Well, it’s now 9.30pm – I shall endeavour to get this online before midnight, but… no promises! It’s been a very long day… Today was the Burial Service for Terry’s mother – up at Healesville – quite a long way away, at 12 noon, and we didn’t want to be late… so we left fairly early, picking up my favourite eldest daughter on the way because her husband Neale wasn’t able to get the day off. We picked her up at around 10.15am, and off we went… Naturally, we arrived at the Healesville Cemetery an hour early! Well, better early than late, we told ourselves, as we sat in the car for a few minutes, and then Julian took off again to “scout out the area”. We trundled along the road a short way, when we came across a side street – “I wonder what’s down here!” said Julian, turning left down the side street. His father was quite well known for this “I wonder what’s down here!” curiosity, and more often than not, the “down here” part would turn into a dirt track leading to a rubbish dump, so I was a little dubious when the side street we’d turned into turned into an un-paved gravel road. We trundled on a little further… and the “road” – a lumpy unmade lane by now – came to an end. At the end of this lumpy unmade lane was a Council truck, and several well-fed looking Councilmen, wearing their fluorescent orange safety vests, leaning on their shovels, or the side of their trailer, staring us in frowning annoyment, as if to say “What are these three city-slickers in their ruddy Lexus doing down here!”. We decided to turn the car around and go back to our exploring! At around 11.30am we thought that we should start heading back to the Cemetery – to find that apart from the hearse and the Funeral people, we were still the only mourners to arrive. Family and friends started to trickle in, but at 10 past 12 there was still no sign of Kate and Terry! We all milled around a bit longer, and at half past 12 they finally arrived. Healesville is a lot further away from them than it is from us, and they’d been stopped in Lilydale by a some sort of Police spot-check! The Burial Service started – conducted by the same Celebrant that they’d had at the Funeral on Monday – but it was really strange! Not that I’ve been to that many interment services, so I really don’t know – but it seemed to just… peter out! The Celebrant said a few words, the two youngest grandchildren read a short poem, tokens were laid on the coffin, which was then lowered into the prepared grave, then the Celebrant invited those who wished to scatter some earth (which looked more like sand!) onto the coffin, he played a bit more music, and then…. people just… drifted off! And that was it! As everyone drifted back towards the car park, talking quietly together, we all sort-of decided that we’d stop in Healesville for some lunch before heading back to Melbourne. Actually, the three of us had decided to do that on the way up there, but you know the old saying, “Great minds think alike” – and apparently everyone else there had the same sort of “great minds” as we did, because they all decided to do likewise! Someone suggested the Healesville Hotel, and so that’s where we had lunch. Perhaps we shouldn’t have stopped for lunch, and just driven back to Melbourne and had a late couple of Ryvita crispbreads with the usual, because once again, I ate too much! However, I can highly recommend the Healesville Hotel! It was a lovely but very well-appointed “olde-worlde” type dining room (we could have eaten at outside tables, but as we hadn’t brought any aerogard with us, we declined – we like to spend time eating our food, not fighting the flies and insects for it!) The wine list was extensive (but expensive) and featured a lot of local wines, as well as imported, well known labels – and I had one of the best Martinis I’ve ever had there! The menu itself, while fairly short, featured a good mixture of dishes, from risotto to locally sourced ingredients, and if everything was as good as what I had, that hotel is really top class! Even Gordon Ramsey wouldn’t have been able to fault it! Their coffee was extremely good, too! So all in all, it was a good day – the Healesville Cemetery is a charming place, small, rustic, beautiful views, peaceful and quiet – and the Healesville Hotel is definitely one of the better places to go for a meal if you’re out that way.
As everyone was starting to say goodbye after our lovely luncheon, a woman, who turned out to be another diner who’d been sitting at a table close to us, but whom I had first thought to be one of the mourners, came up to me – she said something along the lines of: “I just wanted to tell you how wonderful your hair looks, and what a wonderful, vibrant colour it is! It really suits you, and it looks fabulous!” – so there you go! Josh, if you’re reading this, this is the second time you’ve coloured my hair for me, and the second time people have come up to me to compliment me on it! You really are gifted! 🙂
Food stuffz: *groan* I really overdid it this time! But I couldn’t help it! The food was just soooo good! Last night we had pan-fried chicken with all the usual suspects for dinner – Julian calls it “boring chicken”, but I didn’t think it was boring at all – it was lovely! 😛 I also had one of his yummy low-fat yoghurts for dessert instead of my usual diet jelly (I had that tonight instead!) Now, on to lunch today! First of all, I had a Martini – as I said earlier, one of the best Martinis I’ve ever had! I also had one glass from the bottle of white wine that we bought there. Then the wretched waiter went and carved up some obviously home-made bread (he called it focaccia) which he brought to the table with a small dish of locally sourced good olive oil. The bread was scrumptious, and I ate about four? five? little 5.5cm x 4cm x 5.5cm of this delicious bread! I did dab a bit of the olive oil on some of it, but honestly, it was nicer without it! Then for Starters I had locally sourced (well, that’s what the menu said!) tomatoes with fetta cheese. The tomatoes were roughly chopped up into chunks, with well-softened fetta cheese dabbed generously around the plate. Then I had a risotto with (I think! I can’t remember now, but whatever it was, it was delicious!) spinach, basil, and pine nuts? and sprinkled with finely grated parmesan. I only ate about two-thirds of it – I couldn’t eat all of it and still leave room for dessert! For dessert I had a beautiful almond friand, served with poached (locally sourced, of course! 😉 ) apricots and a tiny scoop of truly delicious coffee ice cream. I finally finished off with a strong skinny latte – and as I said earlier, the coffee was really good, too! So tonight for dinner I just had my diet jelly and a cup of coffee – I was still too full from lunch to eat anything else!
I’m truly dreading getting on the scales tomorrow! 😦
Weigh-in this morning. Well, at least I didn’t go up – I went from 63.1kg to 63.1kg – in other words, I stayed the same! Before that I stayed on 62.7kg for two days – maybe this means my weight loss is starting to slow down at long last! I’d be very happy indeed to stay at this weight! Unfortunately I’ll go up tomorrow though – and I only got one treadmilling in this morning 
(though I did do a lot of standing up and walking around on lumpy ground at the Cemetery – hopefully that’ll count!) Now all I have to do is get through Julian’s Birthday, Valentine’s Day, and my Birthday, and then I should start to settle down as there won’t be any more “Big Feastings” until… damn! I forgot about Easter! *sigh* OK, well, Julian’s Birthday, Valentine’s Day, my Birthday, and Easter – and then I should be able to settle down and try to properly balance my diet!
Tomorrow morning Flipper is going off to the Vet for her six-monthly check-up, poor girl – she absolutely hates going! We’ll get the nurses to cut a couple of big mats out of her fur, as well as cut her claws – they’re getting so long that they’re starting to catch in rugs and clothing (and she won’t let us do it!) Julian has a few bit of Office work to do, I’m going to have some self-inflicted sobbing to do over the scales in the morning, and that’s about it! I should be able to get a decent run at WoW for a change! 😉 And really, that’s about it from me for this evening! However, do call in again tomorrow night – to find out how Flipper went at The Vet’s, just how much my weight sky-rocketed, and what level I managed to get Kødiak up to! So until tomorrow night, please continue to bee good, don’t forget that wisdom is not a product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it – and remember to look after yourselves, to drive carefully, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on the weather… but most importantly, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 