Well, it looks like I’m starting late again – not because my two favourite daughters and their spouses didn’t want to leave, this time, but because I got trapped in a rather longish quest chain in World of Warcraft, and I wanted to get it finished before I logged out! I didn’t (get it finished) of course, so I’m camped out in the middle of Teldrassil, surrounded by hostile mobs and giant spiders. Hopefully I’ll still be alive next time I log on tonight! 🙂

We did decide to have another BBQ today, only this time Terry cooked, and he did a very good job of it, too! He can come over and cook our BBQs for us any time he wants! 🙂 We had pretty much the same as we had yesterday, except for the salmon – we had steak, sausages, chicken, bacon, eggs… no kebabs this time, either – we had some extremely nice BBQ’d large Swiss Brown mushrooms – done to perfection! To go with all of that, there was more of the “iceberg” lettuce “garden salad” – with olives in it this time, and some fetta cubes, though by the time I was able to get to it there was no fetta left, so I had some baby bocconcini instead. There was a little bit of the lovely potato salad left, which got polished off very quickly, some more of the delicious (and terribly easy to make! We’ll definitely be making more of that!) smoked almond hummus with currants and vincotto, along with bread and butter, pita bread, and some more nibblies. I had another half glass of champagne with which to toast the Birthday people, and more of the ubiquitous mineral water. Neale was given a new back-pack by my favourite eldest daughter, Kate and Terry gave him a JB Hi-Fi voucher, and we gave him some sort of soccer or football game for their new PlayStation 4. Terry was giving my favourite youngest daughter a large potted plant for their hall – they were on their way to pick it up when they left here this afternoon – Lee and Neale gave her a bottle of her favourite perfume, Dolce & Gabbana’s “Light Blue”, and we gave her a substantial “Katies” gift voucher and some cash – so both of the Birthday Peoples scored well today (especially considering that it’s so close to Christmas! 😉 ) The kids left fairly close to four o’clock, and naturally, instead of making an early-ish start on this, I jumped straight back into World of Warcraft – I’d started a new character called “Boudicca” – World of Warcraft are very generous – you’re allowed to use “European” letters in the names you give your characters. F’rinstance, I tried using “Boudicca”, but it was already taken. OK then, let’s be a bit more creative! I tried using “Boudìcca” (the “ì” is made by holding down the “alt” key and typing “141” on the numeric keypad) but it just didn’t look right. So I tried “Boudïcca” (hold down the “alt” key and type “139” on the numeric keypad) but that didn’t look quite right, either! In the end I settled for “Böudicca” (hold down the “alt” key and type “148” on the numeric keypad) So on World of Warcraft you can use a lot of names that are already supposedly “taken”, simply by being a little “inventive” with your choice of letters! You’re not allowed to do that on Rift… 😦 I think WoW ended up allowing them to be used because they had so many European users who wanted to use European-type names which always seem to include a lot of strange (to us!) accents, that they stood to lose a lot of players (and therefore $$$!) if they didn’t allow it! And while Rift is big (in that it has a lot of players worldwide) I don’t think it’s even a quarter as big as World of Warcraft, and it’s certainly not nearly as well known!

Food: Today I had pretty much the same as I had yesterday, only a little bit less of everything! For dessert, we had the dessert we were supposed to have had yesterday, but didn’t, when Mitta produced the yummies she’d brought with her (the Siena Cake, the chocolate coated ginger, and the soft nougat) Julian had put it straight back in the fridge when we decided not to have it yesterday, and it was as fresh as “new bought” when we cut into it today! It was some sort of soft, moist butter cake, with a yummy apple crumble topping, and we all had a titch of light cream with it (well, Lee and I only had a titch of light cream – everyone else just poured it on!) But it was really delicious! I’m starting to get more than just a “little” concerned about what the scales are going to have to say about today, when I hop on them again tomorrow morning, because…

Weigh-in this morning. Oh dear! That brownie that I’d so gluttonously consumed the day before yesterday, the sausage for dinner that same night, and then all the bits and pieces that I stuffed myself with yesterday, to the extent that I didn’t have anything at all for dinner (and neither did Julian! We were both still too full from lunch!) resulted in a weight hike of five (5!) points! I went from 64.2kg to 64.7kg! …and I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be even higher! I’m hoping that this will go down again – a bit, anyway, after today – and if I don’t, well, this is the reason I went down so low in the first place – so I’d have plenty of room to go up before hitting my End Goal Weight of 70kg (though I’d much rather stay as far under that 70kg as possible, whilst still being able to enjoy my food, and still being able to indulge myself now and then, for special occasions!)

When we were clearing up after the kids had left, Julian and I decided that we wouldn’t have dinner again tonight – we’d just have dessert! The last small piece of the cake left over from lunch today… the equivalent of a bite and a half each! (I don’t know about him, but I sure still feel full, and it’s nearly half past six! Though, I dunno – I reckon that I could probably squeeze in another cup of coffee! 😉 )

Tomorrow is going to be another very busy day – I’m off for my first shoe measurement tomorrow morning, followed by a trip to Dorevitch for my next Warfarin blood test, then off to the Doctor’s to get the results of that (by now ancient!) blood test that I had done. By the time we get home it’ll be mid afternoon, and I’ll have lost another day of game-play. We still don’t know if we’re seeing Paul or the painter tomorrow – I hope he lets us know soon! While getting out the plates for lunch today, Julian suddenly realised what I’ve known for at least a year and a half (if not longer!) and that is that we desperately need a new dinner setting! We’re down about two or three of each item – small plates, bowls, large plates, saucers… cups! We’re missing two or more of each of them, although we’ve only had the setting since 2007! 😉 I hate to have to tell him this, but we’re short on matching glasses, too! So, depending on who turns up tomorrow to work on my bathroom, and depending on where we actually go to have my Warfarin test done, we could go looking for a new dinner setting – though Julian was saying something about the “January sales”… Frankly, I don’t think you really accomplish anything by waiting for these sorts of sales – everyone grabs things just to get them cheaply, and you’re left with not as much choice, but still feeling that you’ve got to buy something, if only because it’s advertised as being “On Sale Now”! Anyway, it’s up to him… (to a certain extent, anyway! 😉 ) Tuesday will be just as busy, and probably even more hectic, as I’m running the “Chadstone Gauntlet” with my favourite eldest daughter, in the hopes of being able to get a Christmas Present and stocking fillers for Julian! Wednesday… Wednesday should be a little quieter? Perhaps? Anyway, once again that’s about it from me for tonight! 🙂  But do call back tomorrow night, to find out just how high my weight decided to go this time, and who – if anyone – decided to turn up to work on my bathroom, as well as anything else interesting or amusing that happened during our day! Until then, do try to bee good ( 😉 ) don’t forget that many of the things you can count, don’t count, and many of the things you can’t count, really count, and always remember to look after yourselves, to drive carefully, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on our silly weather… but above all, always remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂