Scotland's Bi-Polar Weather and the Unbearable Sickness of Me

I'm just taking a break from writing this damn dissertation. I'm sitting on the couch working, while Andy's in his office working...in his boxers. It's warm today. The forecast said a high of 75 degrees. As I check the time on my watch, 4:30 p.m., it's actually 82 degrees.

While everyone (the fish-belly white natives) walk around outside as if it's the Mohave Desert, the weather is rather nice, in my Floridian opinion. But when it's cold, I don't mind the weather too much.
I just need consistency. I can't deal with up-down weather anymore than I can deal with people who run hot and cold.

I lost my voice a couple of days ago. Last weekend, I was in Glasgow running around in the cold rain, then hitting the hot clubs, only to walk through the cold, wet air looking for a taxi.
Needless to say, I got sick. Actually, I'm still sick. I still force myself to hit the gym, but really hate it now. There's coughing, there's hacking and there's the fatigue. But all the week, the weather's been cool--upper 60s. Thinking, I was ok, Andy and I trekked to Edinburgh on Sat. for the day. Take in some shopping, museums, sights, and the cow parade.


Edinburgh was crowded and very, very warm. In the eve, we met up with a friend of Andy's, the head of marketing for the hip Traverse Theatre, for drinks, debates and dining.

Well, I must of had too much fun cause it was a bitch to drag myself back to Perth. By late Sat. evening, I lost my voice.

And I'm still sick. It's 82 right now and tonight, the low will be in the mid 50s--still too cold to sleep with the windows open. By Sat. the daytime temps should drop back to the lower 60s with rain. And if there really is rain, then it will feel colder. What is with this bi-polar weather??

What makes this annoying is that I'm SICK of feeling sick. I want my voice back and I want to stop hacking and coughing and feeling like crap. I don't want to feel like I'm dragging myself to the gym. Andy thinks I should be resting but if you saw the pics from my high school friend's Class of 86 reunion--you'd be right there pumping hard with me. Hell, my 20th reunion is next year!

I feel like crap. But I must press on. I must struggle with the dissertation monkey on my back. I must continue going to the gym. Maybe pushing myself will allow me to be so dead tired that I will finally get some decent sleep without coughing/hacking interuptions. I do rest, however, in front of the tube, watching British tv's import of Black entertainment shows and music videos. In a European context, knowing so many people don't know any blacks or know anything about Black Americans except for the booty and coochie-shaking they see on television, I find that I'm extremely uncomfortable. And let me tell you boys and girls, the stuff they show here after 9 p.m. is uncensored! Racy videos with NAKED black and brown female bodies writhing and jiggling quickly to money, alcohol, and oh yeah, the beat...the skewed perspective Europeans get of Black Americans is pretty scary and worse, sad.

Excuse me for coughing again. I gotta get better soon. I have friends, my friends from the States, coming up next week to visit.