So, I haven't been to work all week… I finally broke down and went to the doctor's office yesterday, and saw one of the nurses.

I am maintaining my opinion that NHS sucks. I called the office and it took several minutes on hold to get through to the Coulsdon practice and then a few more minutes on hold to get to appointments, where I was told the first available appointment was the next morning. "That really isn't acceptable", I croak at her. So, she has the triage nurse call me back, within half an hour. I explained to the triage nurse what was wrong, and she agreed that I should come in, the same day, in about 2 hours or so, at 11:15. That was a bit annoying, but not bad.

So, Ray and I walk the half mile down to the doctor's office. (There isn't any parking for the car.) It's not far on a bright, sunny day when you feel perfectly fine. But it sucked yesterday. We get there, and wait and wait and wait…

Finally, I get to see the nurse. I explain that I had the flu, all those symptoms have gone away, but I now have a secondary upper respiratory infection, probably in my sinuses… The only thing that has been consistent from the start of this illness has been an annoying cough that gets worse and gets better, but has kept me from sleeping though the night for the previous 2 nights. The result of the sinus drainage and the coughing is that my throat is sore enough that I am having trouble eating.

She pokes and prods, looks at my ears and notices my swollen lymph nodes, etc… Then she tells me that she believes that it's viral and she will not give me antibiotics for it. Take 2 paracetamol (what we call acetaminophen) and 2 ibuprofen every 6 hours. Get some Chloroseptic throat spray. Put my head over a bowl of hot water and breathe in the steam to loosen up the congestion. Drink plenty of fluids because I am dehydrated. It will probably be another week before the virus runs its course.

That's it.

So. The result of this is that I am still sick and still feeling awful, and I don't feel as though I am getting any better. I didn't sleep through the night last night, either. I am fairly grumpy because back home, I would have told Dr. Shoffner that I had a sinus infection and she would have prescribed me augmentin and I would start feeling better within 3 days. I should have asked what made her think that it was a viral infection, but I wasn't very coherent at that particular moment. Even if it is bacterial, my body should eventually fight it off. It's just that I have now missed a week of work. (Though I can work from home, it's tough to do anything when you can't concentrate or you are tired.) And she expects that I am going to miss a week more. How stupid is that?

Ray made the point that maybe illnesses here tend to be viral rather than bacterial, and since she studies medicine here, she should know. I acknowledge Ray's statement, but I disagree. My opinion is based on what the media here has voiced in the past - the fear of giving antibiotics to cows, or using antibacterial hand gels (yes, I know there is a difference between an antibiotic and an antibacterial agent) will cause a superbug to evolve and destroy the world, a la Swan Song or The Stand. And I believe that is the reason she refused to prescribe me antibiotics when, in the past, back home, it has been useful.

Grrr…

And I have to miss roll practice Sunday and Thames kayaking Wednesday and I can't go swimming… This really sucks.

The only good news, kinda, is that Emma has had the cast removed, and the bandages rewrapped and a splint put on. She is done and will have everything off on 12 Sept.

The flu sucks!! Especially the exceptionally painful strain I have right now. I am in so much pain right now…. I know that some of this pain may be from roll practice on Sunday night, but a fair part of this is the flu thing I have.

Nothing really interesting has been happening. Ray, Agata and Andres rode to Brighton on Saturday and I drove support. We had dinner at a pub and it was absolutely awful. Then I drove everyone back to London, or at least to East Croydon station since it has more trains than Smitham. But it was still kind of cool. I followed along, down some bridal trials and stuff. And I got to see some great stuff.

Then Sunday, I knew I was starting to get sick – I slept and slept. I made sure that I was well rested so I could go to the pool for kayak stuff. But, I shouldn’t have, really. The first time I went under and came back up shivering, I knew that I was done for. Oh, well. The bad part is that Ray and I got invited to do the Thames paddle on Wednesday night, and there is absolutely no way I am going to be well enough by then.

So, Monday, my Summer Bank Holiday, and Ray's birthday, was absolutely awful – I hardly got out of bed. And I couldn't even make Ray a birthday cake!

I have sent my email for work, telling them that I am not working today, so I am going back to bed now…

I’ve been so bad about updating my blog! I just realized that I’d never posted about the Transformers movie… We saw it the Saturday that it came out, a couple of weeks back. We thought it was really good, but kind of funny that the Ford was evil and all the Autobots were GM cars. (Come on, Jazz should have been an XLR, not a crappy Pontiac Solstice!) The thing was, the movie was so American that some of the jokes were largely missed by the audience. No, I can’t remember the specifics, but Ray and I laughed very loudly at something, and this guy in front of us turned around and gave us a look while shaking his head. No one else had laughed at the joke, either. Anyway, we thought it was great movie and it made me feel like I was home for a couple of hours. (That probably sounds silly since it was a fictional movie about a generic place where I’ve never lived, but it was a representation of home.)

One of the things I wanted to point out was in the commercials before the movie, there was one for the Daily Mail on Sunday. It borders on funny, but when put in the context of England, it is really sad. The difference between genders is very exaggerated here. Sexism is the norm here. Women must embrace the stereotype of shopping and fashion and being brainless gossips. And men must embrace the stereotypes of being drunken footballers and being strong and womanizing. Women are helpless and men are strong. But, that doesn’t mean that a man will give up his seat on the train or tube to a pregnant woman, because they say, “Well, if you want equality, then why should I?” Honestly, that is a statement I agree with. But since there is no equality here, shouldn’t there at least be chivalry instead? Women earn less here. I guess that isn’t really fair, though, because looking at the numbers, women in the US earn less, too… However, there is a huge difference in attitudes here. A good example: Not long after I first got here, my hdd started to die in my laptop. So I call our internal support folks… I won’t go through all of those arguments I had with folks, but the net of it is that I had to wait for the local desk side support team to replace my drive – in the next 3 weeks or so. Since I am not an idiot, I know that it isn’t going to last that long. Ray wasn’t using his laptop, so I ghosted my hdd image over and used his drive in my laptop. Finally, my drive comes in. I bring my old, wiped and toasted hdd, down to the basement where the desk side support guys are and expect to get a new one. The guy looked at me like I was nuts. He said that he had to replace it himself. I explained that I know what I am doing, I made a ghost image and I am using my husband’s hard drive right now. His response, “Oh, your husband made a ghost image for you?” I was absolutely shocked! I couldn’t believe that he’d 1) just made such a blatantly sexist assumption and 2) actually stated it out loud! In the US, the company I work for would have taken him aside for counseling, if not fired him out right. Not here. No one cares about things like that here. And I have a long list of crap like that which has happened here in the UK that would absolutely never happen back home – both sexist and sexual commentary. It’s the same company. But different rules seem to apply.

I should also state that this isn’t something that I am willing to bring up at work because it can sound a bit hypocritical. I am not offended at a really bad dirty joke that a co-worker tells… Or a vague discussion of another co-worker’s sexual encounters. I guess it’s the folks that I don’t work with every day that bug me. The ones that I don’t know. (Oddly enough, they have all been contractor type folks in MIS or facilities rather than regular employees.) It’s one of those things… Yes, a statement has to be taken in context, but if one makes me feel uncomfortable and the other makes me laugh… I don’t feel comfortable bringing it up at work because of how subjective the difference is.

Ok, enough of the rant for the day…

This evening, Ray and I are going to try to see about getting in with a kayaking group. Yay! I can’t wait!!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted… Sorry for that, but we’ve been kind of busy here…

I had to reload my laptop, and it took a while to get my wireless driver running, so, due to laziness that meant I had to walk all the way up the stairs to write a post, I just haven’t done it.

Plus, Ray competed in the London Triathlon yesterday. I only got a couple of good pictures of him finishing the swim, but, hey, he did it! He finished his first Olympic distance tri! I will post the pics eventually.

And work has been really, really busy lately. It kind of sucks, because it could take about an hour to get home. Or, the trains could be running late and it could take 2.5-3 hours. Have I mentioned how much I hate public transportation? Though, I did have one cool mishap in my favor – the trains out this way were running at least 50 minutes late and I managed to get there just in time to catch a direct train home. (They even changed it, in the middle of the route, to terminate at my stop!) The next train didn’t manage to get to Clapham Junction for more than an hour after that. All because the Gatwick Express broke down outside of London Victoria, or something like that.

I’ve started swimming. Or, rather, I’ve started floundering the in water (no pun intended), up and down the lanes. The first time, I was so proud because I’d managed to swim one entire lap without stopping. I thought that the second time, I would be able to repeat it, but I only did a length and ¾. Almost a full lap. But, I think, in time, I will improve. Being a kayaker and a crappy swimmer just doesn’t really go together very well.

Luckily, our boss is going to let us work from home twice a week. It’s much more necessary here than back home, because everything is a chore! Just to go to the Post Office, or go to the grocery store, or anything. It’s just not convenient. But, the result of the ability to work from home is that I can get my gym membership for a lot cheaper, because I could get the off-peak membership (use the gym before 17:30). For now, I am using the 10 free visits they gave him for me. But, they are only good for the off-peak time, like him.

Emma only has about a week and a half more before she is out of her bandages. Yay! I don’t actually know how much it has cost us, but it’s been well over £600. As long as she is better though, I don’t really care.

Complaint of the day: If you don’t know, don’t snow. I don’t care if you are ignorant of something, just admit it, and learn the correct answer. Don’t make crap up to sound like you know what you are talking about, and don’t get all offended at me when I call you on it.

Speaking of which, we had a friend over for dinner on Saturday and it was sooooooo refreshing to have someone who was as honest and blunt as we are to talk to. It’s kind of cool because she doesn’t have to agree with you. And if she disagrees, she isn’t going to lie to you, but she isn’t an jerk about it, either. You can’t expect to agree with everyone all the time, and it’s ok not to agree with everyone or for everyone not to agree with you. It was really cool to talk to someone like that.

Anyway, got to run… Time to do dishes and pack up for work tomorrow.