04.21 pm

Do you know, it’s taken me nearly half an hour to actually get anything written today? I’ve been stuffing around with itchy hands – not itchy palms, mind you – that I wouldn’t have minded, because according to folklore and superstition, it would have meant that I was going to get some money! No, it was the backs of my hands that were driving me batty – an area about the diameter of a tennis ball on the back of each hand was itching like there wasn’t going to be any tomorrow! I hope it’s not my latest acquisition that’s causing it! You might remember that several days ago I mentioned that I’d brought a new body moisturiser made by Grown Alchemist? It’s really rather nice on most of me, but not on my face, which is where I bought it for in the first place. So after a few days, we were out shopping again, and I spotted some new Palmolive Oil Infusions body moisturiser, which I decided to try… It smelt as nice as it sounded – Citrus with Jojoba Oil – and it was touted as being “non-greasy”. I probably shouldn’t have bought it – because I know from bitter experience that I can’t use the Palmolive “Aroma Therapy” shampoos and Shower Gels, because they…. (Winter goes on, in a very small voice) make me itch…  Anyway, I’ve been using that on my face – and my hands – since I got it – and now the backs of my hands are so itchy they’re driving me up the wall and down the other side – I’ve rubbed some cortisone cream into them to try to calm the itch, but it hasn’t quite kicked in yet – so I’m trying to type, and not just sit here, trying to scratch the skin off the back of my front paws! Thank all the powers of goodness it hasn’t made my face itch too – yet, anyway! *sigh* Back to the drawing board! You know, I should have just stuck with what I knew worked for me – the two Jurlique Clarity products that I’ve used for years and years – Clarity Hand Lotion, and Clarity Hand Wash – they’re both fantastic, but the Hand Lotion is soooo expensive, so I was looking for a “more affordable” solution. However on the face of it, I’ve probably wasted more time, effort, and money on trying out “unsatisfactory” products, than I would have if I’d just gone and bought more of the Jurlique Hand Lotion in the first place!

Anyway, so apart from getting terribly itchy hands, what else have I been up to since Saturday night? Well, not a lot, really – playing WoW mostly, of course, but on Sunday evening Julian’s sister came over for dinner, because she was in Melbourne over night on her way to somewhere-or-other (she’s a Federal Court Judge and more-or-less flits around the country “as needed”!) On Monday, Josh came over in the afternoon, and on Tuesday, my very favourite eldest daughter was over. Normally, she usually stays at home with her equal but more technical half on a Public Holiday, but Neale doesn’t get Cup Day, and had to work, so we had the pleasure of her company! As usual, she and I sat lazily in the loungeroom and watched episodes of “Arrow”, “The Flash”, and “Legends of Tomorrow” – which are all getting decidedly fraught and scary! I keep reaching for my Peril Sensitive Sunglasses, but I seem to have mislaid them!

We had a bit of fun and games on Monday – Auric and Dapple’s Fish House light went off! One minute they were swimming around in bright, clear water, showing off their lovely red-gold scales – and the next, they were plunged into darkness! No amount of expert fiddling on Julian’s part would get their strip of lighting going again, so he rigged up a temporary strip of led lights which made everything look “blue-ish”, and really showed off their pretty reddish-gold scales, and when he went out later, to do the shopping, he also dropped in to the Pet Shop place next to Aldi’s, up at Vermont South, and bought them a new lamp! (sounds a bit like a Panto, doesn’t it, in Aladdin, when the evil Magician  successfully tricks the Princess into giving him the Magic Lamp! “new lamps for old! new lamps for old….”) Unfortunately, after fiddling around in the Fish House when he was re-arranging their rocks and plastic flora the day before, then their lights going out, which necessitated even more annoying fiddling in their watery domain to try and get said lights working again, Auric and Dapple became quite traumatised and distraught, so that the mere sight of Julian walking up to the tank to give them their breakfast sent them fleeing to the furthest reaches of their small world, and cowering under the new plants that he’d put in for them! I ended up giving them breakfast on Monday and yesterday, but they seem to have calmed down today, and have gone back to being their usual happy little selves! And so all’s well that ends well, in the watery world of “The Puddle Jumpers”¹! 🙂

Well, when I said that I’d “mostly” been playing WoW, I have to also explain that I haven’t had all that much time to play any of my usual “solo” characters. On Sunday of course, Julian and I played with Wynterthyme and Demelzae – and didn’t do too badly! We both died – I died a lot more than he did – I’m not quite sure why, apart from the fact that I’m just not fast enough to get out of the way of incoming spells, curses and sundry missiles! However, we did have a great time! We did finish up a bit earlier than usual for a Sunday, but that was mainly so that we could start setting the table and getting dinner items ready for when Mitta arrived. I played again on Monday – didn’t really get a look-in yesterday (Tuesday!) – and I played again today – with Ellrevienne, who’s now almost level 40 (when she can learn to ride a faster horse!) and while not wanting to “mozz” myself, I do have to say that she is doing remarkably well! Hopefully I’ll be able to do a bit more with her tomorrow! I’ll be sure to let you all know! 😉

And now it’s on to all the “good” bits! 🙂

Food stuffs.
Sunday – for lunch we had really yummy sandwiches, made with seeded sourdough bread, with our favourite butter substitute of basil-pesto hummus, ham, my delicious Cheddar/Tasty cheese, and a small amount of the Baxters “imaginary” Fig, Date and Balsamic Chutney. For dinner that night – even though/especially because Julian’s sister Melissa was with us, we had our traditional Sunday night omelets. My omelet had diced green and red capsicum, fried onions, semi-melted cheese, capers, ham (because we’d run out of bacon! 😦 ) Their omelets were pretty much the same, except instead of ham, they had smoked salmon, because Melissa is a Vegetarian who eats fish meat, but not animal meat, if you see what I mean. For dessert, Julian had bought a very nice cheese cake, which was absolutely delicious, with a tiny little dollop of cream! 😉

Weigh-in Sunday morning. Not too bad, I suppose – I went from 67.3 kg on Saturday to 67.2 kg

Monday – for lunch we had a standard “brought home from the shops because Julian was doing the shopping and didn’t want to have to turn around and make lunch when he got home” – so we each had one half of two savoury rolls, and a scrumptious “Baker’s Delight” fruit and white chocolate scone. For dinner that night we had the most tender and delicious little pieces of fillet steak, with chips, our usual half a tomato, and some of our very own home-grown, fully organic, and really fantastic, broad beans! They were a resounding success, and I think we’ll be planting a lot more of them next year! For dessert I had one of my Corella pears, and we both had a small slice of the left-over cheese cake from Sunday night – again, with a teeny dollop of cream.

Weigh-in Monday morning. Well, I can’t say that I was surprised – I went from 67.2 kg on Sunday, back to Saturday’s weight of 67.3 kg!

Tuesday. Well, we had to have toast for breakfast, because Julian had forgotten that we were completely out of cereal! We had two slices of toasted sourdough bread each², with a meager spreading of peanut butter, and half a banana sliced onto the peanut butter – it was actually quite delicious, and I remarked to Julian that I wouldn’t mind having that more often, if only as a change from the eternal and everlasting two Uncle Toby’s Vita Brits, a sprinkling of Sultan Bran, half a sliced banana, and 200 ml of milk – but he flatly refused 😦  For lunch we had yet another yummy sandwich made with sourdough bread, with a smear of butter, sandwich-sliced corned beef, tomato, and chopped lettuce. For dinner we had Beak & Sons Gourmet Wagyu Beef sausages, (which also don’t exist because I can’t find a reference to them anywhere online – and yet we ate them! *shrug* so go figure! They certainly tasted real enough!) with chips, our usual half a tomato, and peas (of the commercial, frozen variety) mixed with some of our own home-grown, fully organic leeks, which Julian had cleaned, chopped, blanched, and frozen when we harvested them, many months ago! For dessert I had one of my brown Nashi pears, and we had the last itty-bitty little slices of Sunday night’s cheesecake – again with a small dollop of cream. Unfortunately, it’s all gone now! 😦 (still, three night’s worth of desserts from one small cheesecake is pretty good going!)

Weigh-in Tuesday morning. Please remember that on Tuesday morning I started taking those wretched and deplorable little fluid-retaining pills again! 😦 😥 So naturally, because I was about to start taking them – I had to go through the proverbial “calm before the storm”! – just to thoroughly rub my face into what was not going to be happening for the next ten to twelve days! I went down! From 67.3 kg on Monday, to 67.0 kg yesterday. I stood forlornly on the scales, waving a sad goodbye to the “zero” after the point! 😥

Today for lunch we had – guess what! Oh, you’ll never guess! I’ll just have to tell you all! I had a sandwich! Yes! Really! 🙂 Once again, it was our favourite sourdough bread, a smearing of butter, sandwich-sliced cold roast beef, Cheddar/Tasty cheese, and some of the Baxters Fire Roasted Tomato & Smoky Chipotle Relish – absolutely delicious! 🙂 For dinner tonight we’re having pasta with tomato sauce, and a small amount of grated parmesan, and for dessert I’ll be having one of my Corella pears, and – seeing that there’s no more cheesecake – I’ll be having an Apple Le Rice.

I’m afraid that you’re all going to have to wait until tomorrow night to find out what my next weigh-in is going to be – suffice to say that it won’t be pleasant!

My pasta is calling me – back later! 🙂

09.29 pm

Well, my pasta is busy being digested, and we’ve watched our quota of television for tonight, so I’m back! 🙂 Now, where was I, when my pasta so rudely interrupted me? Oh yes, that’s right, I was telling you all that you’ll just have to do what you do every night after reading my daily musings! Wait until tomorrow night to find out how my weight went! 😉 And so, onto tomorrow! I have no idea what’s happening, except that we may have to go out at some stage – Flipper needs more of the special anti-arthritis drops that we put on her dinner (because there’s no other way we could get them into her that wouldn’t involve a great deal of blood-letting – 99¾% of it, ours, and she seems to like the taste of them on her food, anyway!) I need to get more fruit – I’m down to one apple, one brown Nashi pear, and two dubious looking Corella pears, we’re down to only one box of tissues, and I also need to get some more naked ginger. I know there was something else that I wanted to get too, but I can’t remember what it was right at this point in time. Don’t worry though, I’ll think of it while I’m in the supermarket – even if whatever I think of there turns out not to be what it was that I thought I needed this afternoon! Oh, and I’m sure you’ll all be delighted to hear that Flipper is once again deigning to eat most of her dinner, and that Auric and Dapple have got over their fear and distrust of their housekeeper and breakfast giver! 😉 And that, gentle readers, is about “it” from me for this evening! Do call in again tomorrow night – to find out if I remembered what it was that I thought I wanted, how my stupid weight behaved itself, now that it’s being aided and abetted in its recalcitrance by those ‘orrible little pills that I have to take for the next nine days! . Until tomorrow night though, please try hard to bee good, remember not to strive to be a success, but rather to be of value, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to always drive carefully, and to keep warm and dry, especially at the moment with weather and temperatures all over the place like a dog’s breakfast (which come to think of it, is pretty much usual for Melbourne, anyway!) but most importantly, please don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

¹“The Puddle Jumpers” – because they successfully “jumped” out of their squalid little “puddle”, and into a whole new world of clean, clear water, lots of food, and pretty rocks and (plastic) plants to frolic and play amongst! 🙂

²“two slices of toasted sourdough bread each” – I feel that I should point out that (a) we get Baker’s Delight to slice the bread at “sandwich thickness” – which is pretty thin, and (b) the loaves are very small in dimension. One slice of sourdough bread would probably equal ½ a slice of commercial white bread – if that!