Oh, I just looked at the date in the blog title! December 20th! Christmas! Next Friday! Have we got all the presents? I think so… there’s only one left to go, and Julian can get that on Wednesday… hopefully… and a box in which to put the present… The Christmas Cards have all been sent off except for one, which will go tomorrow. We haven’t put the Christmas Tree up yet because we still don’t know where to put it! With Paul’s help this evening we’re going to move the big glass display cabinet to the other side of the Library door – the furniture and “things” from Adelaide will be arriving tomorrow, including the antique Grandfather Clock (circa 1780) and a rather large camphor wood “hope chest“, which will go on the wall newly vacated by the display cabinet. If it fits, the Christmas Tree will sit on that… otherwise we might just have to suspend it from the ceiling! (the Christmas Tree, that is, not the large camphor wood chest!) But… Why doesn’t it feel like Christmas?

The cabinet has been moved successfully, with (so far!) no breakages, though there’s still a lot of antiques and glassware to be put back. But there always seems to be something more to be done though, doesn’t there – and my bathroom is no exception! So it’s not quite finished yet, after all! *sigh* The hinges for the shower door have been put on, but not the door itself – that’s happening tomorrow! (but where have I heard that before!) I’d be a lot happier if people would just tell me the ruddy truth in the first place, instead of what they think I want to hear, or will make me happy – because when what I’ve been told turns out not to be the case, I’m not only not happy, but I’m furious that I’ve been treated like a child in that they haven’t been completely honest with me! I might be silly sometimes, but I’m not stupid! I do understand that things can, and often do go wrong, or can take longer than expected – so bloody-well tell me that! Instead of saying “Yes! It’ll all be finished by the end of the weekend”, say instead “If everything goes to plan, it should be finished by the end of the weekend, but it could take a bit longer, depending on ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’!” – well, “x” turned out alright, but ‘y’ and ‘z’ didn’t!  Apparently there’s a mark on the ceiling that won’t come off, so tonight Paul’s going to have to drive nearly all the way out to Tullamarine to pick up some more paint for the ceiling to be “cleaned up”! That’d be the ‘y’ part. Then there’s the ‘z’ part, which are the two long top drawers of the vanity unit. Paul’s taken them with him tonight because the partitioning that’s going into them to hide and/or disguise the plumbing, needs to be prepared by the cabinet-maker (it’s complicated, but it should have been thought of and measured for last week!) The long and short of it  seems to be that… if everything goes according to plan from here on in (and frankly, I’m not holding my breath!) I should (“should” being the operative word!) have a usable new bathroom, the day before Christmas (yes, I know Julian, I’ve been told “Wednesday” – but do you think I’m going to take that as gospel?) And let me be quite, quite clear about this! The reason I’m angry is simply because people haven’t been honest with me – not the fact that the bathroom’s not ready yet – hold-ups happen! Everyone (including me!) knows and understands this – but being repeatedly told, and even promised, something that wasn’t even a real probability, but only a possibility – that’s what’s annoyed me!

Anyway, enough about the bathroom – it’ll be finished, or it won’t. Simple as that. Today being Sunday, Julian and I traipsed off into Azeroth this time, in World of Warcraft. There was some debate as to whether or not we’d Rift or WoW, and WoW won out! 🙂 Well, we’d started off two newbies last week – two Night Elves, but where I’d rolled myself a second new character, so I wouldn’t be tempted to play with my half of the duo during the week, Julian had used his, and had leveled him up quite a bit, leaving my character w-a-y behind. So we opted for starting again, with another two newbies – on one of the US realms this time, instead of the Sydney based Oceanic realm, Nagrand. Our two new characters are on a realm called “Scarlet Crusade” – supposedly a Role Playing realm, where you’re supposed to act, and talk, “in character”, but nobody ever does, really. This time they’re Blood Elves (actually the “prettiest” Race!) and members of The Horde (the opposite faction to “The Alliance”, which we were last time) I’ve rolled a Hunter called Cassändra, and he’s rolled a Warlock called Bræ (With World of Warcraft, you’re allowed to use all sorts of strangely accented letters in your character’s name, which gives you so many more possibilities of getting a name that you actually like! Much more betterer! 🙂 ) Anyway, by the time we got all of that sorted out and set up, it was getting close to lunchtime, but  we did manage to get quite a lot done. We have a Guild (also called “death by chocolate”) but no Guild bank, as yet – alas – we’re far too poor to afford the 100 gold needed to buy the first Bank Vault! I’m thinking of transferring someone across from the Quel’dorei realm, which is where all of our richest and most prominent characters reside, who could bring a “small donation” towards the Scarlet Crusade “Horde Guild Bank Endeavour” with them! I’ll talk to Julian about that later…

Food. Last night we had steak for dinner – but not with the usual chips! We had boiled Kipfler potatoes instead, and beans… I also had a spoonful of the left over rice salad, with the wild rice and couscous in it, and a bit of the yummy flat-bread. For dessert, we “tested” the small Ferguson Plarre Christmas Pudding that I’d bought on Tuesday when I went Christmas Shopping with my favourite eldest daughter – we wanted to see if it was any good, in which case we’d go and buy a bigger one, to have for our family Christmas Dinner (read: lunch!) dessert. Well, it was really very, very nice – however, just to be on the safe side 😉 we’ll be having it for dessert again tonight! I only had a very small piece – with light cream, too – and the result of eating such yummy but not-good-for-you food will be seen shortly! For lunch today I had a really delicious home-made “wrap”, using the flat-bread, with sliced tomato, lettuce, aged pepper low-fat cheese, and yoghurt. Very “moor-ish”! 🙂 Tonight we’re having pork – but I’m not sure how himself is going to cook it – and a reprise of the Ferguson Plarre pudding – cold, this time, I think (after all – isn’t it said that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”? 😉 ) And now… the denouement! What transpired after the small piece of pudding, with light cream…

Weigh-in this morning. Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting the scales to reveal what they did! No way! But I went down another 4 points! From 64.6kg to 64.2kg! And after that small-ish (well alright, it was very small!) piece of pudding – with (light!) cream! Not that I’m complaining! I hope I stay in the 64kg zone for a long, long time! But alas – the weight is bound to go back up again – isn’t it? I mean, I am on Maintenance, I’m not “dieting” anymore, so… er… shouldn’t I be putting a bit of weight back on, until I stabilise, or whatever?

Well, we had some more of the small pudding for dessert tonight – cold, and again with a smidgen of light cream – and if anything, it tasted even nicer cold than it did hot! So tomorrow I have to try to find the phone number for the Ferguson Plarre stand at the Blackburn Road/Burwood Highway shopping complex, to see if I can order a large pudding from them – if they don’t have any, well, we’ll either have to try their Chadstone shop, or buy another two small ones (if they have any of those left!) or… buy another type of pudding, untied, and untested, for Christmas Day! Please, touch wood, and cross all your fingers and toes for me! 😉 Hopefully my shower door will be going on tomorrow, and hopefully my two drawers will be back… sometime soon. Julian would like to “finalise” any shopping (food, stocking fillers, wrapping paper, whatever!) on Tuesday, but that’s in the lap of the ghods at this stage – the rest of the shopping might have to wait until Wednesday (bathroom permitting) or possibly even Thursday. Anyway, that’s about it from me for tonight – we’ve had quite a pleasantly cool day in here, despite the outside temperature, and tomorrow promises to be a lot better – it’s a shame we can’t do our last bits of shopping tomorrow, but we have to be here when the Adelaide things arrive – which could be anywhere between 10am and 2.30pm – so we’re stuck here for the duration, I fear. Anyway, do call in again tomorrow night – find out if the Adelaide things got here early enough to allow for a “quick” sprint to the shops, if I was able to source a large Ferguson Plarre pudding for Christmas Dinner, or whether my weight suddenly decided that it was doing a “Winter”, and going in completely the wrong direction (just ask Julian what my sense of direction is like!) and if my shower door is on or not! You can be sure there’ll be lots to tell you all tomorrow night, so don’t miss out! 🙂 Until then though, please try to bee good – only for another couple of days! Remember, though, if you’re not lighting any candles, don’t complain about being in the dark – and don’t forget to keep cool – or warm – depending on our mercurial Melbourne weather, to look after yourselves, and to drive carefully… but above all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Well, what can one do on a day like today, except cower as far away from the heat as possible – which is exactly what we did – so tonight’s blog will be quite short, as that’s about all that we did! Julian and I sat very quietly inside, minding our own business, and gently strumming on our computers (read: we played World of Warcraft) Yes, we played WoW for a lot of the day – not as our usual Sunday-type tag-team pair (because it’s not Sunday yet!) but singly – both of us are roughly the same level (I’m level 27 now, and Julian is level 25) we’re both in the same Guild (death… by chocolate) on the same realm (Nagrand) and the same Race (Night Elf) – but for a change we each played our own game today! So we sat in our computer chairs, in our nice cool air-conditioned Den and played World of Warcraft, and when we absolutely had to get up and (gasp! shock! horror!) move about, it was done quietly, languidly, and without haste, if only to minimize the amount of heat one’s body generates through movement – so we remained relatively cool and unscathed by the inclement weather! Not so poor Clarke and Paul! They had to run in and out, fetching and carrying, and working! Still, the air conditioner was on in my bathroom, so once they’d scuttled back inside, I dare say that they were fairly comfortable 🙂 Paul has only just left – Clarke left earlier because he had to go home and change as he was expected to go to a party tonight – he didn’t look terribly happy about it though, because it’s going to be very hot, the party will be loud and noisy, and there’ll be lots of booze… and he has to turn up here, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning, to do the plumbing bits for my two hand basins! 🙂

Bathroom status: all systems are almost “go!” The bench top is in, and it’s almost a perfect match for the tiles! Well, at first glance, anyway 😉 and it looks gorgeous and opulent! The handles are on the drawers, and the built-in waste paper bin that sits in one of the two double-height drawers has been installed. The “wall furniture” (shower rails, towel rails, toilet paper holder, etc.) are in place, the mirror is done, the glass-brick window looks almost like a very, very pale (understated) stained-glass window, and the silicon on (in? on?) the glass shower screen is slowly “curing” (apparently it cures at a rate of one millimeter per day) so that the shower door can be put on – this will be Monday, according to Clarke this afternoon. However, tomorrow the hand-basin plumbing will be done – the water and the waste-pipes, which will all be “hidden” behind small partitions in the drawers that they have to pass through, the taps will be plumbed in, and I think that the toilet still has to be siliconed (??) to the floor (or something!) Why am I getting a very edgy feeling that I’m not going to be able to use my shower until Christmas Day or Boxing Day? If silicone cures at a rate of one millimeter per day, and the shower door is fixed in place using silicone… hmm! Paul led me to believe that this was the way the door would be attached, but Julian has just told me that Paul told him that they use very big metal clamps, or something – so I guess I’ll have to ask Paul or Clarke how it’s done, when they turn up tomorrow! And that’s about where my bathroom’s at, at the moment! 🙂

Food: Well, we had a very nice dinner last night of freshly made flat-bread, cold meats and salads – there was a little bit of cold silverside, a little bit of ham, and a little bit of really, really nice salami! I had one slice of each. There was a small tub of actually quite acceptable “commercially grown” potato salad, a garden salad into which Julian had plonked some baby bocconcini, and some rather strange concoction of “rice salad” with couscous and wild rice in it, which was probably the best rice salad I’ve ever eaten! I usually don’t like rice salad, so I wasn’t looking at it very favourably – rice salad is usually made with far too much vinegary dressing or whatever, horribly under-cooked rice (bugger all this ridiculous “al dente” business! I’m half Italian, and I know what “al dente” should be – which is definitely not what most restaurants and executive chefs will give you! 😛 ) But this one – maybe because of the couscous and wild rice mixed in with it (I usually don’t like wild rice much either!) was actually nice! Julian says there’s still some left, so I shall have some with my steak – which is what we’re having for dinner tonight! 🙂 For lunch today I had half a piece of the flat-bread cut into approximately 3 x Ry-vita crispbread sized slices, with low-fat cottage cheese (which had chives in it, and was very yummy!) with a bit of the cold silverside, and slices of tomato on top – that flat-bread is definitely worth getting again! And as I said before, it’ll be steak, chips (no doubt, but I only ever eat five of them!) some sort of green vegetable (possibly brussels sprouts) and whatever salad we have left.

Weigh-in this morning. Well, it must have been my afternoon walk wot done it! I think I mentioned yesterday that I’d been absolutely drenched in sweat when I finished my 1.67km walk yesterday, and how totally exhausted and drained I was? I was probably a bit dehydrated from it – still, I did have some iced tea and some diet cordial after it (not together!) But when I hopped on the scales this morning, not expecting to see much change, to my absolute amazement, I’d dropped four points! So I’m now (temporarily, I’m sure!) back in the 64kg zone! I went from 65.0kg to 64.6kg! Hmm… Maybe I could have had that small bowl of pasta for dinner last night, after all! 😉 Anyway, we’ll see what happens tomorrow morning! I’ll most likely be back in the 65kg zone again… 🙂

So – tomorrow my plumbing gets done…. (?!) No! Not my plumbing, my bathroom’s plumbing! (Winter mutters something derogatory about pedantry!) and it looks as though it’s going to be ultra hot again 😦 However, there’ll be no sitting around quietly playing World of Warcraft again tomorrow, as we have to put the Christmas Tree up, and get the Christmas Wreath on the front door, and… – or, we might leave it until Monday, depending on how hot it is tomorrow, and how busy Paul and Clarke are, because Julian is going to press-gang them into helping him move a very large glass display case, full of totally priceless (to us!) and irreplaceable objets d’art and family heirlooms, balanced precariously on very wobbly glass shelving! He thinks to slide the entire thing about three and a half meters along a tiled floor to a new location… quite frankly, I think I’ll go treadmilling while this is occurring, and shut the door, in the vain hope of lessening the “crash, tinkle, tinkle” sounds of breaking glass, and hearts! …Maybe we should just leave it where it is, and find somewhere else to put the Christmas Tree! Anyway, that’s about it from me tonight – we didn’t do much, so there wasn’t all that much to tell you tonight, but you can (just about) rest assured that this will not be the case tomorrow night! How will my bathroom go – is it all finished except for the shower door?? Will my weight have gone back up? Where did we end up putting the Christmas Tree, or have we chickened out of that idea until Monday? Well, you can find out all of those things, plus a lot more, tomorrow night! Until then, though, do please bee good (only a few days left – then you can be naughty again! 😉 ) remember to trust yourself – you know more than you think you do, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to drive carefully, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on the weather, but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

S’been a bit hot today, hasn’t it! I’ve more or less just come back from my afternoon walkies, and I was just so… exhausted from it all that I’ve just been sitting here, staring blankly into space. trying to recover my composure! I was dripping all over the treadmill by the time I finished (in fact I was dripping before I’d counted 30 steps!) even though I’d turned the air conditioner… er… quite a bit cooler (I never know whether you turn an air-conditioner “up” or “down” to make it cooler! Does anybody know? Which is it?!)

Anyway… This morning we set off to pick up my new shoes, and then, if it wasn’t too hot, we’d call in at a nice little Italian delicatessen (now a cafe with a different name) that we used to frequent many, many years ago, to see if they had any proper Panettone or Panforte – but I’m getting ahead of myself! We were supposed to collect my shoes at 11 o’clock, and by the time we got there it was really starting to hot up! So we went in (I don’t think the guy has an air conditioner!) and I tried on my shoes, I even had a bit of a paddle up and down his corridor in them, and they fit perfectly, and were even comfortable! (you’ve really got no idea how exceedingly hard it is for me to say that any shoes are “comfortable”!) But they were, and they did indeed fit me perfectly (then!) so we paid him, and off we went again. By the time I got to the car I was beginning to realise that I was in the process of developing two very nice, large, blisters! One on my left heel – I’m used to wearing sandal-type shoes, with only a strap around the back of my heels holding them on – and one on my left little toe, where the shoe was rubbing me raw. Oh well, at least they’ll match the treadmilling blister on my left big toe! I’m sure they’ll “wear-in” over the next few days, and if not, we’d better buy some shares in Band-Aids! 😉 I’m to give the shoemaker a call early in the New Year to give him the go-ahead to start making me some more “sandal-type” shoes – he also thinks he can modify my old shoes to fit better, so we might do that first…

Then we went on to our little Italian place in Burwood East – we started going there nearly 26 years ago, when it was called “Frank’s Deli” – they made the most delicious home-made pasta sauce that you’d quite often see glubbing quietly away on their minute stove tucked away in one corner. It was one of the only places outside of Carlton where you could still get good Parmigiano (parmesan) cheese, either grated or cut from a wheel, too. It’s now called Cafe Spizzico, but apart from some extra tables and chairs outside, it really hasn’t changed all that much. We don’t go there all that often now, but the people there still remember us, and they usually have mostly authentic Italian goods on display and for sale. I thought that if anyone had decent Panettone and Panforte outside of the old Agostino’s in Lygon Street, it’d have to be them – so we went to test out my theory. Well, they didn’t have any Panforte – the buxom young wench serving us told us that she’d forgotten to order any, and by the time she remembered, their supplier had run out of them! However they did have Panettone! And not only Panettone, they had our family preferred Motta brand Panettone! (what I was raving on about last night!) They didn’t have many – there were only eight of them (and one had a bit of a squished box, so we rejected that one… Father Christmas, who deposits them under the Christmas Tree for our Christmas Breakfasts would never squish one of the boxes – not even slightly! 😉 ) We took six of them! They’re a bit smaller than we usually get, and we would have preferred them to be a little larger (which was why I insisted on getting the six of them!) but they’re Motta Panettone, and that’s all that matters, as far as I’m concerned! 🙂 So… we’re now Panettone’d up, but I don’t know what we’re going to do about the Panforte – probably nothing – it’s just an itch of mine that could do with a bit of a scratch, but if I keep looking long enough, the right ones will eventually turn up – or, we can always go for our trip overseas, dart up to Siena, and buy a suitcase full of Panforte’s and bring them back with us! 😉 Can’t you just see the headlines? “Couple caught smuggling candy-fruit and spice cakes into Melbourne! Not worth the cost of their smuggling-suitcase!” with a fuzzy-looking black and white photo of yours-truly and Julian, shielding their faces from the media with a folded-up newspaper! Ahh! Shades of “Darth Carla and her Computer Space Invaders“! (go on, read it, I dare you! I’m notorious, you know! 😉  About the only part that’s true is the fact that I lived in an untidy suburban house!)

Food thingz: After the delicious marinated veal medallions that we had for dinner last night, there was a bit left over, which I had sliced up on two Ryvita crispbreads spread with low-fat ricotta for lunch today – no tomato this time, as we’d run out of them! Let me just say that the veal was just as delicious cold, as it was hot! Tonight I think we’re having a selection of cold meats and salads – as we’re still agonizing over whether I should have a small bowl of pasta or not. I haven’t had pasta for almost two years! Surely a small bowl wouldn’t hurt too much? But the grated cheese probably would… Oh, the carbs in the pasta! Oh the milk solids (i.e. fat!) in the grated cheese! So you can see why we’re agonizing over whether to eat pasta or not… I don’t want to make the decision, lest I prove myself to be the glutton I’m trying hard not to be – Julian doesn’t want to make the decision lest he be seen as trying to undermine my weight-loss and encouraging me to eat things that maybe I’d be better off not eating! What we need is someone impartial to either say “Eat it! It’s not that bad for you if you don’t eat it too often!”, or “Don’t touch it with a ten-foot barge pole! That pasta is the top of a very long and slippery slope, leading directly to obesity and eternal damnation! (do not pass Go, do not collect 200 dollars!)” So… cold cuts and salad it is, tonight….

Weigh-in this morning. Was not too bad! It seems that perhaps I should go shopping a lot more often, because apparently my body likes walking the length and breadth of a shopping center, even if I do have a mini mince tart with my cup of coffee! 🙂 I dropped one point this morning, going from 65.1kg to 65.0kg! I’m pleased – the longer I stay at any one particular weight, the more chance that it’ll decide to flatten out and “plateau” – in other words, “stabilising” around that weight. Well, that’s the theory of it, anyway! 🙂 Let’s see what tomorrow brings – I haven’t been parading around a shopping centre, but I did do a bit of outside walking (but only a teeny bit! It was too hot for any more!) and I’ve done both my treadmillings – this morning I “walked” (treadmilled) 1.58km, and this afternoon, I managed to get to 1.62km – that was the one that almost knocked me out – I was so terribly hot… 😦

Hey! Guess what! My bathroom is actually starting to look like a bathroom, now, and not just like a marble coated hole! The mirror is in, and it does make the room look so much bigger, and lighter! The toilet is in (but still not usable!) The shower screen is in, and the silicone is “curing” prior to the shower door being installed, the drawer handles are on the drawers in the vanity unit, and the towel rail is on the wall under the glass brick window… This afternoon Clarke went to pick up the caesarstone bench top, which will be put on tomorrow! Oh, the electrician was here again this afternoon, installing the concealed lights under the vanity unit, and they do look sooo very cool! They’re the same led’s as are in the ceiling lights, so it’ll all look “matching”, an’ all! So everything is still on-track to be finished by the end of Sunday, and I’ll finally have my gorgeous bathroom! 🙂 I’m not sure what I’m doing tomorrow – probably a whole lot of nothing much! I’m not sure what Julian’s doing, either, but you can bet your sweet bippy that it’ll be “business as usual” for him (in other words, he’ll be busy doing something!) And that, gentle readers, is about it from me again for tonight! 🙂 Please feel free to drop by again tomorrow night, to find out if my weight is going to hang around the 65.something mark for a while, or whether it’s going to go dramatically up (probably!)… or maybe down (unlikely!) Find out where my bathroom’s up to by tomorrow night, and what adventures – if any – have befallen us during the day! Until then, however, do remember to bee as good as you can bee, never forget to be mindful of what you throw away, to be careful of what you push away, and to think hard before you walk away, and always remember to drive carefully, to look after yourselves, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on our silly weather patterns – but most importantly of all, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Here I am, finally! It’s nine thirty, and I’ve finally got a chance to sit down and write something! It’s been a very busy day today – the channels for my glass shower screen went in today, along with the towel rail and the toilet roll holder thingy. The shower screen channels have to sit and “cure” for about a day before the door can be added, so they were put in first thing this morning, so that they can be finished off tomorrow. The painter has been in – I’m not sure if he’s still got work to do, or if he’s finished – he was still busily painting when we left here at about 20 to 2 this afternoon for our visit to Doncaster, where I had my Warfarin blood test done, we went Panforte and Panettone shopping, after which I went to the hairdresser and had my hair cut. I got the results of my Warfarin test back a while ago – my INR is slowly coming back up again – and although it’s still not back to where it should be – it’s sitting at 1.9, which is a lot better than the 1.4 it was last time – so I’m still on a fairly high dose of rat poison. My next test is two days before Christmas – wot fun! Our search for the elusive Panforte and Panettone was unsuccessful, to say the least! When my favourite eldest daughter and I were at Chadstone on Tuesday, we were unable to source a semi-decent Panforte, but David Jones did have quite a few Italian-made Panettone that looked edible, though I wasn’t familiar with the brand – and of course now I can’t remember what the brand name was, so I can’t even Google them! All I can recall is that they were in a shiny red cardboard packet, and that they weren’t part of the ubiquitous “Ital” family – which is why I wanted to go to David Jones at Doncaster, to see if they had them too. But they didn’t. So now I’m racking my brains to try and think of a good Italian, or at the very least, continental delicatessen, and I can only think of one, in Burwood East, if they’re still there – we might pay them a visit tomorrow or Saturday, if it’s not too hot. We did find several different types of Panforte at The Colonial Fruit Company, so we bought one of the most promising sounding ones, according to the ingredients listed on the back of the packet, and tried it out this evening. Well, it was quite nice an’ all that, but it definitely wasn’t a Panforte, no matter what the packet said! (actually, it was more like a thick, stiff, Turkish Delight! As I said, nice, but not a Panforte!) Hmm… I suppose you’re probably wondering why I’m suddenly so obsessed with Panforte and Panettone! Well, it was Julian’s sister bringing that small Siena Cake over last weekend – which came from somewhere in Sydney and was (and still is!) most delicious! And although it wasn’t a proper Panforte either (Panforte’s are very thin – usually not more than about half an inch high (1.5cm) – and have rice paper underneath them), it was definitely the nicest one I’ve eaten for many, many years – since I was a little girl, in fact, and it got me all nostalgic and thinking that I’d really like to taste a proper one again – but I’ve been totally unable to find a “proper” one,  and, well, you all know how stubborn and single-minded I can get about things… And as for the Panettone – well, they’re Italian “Christmas Cakes” (they’re not really, it’s just a name that seems to have become attached to them over the years!) and it’s become one of our “Family Traditions” to have Panettone for Christmas Breakfast – the trick is in finding a “good” one (the best brand to get is “Motta“, but unfortunately they’re almost impossible to find these days 😦 ) So anyway, we meandered out of David Jones this afternoon and went to console ourselves with a cup of coffee (Julian had a brownie-sized orange cake and I had a mini mince tart) before heading off to the hairdresser. We didn’t get home this afternoon – more like evening, actually – until almost six o’clock, when of course Paul and the painter were long gone, but everything looks on track for them to finish off my bathroom by the end of the weekend – mirror and bench-top depending, of course! If they’re not ready, neither will my bathroom!

Food: Last night we had pan-fried lamb backstrap, the ubiquitous chips, beans, and a nice salad with cubes of fetta cheese (I love fetta cheese!) For lunch today I had two Ryvita crispbreads with low-fat cottage cheese (just as a bit of a change from the low-fat ricotta) with sliced sandwich ham and slices of tomato, and tonight we had pan-fried marinated veal medallions, chips (again!) broccoli, and more salad, so even though I had the mini mince tart for afternoon tea, hopefully it won’t be as unforgiving as the chocolate brownie was the other day!

Weigh-in this morning. Not going too badly – as I think I said last night, I think my days in the 64kg zone are gone for good, but that’s OK, I wasn’t expecting to stay there – I’m trying to eat as normally as possible without going overboard and “putting a strain on the relationship”, so to speak. I’m not going to totally forbid myself yummy (and therefore fattening!) things, but I am very wary – and aware – of them! This morning I went from 65.1kg to 65.1kg – so I stayed the same, which is good! Hopefully, after walking the length and breadth of the shopping centre again (1.5 times today!) I might stay the same again tomorrow! 🙂

Tomorrow morning I’m off to pick up my new shoes! After that, depending on what’s happening with my bathroom, and how hot it is, we might – or might not – go off to what used to be a wonderful little Italian delicatessen in Burwood East. It’s probably changed hands several times since we used to be semi-regulars there, but hopefully it won’t have changed too much, and that they’ll still have a few Italian items left on their shelves! (like Panettone and Panforte! 😉 ) I’ll let you all know, after we’ve been there! 🙂 I played a bit of WoW this morning, but after a bit of a push from Julian, I printed out the Christmas Card list, got down the tin of Christmas Cards, and… got most of them done! Unfortunately, we didn’t cross as many names off the list as I’d expected to, so I ran out of cards! We bought some more this afternoon, and the last four will get done tomorrow morning. I wonder if Julian has the stamps? It’s be good if we could get them posted off tomorrow, too! 🙂 And that, I fear, is about it from me again for tonight! Do drop in again tomorrow night to see what’s been happening – with luck, Clarke will have both my mirror and the bench-top, and the painter will have finished, I’ll have my new shoes (which will probably give me blisters on my heels, to go with the treadmill blisters on my toes!) and we might even have sourced some decent Panettone and a proper Panforte! (but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was you – we might not even get to the little deli!) But until then, do bee good ( 😉 ) remember not to let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to keep cool – or warm – depending on the weather, and to drive carefully – but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Well, not exactly an early start today – but not a late start, either… I didn’t really do very much at all today, so this is probably going to be quite a short blog, for a change – Steve wasn’t able to get down to Melbourne, what with having to move so close to Christmas, an’ all – which was a shame, because I was looking forward to catching up with everything that he’s been up to lately. So I ended up having a very quiet day, playing World of Warcraft for most of the morning. I’m finally starting to remember my way around the place again, and I got another of my new Hunters up to level 21 (and at level 20 you can finally learn to ride, which means that you can get around a lot quicker!) and took her over to Darkshore to get her Ghost Saber Cat. We managed to collect fifteen cat figurines before we found one that spawned the cat, whom she’s called “Mistwight” – I was thinking of calling it “Snowwight”, but decided that the two “w’s” in the middle of the name didn’t look “right”, so he (or she!) got “Mistwight” instead. Hmm… “Mistwight”… “Mystwight”… I might change it to “Mystwight”, wadd’yall reckon? By then it was getting close to lunchtime, and the electrician who was going to be installing the lights and switches in my bathroom had done all the preliminary work, like cutting holes in the ceiling for the lights and so-forth,  then came and told us that he’d be turning off the power in about twenty minutes. Julian had just taken off to go and pick up my favourite eldest daughter who was at the hairdresser getting a cut and colour done, so I hastily logged out of WoW, turned off the computer, and went and sat in the lounge room to read my kindle until the power came back on. I’d been going through all my WoW characters on the other realms, to see who could be “re-cycled” – and honestly, some of those characters are so old! Nimuë, a level 2 (!!) Hunter was in Ironforge – the Dwarven capital… how she got there, I have absolutely no idea! However, she didn’t have, and had never had, a Pet! Back in the days when she’d been created, Hunters didn’t get a Pet until they were level 10, and had earned the ability to capture and tame a Pet, after mastering the capture of three different types of animal! Blizzard changed all that a long time ago, giving new Hunters a Pet as soon as the character was created. So there was poor level 2 Nimuë, with no pet, and probably no prospect of ever getting one until she got to at least level 10. She hadn’t even done any of the baby quests in the starting area! She was in Ironforge, about as far away from Teldrassil as you can get, was in the Guild (Frobozz Electric), had heaps of things in her bank, and… she had a total of 490 gold pieces on her! All I can think of is that she must have been holding the gold for a character that I was “re-cycling”, and that another Guild Member must have “summoned” her to Ironforge for reasons which I can no longer remember! (fairly high level Mages are able to magically “summon” people to them – so having a friend, or a Guild Member who’s capable of summoning, is an excellent way of getting to places you normally wouldn’t be able to get to!) Anyway, Nimuë herself has now been re-cycled, after having sent all her worldly goods, and all her gold, to yet another Guild Member to look after until her eventual “re-creation”! The reason I didn’t just send off all those worldly goods and the gold to another character, and then simply delete Nimuë and create another character on a different realm, as I had initially planned, is because the Frobozz Electric Guild Bank is very well stocked, with lots of goodies! Anyway, I’ll have a bit of a play around in Borean Tundra (that’s the name of the realm!) and see what happens! 🙂

Bathroom thingz: well, the ceiling lights are in and operational, but apparently Clarke and Paul are still debating on what sort of led’s to use for the concealed lighting under the vanity unit. There’s a long strip of led lights coiled up under one of the drawer spaces at the moment, but Paul’s not terribly happy with it (he didn’t say exactly why he wasn’t happy with them, but I think they might be just a tad too bright?) The shower rail is in, as is the toilet. The toilet is actually “operational”, but can’t be used until at least tomorrow, to give the silicone time to set and harden properly. The painter is coming in tomorrow to do the outside (corridor) walls, the ceiling, the bathroom (sliding) door – and anything else that needs a touch-up. Paul will be putting in the glass shower screen, which will also have to sit while the silicone sets properly before the shower door can be installed. So all we’re really waiting on now is the caesarstone bench top! Unless there’s a tragic hold-up with the caesarstone bench top, my bathroom should finally be ready for me to move into by Sunday night! 🙂

My shoemaker rang us today – my first pair of shoes are finished! 🙂 We’re a bit tied up tomorrow – and besides, Thursdays are out for the shoemaker! So we’re picking them up on Friday, at 11 o’clock 🙂 New shoes… new bathroom – I won’t know myself! 😉

Food: Last night we had pan-fried chicken, with beans, I had my usual five chips, and half a tomato, followed by my diet jelly, but instead of my usual three prunes, I had a very small (and I do mean very small!) slice of Panforte (Siena Cake) But alas – I think my lovely ham, cheese and tomato on sourdough bread, plus the flourless pear cake, were the true culprits when it came to my weigh-in this morning, because…

Weigh-in this morning. I wonder if it was the sourdough or the flourless pear cake that was to blame? Or maybe it was both of them… I went back up a point this morning – from 65.0kg to 65.1kg! I think I’m going into “seesaw” mode again! One point down, two points up… five points up, three points down… even though I’m not on those wretched little pills this time! It may also have something to do with the weather (though it’s far more likely to be my change of diet!)  – my feet are really quite swollen today – and it was only yesterday that I was thinking that my feet hadn’t been quite so swollen lately! Oh well, whether it’s the weather or the changes to my diet, I think that my sojourn in the 64kg zone is over, unfortunately! Never mind – I wasn’t really expecting it to last (though it would have been nice if it did!)

I’m not sure how we’re going to handle tomorrow – it’s going to be hot again, I have an appointment at the hairdresser at 4 o’clock, and there’s going to be a lot of activity in my bathroom. When it’s just Paul doing the tiling or whatever, I don’t mind going out for a short time and leaving him to it, but there’ll be at least three people working in there for the better part of the day, and I sort-of don’t like to go off in case we’re needed to make some important decision or other. However it does look as though I’m going to have the major part of the morning to play around with my new and hopefully vastly improved Nimuë 🙂 Anyway, once again, that’s about it from me for this evening – do call back again tomorrow night, to find out all the latest – whether my weight has gone up, down, or stayed the same, if the caesarstone is ready, or if there’s going to be some ghastly delay on it, and what my new hair style looks like (I’m having a fringe cut into the somewhat longish front!) but until then, please bee good (because “you-know-who” is finalising his Naughty and Nice lists!) remember – never ruin an apology with an excuse, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to keep cool – or warm, depending on our crazy Melbourne weather, and to always drive carefully – but above all, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Goodness, what a day! Exhausting, but fun… 🙂 We left around ten o’clock this morning, to pick up my favourite eldest daughter for our Great Shopping Expedition to Chadstone – reputedly the largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere. I was going to take, and use, my wheelchair today – Chadstone being as huge as it is (and currently undergoing renovations in order to make it even bigger – if that’s even remotely possible!) but I changed my mind, and for once, we left the wheelchair at home, and I walked around Chadstone. My reasoning was thus: firstly, if I used the wheelchair at Chadstone, I’d have to run off to do my treadmilling as soon as I got home, when I’d be tired and crotchety and didn’t really feel like walking one and a half kilometers, and secondly, there’d probably be a lot of stores that the two of us would want to have a look at, but that I wouldn’t be able to get into with the wheelchair, and you can’t just park an unlockable electric wheelchair outside a shop and leave it, because it probably wouldn’t be there when you came out! I figured that if I really couldn’t keep going any longer, then I’d probably be able to get one of the shopping centre’s ride-on-scooters to get me around until it was time to come home. So the wheelchair stayed in the garage at home, and I went shopping without it! 🙂 As it turns out, with the exception of Myer and David Jones, I wouldn’t have been able to get the wheelchair into any of the shops we went into! And just as an aside to any shop owners or managers reading this blog: I know the object is to sell as much “guff” as possible, especially around Christmas, but honestly – you could sell twice, or even three times, as much “guff” as you currently do, if you allowed all your potential customers – including the disabled in their wheelchairs – adequate access to your establishment! I’m not kidding! Just as one example – the two Apothecaries at Doncaster Shoppingtown have so much “junk” (and yes, it really is “junk”!) choking off both their entrances that even dog fleas have difficulty squeezing in, let alone customers! I dunno… (Winter shakes her head in sad amazement at their shortsightedness!)

Anyway, we had a good old explore around that particular little part of Chadstone – or at least, I did! I haven’t been there for almost a century (it feels like that long, anyway!) though my favourite eldest daughter knows it well enough to guide me to the shops I needed to go to… There’s a lovely new Ferguson Plarre shop there! So after I’d managed to find, and buy, the first part of Julian’s Christmas Present, we sat down in there and celebrated with a cup of coffee! While we were there I also bought a small Christmas Pudding to “test” – we don’t have a Christmas Cake, or Pudding, yet, and we sort-of like to get a small Christmas Pudding to test, before buying a Family sized one for Christmas Day – so we’ll try that out later this week to see if we’ll get one of the larger Ferguson Plarre Puddings for Christmas Day, or whether we’ll get another Pudding from Phillippa’s, which from memory is what we had last year…

Then we staggered off to Myer, and then David Jones, in a vain search for a decent Panforte (Siena Cake!) – and  the ever elusive Motta Panettone! While both stores had fairly decent looking Panettone, in the end David Jones won out as having the best Italian version, and if we can’t source our very favourite Motta ones, we’ll probably end up buying a few from David Jones… Both stores also had the same Australian brand Panforte, which I think we’ll give a big miss… they were about as un-authentic as it’s possible to get, and what’s more, they contained chocolate, and glacé cherries! In other words, they were about as Panforte-like as a fried egg! I think I’m going to have to keep looking… Does anyone reading this know of a really good European Delicatessen where I might find these elusive items?

Food: Well, as I told you last night, we had pork fillet cooked with onions for dinner last night, with boiled potatoes (over which I smeared a teaspoon of plain Greek yoghurt – unfortunately we forgot to chop up a Spring Onion, so I just had the yoghurt) green beans, and half a tomato. It was delicious! (I love fried onions!) Today Lee and I had lunch at Chadstone, at a nice little restaurant called Bouchée – Lee had brought her Optifast bar, but I had the lightest thing I could find on the menu – a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich on sourdough bread Not all that light, really, but it was the best I could find, seeing as I can’t eat any form of seafood! I also had a flourless pear cake and a glass of iced coffee, with no cream or ice cream, and made with skinny-milk… *sigh* It’s very hard trying to watch what you eat when you’re out – thank goodness I’m going to be home tomorrow!

Weigh-in this morning. Well, after walking the length and breadth of The Glen yesterday, I was very gratified this morning to see that I’d lost two of the five points I’d gone up the day before – I went from 65.2kg to 65.0kg! Hopefully, because of all the walking I did around Chadstone today, and despite the luncheon that I ate there, I might manage to squeeze down another couple of points! A lot of walking seems to help – which was yet another reason that I decided to walk, instead of taking the wheelchair! There’ll be more walking on Thursday, when I go to the hairdresser, so keep all your fingers and toes crossed for me, and I’ll try to keep away from sandwiches… (I can’t promise about the little cakes, though! 😉 )

My Bathroom. Well, it’s been promised for next Sunday! As far as promises like that can be kept – I mean, if the caesarstone bench top isn’t finished in time, or the mirror isn’t ready, then neither will my bathroom be finished or ready! It’s as simple as that! Clarke has said that they’ll be working all next weekend – all the tiling and grouting has now been done (and looks fantastic!) the sliding door (with a lock on it!) has finally been installed, the toilet, shower and rails, and possibly even the glass shower screen and door, will be going in tomorrow. The painting needs to be done, the ceiling and concealed lighting under the vanity unit have to be installed, as do the power points and the switches, plus the bench-top, the mirror, and the drawer handles – but other than those few, minor items, it’s finished! 😉 We’ll see how it goes over the next five or so days… and there’ll be lots of photos when it’s all done! 🙂 “Watch This Space”! 😉

So that was my day – unfortunately I can’t tell you what I got Julian – you’ll have to wait until Christmas Day to find that out, but I can tell you that Flipper also got her very favourite Daddy a present that she’s sure he’ll like, and I picked up a couple of little prezzies for two friends of mine – one of which had better be wrapped up tonight because I’m not sure if we’re seeing him tomorrow or not, as he’s probably in the throes of moving house! He’s supposed to be coming down from the other side of the Black Stump, so we might give him a call a bit later and see what’s happening! And now once again, that’s about it from me for tonight! Please feel free to drop in again tomorrow night to see if my weight benefited from my trek through Chadstone Shopping Centre today – two floors, up and down and all around – surely must do some good! And what’s happening with the bathroom – have I got a toilet in there yet? Are the basins in? Running water? 🙂 Find out about all our latest news and adventures this time tomorrow night (or maybe later, if Steve isn’t in the middle of moving!) but until then, you haven’t got long to go now, so please bee extra good 😉 don’t forget then when faced with any kind of problem, we can either make it our excuse, or make it part of a greater story – and always remember to drive carefully, to look after yourselves, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on the weather… but above all, remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

*Quote of the Day from Goodreads this morning: “Every now and then I like to do as I’m told, just to confuse people.” ― Tamora Pierce, Melting Stones
The blurb reads: The beloved fantasy author’s mother had wanted to name her Tamara, but the nurse either misheard or misspelled the name on the birth certificate, resulting in Tamora.

When I got my “Quote of the Day” from Goodreads this morning, first I laughed, and then I simply had to go and “Like” it, because it could well have been something that I’d said 🙂 (which is what Julian said, when I read it out to him: “That sounds more like something you’d say, because it’s what you do!”) and I simply couldn’t resist re-posting it here! 🙂 I’ve never read any of Tamora’s books, but maybe I should go and have a look at them…

Well, today’s been very busy – once again! First of all, Paul was supposed to have been here early – as in 7.30am early – but he didn’t arrive until after 9! I’m quite annoyed with him actually – he could have – not to mention should have – rung us, or sent us an SMS or something – it’s not as though we were just going to be lounging around doing nothing all day – he did know that we had appointments! Anyway, as it turned out, the transmission on his truck died (or something) and he had to borrow Clarke’s van – but the thing is, he was late, he didn’t let us know, and I wasn’t amused! Julian likes to go for a walk first thing in the morning, and of course, I have my treadmilling to do – but someone has to be able to let Paul in, and because Julian gets all grumpy if he isn’t able to go for his walkies, I send him off on his walk, while I sit around and twiddle my thumbs! I put off brushing my teeth, putting on my makeup, and doing my treadmilling until after breakfast, and I really do waste a lot of my time because I’m unable to start on anything sensible – unless Julian finishes his walk and gets home before Paul arrives. I don’t really mind doing this, because he’s doing a good job in my bathroom, which will be finished soon (I hope!) and we’ll no longer have this “clashing walks” problem! but I’m really, really annoyed about this morning! If I’d known he was going to be so late I could have brushed my teeth, put on my makeup, and done my treadmilling, and still have finished in time to let him in when he arrived after nine o’clock this morning! We’d told him on Friday evening when he left that we had a busy day today (Monday) and to let us know if he’d be here, or if the painter was coming. He didn’t – Julian had to ring him last night, and Paul said he was going to be early. Now, I don’t blame him for his truck breaking down – that’s just one of those things that happen – but it mucked up our whole morning because he didn’t let us know! We ended up in a frantic rush, because I had to be in Ringwood at eleven o’clock, and I wasn’t able to start doing anything about getting ready until after nine o’clock! (Julian gets grumpy when he can’t go for his morning walk – and I get even grumpier if I have to rush my makeup!) Anyway, I went off for my first shoe fitting in Ringwood, and I was actually pleasantly surprised! They were almost finished, they didn’t look as clod-hoppy and cumbersome as my current torture devices shoes, and what’s more, they were actually almost comfortable! I’m told that they’ll be ready in about a week, so I guess I’m going to have a pair of new shoes before Christmas! (I wonder which will be ready first – my shoes, or my bathroom!) Then we came home and had lunch and a cup of coffee, but before we went out we made a point of telling Paul that if he finished and wanted to leave before we got home, to please ring us and let us know that he was leaving, and to make sure that the house was secure. Well, we got home this afternoon, and he wasn’t here, and he hadn’t rung us to tell us that he was going. I think both Julian and I are going to be having a few words with him tomorrow morning! Grrr! About half the grouting has been done – I guess the rest will get done tomorrow – if and when Paul bothers to arrive! Julian and I will both be going for our walks tomorrow morning, and if Paul turns up while Julian’s still out, and I’m on the treadmill, he can jolly-well cool his ruddy heels and wait for one or the other of us to find it convenient to let him in! (I’m really very cross about this morning, and this afternoon – not that anyone would notice though! 😉 )

On the way home from Ringwood we stopped off so that I could have my Warfarin blood test done (again!) and we’re still waiting to hear if the almost double-dose of Warfarin is doing the trick – I’ll let you all know tomorrow, or this evening, if they call before I’ve finished this! This afternoon I went off to finally get the results of that long-ago blood test – apparently absolutely everything is “really good”, except now I have too much iron in me! (I was prescribed iron supplements in the first place because my iron levels were too low) but now I’ve been told to stop taking them, which is fine with me! They’re enormous capsules which I hate trying to swallow, anyway! 🙂 After that, we went on to The Glen to get some more Flipper food and to start looking for a nice dinner setting which will be our Silver Wedding Anniversary present (we always go out and get something together for our Anniversary – something that we both want, or need) Well, once again I walked the length and breadth of a shopping centre – twice – and what’s more, I walked up the stairs there at The Glen, rather than take the lift or the escalator, and I noticed something… When we were in Doncaster and I was doing all my stair walks, I was only able to go up the stairs, leading with my right foot – if I tried to go up the stairs leading with my left foot, it didn’t work, and I’d almost fall – my left leg just wasn’t strong enough to lead, going up stairs (but it was vice-versa coming down the stairs!) Today, I was able to go up the stairs leading with either foot! I guess that walking on the treadmill has strengthened both of my legs! I didn’t come back down the stairs though because we had a trolley full of shopping by then, but I reckon I’d probably have been able to lead with either foot coming down, too! Next time we’re at The Glen, I’ll try it! 🙂

Food: well, I’m back to the Ryvita crispbreads with ricotta and tomato for lunch again, until I can think of something else to have (Ooo! I just have! semi-soft hard boiled eggs crushed up on Ryvita, with a slice of low-fat cheese and some sliced tomato, with plenty of salt and pepper! 🙂 ) We both had a very, very thin slice of that lovely Siena Cake (Panforte) that Mitta brought over on Saturday – it’s so nice, and it was a bit like having a small slice of rich-fruit wedding cake for our Silver Anniversary! Tonight we’re having a reprise of the pork fillet cooked with onion that we had the other night and which was so nice, along with plain boiled potatoes with a bit of plain Greek yoghurt and chopped spring onions dobbed on them (we’ve run out of chives, and forgot to get some more this afternoon!) half a tomato, and beans!

Weigh-in this morning. Was pretty much what I expected after our weekend of debauchery! I’d gone up five points yesterday, and I figured that I’d probably gone up another five this morning… as I was getting the scales out, I said to Julian “I bet I’ll weigh in at 65.2kg this morning! Another five points on yesterday!” – then I got on the scales, and… yes, exactly 65.2kg! Well, it had to happen! I’m hoping that with no more “indulgences” between now and Christmas Eve (with our extremely rich egg-nog!) and Christmas Day (with Christmas Dinner, pudding, and Christmas Cake, and maybe the odd chocolate or three!) that I might (and that’s a very big “might”!) go down again – I hope I do, but if I don’t, well this was the reason I went down so far – so that I have further to go before I hit the 70kg End Goal Weight limit! 🙂 So this morning I went from 64.7kg to 65.2kg – exactly as I predicted, up another five points! Oh well, “Say la Vee”, as the French are so fond of saying! 😉

So tomorrow, my favourite eldest daughter and I are off to Chadstone Shopping Centre! We’ll pick Lee up at about 10 o’clock, and Julian will drive us to Chadstone, where he’ll unload us. I will be using the wheelchair tomorrow, for a change, as Chadstone is just too big for me to limp around with just my stick. Besides, it’s easier to bowl the people who insist on walking in front of me over when I’m in the wheelchair! 😉 We’re specifically looking for a Christmas Present and stocking fillers for Julian – as well as handbags, rings, and more jeans for me 😉 We may, or may not have lunch there – it depends on how efficient we are at finding what we want! I’ve also been told to look out for dinner place settings, as unfortunately we didn’t see anything we really liked at The Glen. Anyway, I’ll tell you all about our shopping trip tomorrow night, because once again – that’s about it from me for tonight! Do call back again tomorrow night though, to hear all about our Grand Christmas Expedition to Chadstone, and whether my weight is continuing to go up, or if it’s steadied down a bit… and if Paul has seen the error of his ways… Until then, though, try terribly hard to bee good (because! 😉 ) remember that although you cannot stop the waves, you can learn to surf, and don’t forget to keep cool – or warm – depending on the weather, to drive carefully, and to look after yourselves – but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Well, it looks like I’m starting late again – not because my two favourite daughters and their spouses didn’t want to leave, this time, but because I got trapped in a rather longish quest chain in World of Warcraft, and I wanted to get it finished before I logged out! I didn’t (get it finished) of course, so I’m camped out in the middle of Teldrassil, surrounded by hostile mobs and giant spiders. Hopefully I’ll still be alive next time I log on tonight! 🙂

We did decide to have another BBQ today, only this time Terry cooked, and he did a very good job of it, too! He can come over and cook our BBQs for us any time he wants! 🙂 We had pretty much the same as we had yesterday, except for the salmon – we had steak, sausages, chicken, bacon, eggs… no kebabs this time, either – we had some extremely nice BBQ’d large Swiss Brown mushrooms – done to perfection! To go with all of that, there was more of the “iceberg” lettuce “garden salad” – with olives in it this time, and some fetta cubes, though by the time I was able to get to it there was no fetta left, so I had some baby bocconcini instead. There was a little bit of the lovely potato salad left, which got polished off very quickly, some more of the delicious (and terribly easy to make! We’ll definitely be making more of that!) smoked almond hummus with currants and vincotto, along with bread and butter, pita bread, and some more nibblies. I had another half glass of champagne with which to toast the Birthday people, and more of the ubiquitous mineral water. Neale was given a new back-pack by my favourite eldest daughter, Kate and Terry gave him a JB Hi-Fi voucher, and we gave him some sort of soccer or football game for their new PlayStation 4. Terry was giving my favourite youngest daughter a large potted plant for their hall – they were on their way to pick it up when they left here this afternoon – Lee and Neale gave her a bottle of her favourite perfume, Dolce & Gabbana’s “Light Blue”, and we gave her a substantial “Katies” gift voucher and some cash – so both of the Birthday Peoples scored well today (especially considering that it’s so close to Christmas! 😉 ) The kids left fairly close to four o’clock, and naturally, instead of making an early-ish start on this, I jumped straight back into World of Warcraft – I’d started a new character called “Boudicca” – World of Warcraft are very generous – you’re allowed to use “European” letters in the names you give your characters. F’rinstance, I tried using “Boudicca”, but it was already taken. OK then, let’s be a bit more creative! I tried using “Boudìcca” (the “ì” is made by holding down the “alt” key and typing “141” on the numeric keypad) but it just didn’t look right. So I tried “Boudïcca” (hold down the “alt” key and type “139” on the numeric keypad) but that didn’t look quite right, either! In the end I settled for “Böudicca” (hold down the “alt” key and type “148” on the numeric keypad) So on World of Warcraft you can use a lot of names that are already supposedly “taken”, simply by being a little “inventive” with your choice of letters! You’re not allowed to do that on Rift… 😦 I think WoW ended up allowing them to be used because they had so many European users who wanted to use European-type names which always seem to include a lot of strange (to us!) accents, that they stood to lose a lot of players (and therefore $$$!) if they didn’t allow it! And while Rift is big (in that it has a lot of players worldwide) I don’t think it’s even a quarter as big as World of Warcraft, and it’s certainly not nearly as well known!

Food: Today I had pretty much the same as I had yesterday, only a little bit less of everything! For dessert, we had the dessert we were supposed to have had yesterday, but didn’t, when Mitta produced the yummies she’d brought with her (the Siena Cake, the chocolate coated ginger, and the soft nougat) Julian had put it straight back in the fridge when we decided not to have it yesterday, and it was as fresh as “new bought” when we cut into it today! It was some sort of soft, moist butter cake, with a yummy apple crumble topping, and we all had a titch of light cream with it (well, Lee and I only had a titch of light cream – everyone else just poured it on!) But it was really delicious! I’m starting to get more than just a “little” concerned about what the scales are going to have to say about today, when I hop on them again tomorrow morning, because…

Weigh-in this morning. Oh dear! That brownie that I’d so gluttonously consumed the day before yesterday, the sausage for dinner that same night, and then all the bits and pieces that I stuffed myself with yesterday, to the extent that I didn’t have anything at all for dinner (and neither did Julian! We were both still too full from lunch!) resulted in a weight hike of five (5!) points! I went from 64.2kg to 64.7kg! …and I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be even higher! I’m hoping that this will go down again – a bit, anyway, after today – and if I don’t, well, this is the reason I went down so low in the first place – so I’d have plenty of room to go up before hitting my End Goal Weight of 70kg (though I’d much rather stay as far under that 70kg as possible, whilst still being able to enjoy my food, and still being able to indulge myself now and then, for special occasions!)

When we were clearing up after the kids had left, Julian and I decided that we wouldn’t have dinner again tonight – we’d just have dessert! The last small piece of the cake left over from lunch today… the equivalent of a bite and a half each! (I don’t know about him, but I sure still feel full, and it’s nearly half past six! Though, I dunno – I reckon that I could probably squeeze in another cup of coffee! 😉 )

Tomorrow is going to be another very busy day – I’m off for my first shoe measurement tomorrow morning, followed by a trip to Dorevitch for my next Warfarin blood test, then off to the Doctor’s to get the results of that (by now ancient!) blood test that I had done. By the time we get home it’ll be mid afternoon, and I’ll have lost another day of game-play. We still don’t know if we’re seeing Paul or the painter tomorrow – I hope he lets us know soon! While getting out the plates for lunch today, Julian suddenly realised what I’ve known for at least a year and a half (if not longer!) and that is that we desperately need a new dinner setting! We’re down about two or three of each item – small plates, bowls, large plates, saucers… cups! We’re missing two or more of each of them, although we’ve only had the setting since 2007! 😉 I hate to have to tell him this, but we’re short on matching glasses, too! So, depending on who turns up tomorrow to work on my bathroom, and depending on where we actually go to have my Warfarin test done, we could go looking for a new dinner setting – though Julian was saying something about the “January sales”… Frankly, I don’t think you really accomplish anything by waiting for these sorts of sales – everyone grabs things just to get them cheaply, and you’re left with not as much choice, but still feeling that you’ve got to buy something, if only because it’s advertised as being “On Sale Now”! Anyway, it’s up to him… (to a certain extent, anyway! 😉 ) Tuesday will be just as busy, and probably even more hectic, as I’m running the “Chadstone Gauntlet” with my favourite eldest daughter, in the hopes of being able to get a Christmas Present and stocking fillers for Julian! Wednesday… Wednesday should be a little quieter? Perhaps? Anyway, once again that’s about it from me for tonight! 🙂  But do call back tomorrow night, to find out just how high my weight decided to go this time, and who – if anyone – decided to turn up to work on my bathroom, as well as anything else interesting or amusing that happened during our day! Until then, do try to bee good ( 😉 ) don’t forget that many of the things you can count, don’t count, and many of the things you can’t count, really count, and always remember to look after yourselves, to drive carefully, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on our silly weather… but above all, always remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Seven thirty-five p.m., and Julian has just driven out of the garage, taking Mitta (short for Melissa!) Mike, Inbar, and Tom back to their various hotels! Mike, Inbar and Tom arrived this morning at around 11.30 or so, though Mitta didn’t arrive until almost 1.00p.m. (I think!) As predicted, a jolly good time was had by all, and Tom brought me the most beautiful present – a lovely silver, chain-mail bracelet that he’d made himself! (he’s really a very talented artist and jeweler!) It’s really beautiful! 🙂 We sat around and talked for ages, then Julian and Inbar made the salads, and we all went outside to watch Julian cooking on the new BBQ! All in all, we had Salmon for Mitta and Inbar, who don’t eat meat, but will make an exception for things like Salmon – chicken, steak, sausages, and eggs – there was also bacon, and tomato, mushroom, capsicum, bocconcini, and pineapple kebabs, though the bocconcini sort-of melted off the skewers and fell off into the flames The potato salad with seasoned plain Greek yoghurt and chives was delicious, and the “garden salad” with cubes of fetta cheese was really good, too! We had crusty bread loaves as well as pita bread with which to mop up the smoked almond hummus (with currants and vincotto) which everyone agreed was lovely, and very “moor-ish”. I had my first taste of alcohol in over a year, with a small half-glass of champagne to toast the occasion of the Gathering of the Clan, and after that I stuck pretty much to mineral water and coffee! There were, of course, the usual types of “party nibbles” – nuts, Japanese seaweed nibbles (I don’t know what they’re called – yes, I could get up and go down to the kitchen to have a look at a left-over packet, but I can’t be bothered! 😉 ) and (I’m really surprised that Julian got these – he doesn’t usually!) some caramel-coated popcorn, of all things, which was very popular! Along with all these goodies, Mitta had brought with her some extremely good quality chocolate coated ginger – I absolutely love ginger, but there’s usually quite a bit of fibre in it which always gets stuck between my teeth, so I don’t eat that much of it – these ones, however, hardly had any bits of fibrous material in them and several times I had to smack myself on the wrist – hard – to stop myself eating too much of it! This is what I mean – it used to be (notice, please, the past tense!) my downfall! If it was there and in front of me, and I liked it, left to my own devices I’d just sit and eat it. Now, I’m aware of this flaw in me – so although I ate some of the chocolate coated ginger – as did everyone else – there’s still nearly half a bag full left. Of course, the trick is not to have it there in front of you in the first place! This will probably be deployed tomorrow for Kate and Neale’s Big Double Birthday Bash – along with the rest of the soft nougat bar and the “Siena Cake” (read: “Panforte“) that Mitta also brought. I’ve given you all two links to that – at first glance, the first link sounds, and reads as, an “authentic” recipe – I’d have to consult my grandmother’s old recipe book to be sure, but unfortunately that’s either still in Doncaster, or in one of the many boxes waiting to be unpacked. Anyway, if you’re any good at cooking, have a go at making it and tell me what you think! 🙂 There’s still plenty of food left, so Julian shouldn’t have too much work to do for tomorrow’s Big Double Birthday Bash (hmm… maybe make a bit more potato salad? I don’t think there’s much of that left…) After lunch we sat around the table talking until someone decided to take the conversation over to the couch, so we all migrated over there and continued chattering – as I said, tired or not (Mike was quite jet-lagged and actually dozed off on the couch!) no-one wanted to make a move! We didn’t mind – we didn’t want any dinner anyway, we’d both eaten quite a lot during the afternoon (I know I still feel full!) so we were happy to sit and talk as long as everyone else was – and it wasn’t until half past seven that Julian finally got everyone organised and into the car!

Food: I indulged in the nibblies, a bit, and had a few (read more than 3, but less than 6) pieces of the chocolate coated ginger, and half a glass of champagne before lunch – for lunch, I had mineral water, the smallest piece of chicken breast on the BBQ plate, a teaspoon of the smoked almond hummus which I ate on my chicken, instead of on bread, a serving of garden salad, and a small serving of the potato salad, and at the end, a small slice of the crusty bread with a smearing of the hummus. For dessert I had two small pieces of the soft nougat, and a very small piece of the Panforte (Siena Cake) which was lovely and spicy – and for the first time ever (and I’ve eaten this stuff since I was an infant!) I was able to actually taste the pepper in it! It was so nice, in fact, that I think we might hide the rest of it tomorrow, and have it on Monday, to celebrate our Silver Wedding Anniversary, or something!

Weigh-in this morning. Well, despite the very best efforts of that very large chocolate brownie wot I greedily ate yesterday (and then I felt ill! So let that be a lesson to you, Winter!) my weight only went up a little – from 64.0kg to 64.2kg! However I’m not at all looking forwards to see what the scales tell me tomorrow morning – or on Monday morning, after the Big Double Birthday Bash tomorrow! Still, this is Christmas – or as close to it as makes never mind – and (apart from the Panforte) I’ll be taking the consumption of food very lightly on Monday! Bearing in mind that I haven’t eaten for several hours now, at the moment I’m still so full that I feel as though I could probably lead a very long, happy and productive life, if I never ate again!

I got the results of my Warfarin test this morning – not good! The change in my diet, now that I’m on Maintenance – mainly things like broccoli and brussels sprouts (the “leafy greens” I’m supposed to avoid, if possible!) have sent my INR crashing! It’s supposed to be high! The INR for a normal person not taking Warfarin is 1. The higher the INR, the longer it takes for blood to clot – my blood clots too quickly and too easily, and my INR is supposed to be above 2! It went down to 1.4 this time, so they’ve really upped my Warfarin, to 5mg per night, and they want me to have another blood test on Monday! I are not a happy little Vegemite! So on Monday, our Silver Wedding Anniversary, I have a shoe fitting at 11.00a.m., followed by a nice little Warfarin blood test, followed by a visit to the Doctor to finally get the results of the general blood test I had done about two months ago, now! *sigh!* Oh well, maybe after all of that I might be able to get back to World of Warcraft and Rift! We were supposed to be having Nandos with some home-made salads for lunch tomorrow, but my favourite eldest daughter and her equal but more technical half dropped in this afternoon to say “Hello” to everyone, and she asked Julian why we couldn’t have a BBQ tomorrow, too – Julian said that he “supposed they could”, so now I don’t know exactly what we’re doing in the food department tomorrow, because we have heaps of stuff still in the fridge that we never used! On Tuesday, said favourite eldest daughter and I will be chauffeured to Chadstone Shopping Centre, where we’ll be dropped off – I’ll hop into my wheelchair – only because Chadstone is so stupidly big, otherwise I’d walk – and we’ll go looking for a Christmas Present and stocking fillers for Julian. When we want to come home, we’ll SMS him and meet him wherever. I must remember to take some woven tote bags with me, so that his Christmas Present will be a surprise! 🙂 We still don’t know whether we’re seeing the painter or Paul on Monday – Paul’s supposed to be letting us know before Monday morning – so until he does, we’re both up in the air about what’s happening! And there it is! Once again, that’s about it from me for tonight! 🙂 However do drop in again tomorrow night – it’s going to be very interesting indeed, seeing how this punishing food intake is affecting my weight! Frankly, my stomach is telling me that it could do with a nice little rest from all this food, and I’m inclined to agree! I’ll be able to fill you all in on the Great Double Birthday Bash, and who gave who, what! I could tell you all tonight what we’ve got my favourite youngest daughter, but that would come under the heading of “Spoiler Alert!”, so you’ll all just have to wait until tomorrow! 😉 Until tomorrow night then, do bee good (I shouldn’t have to keep reminding you why! 😉 ) remember not to use the past as an excuse to miss out on your future, and don’t forget to drive carefully, to keep warm – or cool – depending on our wonderfully unpredictable weather, and to look after yourselves… but most importantly, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂

Well, I’m starting a little bit later than I wanted to, but we’ve only just returned from our Big Day Out – however, much has been accomplished! I’ve been to the hairdresser, and had my Warfarin blood test. We’ve purchased the Birthday presents, and the major part of all the Christmas Presents, though I have yet to get one for Julian – my favourite eldest daughter is being press-ganged into “escorting” me around Chadstone next week, for the sole purpose of getting something for him (and looking at handbags, and makeup and rings that might fit me – “only kidding, dear!”, says Winter, crossing her fingers behind her back! 😉 ) We had lunch at Doncaster Shoppingtown today – downstairs, this time, and I had a ham, cheese and tomato toastie (*blush*) as well as a – and this is probably going to sound as though it belongs in a book entitled “Confessions of a Sugar Junkie” – beautiful, very large, brownie, which could just as easily have been called “a very large block of chocolate flavoured sugar”! Oh, the calories! I’ll be paying for that brownie for the next three months, or more! And you know what? While the brownie was very nice, I really felt quite ill afterwards – too much sugar – and I still feel slightly nauseous just thinking about it – however that’s one of my “deprivation itches” scratched, and next time I’ll have something a lot smaller, and not quite so rich! I also said I wouldn’t have another toastie for at least a couple of weeks, but quite truthfully, it really was the lesser of all the evils nestled in the display case! (apart from the brownie!) and I felt that after my weigh-in this morning, I could maybe afford to indulge a little bit…  Anyway, I walked the length and breadth of Doncaster Shoppingtown almost three times today, so that should go some way to atoning for my gluttony at lunchtime! (I hope!)

Last night I played WoW for a while, and got Satai up to level 22. Just to be on the safe side, I looked up what level the Ghost Saber Tooth cats in Darkshore were, because I was determined to get one. I thought that at level 22 I was probably high enough to go after one, and I didn’t think that the mobs over there would be too high for me, but – best to be safe, rather than sorry, so I did a bit of research. The Ghost Saber Tooth cat is usually between level 19 and level 21, so I reckoned I’d be safe enough (if the cat was that level, I figured that the mobs should be around that level too) so off I went. First, I Stabled my Pet, Dishu – I didn’t want any possibility that I might “accidentally” lose her, and re-called my temporary Boar from Durotar (the stupid one, that nearly killed Dishu when I was trying to Tame her!) So there I am in Darkshore, running around the Ruins of Mathystra, looking for cat figurines! There were plenty of mobs there to get in my way too, but… they were only level 12! I found that I was running around killing them with only one or two shots, so they were more of a mild annoyance than a problem (and they were dropping some fairly decent loot for only level 12’s, too!) The cat figurines are fairly scarce, and very, very few of them even spawn the Ghost Saber Tooth cat. Once, many, many years ago, I remember running around there for a couple of days – camping out in the ruins – searching for my GST! For every figurine that you find that doesn’t spawn the cat, you get to keep the figurine in your bag – the highest number of figurines I’ve even had before getting the cat itself was about 20, I think! Anyway, last night I’d made three circuits of the area and only found seven “empty” figurines – then I got lucky, and I found my Ghost Saber Tooth cat on my eighth figurine – and once again, that ruddy stupid Boar Pet was nearly my undoing! Mind you, he was a very effective Pet – polished off mobs with the greatest of ease (sometimes too much ease!) which is something you want in your Pet! However, as soon as I found a cat figurine, I’d “Dismiss” the Boar, and try to pick up the figurine. If I did pick it up (if it didn’t spawn the Ghost Saber Tooth) I’d re-call the Boar, and off we’d go again. Well, I came to the eighth figurine, Dismissed the Boar, and tried to pick up the figurine. Two things happened at the same time! First, the Ghost Saber Tooth materialised, and secondly, a Troll mob appeared behind me and started attacking me! Now, if you’re trying to Tame a Pet and your concentration is interrupted by an attack or whatever, the potential Pet gets mad and starts attacking you, too! So… I re-called the ruddy Boar, who promptly killed the mob for me, then turned and started attacking the Ghost Saber Tooth who’d been attacking me because my Taming routine had been interrupted! Once again, I wasn’t going to lose my potential Pet, so I “Abandoned” the Boar! “Dismissing” the Pet means that you can re-call them later – “Abandoning” the Pet means that they’re gone for good. I was a bit sorry to lose that Boar – he was a damn good fighter – but let’s face it – it’s easy enough to pick up another Boar – they seem to live just about everywhere you go, which was why I Tamed him as temporary Pet in the first place (I hadn’t even named him, which is very unusual for me!) In the end though, I ended up with my Ghost Saber Tooth cat, whom I have named “Shadowfang” 🙂 I immediately “Hearthed” (“zapped” myself back to The Exodar!) where I walked Shadowfang around for a few minutes, because… (and this is quite amusing to watch happen to people who don’t know to expect this!) after about ten minutes, the Ghost Saber Tooth cat suddenly keels over, dead! Just… walk… walk… walk… fall over, dead! All you have to do is use your Resurrect Pet function on them, and they’re fine again 🙂 After that, I went back to my questing again, and now I’ve almost finished all the quests there – and I can’t remember where I get sent off to next! I’ll find out tonight, I guess…

Food: well, I’ve already told you about my lunch today, and we’re having (good) sausages with all the usuals for dinner tonight. Tomorrow, of course, will be the BBQ luncheon – Julian will be BBQing steak, salmon, and chicken (I’m having some chicken, please!) and there’ll be pita bread and some smoked almond and currant hummus which Julian has just made (and it’s delicious! He just gave me a teeny taste of it!) It’s basically home-made hummus, with finely chopped up smoked almonds and vincotto in it, and sprinkled with currants and olive oil, to serve – I found the recipe in the December/January 2016 Donna Hay magazine and I thought it sounded nice, as well as quite intriguing, so I talked him into making it! 😉 We’re also having a home-made potato salad, using seasoned plain Greek youghurt, with spring onions (or chives) as the dressing.  If it’s warm enough we’ll eat outside on the decking – if it’s not, we’ll eat at the dining room table, and a good time should be had by all! 🙂

Weigh-in this morning. And the reason I indulged so greedily at lunchtime today… I went down (down!) another four points! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I went from 64.4kg to 64.0kg! So at lunchtime today, I thought “bugger it! I’m going to be naughty, and have something I know I shouldn’t! My weight should be going up, and it’s not, so I’ll make it go up by eating all of this enormous sugary brownie! So there! 😛 ” So… let’s see what happens tomorrow! I’ll probably shoot right up to 67kg, and it’ll serve me right, too – but at this point? I don’t care! (but if I do go up to 67kg overnight, you can bet your sweet bippy that I will care! I’ll probably cry, and never eat a brownie again as long as I live!)

Having been out all day today, I wasn’t able to keep my eagle-eye on the bathroom doin’s – but when we got home I found Paul just putting the final trim around the window and the shower alcoves – by the time he left tonight, the tiling had finally been finished – all that’s left to do to it now is the grouting, which was supposed to have been done on Monday, however there’s now some confusion as to whether the painter is coming in on Monday, or whether Paul will be doing the grouting! I don’t care which it is, as long as I get my bathroom soon, because it really does look fantastic (if very dusty and messy at the moment!) And once again – you know the drill – that’s about it from me for tonight! 🙂 But please call in again tomorrow night, and find out how our BBQ luncheon went, if my weight has tripled overnight, and how our preparations for Sunday’s Big Double Birthday Bash are progressing! I might mention, too, that it’s our Silver Wedding Anniversary on Monday – which we may have to postpone until the New Year, due to time constraints! Anyway, until tomorrow night, please try to bee good (not long to go now! 😉 ) remember that the best way to predict the future is to invent it, and don’t forget to look after yourselves, to drive carefully, and to keep cool – or warm – depending on the weather – but whatever else you do, don’t forget to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂