04.16 pm
I’m baAAaack! – and boy, what a couple of days it’s been! On Monday morning I played WoW until lunchtime, and as you may all remember, I’d said that I had an appointment on Monday afternoon at two o’clock to see our Doctor, Dr. B., to get the results of the x-ray and ultrasound that I’d had done last week on my sore right ankle/foot … and as she’s a very good doctor, and tremendously popular – plus the fact that she’d been off ill all of the previous week – I knew that she’d be running late with her appointments (as she usually is anyway!) so somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I put in the aside that “maybe we’d get to see her at a quarter past three!” Oh, the irony! We got there slightly before two o’clock. Naturally, I had my Kindle with me (I never leave home without it!) As my eyes moved across the packed waiting room (she’s not the only doctor there, BTW) I sighed, and started reading… Time passed…. slowly… I looked at my watch; it was 2.30 pm and the room was still packed… More time passed… and I sternly resisted the temptation to keep looking at my watch… There was a television up on the wall, showing a live panel doing an in-depth analysis of the Donald Trump/Hilary Clinton debate etc… with subtitles, but no sound. I returned to my book. By now it was a quarter to three, and I thought of what I’d written in my blog… thinking that it was starting to look as though I wouldn’t get to see her before 3.15! How hilarious! Winter the Delphic Oracle! And rather agitatedly, I tried to go back to my book. Now, we’re quite used to not getting to see Dr. B. on time – as I said, she’s a very good doctor, and very popular – a fifteen to thirty minutes wait is about normal – but this was starting to get ridiculous, and I was getting quite angry! Then at ten past three, she called in another patient, and I was livid! At twenty past three, I turned to Julian and I said (not in my loudest voice, but certainly not my softest, either) “I’ll give her another ten minutes… if we don’t get to see her by half past three, I’m leaving!” I meant it, too! She finally called us in at 3.25 pm – for my two o’clock appointment! However, she did apologise, and asked me how many books I’d read since we’d arrived – I gracefully accepted her apology, and with a straight face told her that I’d started on my sixth (book)… So! The results of the x-ray and ultrasound.
The foot is made up of lots and lots of tiny little bones, all held in place and functioning by a series of tendons. Some of them run down your foot, from the ankle to the toes, and some of them wrap around your foot, and my problem is in the sort-of “bandage” ligaments that run across the top of the foot, slightly above the heel and ankle-proper, and just before the foot curves up into the leg. The “sheath” around the tendon is inflamed and swollen…with a small amount of fluid and soft tissue (er… read: exacerbated by my osteoarthritis!) 
Actually it’s a little bit like Carpel Tunnel syndrome, only in my ankle, not my wrist! So what to do about it? Dr. B. has “prescribed” a Physiotherapist, which we’ll get onto in the next couple of days, and to talk to my Podiatrist when I see her next – though frankly, I suspect that all she’d be able to do would be to confirm the diagnosis made by the ultrasound technician the other day – however she may be able to suggest a good Physiotherapist who handles these sorts of things all the time. We’ll see. But good news, I am allowed back on the treadmill… for a shorter time and a much slower speed, and on the “flat”, not on the 10% angle I usually have it on 😦 Oh, and I’m to stop walking and get off, when, or if, my ankle starts to complain. So instead of doing 20 minutes, at 4.6 kilometers an hour, on a 10% incline, I’m now only doing 15 minutes, at 2.4 kilometers an hour, on a flat surface! Oh! How are the mighty fallen! 😦 It’s a dull and as boring as ditch water, too – I feel as though I’m plodding through Perdition like some latter day Dante! (Mother… why did you raise me this way! 😉 ) because around the time that I do my “walkies”, the talk-back radio just waffles on about avant-garde music (today it was on what you can learn about music by listening to it being played backwards! *rolls eyes*) or playing ghastly, repetitive – as in a single chorus, repeated over and over again – no tune, no melody – just… boring whatever-passes-for-music these days. Anyway, there you go – now all of you know as much about my ankle as I do! 😉
On Mondays, Josh usually comes over in the afternoon to do my hair – well, we got home from the Doctor, and had a cup of coffee – only we weren’t going to be seeing Josh that afternoon – his car had broken down rather badly – something to do with the clutch, I believe… so he was going to come over on Tuesday, yesterday – so I could have done my blog on Monday, but I’d already ensconced myself in to my “non-writing” mode, so I didn’t – I played WoW instead, and got Zelenka up to level 60, at long last, and with the greatest of glee, went off to get my her flying licence! I played WoW a fair bit on Tuesday, too, and although I think I can probably improve my shot rotation a lot (the order in which I shoot off various damage over time spells) being able to fly makes questing in Outland almost a breeze! 🙂 Julian and I have decided to move Wynterthyme and Demelza from Quel’Dorei to Saurfang – now all we have to do is organise it all, and to decide what we’re going to take from the guild bank with us, and hopefully we’ll both be well settled in Saurfang by next Sunday! Yesterday, Tuesday, my very favourite eldest daughter usually comes over, but she’s coming over on Thursday instead, this week – so once more, I got in quite a bit of WoW-ing – and even a bit of reading and today’s really been more of the same!
So now that I’ve caught you all up on my daily doings, I’ll get onto all the “good” bits! 😉
Food stuffs. On Monday night we had some more of the pork, herb and garlic sausages, with chips, half a tomato, and a mixture of peas and leeks (our own home-grown, organic leeks which we’d harvested some time ago – Julian prepped them by washing, chopping, and “blanching” them, before freezing them in vacuum sealed plastic bags) This time Julian pan-fried the sausages instead of using the griller, like he did last time, as last time they got a bit “squashed”! They tasted nice, but they look and cut a lot better when they’re not squashed by the top of the griller! For dessert, I had a Corella pear and a Vaalia Lemon Creme yoghurt. Yesterday for lunch we had sandwiches made with sourdough bread, the last of the delicious roast beef leftovers, some corned beef to pad it out a bit, some chopped lettuce, Feta cheese, and a little of the Baxters “Fire Roasted Tomato & Smoky Chipotle Relish” (which I’m afraid doesn’t exist, because I can’t find a mention of it online anywhere!) which was really, really yummy. Last night for dinner we had some of the very nicest marinated lamb backstraps that I think I’ve ever had! It’s (unfortunately!) a Woolworths “Gold” brand (I usually boycott Coles and Woolworths “special” home brands!) but this is one item that I think we’ll be buying quite often! It’s Woolworths “Gold” brand, Australian Lamb Eye of Loin, with Caramelised Onion. “Succulent, hand seasoned lamb with cumin, fennel & fresh coriander” – as you probably know too, I absolutely hate coriander, but on this occasion, I didn’t even notice it! Julian pan-fried it, and we had chips, peas, and our own home-grown, organic, curly carrots, and it was a really wonderful and spectacular meal – definitely on a par with a “Three Michelin Hat” restaurant! What can I say?! Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, eat your hearts out! 🙂 For dessert I had a delicious fresh fig – store-bought, alas, and not from our little twig of a tree (yet!) but it was lovely, and I had an Apple Le Rice. As Julian had quite a big shopping list this morning, lunch today was a “bring home from the shops” lunch – two halves of a savoury roll, and a yummy, sinfully delicious, Baker’s Delight fruit and white chocolate scone, with the white chocolate drizzled on the top of it – I don’t think I’ll be looking at all “gaunt” (see below!) tomorrow! Tonight we’re having the last of our frozen left-over stew on a bed of rice, and I’m really looking forward to it as it’s the sort of thing that only gets better the more often you have it! For dessert, I’ll have the last of my fresh figs, and one of the smaller Nashi pears that Julian got the other day (because this last fig is really quite small!) and one of my Vaalia Lemon Creme yoghurts.
Weigh-in Monday morning: I went from 66.5 kg to 66.5 kg – I stayed the same as I was on Sunday
Weigh-in Tuesday morning: I went down 3 points, from 66.5 kg to 66.2 kg
Weigh-in today – Wednesday: I went back up one point, from 66.2 kg to 66.3 kg – well within that Fabled Beastie, the magical, mythical “Margin of Error”!
I spoke to Dr. B. about my weight, too, on Monday – she seems to think that I shouldn’t try to get back down to my “lower” weights (between 63 and 64 kilograms) as I’d looked too “bony”, and my face was too thin and gaunt at those weights – she says, and Julian apparently agrees with her, that I look better around this weight! So I shall continue along the way I am – for now, anyway – watching my weight with an eagle eye! Next month, November, I go back on those terrible pills again for ten days… Roll on March!
And that about brings me back to tomorrow! Flipper has just been gorging herself on pussy biscuits (kibble) because both of us forgot to hide them away while she was asleep this afternoon – so she probably won’t eat her dinner tonight Most annoyment! Auric and Dapple are both well, and my hair really looks lovely! My very favourite eldest daughter has handed in her last assignment for the year – on time, for a change – and will be over tomorrow, when we’ll probably watch alternate episodes of “Arrow” and “The Flash” – so a good time will be had by all! And that’s really about “it” from me for this evening! Do drop in again tomorrow evening to see how my weight went, whether or not Flipper ate her dinner tonight, and what other sorts of adventures we all had chez nous! 🙂 Until then though, please try to bee good, remember that unlike baked beans, loaves of breads or Fuji apples, books once consumed, do not disappear, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to always drive carefully, and to keep warm and dry in these “late-winter, early-spring” days, when anything goes, weather-wise… but above all, please, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 