Weighing in

Well, B has gone off to Scottish Dancing without me. This is probably a very bad idea, because my missing it means they'll learn yet another new thing for me to get hopelessly wrong. I am not a gifted dancer. I'm still not feeling too great though. I had fish and rice - and some internal discomfort - for supper. This really has proved a nasty ailment. Anyway, onward, ever onward. I have been trying to proof Dragon's Ring and failing to find any errors. That's difficult... because I know they're there. We had visitors at lunch time today. Heh. One of them - having stared hard at the cover of 'Fangs' - started reading the story I have in the collection. I had to laugh at her laughing her way through it - and, I hope realising it wasn't QUITE what she thought it was. I suppose -- having been involved with sf and fantasy for a long time, I hadn't realised EVERYONE (even those who don't read the genre) would not automatically that the book just had to be a mockery of the undead-porn that seems to have become quite fashionable. It's rather cutesy story about a Vampire who is trying to raise (and protect)his daughter Zara.
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"You have blood spots on your collar," she said, with nasty glee.
I sighed. Zara always delighted in pointing that sort of thing out. Being a vampire isn't easy. And then I had to put up with Zara as well. "And you have a zit on your nose," I said, peering down my own nose at her.
It had the desired effect. Frantic squinting. Feeling with long black fingernails. "Eugh, gross! It's not fair." She stomped off in her Doc Martins to go and apply more makeup. She's not very good at it. It's not easy when you can't use a mirror. It's harder when you're a teenager. Zara's been that way for 300 years now and she's not got any better at being subject to teen hormones, or at applying makeup. Immortality has its downsides. Being a teenager forever is one of the worse possible ones. Having to live with one forever is, however, the worst curse of being one of the undead. And I had endless millennia of it ahead of me. Zara is my daughter. And no, I didn't bite her. Banish the thought! It's enough to make blood turn to ashes in my mouth. I did help to help to hammer the stake through Count Orlok's heart, though. It took Zara nearly a century to forgive me for ‘ruining her life' and ‘interfering'. Actually, I'm still regularly accused of the latter.
It's true, of course. But when did that ever stop a father?
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If you want to read the rest you'll have to buy the book :-)

Anyway, nothing much but work and feeling a bit grim today. Tomorrow will be better, we hope. B and I are sort of the edge of trying to put on some weight - we're both still losing weight on the catch-it, grow-it diet, despite having increased our portion sizes. I'm really not too sure why, as the only change has been in protein -we eat very little chicken, pork or lamb, a little beef, and make up for that with a little wallaby and a lot of fish or shellfish. Vegetables and carbohydrates are much the same, in fact more of both, but we do consume very much less milk or cheese. The day starts with a big bowl of porrige, we have around 500 grammes of fresh rolls each. There are usually anzacs or cake with our coffee. Our 'tea'(AKA supper) is always protein, at least 3 types of veg - sometimes together, and some kind of starch... Still, being sick brought home the fact that I just don't have a lot of bodyfat left - I am under 60Kgs now and B is less. I've lost about 9kgs, and B quite a bit more than me. No we haven't got any debilitating diseases - they won't let you into Australia without checking. Most of the time we're healthier than most, and quite active. The boys were concerned and told us not to lose any more - we've increased portion sizes and added extra cake etc. But I am actually considering a bit of spare being needed in case we get sick.
This was not a problem I expected to face!