Heading home...

Sick

If you ever visit Paris, I highly recommend that you do not get sick. The headache turned out to be a little more than that. Every bone in my body ached. My legs decided to pack it in altogether. Walking became painful.

The GOOD thing about having a problem like this in Paris is that there are chairs and benches all over the place. In Paris, they know that if you are walking around their lovely city you will want to sit down sometimes. By the time I had finished buying the medicine, got to the Internet cafe, sent that last blog, and started heading off to the Louvre (my plan for the day) I discovered that my body was refusing to cooperate. So I sat. I walked, and sat. Then I walked a little more, and sat some more. Then I stopped for coffee, although I wasn't sure my stomach would hold it, and took the medicine and waited. It helped, quite a lot, but my legs were still not cooperating so I went to the Jardin de Luxumburg (sp?) instead of to the Louvre. I knew from passing there the day before that there were benches and chairs ALL OVER the place. And I sat. I took a few pictures, too, and wondered what the hell was wrong with my legs.(What kind of flu gets you in the LEGS?)

After a while I went back to my hotel and spent the rest of the day sleeping, sweating feverishly, aching, and feeling generally miserable. Between bouts of sleeping I watched CNN and marvelled at what looked like pictures from the third world coming out of the US.

Those poor people.

Homeward bound

The next day I had to get to the airport by ten, so left very early in case I'd need to sit on the way. I had to take the Metro and then change to the RER, and was worried that the way I was feeling I'd get lost and confused. I dragged my bag to the Metro, and found a man behind a counter.

"Bonjour!" he said.

"Bonjour," I replied. "I, er... do you speak English?"

He looked at me seriously.

"Only on Saturdays," he informed me.

I had to think for a moment. I didn't know what day it was. I took out my diary to check.

"Oh, good. Today is Saturday," I said. "In that case, can you tell me EXACTLY how to get to the airport? And where I can get a ticket?"

He was helpful and friendly, as everybody was in France. He sold me the ticket, and gave me very exact instructions.

Kuala Lumpur Revisited

Now I am in Kuala Lumpur, with The Man (WITH THE MAN!!!)and feeling miserable and happy in pretty much equal quantities. Whatever this thing is has not gone away, but it is evidently some sort of inflammation because when I take Ibuprofen it goes away, more or less, until the Ibuprofen wears off. I will go to the doctor when I get back to Japan, in four days. The Man is staying on longer, but I have only a week after getting back before I start work. I am not looking forward to working with this thing, so I have to get better.

I am taking it easy.

I love The Man. I love KL. I feel as though I'm home already.