"you're the prince to my ballerina"
AH! It is August 4th already - how did that happen? I have been in Sydney over a week. It started well - I was being sociable, getting out and about, and then I got ill. Then I got worse. Then I went to hospital - yay! I am such a coy-nessur of hospital departments these days. It turns out that I wasn't having a flare up of my ME. I also didn't have swine flu! But I did have a temperature and it hurt to breathe so I had to have a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. I am ok for now, and have some very strong codeine to make all the pain go away and to make me very sleepy. Apparently it should take about two weeks for the cough to go away completely, and if it gets worse then it has probably turned into pneumonia and I need to back and get more drugs. So, I have been a sweaty coughy sleepy mess for the past three days.
I did struggle down to the library on Saturday to spread my germs and shiver. It is such a lovely building and it was really interesting spending a whole day with Aust Lit scholars. Also, I got to meet Alexis Wright who says I can email her and she will find some time to talk to me! I wish I had been less ill so I could have networked more.
I am over my initial bout of sociability and am now happy to confine myself to my room and study. I am really excited about my research at the moment and am feeling pretty motivated, aside from feeling ill that is...Plus, though everyone is friendly enough, they are so young! And even if they aren't young they have all been in halls forever and are therefore stunted at the age of 18. So far we have had three fire alarms because some drunken students thought it would be fun to set off the fire extinguisher. Someone on my floor wrote 'whore' over a poster in the corridor - why? Who knows! Also, most of the students are undergrads complaining about the cushy life of an undergrad and I find myself being less than sympathetic. Plus, everyone I've met so far through halls have been pretty boring - they all listen to the same generic music, have the same look, and the same generally conservative (I thought students were meant to be lefty-bastards!) closeted outlook on life. Despite being an international hall of residence, there are a lot of Aussie students here who have lived in Sydney all their life. Plus I could care less about going out and getting drunk.
However, all the academics and postgrads I've met have been lovely and interesting and interested in my work.
My plan this week is to spend as much time reading and resting as I can in a bid to get better as soon as possible, and then if I feel better I really want to go to the aquarium on Saturday. I think Sundays are going to by my regular 'get out of halls and eat some decent food days' so I intend to wander around some local book shops, maybe head to the beach for some fish and chips, or just drink tea and eat cake in one of the lesbian cafes in Newtown or Leichardt.
I am looking forward to visiting my Dad next week, if only to request some home made pizza followed by icecream, a trip to the cinema to see Public Enemies, and a chance to walk the dogs!
I am easily pleased. And now, to work! I am reading about being Australian...
PS: I forgot to mention that I was interested to read an article in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago (I only noticed it yesterday when catching up) about how this latest outbreak in Swine Flu could bring about a rise in the number of cases of ME. Flu is one of the main triggers of ME in adults and, with the current economic climate, people are afraid of taking too much time off work in case they get fired, so they aren't giving them time to recover. There were two specialists - one from an ME clinic in London, and one from the ME society, giving their tips on how to recover properly from flu, and warning people not to take the risk of developing a secondary condition like ME. It's really refreshing to see how seriously the press takes ME these days and to see that they are trying to educate people on how to avoid developing the condition. If I had known more about ME I might have looked after myself better when I got ill and might not have developed it myself - it is such an easily avoidable condition in many cases!
I did struggle down to the library on Saturday to spread my germs and shiver. It is such a lovely building and it was really interesting spending a whole day with Aust Lit scholars. Also, I got to meet Alexis Wright who says I can email her and she will find some time to talk to me! I wish I had been less ill so I could have networked more.
I am over my initial bout of sociability and am now happy to confine myself to my room and study. I am really excited about my research at the moment and am feeling pretty motivated, aside from feeling ill that is...Plus, though everyone is friendly enough, they are so young! And even if they aren't young they have all been in halls forever and are therefore stunted at the age of 18. So far we have had three fire alarms because some drunken students thought it would be fun to set off the fire extinguisher. Someone on my floor wrote 'whore' over a poster in the corridor - why? Who knows! Also, most of the students are undergrads complaining about the cushy life of an undergrad and I find myself being less than sympathetic. Plus, everyone I've met so far through halls have been pretty boring - they all listen to the same generic music, have the same look, and the same generally conservative (I thought students were meant to be lefty-bastards!) closeted outlook on life. Despite being an international hall of residence, there are a lot of Aussie students here who have lived in Sydney all their life. Plus I could care less about going out and getting drunk.
However, all the academics and postgrads I've met have been lovely and interesting and interested in my work.
My plan this week is to spend as much time reading and resting as I can in a bid to get better as soon as possible, and then if I feel better I really want to go to the aquarium on Saturday. I think Sundays are going to by my regular 'get out of halls and eat some decent food days' so I intend to wander around some local book shops, maybe head to the beach for some fish and chips, or just drink tea and eat cake in one of the lesbian cafes in Newtown or Leichardt.
I am looking forward to visiting my Dad next week, if only to request some home made pizza followed by icecream, a trip to the cinema to see Public Enemies, and a chance to walk the dogs!
I am easily pleased. And now, to work! I am reading about being Australian...
PS: I forgot to mention that I was interested to read an article in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago (I only noticed it yesterday when catching up) about how this latest outbreak in Swine Flu could bring about a rise in the number of cases of ME. Flu is one of the main triggers of ME in adults and, with the current economic climate, people are afraid of taking too much time off work in case they get fired, so they aren't giving them time to recover. There were two specialists - one from an ME clinic in London, and one from the ME society, giving their tips on how to recover properly from flu, and warning people not to take the risk of developing a secondary condition like ME. It's really refreshing to see how seriously the press takes ME these days and to see that they are trying to educate people on how to avoid developing the condition. If I had known more about ME I might have looked after myself better when I got ill and might not have developed it myself - it is such an easily avoidable condition in many cases!