"Being sick can seem like all fun and games until you no longer live with your mom."

Thankfully I have Haydn. He has been a star in taking care of my while I've been sick. I have no idea what happened. I've been having terrible allergy attacks for weeks now. I think the change in climate, the dust from moving, and the fact that it's hay fever season around here all combined and I've been having issues. Allergy meds usually help clear it up. Last Friday I thought it was that but then my throat started hurting. I figured it was just sinuses and drainage issues. Then the fever started. I think that having a fever as an adult is one of the worst feelings in the world. I had chills and was achey and it was just plain awful. On Saturday morning I was feeling worse. We had a ton of things to do so I didn't want to take up a lot of time by making a visit to the Dr. Also, I haven't actually registered with a Dr. in this area yet. You can't make an appointment until you've registered somewhere but we decided to go to the walk-in clinic. The wait wasn't too long so we were glad for that. I never feel comfortable going to a Dr. I haven't been to before. I was afraid of hearing lectures about my blood pressure being high (I'm sure it's through the roof right now due to stress.) and I just didn't know what to expect. They took my name, asked for no ID, and didn't even ask for my National Insurance Number. The Dr. was about 500 years old and could barely walk. I was scared but still hoping this would somehow help me. He didn't take blood pressure or anything. He just asked what was wrong. I explained the sore throat, fever, etc. I was trying to explain the symptoms but he didn't seem to care. He wanted to look at my throat and didn't use a light or any of the normal tools, he just looked at it and said "Oh, ew, yeah I can see why you say you have a sore throat." He then gave me a prescription and said have a nice day. WHAT?!?! It was like a 2 minute process. It was weird and I just don't know. I know it was strep because I know what that looks like. I haven't had strep this bad since I don't even know when. I am finally feeling better today. Even yesterday I was thinking about going back because my throat just wasn't feeling any better. My glands were so swollen, my neck was sore, and I just thought maybe it was something other than strep. My diet the past 5 days or so has been cranberry juice and mashed potatoes and I still don't have an appetite for much of anything else.  I'm feeling better today I am SO THANKFUL. I've been trying to rest and get sleep as much as I can. I've also been trying to get a lot done so the rest/sleep hasn't been happening so much. I haven't been sleeping well at night but last night I finally got a full night of sleep so that was good, too.  The Dr. experience was bizarre and I definitely need to get registered elsewhere ASAP so that I can see a Dr. that isn't 500 years old. :)

"You can't have rainbows without a little rain."

Moving house is chaotic. End of story. We are so happy with our new house, however, we are currently living in a sea full of cardboard boxes and things that need to be put away and dealt with. I'm doing the best I can while Haydn works during the day but there are just some things I need help with. Hopefully we will get a lot done over the upcoming weekend. We have our first guest (Haydn's sister and our nephew) coming to visit next week! I can't wait! It gives us a good deadline to get things done by!

In addition to the chaos of unpacking and moving, I've been spending a lot of time at the gym. It's such a nice gym. The building itself has a ton of other things going on (huge pool, gymnastics centre for kids, a cafe, shops, track, etc.). They gym is great. I like going in the mornings with all of the older people! When I don't feel like going I just remember that there are about 20 80-90 year olds there so I have ZERO excuse!! I've been running again, some weight training, and finally got back into Zumba. It's the best and it's such a great release of all the current stresses I have going on right now!! Plus it burns a lot of calories! Another note about the gym is that apparently in 2012 when the Olympics were in London, the Bermuda Olympic team used it as their training facility. I thought that was pretty cool! Moving on...

In my phone I've started a list about random things that come up for me to share here in my blog. It's very random but I hope you find it interesting!

*AA does not stand for Alcoholics Anonymous here. AA is the Automobile Association that comes to help you when your car breaks down. Basically it's our version of AAA. Here AAA is just a battery. :)

*Pandora doesn't work in the UK. So sad. I'm trying out Spotify but I don't like it as much.

* TJ Maxx is TK Maxx. Weird. No clue why it's not the same!

*Sundays drive me crazy. ALL stores of any kind shut down around 4 PM. You have to make a really early start to get your errands done! I guess there is some kind of law that only allows businesses to stay open a certain number of hours. It's crazy because stores close pretty early on most week nights, too. Lots of places close at 5:30. I think the mall might be open until 7ish but not every night.

*Thank goodness for IKEA. I'm glad we don't live that far away from one!

*Near IKEA is a Costco!! They even sell Cadbury chocolate in bulk!

*England is not very religious. After living in the south for so long you get used to seeing so many churches all over. There aren't hardly any around here. I think I know where 1 is located but people generally don't seem to be very religious at all.

*The Pound Shop is great. It's our version of the dollar store but obviously they don't have dollars here, they have pounds. There is the Pound Shop or Poundland. Both of lots of things for school!

*Dancing here is known as having a boogie. Boogie is pronounced boo-gie. :)

*I went from NY to shopping with a cart to shopping in SC with a buggy to England where we shop with a trolley!

*Apparently I hold my utensils incorrectly when eating. I guess I'm supposed to hold my fork with my left hand and knife with my right hand at all times throughout the meal. Lefties have it easy!

*Some other interesting words/phrases:
    -What's the crack? meaning What's going on?
    -Slag meaning skank
    -Crackers meaning crazy
    -Crumbs meaning darn it

*Everywhere Haydn and I go, people always say to us "You look nice and brown. Have you just been on holiday?" I love the compliment but I promise I am not any shade of brown. I'm pale as a ghost and our holiday was over a LONG time ago!

*Today I found out what a "subway" is in England and I'm not talking about the sandwich place. It's a creepy tunnel that you can walk through to get to the other side of the motorway. I've used them before but didn't realise that is what they were called!

*I love our new TV provider. We have LIFETIME!!! It's not the same but close enough. It's funny because a lot of shows on the British version of Lifetime are shows that air on Bravo or HGTV in America. Glad to have it though!

*At almost any hour of the day you can watch Judge Judy on TV here. People love her! You can also watch Jeremy Kyle, the British version of Jerry Springer, at almost any time. He's hilarious!

*When going out to eat you can have a starter (appetiser). The best is baked Camembert. I've never seen this in the US before. It's a melty cheese that you can dip breads and fruits/veggies in. SO YUM.

I promise to work on posting pictures of everything as soon as I can!! :)