04.15 pm
I meant to be a bit earlier this evening, however, I wanted to get the short skit wot I rote for you all written down before I forgot it. But I should start at the beginning, shouldn’t I! Yesterday I played WoW in the morning, and started work on the new Header you see at the top of the page. I didn’t get terribly far with it yesterday because all of those little “squiggly” bits around the edge had to be added one at a time, and lined up so that they were all even – and I’m afraid that I didn’t work terribly hard because I was feeling too sore and sorry for myself, and besides, I wanted to get the cabbage leaves on my foot, to see if they’d work a miracle and ease the swelling in my feet… Anyway, I’d done all my exercises and my treadmilling, and I was quite stiff and sore, so I went and got the cabbage out of the fridge. I had to wait about a bit because Julian had commandeered the kitchen to make a loaf of sourdough bread, and it had just gone into the oven – but the kitchen smelt delicious, so I didn’t mind all that much. I finally got to the cabbage, removing four or five leaves, and cutting out most of the main “vein” down the centre of each leaf, which was so thick and hard that I was having trouble “rolling” them flat with the rolling-pin. Then, armed with my Kindle, the cabbage leaves, and with Julian in tow to tie the leaves on for me, I repaired to the lounge room and my Recliner chair… We couldn’t find any string, so Julian had to make do with a bit of left-over athletic strapping tape to bind the leaves onto my foot… which sort-of worked, but came undone about half-way through the experiment. We took some photos of the sourdough loaf when it came out of the oven – and it was absolutely fabulous! How’s this for a home-made Sourdough bread loaf! (hint: it tastes even betterer than it looks! 😉 )
I should have taken a “before” photo, I should have made sure that I had a bigger, green cabbage, and I should have made sure we had string (but I’m positive that we do have some… somewhere! Never mind, it’s now on our Shopping List!) Anyway, we taped the red cabbage leaves on as best we could (which wasn’t very!) and as all the articles that I’d read said to leave the cabbage leaves in place for about 30 minutes – I sat and read my Kindle for half an hour, and then I removed the leaves, which were miraculously still wrapped around my foot – but only because I sat extremely still, and didn’t move so much as an eyelash! I’m quite sure that if I’d so much as twitched my nose, or blinked, they would have fallen off! 
This morning though, a friend told me that the cabbage leaves should stay on for two to three hours, and that most people tie their cabbage leaves on before they go to bed! Well, I knew that that would be a bridge too far for Julian – he’s happy enough to tie cabbage leaves around my foot and let me sit around reading my Kindle with my feet up, just to please me, but I know he’d never countenance cabbage leaves in bed! Actually, the idea of cabbage leaves in bed brought somewhat mangled images of leaves, fig leaves and cabbage leaves, to mind – hence this short skit I wrote:
* * *
Scene: A shady glade in the Garden of Eden. Eve is lying back comfortably on a pile of leaves, with her feet propped up on a Lion with huge fangs. A small, woolly lamb is nuzzling up to the Lion, who is licking it fondly, and drooling… Eve is delicately filing her fingernails on what appears to be a piece of cuttlefish bone, and humming to herself. Her right foot is wrapped tightly in cabbage leaves, which have been tied on with a piece of twisted yarn, which seems to have been made from shed animal fur…
Adam enters, stage right. He’s hot and sweaty from working with the animals they’ve been put in charge of. “I’m sorry dear, I couldn’t get you any fig leaves (Adam blushes hotly) I’m… I’m afraid I used them all…. Sorry, love!”
As Adam speaks, a troop of animals enter, single file – they’re all wearing fig leaves draped strategically over… certain parts of their anatomy.
Eve looks up from her nails “Oh, that’s OK hon – I found these cabbage? leaves instead! Snake told me about them – and there was something about apples, too, I think… I can’t quite remember, now… but these kibbidge? cobbage? no! cabbage leaves are really very comfortable and cool! You should try some – they’re growing over in the garden bed by the south wall, right next to that great big apple tree….”
[ghod] hears this conversation, takes a look down at the two humans in confusion, and does a bit of a double-take when he sees the animals that Adam has draped with fig leaves. In exasperated annoyance, he turns to Snake, who is lounging about on a soft cushion next to the coffee table holding the petit fours, and exclaims accusingly “Just exactly what did you tell that young lady!”
Snake looks innocent, and says “Oh… ummm… [Snake clears his throat in embarrassment, and continues, in what he hopes is an innocent voice] …I just said that apples go really well with cabbage, if you let them stew together for a bit…” [Snake looks off towards stage left] “Well! For goodness sake! Would you look at that!” [ghod turns and looks off towards stage left too, the humans forgotten for the moment, and Snake heaves a huge sigh of relief…]
* * *
Julian’s been working outside most of today, and I’m happy to be able to tell you that all our tomatoes are now planted! And while he was working out there, preparing to (finally!) put in the tomatoes, he found… a lovely big Cannonball cabbage! Apparently we’d planted one, way back when we put in all the other things, like the cauliflower, and the rhubarb, which were also harvested today (and tomorrow we have to buy a small can of diet lemonade, so that we can stew our rhubarb 🙂 )
And that’s been pretty much our last two days! Today I created a new Night Elf Mage called “Equipoise” on the very first Realm we played on, Scarlet Crusade, because Julian’s been playing on there and he says it’s very deserted, and I also finished the new Header, which I think has an almost “Medieval” or “Renaissance” look to it! Dapple’s been a very good little boy, behaving himself properly as all good little goldfish should – but naughty Auric is still having mild bouts of “floaties” in the evenings, although I keep feeding them less and less each night… and we’re both very worried about Flipper. She’s still not eating more than a mouthful or two a night, though she does like her pussy biscuits… so I suppose that having those is a lot better than not having anything… she tried to eat me last night! We bought her some special kibble “treats” a while ago – they’re supposedly one of those fancy-schmantzy “Nature” kibbles, and she loves them! Unfortunately they’re not at all good for her kidneys, so we never give her more than one or two at a time, about once a week, if that! However, we now feel that there’s not much point in being so sparing with them any more, so we give her a couple every night. She loves them so much that she even recognises the sound of the bag that they’re in, and she gets all quivery with anticipation when she hears it 🙂 So, last night I got her out two of her special treats, and gave one to Julian, which he fed her, and she got so anxious to eat it that she couldn’t see where it was, and when I gave her mine, on the flat of my palm, she missed the treat, and found my finger instead! I suppose my finger must have smelt the same as the treat, and that’s what she went chomp on! Yeoooowww! She didn’t quite break the skin, but she came very close to it! She’s tremendously weak though – walking is an effort, and she’s fallen over a couple of times, jumping off the bed… we’ve tried putting make-shift ramps up for her, but she’ll go miles out of her way to avoid the ramp – silly old girl! I fear she has an attitude of “Where ah’m-a-goin’, I don’t need no ramps!” I must try to get some Loxicom (her arthritis medication) into her tonight..
And now it’s about time that I moved on to all the “good” bits!
Food stuffs. Last night we had one of those “Coles Finest” products – Australian Angus Beef sausages, with Garlic and Parsley: “Gourmet sausages made with Australian Angus Beef and Onion, Lightly seasoned – Gluten Free” – which turned out to be very nice! With them we had chips, steamed green beans, and our usual half a tomato, and also a little bit of Sriracha, cos we’d never had it before and we wanted to see what it was like. It’s quite “hot” (as in “spicy” hot) but as long as you don’t try drinking it straight from the bottle, it’s good 🙂 For dessert I had one of my “ordinary” green pears (either Bartlett or Packham, but probably Packham… I dunno!) and a Lemon CHOBANI yoghurt (which was really yummy!) Today for lunch we had a “Julian’s Sourdough Bread” sandwich, with just a teeny bit of butter, and chicken peri-peri chunks, and it was just sooo nice! Nothing beats home-made bread, honestly! As with the first “white” loaf that he made, the texture of this loaf was just about perfect too, and although the crust wasn’t quite as crunchy as the first loaf he made, it had a nice “bite”, a very good “mouth” feel, and enough “crunch” to make it a very delicious sandwich! Tonight we’re having some (once again, “Coles Finest”!) pan-fried Australian Angus Beef Porterhouse “100 day grain fed in Victoria 21 day aged” steak, with which we might have our only surviving baby cauliflower, possibly the last of our home-grown and fully organic broad beans, maybe some chips, and undoubtedly, our usual half a tomato! And for dessert I’ll be having a smallish yellow peach, and a smallish yellow Nectarine (which I’ve just taken out of the crisper drawer, so as to bring them up to “room temperature” before dinner) and an Apple Le Rice.
Weigh-in yesterday morning. Not too bad, I suppose – I stayed the same as Tuesday, at 68.5 kg…
Weigh-in this morning. Back to the good-old “margin of error” business again! I went from 68.5 kg yesterday, to 68.6 kg today. Tomorrow I’ll probably be back to something like 69.999 kg!
And that just about brings me back to tomorrow! I’m not sure what’s happening – probably more of the same as today! I’m pretty sure we’re not going anywhere, and there’s a small possibility that we may be having some old friends over for a visit, but I haven’t heard anything from them and I don’t think Julian has either, so it’s probably going to be a matter of “weight and sea”. Anyway, I think that’s probably about “it” from me for this evening – please feel free to drop in tomorrow night and see if we had visitors, if my weight went up yet again, whether I’ve done any more work with Equipoise, and how Auric, Dapple, and little Flipper are going. Until then though, do try hard to bee good – it’s getting closer to “that” time of the year again, you know, and you don’t want Father Christmas writing your name down in the “Naughty” column, do you! Remember that true freedom is not overcoming what you think stands in your way, it is understanding that what is in your way is part of the way, and don’t forget to always drive carefully, to keep warm – or cool – whichever seems most appropriate to you – and to look after yourselves… but above all, please don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 