Drinking games and Yellow Fever

In preperation for the South America trip we went and got our essential
vaccinations today. It's a bit of a pisser because they're free in the UK but
really expensive here in Australia. To make matters worse, I've already had all
of the required jabs. But when I left the UK it didn't occur to me to pack my
certificates. And Australian immigration will not allow entry back into Australia
from South America unless you can show proof of yellow fever, Hepatitis A
and various other vaccinations.

So we went along, filled in the forms and got stabbed several times each. TT
hates injections so much bribing with the nurses free lollipops was required.
Well, I say free lollipops, but in reality they were probably the most expensive
lollipops on earth as we ended up paying just over $500.

The nurse warned us that in 6 - 8 days we'll probably feel quite fluey, but not to
worry, it's just our bodies recovering from Yellow Fever. I can already imagine
the scene back at work in a weeks time:

Boss: "Hey Jay, you look a bit fluey, do you think you should go home?"
Me: "Oh no, it's not 'flu, just a touch of Yellow Fever and Hepatitis"
Boss: [Edges back nerviously] "Umm, well, if you're sure...."

We all know that vaccinations work by infecting your body with a small amount
of an illness to "teach" our immune system how to fight it off. But how come
we are not then contagious to other people? I'd never considered it before but
I'm almost curious enough to google it.

After the jabs we went and visited a place called Chermside. It's the biggest
shopping centre in Queensland I believe and it is massive. In the new year
we're planning to go on a bit of a fitness/detox thing so I decided some games
would help pass the evenings in lieu of beer. After trawling around the shops
for about 3 hours we'd only managed to pick up a pack of Simpsons Uno
cards. They'll keep us amused for hours eh?

We got home and TT taught me to play Uno. She was amazed I'd never
played it before. I've played similar games with normal playing cards before
though so it was hardly difficult to pick up. After a couple of games we
became a little bored so we turned it into a drinking game instead. Basically we
each chose a character from The Simpsons and then each time that character
appeared in the discarded pile the player with that character had to take a swig.
No drinking allowed unless your character appears. This leads to bigger swigs.
We had great fun and were pissed within a couple of games.

We have some friends coming over tomorrow with the intention of eating the
Christmas puddings and getting totally pissed. I think our newly invented
game will help.