New Year's Eve Dinner

This is way late, I'm just catching up.

People ask me: what do you on vacation?

Here's what I was doing New Year's eve:  repairing a laptop.

'o polpo, 'o polpo

Oggi si mangia 'o polpo.

Last day for this trip coming up

It's nearly Saturday, last day for this trip.
With the endless re-peating colds, it's been something of a dreadful boring trip, with long bits where I was literally doing nothing because I was too tired or ill to do much.  There were days when I was better but others were sick so on those days you also end up sitting around doing nothing and waiting for everyone to catch up.  All in all a dull trip and I can't remember very many this dull.  I remember one back in 2004 when there was a lot of waiting around, but tthis one was worse.

Don't know what we'll be doing on the last day.  Hopefully we'll get out of the house some.
Big excitement for Wednesday and Thursday this week was walking down the street for 30 minutes just to visit the corner shops or the supermarket.
Such excitement and it's a wonder I can sleep at night!

una vera e' propria vacanza di merda

(For English, look towards the end of the post.)

Non ho scritto molto su questo blog ancora del fatto che quest'anno ci siamo ammalati tutti.  E' cominciato con un raffredore, poi si e passato alla tosse, ecc.

Sono adesso piu' di due settimane che siamo tutti malati.

E' cominciato con Paolo che e' andata in Francia una settimana primo che io sono arrivato, ed e' tornato con un brutto forte raffredore.

I primi simptomi ho preso alla vigilia di Natale. Ho avuto occhi bagnati, naso che scorre, e sono rimasto al letto per 3 giorni.  Poi mi e' venuto la solita tossa grassa.

Ho preso lo sciroppo e sembrava che stavo meglio.

Poi alla vigilia di capo d'anno Paolo di nuovo e caduto con una febbre. E stato al letto tutto il giorno.

Il giorno di capo d'anno Olga ha preso la febbre.

Io non ho preso la febbre ma il 2 Gennaio la mia tosse si e' peggiorata.

Adesso siamo al 5 Gennaio, Paolo ha ancora la febbre ed ha cominciato a prendere un antibiotico.  Olga stava meglio oggi per il primo giorno ma anche lei non sta tanto bene.  A me ieri mattina mi e' tornato un nuovo forte raffredore, ed oggi mi sento un poco caldo, non posso dire ancora che ho la febbre, ma non lo posso nemmeno escludere.

In somma questo e' diventato il piu' brutto viaggio che ho mai fatto.

Ho lasciato fuoro altri detagli, tipo il figlio di 18 anni che voleva a tutti costi andare ad una feste di capo d'anno sul Lago Averno alle 2 di mattina.  Tutti i sui amici hanno pianificato di arrivare li alle 02:00, ma il fesso di 18 anni in nostra famiglia ha detto a noi che potevamo andare alle 01:00.  Il risultato e che siamo dovuti aspettare nel freddo con la macchina spenta per un ora, ed e' successo proprio quello che si aspettava in questo caso:  la batteria e' andata giu.  Paolo come orgolioso padre che fa tutto da solo non ha voluto chiedere aiuto, nemmeno ai parenti che abitavano nella zone.  Alle 2 di mattina con la febbre si e messo a camminare a casa per prendere l'altra machine sua per fare partire la toyota.  E' tornato dopo circa 45 minuti.  E' si e' portato le chiavi della toyota con se, la toyota e' rimasta li sensa chiavi.   E' strano pero, che in quei 2 ora, nessuno si e' avvicinato per chiedere nulla a noi.

I have not written much here yet about how bad this trip has been, healthwise, but it's time to fess up.

It all started a week before I arrived; Paolo went to France and brought back with him a really bad cold.  It knocked him out, which is most unusual.

By the time I got here everyone was already sick and coughing, but they just go on with their lives without taking any time to cure themselves, so they stay sick.

By Christmas Eve I was sick too.  Heavy cold followed by sore throat and three days of watery eyes and runny nose, aches.  I basically had to keep taking Tylenol and stay in bed.  I forgot to bring Tylenol Cold medicine here, and nothing like that is available here, so we have to suffer.

The others were sick too during this time, but they soldier on until they drop.

By New Year's Eve, however, people started to drop.  Paolo got it first.  Fever, pains, he had to stay in bed all new year's day and we went out without him.

Driving back home, Olga got it next.   Pains, headache, fever, she was down for the count.

I had been fine up to then, but on 2 January my cough got worse for just a day, then I was better.  On 4 January "wet" cough went away, and it was replaced with the beginning of a heavy cold.  By 5 January the cold was back to the usual watery eyes.   This time I made it out to the pharmacy only to find out that a product like Tylenol Cold Night Time is not available at all in Italy.   This afternoon, my body temperature seems to be inching up.  It's not a fever yet but it's working at it.

The biggest change I see is that when I get warm like this my nose runs less.

Olga was better today.  Paolo still has a fever.

The kids seem to go back and forth as to whether their sick or well, can't pinpoint them.  If they want to play they will play regardless of how they feel and they have to really be in bad shape to stop playing.

To sum it up, this has been possibly the worst trip I've ever made.