Boy, are my arms going to be sore tomorrow! We went out this morning, around about eleven-ish, for our last visit to, and walk around, the apartment in Doncaster. We’ve left the keys on the kitchen bench for the new owners on Monday – we won’t even be able to let ourselves into the apartment, or the underground car park again, unless we’re invited in by someone. It’s very sad. When we were leaving – Julian had to open the car park door manually – I noticed that there were cars parked directly opposite the garage entrance, which I growled about – they’d always been designated as “No Standing Anytime” zones, and been reasonably well policed by the local Council (especially when their funds needed a “top-up”, most easily obtained from parking fines!) because it’s a very narrow little side street, and cars parked directly opposite the entrance made the exit from, and entry to the underground car park almost impossible. However, it seems that the Council have “changed their minds” (read: “been induced”*) and made parking a few scant meters away from the car park entry perfectly permissible! This was always one of the local residents’ main objection to the enormous number of new High Rise Apartments on Doncaster Hill being given planning permission – there’s simply not enough public parking available in the area, because even if the new apartments do put in underground car parks, they’re only for the residents of that particular apartment block, so what with the narrow side streets, plus the amount of “spillover” from the new apartments (not to mention the number of workmen constructing the new High Rise “next door”!) the number of public parking spaces available has become a really big problem! Doncaster Shoppingtown certainly can’t cope with the extra traffic and parking – when they enlarged and refurbished the centre several years ago they simply didn’t put in any extra parking, and the reason for the “No Standing Anytime” regulations in the nearby side streets was primarily because of the spillover from Shoppingtown in the first place! Anyway, by the time we were ready to leave, the car was jam-packed to the gunnels with items and objects which had been “overlooked”, or simply “not noticed”! We have a Mercedes station wagon – beg’in y’re pardon mi lords ‘n ladies, Estate wagon, and it was packed! We didn’t even have room to be able to fit in the Dry Cleaning, which we were going to pick up today! However, we did go over the road to have a cup of coffee, some lunch, and do a bit of shopping (though how we managed to fit that into the car is anyone’s guess!) I tell you what, that cup of coffee went down faster than the first cold tinny at a butcher’s picnic! We’d been over at the apartment for more than a couple of hours, and I’d been standing the whole time – so I think my back, as well as my arms, is going to be doing a fair bit of grizzling tomorrow! We’d thought that we might have our coffee and lunch at a nice little place opposite Coles – “Jones the Grocer”, which has been there for years and years – but it’s gone! Closed up! Empty! 😦 Luckily the Coffee Shop, “Coffee Hit” close by was still extant, so that’s where we sat down and had a bit of a rest while we guzzled our coffee and ate our lunch. After lunch we went into Coles to do our shopping, and then we headed back to the car. I wanted to call in at Butterfly – a nice little kiosk-y place that sold silver jewelry – I’m after a couple of guard rings with which to stop my “good” rings from falling off my fingers (which my big amethyst ring is doing its best to do, even while I’m typing! And I even have a guard ring to keep it on – but it doesn’t seem to be working terribly well… I think I need a guard ring for the guard ring!) Anyway, while Julian went to get something from JB HiFi, I tried to make my way to Butterfly… but instead of pushing sedately along in front of me, my shopping trolley decided it wanted to go “somewhere else” – off to the right – somewhere, anywhere – as long as it was to the right! I quite literally wrestled it along until I got to a corner… I turned the corner, almost pulling my arms out of their sockets hauling the [*naughty-word*] recalcitrant shopping trolley around with me. I eventually got it around the corner, and stopped for a second or four to catch my breath, then off I went again. But this time, the trolley decided that it absolutely, positively, had to go left! Once more, I wrestled the damn thing along to Butter… it was gone! Not a trace of it left! It’s now yet another coffee shop-slash-eatery type place! Oh, ye ghods and little fishes! Well, I’d told Julian that I’d catch up with him at the Concierge desk at the Valet Car Park, so off I trundled, wrestling that [*rude word*] trolley all the way to the car park. Of course, and naturally, as soon as Julian turned up, the trolley started behaving like a little [*very rude word!*] saint! (Julian seems to have that effect on mechanical things – as soon as they see him, they start doing what they’re supposed to do, instead of playing up and not working properly!) So – that’s why I’m going to have very sore arms tomorrow! I could feel my muscles popping and protesting every time I wrestled that [censored!] trolley into the right direction! Needless to say, I have not done my lunchtime treadmilling today, either, because not only did I walk the length and breadth of Doncaster Shoppingtown twice, I did it whilst wrestling with an extremely recalcitrant shopping trolley!

Food stuffz: last night we had pan-fried chicken, sugar-snap peas, half a tomato, and some of the very nice “sea salt and cracked pepper” oven cooked chips. For dessert I had one of Julian’s low-fat yoghurts – the “mixed berry” one this time. For lunch today I had a very nice “Toastie” – a chicken, cheese and pesto one – probably one of the only examples of a “commercial” chicken, cheese and “something” sandwich, or “Toasty”, that didn’t have avocado in it (I hate avocado!) and I have to say, it was one of the nicest toasties that I’ve had for quite some time! Mind you, it was almost dripping with butter and mayo… but I pretended not to notice! 😉 For dessert I had… a salted caramel brownie – and it was scrumptious! 🙂 Tonight we’re having Julian-made hamburgers, with all the usuals, which I’m really looking forward to, and for dessert tonight I’ll probably opt for another one of those very strange Chia Pods…

Weigh-in this morning (*sigh*) More of the same, I’m afraid – at the moment I’m hovering – or should that be “dithering” – between two (musical!) notes (so to speak) I went back up one point this morning, from 61.9kg to 62.0kg – so I’m afraid that I can’t count that as any sort of “victory” So, today I ate a very buttery toastie, and a very sweet and sinful salted caramel brownie, and I didn’t do my lunchtime treadmilling – on the other hand, I stood up and walked around for over two hours, then I walked the length and breadth of Doncaster Shoppingtown, twice – wrestling a stupid shopping trolley down one entire length – and each will probably cancel the other out – so who knows what the scales will tell me tomorrow! Anyway, it’ll certainly be a very interesting weigh-in tomorrow! 😉

And of course, tomorrow is Sunday, when we do our usual “Pas de Deux en Draenor”. I’ve had to turn my “gaining experience” counter off – having to do that Ogre Waygate quest twice has put me a lot further ahead of Mouselet than I should be. I’ll turn it back on again when he catches up to me – but for the nonce, I can go out doing all sorts of Garrison quests with impunity, knowing that I won’t be getting too far ahead. And that, gentle readers, is about it from me again this evening! Don’t forget to call in again tomorrow night to find out how Wynterthyme and Mouselet fared in Draenor – did they die, or did they not? Did they level up? What did my weight decide to do in the morning, and will I be depressed or elated about it? But no matter what happens (or doesn’t happen!) there’s sure to be lots of news and interesting bits and pieces for all of you to enjoy! So until then, do try very hard to bee good, remember that children learn more from what you are than what you teach, and don’t forget to keep warm – or cool – depending on the weather, to look after yourselves, and to always drive carefully… but above all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

*“been induced” – make of that what you will!