Messy update

I know, it's been a while, but life's been hectic recently. Okay, a quick summary:
- I've been working my arse off over last 2 weeks, trying to reach my targets, as I'm leaving for holiday one week before the end of the month
- I was in Poland last week-end and had a jolly good time there. A few pictures below.

Zywiec, one of the best Polish beers. I still prefer English ales, but I'm always up for a glass of moreish Zywiec.

My friend Qn. He is normal on regular basis, just got a bit nervous when I started taking pics of him. I wish I'd taken out my camera a bit earlier, when he took off his shirt!

My friend Anna and her husband Taylor. They were also visiting Poland that weekend, came all the way from Florida. They are the reason for which I was dying on Monday - they managed to convince me to meet just for one beer on Sunday evening and this "one beer" turned into a drinking session till 6am. Looks like we had a lot to catch up with each other ;-) I wouldn't say I was completely sober when I was checking-in at the airport on Monday morning, one hour after we left the bar...

I am also getting ready for my vacation in Asia (yay! one week to go!) and that keeps me busy too. Actually, there is a few funny things about this whole Asia trip. Where to start? Okay, I need a visa to Cambodia and Thailand. It's rather easy, but I need to bring photos of myself, as supposedly there is no place I could take ones at the local airport. I am not quite sure if I believe that, but well, I had to go to the chemists, and blah blah blah. Like I said - nothing really difficult, but...

Then comes malaria. Yep, I've got to take pills, because the risk is reasonably high in Cambodia. And I wouldn't really like to take this risk - malaria is fatal... It took me a while to find out that malaria pills are an OTC medicine here in the UK, so luckily I did not have to go to the GP, queue, wait and ask for prescription. I am glad, as I will need these pills again in August, before my trip to Ghana. Now, here is where it starts getting tricky and "funny". See below:

I've got to take ALL of them!!!

Basically, I must start taking these 1 week before I enter the malarious area, throughout the entire visit and then 4 weeks after I return from the area. So, 2 trips - Cambodia and Ghana equal to 13 weeks on the pills - the entire quarter!!! And if it were only this, I wouldn't be so disturbed. The problem is that very common side-effects include:

- nightmares (!!!)
- diarrhoea
- fits (convulsions!!!)
- hair loss or loss of natural colour of hair (which is usually reversible, thanks god...)
- hallucinations (!!!)

These are not all of them. Other pretty common side-effects are: headache, itching, blood disorders, skin rashes, visual disturbances, damage to the liver (that's fine, my liver is damaged from drinking anyway), mouth ulcers, mood changes, irritation to the lining or movements of the gut (ugh), strange or abnormal thoughts (that's fine too, I've got them anyway, hehe) or depression.

I am not complaining. I am just a bit scared, because my GP and a few other people who actually did take these pills told me that it's very likely I will have nightmares. I just can't imagine 13 weeks with nightmares...

Anyway... I've got a very busy week-end ahead of me, getting things together (Asia), planning and organising some stuff (US visa application, which is another little paperwork nightmare, Ghana visa application etc...), paying my bills, planning my budget for the next couple of months and so on. The list is long and I finally have to take care of all that... So, no wild parties, no drinking (well, some wine maybe), no travelling - just a quiet week-end at home. And I do feel like I need it.