I reached halfway to level 44 last night, on World of Warcraft. Fuuuuuun. yayheaven tipped me off to some questing areas for my level that you can do solo. Well, I'm having trouble - I'm not high enough a level yet to complete the quests I have picked up yet ... but even just "grinding" (killing random monsters for xp) is doing heaps. I made 1/3 of a level in this area from just doing that!

=D

In reviewing the posts I have made in the last three and a half hours, I am decided on several things:

1. Must study more. There shall be no WoW on Tuesday night because (a) it is Tuesday night, and (b) I need to type up my notes. To that end, note to self - bring folder to work tomorrow and question JHM closely about document searches. Also, remember to email typed up work to course supervisor and query questions.

2. I need a WoW icon for my journal.

3. Some of the questions in my traineeship course are ridiculously vague and unanswerable. They don't make sense they are so vague. This cause needs an overhaul.

4. I intend to make Thai green chicken curry this week. And rosemary/thyme pork chops with mashed potato. And chicken schnitzel with mashed potato. Yum.

5. More mashed potato. .... Curry, mmmm. Maybe also make chicken and veg stir-fried noodles, and also check out soy chicken/potato dish that mio padre makes occasionally. Can't make Bah Ku Tey - can't even spell it for that matter, but just wrote what it sounds like - don't have ingredients. Maybe will check out curry takeaway shop in Lane Cove - smelled tasty when I walked past recently. Yum.

6. Note to self: check out recipe books for things to try. Need more yum in life. Also, make mudcake. Or die trying.



I am also going shopping tonight - need cat food, and ingredients for chicken curry. Imagine somewhat that Luke will fall over self to cut chicken (as opposed to usual negotiations not to cut chicken for dinner) if chicken curry is expected end result. Might try running this past him tonight.

Oh! Oh! And, I ordered a whoop-ass lens for my film SLR (which I have meant to and wanted to do so badly for a while now). That is, more whoop-ass than my original "standard issue" lens (35-80mm). Whoop-ass lens is 75-300mm. Also, discovered that the company that made my camera is no longe rint he film camera industry ... Boo! Woe! Alas! ... but still should be a number of lenses available secondhand (see new whoop-ass lens for proof) and failing that, a number of other brand lenses should fit if I can purchase fittings to make it do so. Fingers-crossed. Terribly, I go through the store I purchased the camera from in Adelaide as they are helpful and advise well, whereas I don't know any stores in Sydney yet, and the one guy I spoke to here in a photo developing shop confused the heck out of me.

Also, I intend to look up photography clubs, and get out and about a bit in Lane Cove/Chatswood. Would be good! Note to self: remember to re-check dance class flyers (but don't look too closely at cleaners flyers as temptation may be too great but house is not so big it can't be cleaned by myself and Luke).

Woo!

I had a brilliant weekend, although I was unwell for much of it. Last week was spent fighting off some sort of virus that made staring at words on a computer screen impossible (I've honestly never experienced that before now) and a sore throat that sat lower in my throat than any other I've ever had before. It was sort of like a sore throat that threatened, and hurt, but never quite realised its full potential (thank the Powers That Be).

I left work early on Friday, a relief given that I was failing to function by that time, and headed home to sleep. Luke later dropped me at my aunt's house, as I had earlier accepted a dinner invitation that morning - which was before the day took a toll on me. Dinner was enjoyable. I can enjoy my aunt's company a lot at times. We discussed Thai green chicken curry recipes (can you guess what was served at dinner?) and I marvelled at the way she rendered brussell sprouts tasty! I was crazy over them! The secret? wok-fried so that they are browned, then lemon squeezed over and tossed before serving! Yum - in no way I would have ever considered possible for a brussell sprout to be! She dropped me at home again shortly afterward as I was feeling unwell. I had a bath, read, and went to bed.

Saturday was quiet and included a brief (all things considered) game of Dungeons and Dragons before I plead tiredness and inability to concentrate. We had a delicious meal of honey-soy pork spare ribs (my father's recipe) that really just hit the spot for all people eating! It was suggested, and agreed, that pork spare ribs are one of those things that people forget how satisfying they are or how much they've secretly been craving them until th ey actually are served some! Unfortunately Luke forgot to get potatoes, so we had rice (still yum anyway!) instead of mashed potato - which I had been craving.

On Sunday, the cats woke Luke up early - 6.30am! - and so he took them out to the loungeroom and bummed around online on the laptop for a bit. When I finally dragged myself out of bed, sporting a neanderthal Miss Universe 2007 hairstyle, he informed me that noirrosaleen was on line. Gods, I've missed Keth's company. We had a brief, using Luke as our go-between, discussion about our WoW characters on the same server and then agreed to play. I logged in and ran about questing and just generally chatting to and with Keth, her husband, and a friend of Keth's known on her journal as Temeraire.

My Tauren warrior on the Destromath server is now level 10! I have arranged to learn mining and blacksmithing. It amuses me that most ore that you find and mine doesn't disappear straight away like the herbs for Herbalists do once gathered. I still haven't quite worked out how to do the blacksmithing thing - or at least, the smelting thing (I'm sure I must be able to create copper bars, etc, out of copper ore) yet. Luke also decided to sign in, which was great! And he caught me up in levels pretty quickly. He has a Tauren hunter, level 8.

Then I made dinner - noodles, mm - and a reprise of the pork ribs for lunch at work. And when we had finished, noirrosaleen was long gone to bed. So, I logged onto my Icecrown server rogue and found some people to party up with there. Hopefully people at my level with whom I can party up regularly - in fact, they told me to add them to my friends list and that they would play with me again soon! Yay! I found out that one of them was only 15 but that their mother played with them as well! They explained to me that they had previously had a higher level character on another server, but decided to come and hang with their level 70 mother on Icecrown! How cute is that? Anyway, I made two levels on that character before my new friends had to log off for the night.

So, I logged into my Thunderlord rogue and cashed in two quests, totalling 14,000 XP together. Not enough to make level 42, but I'm certainly a darned sight closer. Still, I intend to focus on my two lower level characters for a while, so that on Thunderlord Luke will probably manage to catch me - his mage is level 39. That will allow us to do more together as characters.

Then I called it a night! And here I am today, at work. I'm sort of pleased to be here too, after being so unwell. I finally feel more at a point where I can actually be usefull. Huzzah!

PS - noirrosaleen "Accio Wife!" makes me giggle! =P

Level 40! Wahoo!

I had an enjoyable weekend. Although I misplaced my keys in the morning (I had a bad night prior and was exhausted on the Friday morning) by leaving them in the door of the letter box, even as I was telling myself not to forget them!

Friday lunch was spent with one of the new girls at work. We really click. Click. No, wait, let me make it cleared because that just doesn't quite cut it: we Click. Ok, that's better.

Friday afternoon was hectic like whoa, followed by drinks for one of the partners in my cell, and then more work drinks in the bar downstairs. I drank more than I usually would, and on no dinner as well - bleah.

Saturday was spent sleeping in, and then playing WoW with Luke. He levelled twice (35 - 37) and I reached the second to last marker on my XP bar before I hit 40 (which might be tonight!). I'm very excited by this - mountiness here I come (translation: at level 40 I can purchase a mount and train in riding which will make my travel time much quicker).

On Sunday we played more, and cleaned the house. I also logged into a different server (Icecrown) than our usual (Thunderlord) which came after I discovered a certain LJer was no longer resident on the server that I remembered them playing on (Azjol Nerub). I logged into the new server and found them, and created a new character. I was, perhaps, a bit ambitions. As a level 1, I convinced them to take me to Duskwood (designed for level 20-30 I think) but the XP for the level 20+ creatures there was no better than killing loads of level 1 creatures in Elwynn Forest or Northshire (the starting point for human characters).

Still, I'm now level 5 there and will continue to occasionally play that character in an effort to get to a level where I can play more effectively and in fact, at all with said friend.

Back at work today ... =)

In World of Warcraft, I'm having difficulty with my level 35 Rogue - I want to increase my lockpicking skill, but the next place the Rogue Trainer told me to go to ... I can't unlock anything there because my skill is not high enough. Meanwhile, I've maxed out on the area I was skilling up in. Ugh. On the bright side though, we have done several runs through the Scarlet Monastery and picked up some good items - one of which sold on the Auction House for 30 gold pieces! In 24 hours, running around with a level 70 and just resetting all the instances, I made almost 50 gold pieces (not usual! Sometimes it takes me weeks to earn 3 gold pieces!) ... 10 have bought my mount in advance of being eligible for training in riding at level 40, 15 were shared to Luke's character, and some was spent on improving my Profession skills (Alchemy, Herbalism, First Aid and Poisons ... mostly Poisons actually). I am now sitting on 26 odd gold pieces towards training in riding for my mount at level 40 - I'm just over 1/4 of the cost to do so!

I should see if I can grab another high level friend to try to fix the lockpicking problem I have been having ... and to run me through the Scarlet Monastery again - worth it if I can find something to sell for even half of what the 30 gold pieces item got!

My Rogue also picked up a large sword, so I have had fun whacking enemies/monsters with that instead of my usual sneaky-sneaky swiping at them with daggers.

Elsewhere ... I created a Horde Shaman (Troll) ... but also have mucked around with a Gnome Mage, and an Elf (of some kind) Paladin.

Passed a relatively quiet weekend - I levelled my WoW character to level 23 on Friday night while Luke was out playing D&D. Saturday, despite not having the "omg house hunt" rush was still an earlier start than either of us would have liked. We hit the bank and then headed home where we watched Star Wars (the first one in order of when they were made, not Episode One), followed by Amelie and then I think 8 Mile. I had tuna and pasta for lunch - woo, look at me be healthy! And then I played a little bit more WoW and read (Sea of Swords) before going to bed. Then Sunday was a decent sleep-in by comparison - up at lunchtime. We watched half of Scorpion king (The Scorpion King?) and I cooked both stir-fried noodles with beef (for Monday lunch and dinner) and roast lamb and vegetables for Sunday dinner. Then Luke and I played WoW again (I'm nearly level 24) before going to bed.

I finished Sea of Swords, but getting my hands onto a copy of The Thousand Orcs is proving slightly more difficult than I had anticipated, so I have occupied myself with Lian Hearn's Across the Nightingale Floor (I enjoyed it on my first read, also ... it was at the top of the top box of books in our bedroom. I wasn't about to start major excavations soon than I have to, lol).

My allergies are playing up. My stomach feels funny. I'm hungry. And I'm tired - I woke up every two hours last night (signs of my body fighting off illness at any level of severity). I will probably aim to hit level 24 tonight, and then crash early.