Tonsillitis!

So I dragged myself off to the Tooting NHS Walk-in Centre this afternoon, since I'd tried all the home remedies I could find on the net and nothing was working. It wasn't fun, catching a bus and walking in the cold and the rain while you're sick, but I got there in the end. It's a strange setup - you go and tell the receptionist what's wrong with you, then you fill in a form with your address and stuff and what's wrong with you; then you wait (about an hour, today) and then you're called and you tell someone else what's wrong with you. Then, it turns out, that isn't the nurse - you have to go back to the waiting room and wait for the nurse to call you! Luckily for me it was pretty quick, I'd practically just sat down before I was called again. The nurse was very nice, and it turns out that I have acute tonsillitis. This surprised me, rather, because I had my tonsils out when I was four or five years old! But apparently the tissue bed can still get infected.

It's a pretty generic term, though - basically it's just an infection, and it could be viral or bacterial. They gave me antibiotics, and 2 hours later I can actually swallow without flinching, which is amazing! The effect might wear off later, I guess, but for now it's such a relief to be able to swallow and drink with minimal pain (not no pain, but it is greatly reduced).

I'm suprised that I got tonsillitis at my age, as well - but then there were a whole lot of little monsters on the plane and the coach and the hotel in Lapland, and it's quite possible I picked it up from one of them. One of the less enjoyable souveniers of the trip, I guess.

Finding a Doctor in London

So, my throat is killing me and I can't sleep. It feels scraped raw, and it hurts when I breathe, never mind swallow.

So I figure I better try to get to a doctor tomorrow (well, later today, really).

Yeah right. There certainly aren't any 24 hour doctors in London, and very, very few that are open on a Saturday at all! One place near me that is supposed to be open on a Saturday morning according to the NHS website, isn't according to the message on their answerphone; another is, but is out in Southfields somewhere and seems to require a lot of walking to get there.

I normally use the on-site doctors at work, but they don't work on a Saturday. I thought I'd try the BUPA private doctors, but they're not open on Saturdays either.

I could trek along to the Tooting Walk-in Centre; they're at least open, and not _too_ difficult to get to (although when you're feeling sick, anywhere further than down the road is difficult to get to), but they only have nurses, not doctors. Which might be fine for advice, but I don't need advice, I need medicine! And not over-the-counter stuff; I think I probably need antibiotics. But it seems to be my only option - I don't want to not go, if it would help, but if it's not going to help I'd rather not waste my time in the first place.

And if hardly anyone is open on a Saturday, you know no-one's going to be open on a Sunday, especially not on New Year's Eve. And then Monday is New Year's Day, so no-one will be open then either. So then it's Tuesday until I can get to a doctor - by which time I'll either be recovered, or so ill I won't be able to drag myself out of bed.

Sheesh, what a country.

Happy New Year?

So as I think I mentioned, I went to Lapland for Christmas. It was amazing, it was really great - although really cold! It made me miss home even more, though. Every time I thought of leaving Lapland and going home, it was SA home that I was thinking of, not UK home. And I wanted to tell my mom and my nieces and everyone about what I'd seen and done, but in person, not on the phone.

But it was great fun, and I'll do a post about it later. At the moment I'm really not feeling well. I've been off work the past two days, and luckily it's the long weekend now, otherwise I'd have to take more time off work. I don't know if it's a cold, or flu, or something else, but I have a fever and my throat is sore and my muscles are achy and I just feel _awful_. And this is another thing about not being at home - I don't have anyone to go get me medicine or food from the shops, or to talk to to distract me from feeling sick, or to check my temperature, or make my bed nice and tidy. Sure, I _can_ cope by myself, but I'd rather not have to :(

So it doesn't look like I'm going to have a very happy new year. I didn't really have much planned - I was going to go to a movie, maybe the carnival or fair or whatever it is at Hyde Park, but I doubt I will, unless I improve dramatically - at the moment I don't know if I'll be able to go buy food tomorrow, but I have to because I've pretty much eaten everything in the house!

Oh well, there's always New Year next year. And at least I had a good Christmas.

Strange Horizons

There's a really good online sf/fantasy site, called Strange Horizons. They publish an edition every week (although I mostly only read the fiction). The nice thing is that they keep an archive of all (or most) of their fiction, and I've been reading back in time for the last few months, whenever I'm stuck on the train and don't have a library book to read.

They have really good stuff, too many to point out and link to, but here are 3 that have stood out in the past few days (there are a lot more outstanding ones, but these are 3 that I've read most recently):

Heroic Measures

Looking Back

Snow Day


The first two are really moving; the last one is just really fun ;)

Winter in London

So this is my first winter in London, and it's certainly an experience.

I don't really know how long winter is here, or how long it lasts, so I don't know if we're half-way through or just starting. But so far, it's not too bad. It hasn't been nearly as rainy as I thought it would be, so there are really two components: the cold, and the dark.

Luckily, with central heating and double glazing, it's not too cold inside (and you can always sit wrapped up in a blanket if you have to!). It's pretty cold outside, though, and not just in the morning and evening - it doesn't make too much difference during the day, because I'm at work where it's fairly cold in the office anyway, but going out for lunch it's pretty damn cold. But it's a nice cold, an invigorating cold, and I carry a scarf and gloves with me in case it gets too cold :-) And it's actually quite pretty - clear, cold sky, with skeleton-ish trees... and of course all the christmas decorations. And it's perfect weather to see the contrails of the planes flying over London, which are just amazing when the sun catches them.

What's worse is the dark. It's dark when I get up, although it's light by the time I get to work. But it starts getting a little bit darker about 2:30 in the afternoon - not dark, just not bright sunny afternoon any more - and by about 4, I guess, the sun is really going down. So during the week, by the time I leave work, it's fully dark. Over the weekend you get to see more sun, but you end up with a very short afternoon and a very long evening - so you feel like you don't get much done, but then you feel like the evening's dragging on and on and it's time to go to bed, even though it's only 7. And of course, if it is cloudy and rainy, it's dark all day round.

I can see why people are affected by winter - not just people with Seasonal Affective Disorder, I think it's a bit depressing for everyone. I try to go out every day at lunch, just to get some sunlight, and that helps. It's not too bad, but I do hope winter doesn't carry on too much longer, get too much colder, get dark too much earlier, or get more rainy!

Green & Black's

One of the best things about London is Green & Black's chocolate. It's the best chocolate I've ever tasted.

And everything they make tastes incredibly good. Their icecream is creamy and fluffy and incredibly chocolatey (but not too sweet, since they use a bit more cocoa than normal). I once had to make space in my freezer, so I took the icecream out and left it in the fridge... then forgot about it for a few days. Eventually I remembered it, and was surprised to find that it wasn't liquid. I tried some - it tasted just like a lovely, creamy chocolate mousse. Delicious!

Even their hot chocolate is amazing - I didn't know that they made hot chocolate, but the instant I saw it at Sainsbury's I knew I had to buy it :-) You make it with milk rather than water, and again it's amazingly rich and creamy, and just a touch bittersweet. Highly recommended!

Spamalot!

So I haven't blogged for a while, but that's because I was off in Sunny South Africa, the Land os Sun, Mountains, Sea, and Dial-up Internet. Despite that, it was very difficult to leave there and come back here - I've been happy here, but seeing my family again I realised just how much I miss them, and how difficult it is being on my own here.

But anyway, today I went to see Spamalot. I booked my ticket ages ago, and got a front row seat. What I dislike the most about booking via seetickets or lastminute is that you can't choose your seat - they just assign you the 'best' available seat - and I'm not quite sure what algorithm they use to determine that. So I was quite impressed to get a front row seat, except that when I got there it wasn't quite as good as I'd thought it would be.

You don't get to see the rest of the audience, of course, so you don't so much feel part of a large group. But the problem, at this theatre at least, is not so much that it's too close as that it's too low! The stage itself is at about eye-level, which was really disappointing, (although you do get a good view into the orchestra pit, for what that's worth). The upper levels aren't as far back as they are in othe theatres I've been to, and the next one up (the grand circle, I'd guess) or the back of the stalls would have given a much better view, in a vertically-balanced sense. Although sitting in the front row is nice, since you can stretch your legs - but the front row of the grand circle would have been much better Kand possibly cheaper, although I have a vauge feeling that the stalls and the grand circle were the same price).

Once it started, though, I didn't mind very much. It was great being that close - you could really see everyone, and every expression. And it was absolutely hilarious - so funny, you just can't help laughing out loud... continuously :-) The songs were awesome, and they did my favourite: 'Always look on the bright side of life'.

The cast was really good, too - Tim Curry as King Arthur (and I got to see him up close!), and Christopher Siebert as Galahad (and I got to see him up close too! - in case you don't recognise the name, he was Simon in 'It's All Relative'). The guys playing Lancelot and Robin were also familiar, but I don't recognise anything they've been in.

Brilliant play, and I really recommend that you see it - even if you haven't watched any Monty Python before.