Ooo-er! It’s going to feel quite strange, changing the date to 2016! The day after tomorrow! 😮 (my, doesn’t time fly, when you’re having fun! 😉 ) Anyway, after my morning walk (2.28km this morning, in 41 minutes) and breakfast, I got back into WoW with the intention of getting Winterwight up to level 21, so that she could go after the Ghost Saber-tooth Pet. I didn’t make it to level 21 – I’m currently parked outside a “portal” in Silverpine Forest, which is going to take me and my (new) Pet right into the middle of a great big fight, where we’re probably going to get killed! I Tamed myself a new Pet this morning, when I was in Gilneas, killing off the nasty Worgan who are making life miserable up in that part of Azeroth. Gilneas is the Worgen Starting Area, and I think they have a bit of a “dog and fox” problem, because there are wild (feral?) Boxer-type dogs running around all over the place, and if you can’t see one of these Boxer dogs, it’s because the ruddy white foxes have moved in! It took me a few seconds to realise that these white foxes were eminently Tamable – but then I remembered that I used to sneak into this particular area (with Julian’s help!) to get myself an “early” Fox Pet. Of course that was back in the good-old-days where you weren’t limited as to how many Pets you could have, based on your experience level! However as soon as I saw them I thought that a pretty little white Fox would be much more nicer than my Warg Pet (who’s forever stopping to sit down and start scratching himself – and just between you, me and the gatepost, I think he’s got …. fleas! 😮 ) So I “Abandoned” my Spider, and now I have “Spot”, the Warg, as my first Pet, and Wintersnow, the Fox, as my second one. When I go to get my Ghost Saber-cat I’ll probably “Abandon” Spot… I also want to get an Ape or a Turtle Pet, as they make very good “Tanks” – but that will have to wait until I’m “allowed” to have that many Pets!

Food Notes: Anyway, I played WoW until lunchtime, then I frittered away a bit of time before it was time for my afternoon walk (another 2.28km – but this time it only took me 40 minutes) When I came back in here again I did a bit of hunting for “side-dishes” for Julian to make – I found quite a few, actually, which I’ve printed out for him, so hopefully we’ll soon be having something else besides the usual half a tomato, five chips, and some sort of steamed green vegetable! If they turn out to be any good I might even post a couple of the recipes here, because they look easy enough to make without much fuss and mess. Now all I have to do is look up some nice, low-calorie main meals that we can enjoy! 🙂 Tonight, of course, we have our lovely slow-cooked corned silverside for dinner, which we’ll have with mashed potatoes, probably a nice half a tomato, and either beans or Brussels sprouts. We had another home-made wrap for lunch today – it turns out that we did have some turkey still left over from Christmas Dinner – in the freezer! Julian thawed it out and we had a turkey, ham, and low-fat Greek yoghurt wrap, which as usual, was delicious!

Weigh-in this morning. Boring, really – I hopped on the scales this morning, and first they said I was the same – 65.2kg – so I hopped on again, just to be sure, and they said I was 65.4kg! Up two points! So, best out of three, I hopped on for the third time, and this time they said “We wuz only jokeing before! You’re still the same, at 65.2kg!” So there I am – still the same at 65.2kg… as I said – boring! I’m quite sure that the hot weather doesn’t agree with me – last night both of my feet looked like balloons, and the anti-fluid pills don’t seem to be working properly (if you know what I mean) I don’t know whether I should be drinking more fluid (water or tea… or coffee…) or whether I should be drinking less! And does jelly (diet jelly) count as a fluid? Cos if I’m not actually thirsty I find it almost impossible to drink anything (except coffee) and of course, one can always find room in one’s stomach for a bit more jelly 🙂 (or coffee… Has anyone ever made coffee jelly, do you think? It wouldn’t/shouldn’t be too hard to do… I mean, if you can make champagne jelly, surely it couldn’t be too hard to make a tea, or a coffee jelly! And besides! I want some!) Oh, I just added up all my walking today – 4.56km – almost the 5 kilometers per day that I’m aiming for! (I’ll get there, I’ll get there!) and it took me a total of 81 minutes – about an hour and a half, so I suppose that’s good… I’d like to get myself up to 5 km per day, in 2 lots of 2.5km walks (because I’m sure as hell not going to walk for a full hour and a half, or longer – especially in this hot weather! I’m dripping with sweat when I finish now, anyway!)

And so to tomorrow – New Year’s Eve! We’re going to miss watching the city fireworks from our lounge room window this year! 😦 This year, it’ll have to be via the magic of television, or we won’t see them at all! I hope some kindly television channel will cover the Melbourne fireworks, because if the only fireworks on air are going to be from Sydney, then I won’t be watching! Why do they show the Sydney fireworks in Melbourne anyway? Are our fireworks so puny and boring that only the idiots who go into the city and stroll along the river – and who don’t sit at home, glued to their televisions to watch the wonderful and magnificent Sydney display – deserve the rubbish that Melbourne puts on! It infuriates me! Bugger Sydney, Melbourne is just as good – in fact, it’s better – than that tired, dowdy old city, and I don’t want to see their fireworks, I want to see ours! Actually, we’ll be taking tomorrow pretty quietly – my favourite eldest daughter has just rung to see if anything’s happening tomorrow night – but quite frankly, New Year’s Eve is a good night to stay safely at home! Put your feet up, have a glass of champagne or sparkling mineral water at midnight, enjoy the Melbourne fireworks on the television (if anyone’s showing them!) and stay safe! In many, many ways, this has been a most remarkable year! Lots of good, astonishing, unprecedented, even! things have happened – Julian’s lost a lot of weight, as have I (who would ever have thunk it! 🙂 ) and so has my favourite eldest daughter! We’ve sold our apartment and moved into a lovely house, I have the beginnings of my long-promised veggie garden – but it’s also been a year fraught with stress and angst – and to cap it all off, Julian’s mother passed away, right in the middle of our move… so we won’t be too sorry to see the end of 2015, and hopefully, 2016 will be a lighter, happier and more optimistic year for everyone (all of you reading this included! 😉 ) And that’s about it from me for tonight 🙂 Do call back tomorrow night for my “End Of The Year” critique and observations, my hopes for 2016, and my fears… and my weight… One thing I can promise all of you though (and I do keep my promises!) I shall never go back to what I was. Not ever. Even if I have to live on Optifast for the rest of my life (meh! It’s not so bad! 😉 ) but I’m sure it won’t come to that! Anyway, until tomorrow night, do try to bee good – just because – remember that the difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not bitter, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to drive carefully (especially tomorrow night!) and to keep cool – or warm – depending on our marvelous Melbourne meteorology … but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂