Kings Of Convenience and codeine

Two Saturdays ago, we went to a Kings Of Convenience concert in San Sebastian that was awesome. Afterwards we went for pintxos.

Started back at work again last week and after just one class (the other class was on an excursion) I started to feel sick. Luckily I didn't have to work on Tuesday so I rested, but after Wednesday, my cough came back and my head started hurting.

On Friday I invited a few friends over for sushi and teriyaki skewers and on Saturday, Beza and I went to watch Millan play ice hockey. We went to one the Sunday before as well and his team won both matches, yay! I always think the players look like animals in a pet shop window, when they're penalised and have to sit in their little boxes for two minutes. Kind of cold and depressed with messy hair.

Then on Sunday I woke up feeling like I felt when I first started getting sick ie. horrible. I measured my temperature and had a slight fever so I went back to the doctor and he gave me more codeine stuff.

I took the medication before going to work and about an hour later felt incredibly dizzy and sick in the stomach. They were like the flu symptoms I experienced two weeks ago, which I attributed to the virus but which I now suspect are from the codeine. Then I went home and threw up. Very unpleasant. Beza bought me these pills you can take which line your stomach and stop you from feeling queasy and they've sort of worked but I've been put off taking my medication.

I think I would rather have a permanent dry cough than feel like I'm about to vomit.

I've also had this constant headache that only goes away when I take panadol. (And then comes back about four hours later). On Sunday I woke up at about 3 am feeling like mini people were banging on my head with their mini hammers. I hardly ever get headaches and they never last long but this one's been bothering me for more than a week now. My dad said he's got the same thing, a constant headache, and he never gets headaches either.

I think it's a particularly malignant flu this year. I blame the children for giving it to me and their parents for sending their germy kids to school.

Sickness in the house

We are both sick. On Sunday, I woke up with a massive headache but I thought it was because of the beers I drank on Saturday night (we went to an Oktoberfest party), even though I only drank a few beers in four hours.

Then I started to cough and my temperature went up. So on Monday I rang school to say I couldn't go and went to the doctor's. He prescribed me a cough medicine (with lots of codeine), a paracetamol (with lots of codeine) and an antibiotic that was ridiculously expensive. He also told me not to work for the next six days. Beza kindly went and bought my medicine for me because I was too sick to get up and when he came back from work at 6.30 pm, he said he was getting cold shivers and his muscles hurt.

The next morning, he also woke up with a fever. So he called work to say he couldn't go and made an appointment for the doctor's. We spent the day on the sofa sleeping with Flight of the Conchords on TV in the background.

His doctor gave him the rest of the week off as well and since then we've hardly left the house. Luckily neither of us have had much appetite so we haven't run out of food yet.

By the way, the sofa in the photo was free (and is very comfortable). We found it on the side of the road in our street one night. At first I was worried that someone had died in it and that's why it was getting chucked out, but then we discovered a big rip in one of the cushions, which we've covered with a big piece of fabric.

Methuselah and pets

When we first moved in to our flat in September, we bought two little fish. One was black with googly eyes and we called it Hoover because it used to suck up the stones at the bottom of the fish bowl instead of eating its fish food. The other one was orangey gold with black fins and was adorably round (ie. fat). We called it Glitter because it was nice and glittery.

Hoover used to hide behind the plastic plant and when Glitter swam by, it would leap out and chase after it. They got along very well.

Anyway, about five days later Glitter went to meet his maker and the next day Hoover followed him to fishy heaven. I was devastated. I fell into a deep depression. Was it my fault? Were they just too young? Did they not like us? Why? Why?

On the 1st October, we bought a turtle. Beza wasn't too keen on a turtle- he said they were depressing to look at, but I told him they were less predisposed to death.

We called him Methuselah, in the hopes he'd live as many years as the biblical Methuselah. The first few weeks he didn't eat anything. I'd throw in a mini shrimp and it would be floating there the next morning. I'd change it for a fresh shrimp and the same thing would happen.

He started getting skinnier between his carapace and his neck started getting wrinklier and he seemed to be sleepy all the time. So we bought him a water heater and about a week later, when I threw in a shrimp, he turned around, looked at it and chomped it up. It was the highlight of my week.

Now we've started giving him ham and fried pig snout as well, which he seems to enjoy. This morning he ate 12 mini shrimps, which, being the size that he is, is about the equivalent of 12 good sized bread rolls for humans.

One night I accidentally turned off his water heater and when I went to feed him the next morning, he swam really slowly and stiffly, like he was half frozen. It was pretty cute.