[The rest of this post is not for the weak. I discuss my cold in detail.]

I got sick my first week here basically from the flight over (it happens every time I fly somewhere…the recycled air always makes me sick), and now here we are several weeks later, and Tim and I both came down with a cold – his started a few days before mine, but we both definitely have the same cold. Ugh. As an extra treat for me, my ears have decided they want to be clogged, so I’ve been having intermittent vertigo, too.

I miss my Zicam and Theraflu. Those two products and nine times out of ten, I’m better in 3 days. But neither is sold here. I’m stuck with generic vitamin C tablets and a product called Lemsip. Which is essentially exactly like Theraflu in that you mix it in hot water, but I prefer the Theraflu thin strips, so it’s completely different.

Tomorrow, Tim and I are supposed to go to Peterborough to meet up with some people from the UKYankee board, but I’m not sure if we’ll feel up to it. I really don’t think we should have gone to York on Thursday in all that rain/sleet/snow, but we have to take the opportunities when Tim has the days off to do stuff on!

I’ve been living in pajamas the past few days…good thing I packed more than one pair – I’ve been showering and then putting on clean pajamas. Unfortunately, I’ll need to do laundry soon though, I’m running out of shirts!

I think I’ve gone through a forest of trees in terms of tissues. I was using one of Tim’s handkerchief’s the day we went to York, but I’m not sure where the clean ones are to grab another, and besides which, after a few hours they’re too soaked to use, anyway. Where is all this snot coming from?! I swear, my brain is going to come out of my nose soon.

I can feel my sinuses go “squish” as they’re horribly clogged, inflamed, and sore. The pressure is, of course, creating a headache, too. I gave myself a little relief in the shower earlier, and I’ve been boiling a pan of water on the stove – both to keep the air moist, and so I can breathe in the steam to try to keep things clear. I’ve also discovered that Bert’s Bees lip balm is good for clearing your sinuses. Put some on your lips and between your lips and nose (I was doing this because the skin was getting dry from all that nose blowing!), and it helps to keep things clear. Who knew?

It’s a Saturday afternoon, and television sucks. Really, it’s no different than being in the US and having oodles of cable channels! BBC1 has a dart championship, BBC2 a movie about WWI, ITV has on a western, and Channel 4 has on horse racing (Yes, those are the only channels Tim gets). During the week I’m okay with flipping between the channels and I find stuff to watch, but weekends are horrible. And it’s made especially worse as today I just want to curl up under a few blankets and watch mindless TV all day. Guess I’ll pop in a DVD. Tim has a ton I can pick from, and I brought along a few, too.

[note to LJ feed readers: please click on the link at the top of this entry on LJ to leave comments, as I do not see comments left on LJ!]

The commercials are also great, because they’ve been showing support commercials for both Canada and the US….whereas in the US, we wouldn’t get Canadian commercials.

Also, I completely do not understand the Chinese alphabet they’re using for the countries. Peru followed by Ireland followed by Estonia…oh wait, and now it’s the Czech Republic and El Salvador. What?! And the UK, the US, and Canada all already marched. Can anyone explain to me the Chinese alphabet?

I’m also actually pretty exited…these are the 29th Olympics, and I’m turning 29! Okay, so the Olympics aren’t technically 29 actual years old, but it still keeps me entertained.

The only thing I might miss with not being in the US would be the coverage on *all* of the NBC owned channels and the chance to be watching high diving at 2 in the morning because it happens to be on MS-NBC or something like that.

I love the Olympics. I have since I was little…..Mom has a photo of me somewhere from 1984, asleep on her and Dad’s bed, holding an American flag in my hand because I had been trying to stay awake to watch the opening ceremonies. In 1992, when the US had it’s first “dream team”, dad and I watched every game we could, and collected all the newspaper articles. I bet I still have them somewhere. My hometown was host to an Olympic athlete (he went to Peddie, my public high school’s private rival across the street), and my college (Penn State!) has been the alma of many athletes. My friend is vying for a position on the US Hockey team for 2010, and Tim’s already been teasing me about staying with him in 2012 for the London games.

The sad thing about this year? I won’t be watching them with my mom, and I’ll miss out on the local coverage. Oh, but how’s this for strange? I went to both the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting) and NBC websites to check on the schedule because I don’t want to miss the Penn State alum (Kevin Tam, US Men’s Gymnastic Captain) and I thought I caught that part of Men’s Gymnastic’s was tonight, and I actually had the local (WGAL) logo showing on the NBC site. My IP is currently showing me as being in Canada, so I know it’s not some weird “we’ll go by her IP and show her the station logo for the local station”….but look:

(Click for bigger)

Isn’t that weird?

But, they do get Space, and Torchwood starts on Friday on Space, so at least I get to re-watch Season Two! And, I get to watch the olympics in High-Definition…and I can pick either CBC or NBC