Winter’s log, earthdate 201602.19

Well, here I am, fresh from World of Warcraft, and the Auction House in Winterspring, where Mouselet bought 1 (one) “unidentified plant part”, a useless and totally worthless “junk” item that you pick up in Zangarmarsh when you’re collecting other things – for 3500 gold, thereby injecting the Horde Guild Bank with fresh blood – I mean cash! 🙂 Honestly, I got so fed up with WoW this morning, I was virtually tearing my hair out! I think I may have mentioned in the past, that if one has enough “Heirloom” items, one can get a free “chauffeur” to drive you around the countryside, getting to quest items and quest givers before us normal plebs, who have to foot-it until we reach level 20, and can ride a proper mount? Yes, well I was hit by a veritable horde of them this morning (no, not Horde, horde!) I’d just taken young Círce away from her normal round of boring quests in Azuremyst Isle and into Westfall, which is in the Eastern Kingdoms, and where the Game “told” me I should go. It’s Alliance territory, and the second of the “Human” questing chains in that area, and when I got to my destination (jogging… all the way from Stormwind!) I found myself in the middle of what could only be described as a “Bikie Gang”! No less than 5 (five!) of these “motorcycle chauffeurs” suddenly zoomed up, crowding around the quest giver that I was trying to turn my quest in to, and completely drowned me out. I’ll be generous and give them the benefit of the doubt, because I have no way of knowing whether I simply got a bad case of “lag-itis”, or if all of them, talking from “local” (i.e their time-zone in the US) drowned me out and caused the lag-spike (Quel’Dorei is an US based realm, unlike Nagrand, which is based in Sydney) or whether it had something to do with the fact that Julian was downloading a very large file. Being the polite little Draenei that I am, I stood aside and let them go first – then, of course, they all raced off and “used up” all the quest fodder (to coin a phrase!) and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it except stand around and wait until everything I needed to complete that part of the quest had re-spawned. All in all, about three and a half minutes. I finally got that part done, and went to hand the quest in. Once again, they were all crowded around the quest giver, and again, I was suddenly struck with the dreaded “lag-bug”! Again, I waited. When I got the next two parts of the quest, once again I found everything as far as the eye could see had been killed. Dead critters and monsters littered the golden fields of corn! Ditto on the beach, where all the Murlocks lay dead and rotting in the strong sunlight! Being a Hunter, I did have a bit of an advantage, because a Hunter can shoot off an arrow, or a bullet, a lot faster than a Mage or a Warlock can cast a spell, but it was a matter of “the quick or it’s dead” – well, the Bikies quickly realised this fact, and as fast as I am with a bow and arrow, their wretched motorbikes were quicker, so they simply drove straight at the Murlocks and the Gnolls and mowed them down before I was even able to target them, let alone shoot! That was the point where I said “enough is enough!” (and a few other “choice” words as well) and decided to “come back later!” (*grrr!*)

Anyway, it was probably for the best, because I’d forgotten that I was supposed to have my next Warfarin blood test today, and  Clarke wasn’t able to make it today (what a surprise!) but will call me “soon” to organise a time to come over “early next week” – so we took off to have my blood test done, and after a long wait – because I think we were sitting in the wrong seats and the nice lady who takes the bloods didn’t see us sitting there – it was done, and we went off to The Glen. By this time it was lunch time, so we had lunch there and then went and did the shopping. My favourite eldest daughter had requested that we pick her up a box of the Optifast Chocolate Bars, which we did, and while we were in the Apothecary’s, I saw that they had some very interesting looking “sugar-free” lollies! They had heaps of different sorts, but I got one bag of “Citrus”, one called “Berry Mix”, and one bag of “Caramel” ones (I think I also saw “Blueberry” and “Mint” and a few other ones, which I might try next time) As I said, they’re sugar-free, but are made with fruit juice (or so they say, anyway) and each one contains about 20 calories (not kilojoules) Plus, they contain something called Maltitol, which can have a laxative effect if you eat too many of them – but how many is “too many” I have to wonder?! They don’t say! I’ve eaten four so far, so I’d probably better not have any more tonight…

When we got back from doing our little bit of shopping (where I walked the length and breadth of The Glen, twice, so I didn’t have to do my Treadmilling this afternoon) I logged back onto WoW, to continue the ruddy quests in Westfall… and I couldn’t believe my eyes! I’d left Círce standing right in front of the quest giver, so of course that’s where I was when I logged on… totally surrounded by yet another bloody Bikie Gang! (sorry, but I was so angry!) It’s cheating! Running over Murlocks and Gnolls because you can’t kill them faster than a Hunter on foot? How is that not cheating? Forming a gang and surrounding the quest giver so that it’s difficult to get, and hand in quests? How is that not cheating? Speeding ahead of those on foot and picking up or killing everything in sight so that the characters jogging along behind them have to wait – sometimes for a long as five minutes – until everything re-spawns? How is that not cheating! It’s something that Blizzard should never have done, because it’s simply not fair – but they have, and all one can do is log off, play solitaire for a few hours, and come back later, hoping against hope that all the little motorbike ganglings have been called home by their mummies and daddies because their din-dins is ready, or because it’s time for bed! Bah! It’s almost enough to make me have second thoughts about playing the game again…

Food stuffz: last night we had lamb backstraps cooked in lemon and pepper – they were absolutely delicious! It’s surprising just how well lemon compliments meat – but anyway, with the lamb we had the usual – green beans, half a tomato, and chips. While we were at The Glen, we had lunch at The Shingle Inn – Julian had an avocado and “thin French pancake” (sorry, but I’m not allowed to say – or type – the word, but you probably made paper chains with the paper variety of it when you were in kindergarten 😉 ) a very nice looking Vanilla Slice, and a cappuccino. I had a BLT (with a side salad that I didn’t eat because it had dressing on it, and I prefer my salads “naked”) a piece of (supposedly) “New York Baked Cheesecake” – which was yummy, and it was a “baked cheesecake”, but the only thing about it that had anything to do with “New York” was its name! I also had a long black (coffee) with a tiny little jug of skinny milk. Tonight we’re having chicken, chips, and all the usual, for dinner – though I should probably be having a small bowl of pasta, but I don’t think we have any sauce for it – and last night, when Julian went out to check on the tomatoes and other vegetables, he came in with a couple of not quite ripe tomatoes, and… two figs, that the fig tree next door (behind us) had graciously leant over the fence to offer us! 😉 I shall have at least one, if not both of them for dessert tonight! (Julian doesn’t like figs very much) I really prefer the so-called “black” figs, which have dark purple, almost black, skins, and a rich, rich red flesh, which you could almost call “jammy” (like jam!) – these ones are “white” figs – green skins, even when they’re fully ripe, and very, very pale, almost creamy coloured flesh inside them, but I don’t care, I just love figs, and I’ll eat them with great pleasure! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. I knew I should have got Julian to get me two chocolate cakes, smothered in whipped cream! I got on the scales this morning, fully expecting to have bounced back up a few points. I hadn’t. I’d gone down another two – from 62.0kg to 61.8kg! Hence the BLT and the New York Baked Cheesecake for lunch today, and the reference to pasta for dinner tonight! This is just crazy! I never, ever, expected to be able to get to, let alone go any lower than about 64kg! “I’m melting! I’m melting!” But, tomorrow, after the BLT and the cheesecake, I will be back up again – for sure! I hope so, anyway… I’m starting to get a bit worried…

And tomorrow… I believe that my favourite youngest daughter and her husband will be coming over tomorrow – they have to give us back the keys for Doncaster, so that they can be handed over on Settlement Day – next Friday, I believe it is – and just to have a chat, and for us to show off our veggie garden, an’ all. I have keys to Doncaster, and I have absolutely no idea where I’ve put them! It’s possible that they’re in one of the drawers of the Hall Table – I sure hope they are, because if not, I’ll just have to flutter my eyelashes innocently and coo sweetly that I was certain-sure that I’d given them to Julian to look after… 😉 No, I wouldn’t do that to him, and I do know they’re here, somewhere – I also know that when we moved in, I gave them to Julian so that he could take the Doncaster keys off my key-ring, and put the Stillwater keys on it instead – but what happened to them after that, I have no idea! Anyway, that’s about it from me for this evening – drop in again tomorrow night and see if my weight did go back up again (we’re having mashed potatoes with the chicken tonight, so it should!) how the figs were, and if we did find my keys… But until then, please continue to bee good, remember that you can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to drive carefully, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on our silly weather… but most of all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂