Well, I’m not as early as I would have liked, but I’m still early-ish, sort-of. I’d started a new character a couple of days ago, when I couldn’t get on to Quel’Dorei (it was when Blizzard were having all sorts of nasty problems – remember? and Julian and I had to use the Sydney-based server, Nagrand…) I’d created her with the sole purpose of snapping her up to level 90, etc., etc., but thank goodness I didn’t, because of course, the whatever-it-was that was wrong with Blizzard has (apparently) been sorted out, and now that everything’s tickety-boo again, I don’t really need that character on Nagrand (I really must remember to go and delete her, as all characters count in the number of characters you’re allowed per account!) So anyway, I wanted a Human Hunter to boost up to level 90, mainly to see what a Human looked like in a Human Garrison – yeah, stupid, I know – a character is a character, and a Garrison is a Garrison, full stop. The Horde Garrison isn’t as… pretty, neat, or clean as the Alliance Garrison, and the buildings have different “name labels”. The Horde Garrison is located in a much more unpleasant area, too, but other than that, they’re pretty much the same… I also think that the Horde quests to establish your Garrison are quite a lot harder to complete, but then it seems to be a “World of Warcraft Cultural Thing” from the very beginning, a lot like Starfleet versus the Klingons. The Horde (read: Klingons) have always been portrayed as being the “baddies”, or villains of Azeroth (and now, it seems, Draenor too) a somewhat grubby, coarse, unkempt, undisciplined and uncivilised “mob” – lord knows, their Fearrrless Leaders don’t even seem to be capable of intelligible speech! Apart from their great stone and metal fortresses, their homes seem to be roughly slapped together from odd bits and pieces of wood, with a tattered hide stretched over the top as a “roof”! If you play a Horde character, even a sophisticated Blood Elf, you’ll find that the quests are either harder to complete, or more complicated than the Alliance equivalent. *shrug* I dunno – I just feel that the Horde really do get the rough end of the stick… So, I made this Human character the other day, got her into the Guild, set her up with bags, and gold and a decent weapon – and started her up in the Baby Area. I did everything right. I learnt Skinning and Herbaling as Professions, got her past the starting area, and up to level 6, before I realised… I’d started her on the wrong ruddy account! I’d already used up my Wynterthyme account “Bonus Boost to 90”, on Shekinàh! Shoot! I was not a happy little Vegemite when I realised what I’d done… *sigh* What could I do, but pass all her worldly possessions on to another new character – this time on my second account – and start all over again! And that’s why I didn’t start as early as I’d intended! 🙂
Anyway, we slept in a bit this morning, but still managed to get a lot of WoW-ing in before lunchtime. I helped Julian bring down an extremely tough Silver Elite that had given him a lot of grief yesterday, and he helped me to complete a quest I was on (Mouselet had already completed it) Shekinàh is still proceeding slowly, still trying to get to level 96 so that she can upgrade some of her Garrison Buildings, and Wynterthyme doesn’t seem to be getting any nearer to her goal of “Exalted” with the ruddy Council of Exarchs than she was three months ago! I dunno – my Reputation bar, set up to show my progress towards “Exalted” with the Council of Exarchs, just isn’t moving! 😦 I don’t really know what else I can do! I’ve already done all the quests that I can find that are supposed to further your Reputation with that Faction – I’ve read in some of the Forums that you just have to work your way through all the zones, and that you’ll pick up the Reputation you need that way – but that’s what I’ve been doing for the last week – and as I said – that Reputation bar hasn’t moved even a micro-millimeter!
I’ve been giving quite a lot of think-time to Julian’s suggestion of getting an indoor aquarium – where we’d put it, what sort of fish would we have – goldfish? tropical? marine? I’d love to have a marine aquarium! The marine fishes seem to be much prettier, and much more colourful than their tropical cousins! I first saw a marine aquarium about a million years ago, in a Chinese restaurant – amongst all the fishes they had in their absolutely beautiful display, there were two shy little fish that spent most of their time hiding under the artfully placed rocks and coral on the aquarium floor, they were only about 8cm long, and they absolutely enthralled and fascinated me! They were paisley! I kid you not, paisley! Their colours were so vibrant and brilliant – I kept getting up from the table to go and look at them! Marine fishes are expensive to get, and very expensive to maintain – you have to have all sorts of fancy heaters, and lights, and filters, so if we did end up getting an aquarium, we might have to settle for goldfish or tropical… As for where to put it – well, Julian suggested the wall between the outside deck and the “Library” door, and it would look pretty good there – it’d balance out the big glass display cabinet on the other side of the doorway very nicely! But I’d still like a backyard fish pond, or at least a pool of some sort – because as I said to Julian, regarding the indoor aquarium “Yes, but you can’t have a fountain in an indoor aquarium!”, to which he had to agree… so at the moment, both ideas are floating around in my think tank!
Food stuffz: last night we had those weird little filo pastry “parcels” – they were supposed to be lamb (well, Julian bought them as “lamb” parcels, anyway!) but they actually turned out to be chicken! “Flakes” of chicken (which in all honesty were too small to be called “chunks”, and too big to be called “chicken mince”) in way too much fake-creamy white sauce, all wrapped up in rather nice filo pasty – in fact, the filo pastry was about the best part of the little parcels! I don’t think we’ll be getting them again… We had them with chips, half a tomato, a small, steamed, button squash, and green beans. For dessert we had one of the Ferguson Plarre Hot Cross Buns each – slightly warmed in the microwave, and with a scrape of butter (Note: you really have to be very careful warming yeast-containing items in a microwave – if you warm them up too much they turn rubbery, and if you let them cool down too much after you’ve warned them, they go stale! Microwave yeast-containing items at your own risk!) They were the very best Hot Cross Buns I think I’ve ever eaten! They were to die for! I’d give them a score of 22.5 out of 10! For lunch today I had a ham, low-fat Halloumi cheese, and tomato, on Baker’s Delight whole-meal bread – it was a lovely sandwich, and I was particularly impressed with the bread – it had a lovely “crunch” to the crust, which had been liberally sprinkled with sesame and poppy seeds. I think we might get that bread again! Tonight we’re having roast lamb, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, and snow peas – and of course, we’ll be having another Ferguson Plarre Hot Cross Bun for dessert! I’ll let you know what the roast was like tomorrow night! 🙂
Weigh-in this morning. Was not good at all! I went up another two points, from 63.0kg to 63.2kg! All I can think of is that I’ve had a very low-grade viral infection – I was just so thirsty yesterday, and as I said – I hardly ever get “thirsty”! Yes, I like my coffee, and my tea, but I drink them because I like them, not because I’m “thirsty”. Usually when I get some sort of low-grade virus, all I want to do is drink orange or mandarin juice, and I get terribly thirsty – well, that’s what I felt like yesterday, only of course we didn’t have any orange or mandarin juice, so I just had to drink water – and that extra cup of tea late last night – so I suppose it’s no great surprise that my fingers and feet have been getting swollen, and that my weight’s been going up. Or, on the other hand, it is Easter, and I have been having one Hot Cross Bun with a scraping of butter for dessert, for the last three nights! Maybe it’s the Hot Cross Buns and the butter! Then of course there’s Sunday, and Easter Eggs! I don’t think I even want to think about that in relation to my weight! 
So the words: “And this, too, shall pass…”¹ is a damn fine saying to think about instead! 🙂
And so to tomorrow! 🙂 Well, I believe that we have an early visit to Bunny’s, to find a suitable large tub for our little kumquat tree – I was going to look for a fish-net there, but we already got one of those from the Pet Shop yesterday, so the only other thing that I have to ferret around for at Bunny’s is a bathroom plug-hole strainer of some sort! I really hope they have one… I reckon I could probably make one myself, if I had the right tools (and I really only have a very vague idea as to what I’d need!) I’d need a flat metal ring – a large-ish flat metal washer would do – and some mosquito proof fly-wire. Tin snips, or whatever they’re called, for cutting out a neat circle of fly-wire, and something with which to affix the fly-wire across the circle inside the metal washer! Viola, as the French say – one bathroom plug-hole strainer! Sort-of, anyway… And once more, that’s about it from me for this evening! Do drop in again tomorrow night to find if my weight is trying to go back to normal, or if it’s still insisting on going up! And how was our roast lamb? What about Wynterthyme, Shekinàh, Arisnoë, and this new girl, Wïnter? Never fear! All your questions will be answered tomorrow night! 🙂 Until then though, please do try to bee good – remember that the Easter Bunny will be here the day after tomorrow! 😉 Remember that there is no great genius without some touch of madness, and don’t forget to stay cool – or warm, depending on your preferences, to always drive carefully, and to look after yourselves… but most importantly, please don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 