Weigh-in this morning. Today is a Red Letter Day! I got on the scales this morning, not expecting to see very much change in my weight, despite having walked the length and breadth of Doncaster Shoppingtown yesterday – twice – so imagine my utter astonishment when I saw the scales registering at 64.9kg! 64.9kg?! It can’t be! So I got off the scales, and I got back on the scales. This time they registered at 65.0kg. So… once more onto and off the scales, and may the “best out of three” weigh-ins win! I got off the scales, and back on the scales. Third time lucky, and the scales sat there staring at me from… 64.9kg!

Ye ghods and little fishes! 😮 Maintenance! I’ve reached Maintenance!!! (Winter looks more over-awed than happy!) So I’ve done it? Really? You mean that I no longer have any more excuses to hide behind the Optifast products, but that I have to start eating again? Properly, and sensibly? Oh crikey! And Julian’s first question? “What do you want for dinner tonight?” (can I have some “think” music with that, please?) I thought long and hard about that question, for all of three seconds – I said “Chicken in boats*, about two or three brussels sprouts (which I really shouldn’t eat, because they interfere with the Warfarin I’m taking, but having them every now and then doesn’t matter too much) three or four (oven baked) chips, and half a tomato!” And I had the most delicious lunch I think I’ve ever eaten in my life! Two Ryvita crispbreads with low-fat cottage cheese, and a slice and a half of tomato on each, with salt and pepper! It was to die for! Oh, I’d forgotten just how good salt tastes! Optifast bars and soups are nice, and I like them a lot, but they’re pretty bland…

Now… I’m quite aware that this 64.9kg is not a completely “accurate” measurement of my weight – my body does things like this to me, I’ll lose five or six points in a go, and then sit there on that weight for days – and maybe go up and down a few times until I’m virtually tearing my hair out in frustration, and then – suddenly drop another five or six points. Believe me! I was very tempted to say “Let’s just see what it says tomorrow!” But how long can I keep doing that? Until I’m 60kg or less? No… one has to say “enough is enough” at some stage, and the scales said “64.9kg” twice – that’s got to be good enough for me! Besides, I looked at myself last night, and while it’s good to see that I do have cheekbones after all, I was also starting to see the outline of the hinge of my top jawbone next to my ear, and that’s not so good… Thin, I do want to be (and I think I could probably qualify as that now) but skeletal, I definitely do not want to be! I shall continue to weigh myself every morning, and I shall also continue to track my progress on my weight graph – so I’ll be able to see if my weight seems to be going up too much, or too rapidly, and immediately “take steps” to correct it! I’ll still do my three daily walks on the treadmill, for nineteen to twenty minutes – though I’m considering changing that to 2 X 30 minute sessions – first thing in the morning, and before dinner at night – that would give me a total of an hour’s exercise broken into two segments, as opposed to 55 minutes (about 55 minutes, give or take a few minutes more or less) broken into three segments – which really does muck up my day a fair bit – I’m constantly watching the clock – “I have to stop now – I have to do my walk!” – and it’s awkward and rude when people come over (not that they do very often!) and you have to excuse yourself to go treadmilling! One early morning walk, and one later evening walk would at least give me the afternoon free to be sociable! 😉

Paul turned up around lunch time to finish off sealing up the cracks and painting the last remaining bits of my bathroom with the waterproof membrane. The tiles were supposed to have been delivered this afternoon, but almost as soon as Julian had moved the car so that they’d have room to take them through the garage, they rang to say that they were having trouble with their forklift and that they’d have to be delivered on Monday! The long and short of it is that Clarke will pick them up himself on Monday morning and bring them over, so it looks like everything’s on track for the tiling to start next week 🙂 So Julian put the car back in the garage, and much to Flipper’s disapproval, started vacuuming and cleaning up the house, which has been quite thickly coated with concrete dust and debris – and I must say, it looks a hell of a lot better now! 🙂

Most of today I’ve spent in Telara – I got the gang on Faeblight all sorted out and ready for their Guild and Guild Bank – and because it’s the way that I work – this involved some deletions, some transfers, and some re-creations, but… the Guild “Winter’s Tribe” is formed, and the Guild Bank boasts two Bank Vaults, which should be enough to last us until at least next week! 😉 So, the six working shards, Laethys, Hailol, Greybriar, Wolfsbane, Deepwood, and Faeblight, now all have a Guild and a Guild Bank with at least two Vaults each – I don’t see any point in setting up a Guild on the PvP shard Seastone, as I have no intention of ever actually playing on it – it’s really just a way-station for extraneous characters that I don’t know what to do with! The two girls who ferried the platinum across from Laethys to make this all of this Guilding possible will be moved back from whence they came in seven days, when I’ll be able to transfer them again.

Tomorrow, of course, is Sunday, and the day when Julian and I go rampaging across Telara, slaying monsters and nasty mobs – and occasionally being killed by them in return! There’s still no sign of any changes being made to that totally impossible Dinosaur-slash-Dragon Boss Fight that has our two level 65 characters pinned down in The Wilds, so we’ll just continue along with our two young Primalists, who really do seem to be doing very well for themselves! (in my opinion, they’re both far too powerful for their own good! Trion, please take note! 😉 ) I’m wondering when we’ll be able to get out and do a bit more work on the veggie garden – Monday, the tiling is starting, and I know we’ve got heaps of things to do, name-change and address-change wise – Medicare, for starters! On Tuesday, Julian is off to Adelaide for the day to supervise the packing of some items, and to organise the packing of several of the antique clocks that are coming across to Sydney and Melbourne… As far as I know, our friend Steve is coming down on Wednesday, and I suppose my favourite eldest daughter will be over on Thursday! And at some time during all of that, I have to find time to make an appointment to go and get the blood test results that I should have got the other day, but had to cancel because I had to be here instead! Anyway, that’s about all I have for you this evening, and it’s just about time to go for my final treadmilling of the day! Do call in again tomorrow night though – find out how we went in Telara, and if we got killed by anything, and to see how my Maintenance is progressing and if I’ve suddenly gone up five kilos or something (shoot! I hope not!) Until then, do bee good – Father Christmas is starting to make his final lists of who’s been good, and who’s been naughty – remember to learn how to be happy with what you have, while you pursue all that you want, and don’t forget to drive carefully, to keep warm – or cool – depending on the weather, and to look after yourselves… but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

*Chicken in boats – either chicken tenders, or slices of chicken breast, dusted with seasoning, loosely sealed in alfoil, and oven baked. The chicken semi-steams in the alfoil and is served with vegetables and the left over chicken juices from the foil wrapping drizeled over everything. More or less, anyway. I invented chicken in boats years ago, as a good, healthy, and very tasty way to cook chicken sans fat or oil – and now Julian cooks them to perfection! 🙂