (or have I stayed the same, or even gone down a couple of points!) You’ll also learn if my favourite eldest daughter came over or not, and what we did to pass the time… but until then, please try to bee extra good (Christmas! remember?! 😉 ) don’t forget that it’s nice to be important, but it’s much more important to be nice, and remember to drive carefully, to keep warm, or cool, depending on the weather, and to look after yourselves – but most importantly, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂