04.49 pm
So I’m starting a bit later this afternoon – I’ve been working on a header to go with this background (expect it to be temporary!) but I haven’t done a marvelous job – I ran out of time! 
I actually spent most of the day trying to level Phoenìx up, but it’s been a really slow slog, since I reached level 60 and got my wings! (I think I already told you all that I hate Hellfire Peninsula, didn’t I? Yeah… thought so…) So there I sat, going “bang, bang, you’re dead… NEXT!” and it wasn’t until Julian came in to see how I was doing, and I grizzled about leveling up so slowly… He came into the Den and looked over my shoulder – “You should be in Terokkar Forest by now, shouldn’t you?” to which I replied “Doesn’t Zangarmarsh come first?” – which it does, but Julian thought I’d probably be able to handle Terokkar Forest, or if not now, then in about another level… but I sorta like Zangarmarsh, so I thought I’d go there. Actually, I was a bit niggled that I hadn’t received any breadcrumbs for it, and that “the game” still seemed perfectly happy for me to be in rotten old Hellfire Peninsula, when all along it’s been moving me out of areas pretty smartly – but wouldn’t ya know it, as soon as I thought – “yeah! I will go on to Zangarmarsh – I’ll just turn in these two finished quests before heading out that way!”, lo and behold, I got my breadcrumb to the almighty Marsh! It’s really weird – or maybe it’s just me that’s weird… I know I’m playing a game, right? The characters I interact with in the game are not really characters, they’re pixels on my screen, and basically a lot of 1’s and 0’s in the program… so why is it that I feel really guilty when they try to get me to do a quest for them, like “Oh, please, won’t you help my dear old granny across the road? I’m too busy handing out quests to do it myself!” and I politely “Decline” their request because I’m heading out to greener pastures, so to speak! I just slink off feeling awful! It’s stupid! They’re not people I’ve turned down… are they? Anyway, I slunk off and ran away to Zangarmarsh – picked up a whole heap of their quests, flew off to Telredor, the “capital” of Zangarmarsh – where I promptly died! I ‘m pretty sure I mentioned all the Giant Mushrooms in Zangarmarsh, and although Telredor is not a Giant Mushroom, it is built in amongst quite a few of them, and its architecture is just plain crazy – or maybe it’s just that it was built by the Draenei (hmm.. interesting conjecture, there!) Anyway, it’s on lots of different levels, with balconies and ledges, seemingly stuck onto the building’s central “stem” at random intervals. There’s also a lift (“elevator”, to any Americans reading this) that takes non-flying visitors up to the Flight Point on the top deck. This lift, or elevator, doesn’t just go up and down! No, it starts a few yards out from the building, slides horizontally in to the edge of the bottom deck, waits a few seconds while passengers get on, then slides out again to its “starting” point. Then it rises vertically up to the top deck, where (and this is where I died!) it slides back in again, to join up with the top deck so that passengers can get off. Only I “forgot” that it still had to slide in to the top deck, and I exited the lift (or elevator) too soon – and did a “Demelza” – as one does, when one plunges suddenly from a very great height, onto an uncomfortably hard and unforgiving ground! But I got better 🙂 At that point I Hearthed back to Shattrath, dusted myself off, banked what loot I could, and sent the rest off to Ambermyst, our trusty Banker and the stalwart keeper of The Great Guild Bank Overflow Deposit Box (i.e. her own personal Bank slots, generously donated to the cause, shall we say…) and that was about where I left the delightfully short-sighted Phoenìx, and the long-suffering Ambermyst for the day!
After that, I had a bit of a fiddle with the blog’s background and header, decided I wasn’t really doing anything terribly constructive, and started writing – as I still am… Earlier this afternoon, Julian went out and harvested the leeks and some absolutely darling little dark green capsicums, and turned over the garden beds, preparing them for the winter’s crop to come. There were quite a few leeks, which were carefully washed and sliced, blanched in boiling water, then plunged into ice-cold water to stop them from cooking any further. When they’d cooled sufficiently, they were patted dry, put into sealed zip-lock bags, and stored in the freezer for future stews and dinners. However, I’m not sure what’s the best way of storing and preserving capsicums – I fear we shall just have to eat them… I suppose we could always make peperonata, but I have yet to find an authentic enough recipe – I think there may be one in my “famous-for-always-getting-lost” recipe book – I’ll look, later! Basically, it’s bell peppers, onion, and tomatoes, sort-of fried in olive oil – it keeps for a week or so in the fridge, and is used a bit like chutney, or pickles… If I ever do find the recipe, I’ll put it up on my “Recipes…” page… Anyway, it’s just as well that Julian went out when he did, because the weather here has really fallen apart! It’s been raining very heavily, and it’s terribly windy – sitting in here in the Den with the curtains drawn, I can hear it, and believe me, it doesn’t sound nice! And that, as they say in the classics, was about my day! So I suppose I can move onto the good bits, now? 😉
Food stuff. Last night we had lamb backstraps in a Greek “marinade” – they tasted nice, that’s for sure, but they were a little disappointing! The two lamb backstraps were small enough to begin with, but in cooking them, they shrank to about half their original size – if we get them again – and we might, because they did taste nice – we’ll have to get double the quantity! With them we had chips, peas, and our usual half a tomato. For dessert, I didn’t have my usual Corella pear, I had an apple instead, and then I had my usual, delicious Coles-brand, very low-calorie Rice pudding 🙂 For lunch today I had another sandwich made with the lovely tasty whole-meal bread that has the sesame-seed crust, basil-pesto hummus, and perri-perri chicken sandwich chunks – it was absolutely deliciously yummy! 🙂 Tonight we’re “sampling” some butcher’s shoppe lamb sausages, with all the usual accompaniments – chips, beans (or maybe peas again), and our usual half a tomato. For dessert tonight, I’ll have one of my Corella pears, and my very excellent Coles-brand, very low-calorie, delicious Rice Pudding 🙂
Weigh-in this morning. Wasn’t too bad – and certainly a lot better than I deserved, or was expecting, that’s fer sure! I went from 64.5kg to 64.6kg – only up one point! I don’t expect it to last, though – I’m sure to go up a bit more tomorrow – after all, one can’t get away with eating all the guff that I ate on Tuesday at the movies, and yesterday, with that yummy white chocolate and fruit scone without paying some sort of price… can one? 😉 We’ll see what happens tomorrow morning, I guess…
And that once again brings me to tomorrow, which I rather suspect will be a carbon-copy of today, apart from me having to have my next Warfarin blood test in the morning – which probably means that we’ll be lunching out – so I guess it won’t be a carbon-copy of today, after all! Never mind, whatever happens tomorrow, you’ll all get to hear about it later in the evening! 🙂 The fur-fin kids are still well and happy, Julian is slowly recovering from his dreaded lurgi, and me… I’m just muddling along, as usual! 🙂 And that’s about “it” from me again for this evening! Don’t forget to call in again tomorrow night, to see how my blood test went, and if I’ve had the results back, what my weight decided to do to surprise me this time, and whether we made a “shopping day” out of the trip to get my blood test done. I’m sure there’ll be heaps to tell you all, so don’t miss out! But until then, don’t forget to bee very good, remember that “discovery” consists of seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought, and don’t forget to keep warm and dry in this atrocious weather, to look after yourselves, and to always drive carefully – but above all, please don’t forget to stay safe!:) ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 