Here I am, finally! It’s nine thirty, and I’ve finally got a chance to sit down and write something! It’s been a very busy day today – the channels for my glass shower screen went in today, along with the towel rail and the toilet roll holder thingy. The shower screen channels have to sit and “cure” for about a day before the door can be added, so they were put in first thing this morning, so that they can be finished off tomorrow. The painter has been in – I’m not sure if he’s still got work to do, or if he’s finished – he was still busily painting when we left here at about 20 to 2 this afternoon for our visit to Doncaster, where I had my Warfarin blood test done, we went Panforte and Panettone shopping, after which I went to the hairdresser and had my hair cut. I got the results of my Warfarin test back a while ago – my INR is slowly coming back up again – and although it’s still not back to where it should be – it’s sitting at 1.9, which is a lot better than the 1.4 it was last time – so I’m still on a fairly high dose of rat poison. My next test is two days before Christmas – wot fun! Our search for the elusive Panforte and Panettone was unsuccessful, to say the least! When my favourite eldest daughter and I were at Chadstone on Tuesday, we were unable to source a semi-decent Panforte, but David Jones did have quite a few Italian-made Panettone that looked edible, though I wasn’t familiar with the brand – and of course now I can’t remember what the brand name was, so I can’t even Google them! All I can recall is that they were in a shiny red cardboard packet, and that they weren’t part of the ubiquitous “Ital” family – which is why I wanted to go to David Jones at Doncaster, to see if they had them too. But they didn’t. So now I’m racking my brains to try and think of a good Italian, or at the very least, continental delicatessen, and I can only think of one, in Burwood East, if they’re still there – we might pay them a visit tomorrow or Saturday, if it’s not too hot. We did find several different types of Panforte at The Colonial Fruit Company, so we bought one of the most promising sounding ones, according to the ingredients listed on the back of the packet, and tried it out this evening. Well, it was quite nice an’ all that, but it definitely wasn’t a Panforte, no matter what the packet said! (actually, it was more like a thick, stiff, Turkish Delight! As I said, nice, but not a Panforte!) Hmm… I suppose you’re probably wondering why I’m suddenly so obsessed with Panforte and Panettone! Well, it was Julian’s sister bringing that small Siena Cake over last weekend – which came from somewhere in Sydney and was (and still is!) most delicious! And although it wasn’t a proper Panforte either (Panforte’s are very thin – usually not more than about half an inch high (1.5cm) – and have rice paper underneath them), it was definitely the nicest one I’ve eaten for many, many years – since I was a little girl, in fact, and it got me all nostalgic and thinking that I’d really like to taste a proper one again – but I’ve been totally unable to find a “proper” one,  and, well, you all know how stubborn and single-minded I can get about things… And as for the Panettone – well, they’re Italian “Christmas Cakes” (they’re not really, it’s just a name that seems to have become attached to them over the years!) and it’s become one of our “Family Traditions” to have Panettone for Christmas Breakfast – the trick is in finding a “good” one (the best brand to get is “Motta“, but unfortunately they’re almost impossible to find these days 😦 ) So anyway, we meandered out of David Jones this afternoon and went to console ourselves with a cup of coffee (Julian had a brownie-sized orange cake and I had a mini mince tart) before heading off to the hairdresser. We didn’t get home this afternoon – more like evening, actually – until almost six o’clock, when of course Paul and the painter were long gone, but everything looks on track for them to finish off my bathroom by the end of the weekend – mirror and bench-top depending, of course! If they’re not ready, neither will my bathroom!

Food: Last night we had pan-fried lamb backstrap, the ubiquitous chips, beans, and a nice salad with cubes of fetta cheese (I love fetta cheese!) For lunch today I had two Ryvita crispbreads with low-fat cottage cheese (just as a bit of a change from the low-fat ricotta) with sliced sandwich ham and slices of tomato, and tonight we had pan-fried marinated veal medallions, chips (again!) broccoli, and more salad, so even though I had the mini mince tart for afternoon tea, hopefully it won’t be as unforgiving as the chocolate brownie was the other day!

Weigh-in this morning. Not going too badly – as I think I said last night, I think my days in the 64kg zone are gone for good, but that’s OK, I wasn’t expecting to stay there – I’m trying to eat as normally as possible without going overboard and “putting a strain on the relationship”, so to speak. I’m not going to totally forbid myself yummy (and therefore fattening!) things, but I am very wary – and aware – of them! This morning I went from 65.1kg to 65.1kg – so I stayed the same, which is good! Hopefully, after walking the length and breadth of the shopping centre again (1.5 times today!) I might stay the same again tomorrow! 🙂

Tomorrow morning I’m off to pick up my new shoes! After that, depending on what’s happening with my bathroom, and how hot it is, we might – or might not – go off to what used to be a wonderful little Italian delicatessen in Burwood East. It’s probably changed hands several times since we used to be semi-regulars there, but hopefully it won’t have changed too much, and that they’ll still have a few Italian items left on their shelves! (like Panettone and Panforte! 😉 ) I’ll let you all know, after we’ve been there! 🙂 I played a bit of WoW this morning, but after a bit of a push from Julian, I printed out the Christmas Card list, got down the tin of Christmas Cards, and… got most of them done! Unfortunately, we didn’t cross as many names off the list as I’d expected to, so I ran out of cards! We bought some more this afternoon, and the last four will get done tomorrow morning. I wonder if Julian has the stamps? It’s be good if we could get them posted off tomorrow, too! 🙂 And that, I fear, is about it from me again for tonight! Do drop in again tomorrow night to see what’s been happening – with luck, Clarke will have both my mirror and the bench-top, and the painter will have finished, I’ll have my new shoes (which will probably give me blisters on my heels, to go with the treadmill blisters on my toes!) and we might even have sourced some decent Panettone and a proper Panforte! (but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was you – we might not even get to the little deli!) But until then, do bee good ( 😉 ) remember not to let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to keep cool – or warm – depending on the weather, and to drive carefully – but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂