04.23 pm
Er… I think I got the date wrong on my last blog – it should have been “Winter’s log, earthdate 201701.03”, not “Winter’s log, earthdate 201701.04”, because the 4th was yesterday, and I didn’t write anything last night because we went out to see “Rogue One” at Century City Gold Class, and by the time we got home at around a quarter to six I was too busy thinking about the movie, and about the delicious lamb and fetta pizza, and the over-the-top chocolate Sundae – that I really shouldn’t have eaten, but did anyway… (not to mention the “sampler” tray of three different flavoured pop-corns that we had first!) to feel like writing anything! 
Sorry about that, chiefs! 🙂
Well, let me cast my mind back to yesterday… In the morning, our friend Josh came over in an overt attempt to smuggle Sal out in his bag, and to do my hair for me. We didn’t need to be at the theatre until about 2.30 pm (the movie started at 3.15 pm) so we had “a light lunch” at home, as we intended to have something to eat during the movie. You see we only go to the movies about once a year – twice, if we’re terribly lucky – and because we go to see a movie so seldom, we always make an “occasion” out of it and go to a Gold Class cinema, where we usually have a meal and something to drink, about half way through the movie. So as I said, we had a “light luncheon” at home before we left – half a spicy, savoury pizza roll each, and a sort-of a custard-ee scroll with sort-of dribblee icing. Now, because the movie started later than we usually book for, we didn’t want to have a “proper lunch” there, we just wanted a bit of a “fill up snack” and a drink – and nothing else at home for dinner, because we figured that we’d still be too full from what we’d eaten during the movie. However, we did go a little bit overboard on the food front – I had a lamb and feta pizza, which was utterly delicious (pizza has been on my “bucket” list since August 2014, when I started on my Optifast diet!) and… I had a brownie fudge Sundae. I couldn’t help it! It’s a bit of a knee-jerk reaction with me – if I see the word “chocolate”, followed by the word “brownie” – that’s it! I’m hooked like a hungry whale shark! Throw in the word “fudge” for good measure, and I just can’t help myself – I have to have it! Now, as I’m sure you all know, movie theatres are fairly dark, when the movie’s playing, and your typical, common or garden variety Sundae dish is sort-of long and narrow, and the one my chocolate fudge brownie came in was no exception. In this long, narrow dish they’d managed to squeeze three average sized chocolate brownies, cream (and lots of it!), chocolate sauce, salted caramel sauce, and… three normal-sized scoops of ice-cream – chocolate, caramel and vanilla! The ice-cream froze the cream, and the chocolate brownies were a little hard from being underneath all that ice-cream, making it quite difficult to cut into with a spoon. The whole thing was very awkward and messily perilous to eat, sitting with your feet up, and in the darkness of a movie theatre – but I bravely persevered, and managed to get it all into my tummy and not all over my clothes! I also had a mocktail before we went in – I can’t remember what it was called now, but it had elderflower cordial, fresh mint leaves, pineapple juice and apple juice in it, and we ordered a “sampler” of three different flavoured pop-corns to take in with us. There were about seven different flavours, and I chose “white raspberry”, which was nice, I guess – but a little bit too sweet, really, the corn kernels were quite small too, so it ended up being more like eating toffee’d pomegranate seeds! The next flavour I picked was “salted caramel”, and it was really nice – but the best one of all was the “Maple-flavoured Bacon” pop-corn! The corn kernels were the largest of the three different flavours, and they were delicious! I had my usual long black, with a small side jug of skinny milk – and you know what? Their coffee there at Gold Class isn’t half bad! 🙂 especially as it came with a very nice little Lindt chocolate ball! 🙂 So we ate a lot there, but we didn’t have anything at all for the rest of the night at home – just coffee, and a bit later, a cup of tea.
The movie itself was quite confusing at first! It’s set somewhere between Episode III, “Revenge of the Sith”, and Episode IV (the very first of the Star Wars movies!) “A New Hope” – in fact, “Rogue One” ends on Captain Antilles’ Alderaan Cruiser, and we see Princess Leia being handed the stolen plans for the Death Star, just as they’re being boarded by Darth Vader and his Imperial Troopers… (cue: “Imperial March” music and segue into Episode IV “A New Hope”) It was a bit tough working out who was who at first, as we’d been assiduously avoiding spoilers since “Rogue One” was released, but it wasn’t all that hard to follow. The special effects were quite brilliant, and although 99¾% of the main cast characters die, it does have a very satisfactory ending 🙂 All in all, it was a good movie, and if you’ve seen all the other Star Wars movies (especially Episode IV “A New Hope”!) do go and see this one! It ties up a lot of loose ends and “but whatever happened to…” queries. Although several characters from “A New Hope” have passed, special effects and CGI were used brilliantly to “replicate “, or re-create them!
Our cleaning lady was over today, and as we suspected, Sal nearly turned himself inside out over the vacuum cleaner! He ran for his life yesterday when Josh turned on the hair dryer, and he knows Josh – he’s never met our cleaning lady though (who is really a very nice young lady!) and the much bigger and noisier vacuum cleaner, with its long boa constrictor-like hose (it’s an in-house vacuum) sent him into a bit of a tail-spin! He vanished – and we looked everywhere for him. In the end, I grabbed his big jar of pussy biscuits and rattled it – that usually makes him materialise out of thin air – but this time? Nada! I came back in here while I thought about where else in the house he might be hiding, and all of a sudden, there he was in front of me, mewing piteously, and saying “You rattled the code for “pussy-biscuits”, so where are they then?! My bowl is empty, and I’m starving!”. I don’t think that Auric and Dapple even notice the vacuum cleaner – they just continue to swimmel around as usual 🙂 On Monday we’re going to pick up our new Bengal boy – I hope he’ll fit right in, but I’m suspecting that it may take a while for him to adjust I have a list of possible names for him as long as your arm – I just can’t make up my mind – and of course, a lot depends on what he wants to be called!
Today for lunch we had a very delicious sandwich, with cold sandwich-sliced roast beef, tomato, chopped lettuce, cheese, and some of that yummy, but totally imaginary Baxters “Fig, Date and Balsamic Chutney”, and for dinner tonight we’re having a commercially stuffed chicken breast, the stuffing being apricots and macadamias. It sounds really delicious, but the proof of the chicken, and all that… we’ll be having steamed rice mixed with finely chopped spring onion, and for dessert I’ll be having an “ordinary” green pear (a Packham) and an Apple Le Rice.
Weigh-in Wednesday (yesterday) 71.4 kg
Weigh-in Thursday (today) 71.4 kg
Not too bad, considering the way I’ve been stuffing myself for the past couple of days! I suppose we’ll have to see what tomorrow brings!
Which brings me up to tomorrow, and I hate to say that I have absolutely no idea what’s happening! I’d say “more of the same”, except that we’re not going to the movies, and the cleaning lady won’t be here – however I think that we should perhaps start preparing to batten down the hatches, and put any and all delicate breakables away in a safe, cushioned and padded place where paws, claws and tails can’t get at them, for on Monday, “Trouble” arrives! Oh, and we’d better get a second cat harness… And that’s really about “it” from me for this evening! Do drop in again tomorrow night to find out what we did do during the day! Until then though, please try to bee good, don’t forget that your assumptions are your windows on the world – scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in, and remember to always drive carefully, to keep cool – or warm – depending on your preferences, and to look after yourselves… but above all, please remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂
My Word! 