04.06 pm
Goodness gracious me! Only 15 more days until Christmas! I sure hope that all of you are more prepared for the Big Day than we are! Alright then, more prepared than I am – because I’m sure that Julian has everything in hand, and that everything will run smoothly, like a well tuned watch, on “Tha Day”!
Yesterday morning we left home around 10.15 am to go and pick up my very favourite eldest daughter, who’d kindly agreed to come and do a bit of personal and private Christmas shopping with me… I hadn’t been able to decide whether to go to Doncaster or The Glen, but I felt that The Glen was maybe a bit too small… a bit too limited in the variety of shops available to me – but where else, apart from Chadstone, would I be able to find a David Jones, and a Myer store? Julian refuses to go to Chadstone – he says it’s just too big, and he gets lost – and I must admit that I too find its size a little daunting! Hmm… so I looked on the box that knows everything, and found that yes! there was a David Jones as well as a Myer store at Eastland! We’d go there! Then I remembered that I needed to get some more fruit, as well as all the “Secret Women’s Christmas Shopping Business” that I had to do, and the best place for fruit was Knox City! Dilemma! I could go to Eastland and have both a David Jones and a Myer store, and (perhaps!) not a terribly good fruit emporium… Or I could go to Knox City, which only has a Myer store – but it has a good variety of smaller shops, and probably the best Fruit and Vegetable stall in the metropolitan area… I chose Knox City. When we got there, we made our first port of call the Shingle Inn, where we sat down and had a cup of coffee and a Shingle Inn mince pie (well, it is Christmas!) each, while we discussed our plan of action. After that, we… walked. And walked. And walked. And then walked a bit more, because by then it was lunch time – so we went back to the Shingle Inn and had lunch, after which we did a bit more walking. To cut a long story of torture, pain, and frustration short, we eventually managed to get almost everything that we needed to get – unfortunately my very favourite eldest daughter wasn’t able to get her cleats – Rebel Sports, Athlete’s Foot, and another sports-type store didn’t have her size, but she did manage to get herself a mouseguard – sorry, mouthguard! (she’s joined a women’s Gridiron team called the Monash Warriors!) Actually, she just messaged me – she got them today…. at Eastland! I knew we should have gone to Eastland! (but then, I might not have been able to get such nice fruit, might I!) Anyway, we didn’t get home until after five o’clock last night! By that time, I’d almost managed to abrade all the skin off my insteps (don’t ask! I have badly deformed feet from osteoarthritis after too many years of classical ballet, and the most detestable shoes imaginable – they’re ugly, klunky, clod-hopping “boats” which I only wear when I leave the house, because I detest them so very much! The inner part of the sole rubs against my instep to the point that I get blisters there. I hate those shoes sooo much it’s not funny! ) I really needed to go shopping again with Julian this morning, for things like more “Stocking Fillers” and so forth, but at the moment it’s all I can do to hobble around in nice, cool, and comfortable bare feet, and as we’re going out for lunch tomorrow, I thought that perhaps I should give them a bit of a well-earned, and well-deserved rest! (my very favourite youngest daughter shares a Birthday with my very favourite eldest daughter’s husband, so we roll the two into one, as it’s too close to Christmas to have separate Birthday parties!) It’s rather ironic, you know – when we first arrived at Knox yesterday morning, and held our “Council of War” at the Shingle Inn, it’s right next to General Trader, so we went in there to see what sorts of things they had. They seemed to have just about everything we wanted, barring Lee’s cleats and mousemouthguard, of course, but naturally, we wanted to see if anyone else had these items – maybe at a cheaper price – and several hours later, after all of our walking, and all of our looking here, there, and every which-where, we ended up getting everything we wanted… back at the place where we’d started looking for them, all those hours ago – the General Trader!
Oh, I didn’t tell you what happened with my “loose screw”on Thursday, did I! Well, it was a right nightmare getting over to Moonee Ponds at that hour of the afternoon, and the weather looked very ominous, but we made it to the surgery at about five-twenty, so we had about ten minutes to wait. Dr. N has two practices, one is a very new, purpose built dental surgery in Mt. Waverley, right after freeway on-ramp on Blackburn Road, and the other is this little upstairs suite in Moonee Ponds – I usually go to the Mt. Waverley one. Anyway, it was exactly as I predicted! We waited for about 10 minutes, then I was shown into the surgery, sat down in the chair, and had the dribble bib attached around my neck. Dr. N came in, asked us how we were, and which screw had come loose. I showed him where it was (sitting in the dentist’s chair, with your mouth wide open doesn’t make for terribly good diction, and it came out sounding more like “At ung, o’er air”, but he seemed to understand what I was saying – or maybe the fact that the screw was about to detach itself completely, and fall into my mouth, gave it away – but he found it) As he was busily screwing it back into place he said that I was lucky not to have lost it completely, as it was almost falling out – then it was “Thank you very much for that – see you next Monday, when you can take it out again, along with the rest of the bottom screws!” The whole thing took about three minutes, tops! Then we drove home, through the wind and the rain – we did see a lovely rainbow, but most of the time visibility was pretty bad – however, we made it back in one piece, and I was able to enjoy my dinner, using both sides of my mouth to eat on again!
Julian and I played a bit of WoW today, as we won’t get a chance to tomorrow, but we only ran one Dungeon this afternoon – The Nexus – Wynterthyme had already done it with Mouselet, but Demelzae hadn’t, so we did that as a “Mythic” Raid – which wasn’t really a good idea, as with Raids you don’t get the opportunity to finish off quests and hand them in for your rightful “just desserts”. Once again though, at level 110, it was all really very easy – and I do remember that some of those Bosses were rather nastily lethal!
And that’s pretty much what we’ve been up to for the past couple of days! Tomorrow we’re off to an excellent Chinese Restaurant, the Bistro Empress, on the corner of Springvale Road and Coleman Parade in Glen Waverley (right next to the Novotel!) It was called the “East Empress”, but the old place in the shopping strip a little further along Springvale Road has been torn down, and a new “East Empress” is rising, Phoenix-like, from the rubble! Apparently it’s going to be three floors, with the Restaurant taking up the ground and the first floor, and there’ll be an apartment above that. We’ve been going to the East Empress – and now the Bistro Empress – for nearly twenty-five years (almost as long as we’ve been married!) so we’re very excited to see what the new place will be like!
And now that I’ve caught you all up on our daily doings, I can get on and tell you all the “good” bits! 😉
Food stuffs.Yesterday for lunch of course we were at the Shingle Inn in Knox City, so I had my usual BLT on sourdough bread, but they didn’t have any of my favourite chocolate caramel slices! Instead, I had the “next best thing”, which was a “wedge” of chocolate and walnut fudge (about 6.6 cm wide at its widest point, about 10.5 cm long, and about 1 cm high) covered in a glossy chocolate glaze with pink “sparkles” in it, and a very thin zigzag piping of green peppermint frosting across it, to make it look like a “Christmas Tree”, I suppose. Anyway, it was very nice, but not a patch on my favourite chocolate caramel slices! 
With that I had my usual long black, with a small jug of skinny milk on the side. I mentioned before that we’d sat down there and had a cup of coffee and a mince-pie as soon as we arrived at Knox, but I neglected to mention that we repeated the procedure for afternoon tea, only by that time I was hot, and tired, and sore – so I had an iced coffee with no cream or ice cream – and another mince-pie. For dinner last night we had pasta with tomato sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese – “farfalle” (“butterfly” pasta, sometimes called “bow tie” pasta) this time – and very nice for a change! For dessert I was going to try a real, live mango for a change (I’ve only eaten tinned mangoes before, and they were horrible, but I’ve been talked into trying a real mango…) but I’d also bought three small, “Honey” Pears. One of the Honey Pears had got a bit bruised around the stem, and I thought I’d better eat that first, so we cut off the tip of the pear around the stem, and I ate that for dessert, with a Vaalia Lemon Creme yoghurt. Honey Pears are really very nice! Julian went out shopping this morning and brought lunch back with him, so I had half a ham Danish, half a flat, pizza-style spicy tomato roll, and a delicious fruit and white chocolate scone, and tonight we’re having pan-fried fillet steak, chips, peas (for a change!) and our usual half a tomato. For dessert, tonight I’ll have the Mango – if I can figure out how to cut it up! It’s not your usual mango shaped Mango, it’s sort-of long, and a bit “wavy” (for want of a better term!) and is called (I think!) a “Dragon’s Tooth” mango. I’ll see how I go with it… With that I’ll also have an Apple Le Rice…
Weigh-in yesterday. Was terrible! I was aghast! (and depressed!) I went from 69.8 kg on Thursday – and as if that wasn’t bad enough, when I woke up, my feet looked as though I’d been standing up and drinking gallons of water, for a fortnight! I’d gone up another deadly notch to 69.9 kg! 😥
Weigh-in this morning. Proving beyond any reasonable doubt that it’s all fluid, although my feet were still a bit puffy this morning, they were nowhere near as bad as they have been for the last few days – and I’d gone from 69.9 kg yesterday, to 69.3 kg this morning. Down six points! Go figure!
And that about brings me to the end of tonight’s discourse – you already know what’s happening tomorrow, and also what’s on our plate for Monday morning! Auric and Dapple, as usual, are being good little fishies – swimming around, nibbling on the fake, plastic water-weeds, and doing all their usual “fishy” things – so really and truly, that’s about “it” from me for this evening! Do drop in again tomorrow night to find out how our Birthday Luncheon went, and what we all ate, and what else we all got up to during the course of the day – but also, please try to bee good! You-Know-Who is watching you all with beady little eyes, looking to see who’s been Naughty, and who’s been Nice, so don’t get on his Naughty List, or on December 25th all you’ll get is lumps of coal! Don’t forget that creativity could be described as letting go of certainties, and remember to look after yourselves, to always drive carefully, and to keep warm – or cool – depending on what you’re doing – but above all, please remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 