Well, I know you’re all dying to find out how my day today went, so I’ll keep you in suspenders no longer! From the top, then! (or should that be “bottom”? if morning is the beginning, or bottom part, of the day… I digress…) I was a little disappointed when I weighed myself this morning, but I’ll get to that later – because my appointment with Dr. Y. was at 11.00am, I did my morning ablutions in the wrong order (again!) – I did my 2 kilometer/32.something minute’s walk as usual, before breakfast, but opted to go and brush my teeth, etc., etc. after breakfast, when I normally do all those sorts of things between walking and breakfast. Anyway, I did my walkies, and then came back to the Den to have my first cup of tea for the day, and my breakfast. Sitting on my desk was a gold-wrapped package, with an envelope under it. “Whatever can it be!”, I thought. Well, inside the wrapping was a black box – it was quite heavy, and I was quite eager to know what it contained! “Careful!”, cautioned Julian “It’s quite fragile…” – now I was even more curious! Fragile?! Putting the box carefully on my desk, I opened it rather cautiously… Inside the box was a very pretty, gold, replica of a Carriage Clock – a real clock, a wind-up one, with a double-ended key! The little clock stands about 10cm high, and it has three clear glass sides, and a clear glass top, so you can see the clock mechanism working, its gold key is double ended – one end is for winding the clock, the other end is for turning the hands, if you have to re-set it. It’s a dear little thing, and very easy to read, too, because it has a white face, with fine black numerals. The clock that I had on my desk was a digital one, and it told me the temperature inside and out, as well as the time, but it was very hard to read because the background was a dull, gun-metal grey, and the digits that gave me the time, date and weather were only a couple of shades darker. But the little gold Carriage Clock looks great sitting on my desk – unfortunately I’ll no longer have an excuse for being late to dinner! 😉

I’d just finished getting ready this morning, and was playing a couple of games of Solitaire before heading off for “The Appointment”, when Julian got a call on his mobile from Dr. Y.’s Receptionist – Dr. Y. was running late, so could I come at 11.30am instead, and did I have my (new) Referral? Yes, 11.30 was alright, and we didn’t mind – but… Referral?! No, I didn’t have one – yet! Remember last night I told you that I looked (belatedly) at my appointment card which had “A new Referral from your Doctor will be required” written on it. Well, that’s what happens, I suppose, when you write appointments into your calendar – but neglect to add any notes that might be on the card! Anyway, we apologised, and said we’d organise something with Dr. B. to be either emailed or faxed through to Dr. Y.’s surgery. Apparently it didn’t matter that we didn’t have the Referral with us today, but when we did get it, it should be back-dated to march 9th (today) We rang Dr. B and arranged to have her fax it through sometime today, so all should be well. Dr. Y.’s Receptionist said that if she hadn’t received it by Friday, she’d ring Dr. B. herself, and “hurry it up” – but I reckon that they’ve probably already got it by now – there are no flies on Dr. B.! 😉 So I duly turned up at Dr. Y.’s at 11.30am, where we sat and waited another half an hour (which we’d thought we’d have to do anyway) and finally we were ushered in to the inner sanctum! Dr. Y. was looking great (perhaps I am a good influence, because I thought he looked like he’d lost a little weight since last November, when I last saw him – and he’s always saying that he needs to lose some weight…) and was very pleased with me – I told him what I now weighed, and he said “Well, don’t lose any more!” to which I replied that I wasn’t trying to lose any more – I’d been on maintenance since November last year, but the weight was still trying to desert me (oh dear… a horrible thought just crossed my mind! About my weight trying to desert me? A bit like rats “deserting” my sinking ship? Is that a bad omen?! 😦 ) He was most impressed, and is very proud of me. Then he gave me quite a long and very thoughtful look, and said something about me being “inspiring”, and that I’d make a good motivator – that a lot of his patients would benefit from talking to me, and would I be interested in doing something like that – somewhat taken aback, I said “Are you serious?” “Yes,” he replied with a nod “I am serious!”. When I’d finished fumbling around on the floor while I picked up my jaw, I said “Yes, sure! I’ll talk to anyone you suggest, if you think it might help them” – he seems to think I’d be a great “motivational speaker”, I’m not quite sure why… but if I can help anyone, then I must.

And now he doesn’t want to see me for a whole year this time – I’m to stay on the horrible little fluid-retaining tablets (one month taking them, two months not taking them, as I’ve been doing since last November) until then – I’m to have another ultrasound before I see him next March, and we’ll revue my situation again then. So I guess we’d better not make any plans to visit Massa Marittima* in the (European) spring next year! 😉

Food stuffz: we had King Island Beef sausages for dinner last night, with Brussels sprouts, half a tomato, and chips. For dessert I had one apricot, and a small tub of “regular” (i.e. not low-fat or low-calorie – but Julian said it was low-calorie enough so as to make never mind, so I ate it!) rhubarb and vanilla yoghurt. As we were already out, and it was not only my Birthday, but lunch time as well, we first thought that we might try to have lunch at the East Empress Bistro, but we had some shopping to do, and we really didn’t want to do too much parading about in the heat and the humidity, we went to The Glen, where I got the second part of my Birthday present – two pairs of slacks, with pockets, because the only “bottoms” (apart from underwear!) that fit me at the moment are two and a half pairs of jeans (“how can you have half a pair of jeans”, I hear you muttering to yourselves… it’s perfectly simple, really – two of the pairs fit me, more or less properly, and one pair sort-of fits me – I can wear them, but they’re really too big for me, so they only “half” fit me, see?! 🙂 ) I also got another top, because it had long sleeves, and I can only wear long, or three-quarter sleeves now because of my yukky arms! I was talking about food though, wasn’t I! Sorry! So we ended up having lunch at The Shingle Inn – Julian had some sort of omelet-y looking thing (I think!) and I had my usual BLT, on sourdough bread, and we had half a Flourless Orange and Almond meal cake and half a chocolate and walnut Brownie each for dessert (there goes my weight! blossoming up like a mushroom cloud again!) Tonight we’re having pan-fried steak, I presume with all the usual suspects (half a tomato, chips, and some sort of “green” vegetable!) and I’ll have another apricot, and possibly another Chia Pod for dessert, OK?

Weigh-in this morning. Was very disheartening! I was hoping to have gone down another little bit today, but as usual, my stupid body let me down again! I went up… four ruddy points! From 62.9kg to 63.3kg – and from the look of my feet, I’d say that it’s nearly all fluid retention too, because of the abysmally rotten hot and humid weather! 😦 Ah well, my weight’ll go down again, once the weather cools down a little… I was just thinking – you read of elderly people who swear that they can predict the weather by their “rheumatics” – well, I must be some kind of human barometer then – predicting the heat and humidity, by the swelling of my feet! Now, that’s gotta be a first! 🙂 Anyone feel like notifying the Guinness Book of Records? 😉

And so to tomorrow – Julian has a trip over to Doncaster, to pick up, and drop off, some Dry Cleaning. Why, oh why does Daisy Dry Cleaning only have two shops in Melbourne! They’re the only Dry Cleaners that I’ve been able to find who don’t use chemicals, and only use water (or so they say) – it’s much gentler on the clothes, and even things that say “Do Not Dry Clean” come out like new! *sigh* So we shall continue to support their “Buy Me A Rolls, Next!” fund, even if it does mean a trip all the way over to Doncaster – though here’s a thought! It also gives us the opportunity to stock up on Nespresso Pods and T2 teas – because they’re not at The Glen or Knox City! (I think T2 might be up at Knox, but I know there’s no Nespresso outlet there!) I think I’ll stay home, if it’s going to be hot and humid again, and work on getting either Pangur Bán or Arcturis for Arisnoë, and Arcturis for Wynterthyme. And that’s really about it from me for this evening – I’ve had a very nice Birthday, I received a very pretty clock, some clothes, and some pats on the back from Dr. Y. and I’ve had calls from both my very favourite daughters! 🙂 Who could possibly ask for more! Do call in again tomorrow night to find out how I fared in getting Spirit Beast Pets for Arisnoë and Wynterthyme, and what my weight got up to (quite literally!) after the BLT on Sourdough Bread and half a Flourless Orange and Almond cake, and half a chocolate and walnut Brownie that I had for lunch today! Until then though, please bee good, remember to never regret. If it’s good, it’s wonderful. If it’s bad, it’s experience… and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to always drive carefully, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on the circumstances… but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

*Massa Marittima – a very small town (well, it was then!) in Tuscany, where I stayed with my three Great-Aunts for about seven months, when I was five and a half years old…