Bringing in 2013 in Style

Leave it to me to bring in 2013 with the dreaded gastro.  It all started at the belle-famille's house in Toulouse, where Copain and I celebrated Noël. I thought I was going to be okay until BAM! Sunday morning  - GASTRO ATTACK!

Monday, AKA, New Year's was just depressing:

Dinner of champions.

2013 on the taupe couch.

I've been dealing with it ever since. This is my second day off of work (I tried to go back for two days, thinking I was better, but au contraire mon frère.) I've still got it good.

Since this will be my fifth full on day with... ahem, problems, I figured I'd better call a doctor (I was experiencing symptoms of dehydration - yuck).  At around 8:45 this morning I called the French SOS medecins and explained my symptoms. The woman on the phone listened to the issue, told me that I definitely needed to see a doctor if I was 5 days in, took down my address and told me that one was on the way.

Not even 30 minutes later, Dr SOS was knocking on my front door. Now I've made calls to SOS medecins before - but never for myself - always for other people. Sometimes you wait an hour, sometimes you wait 8 hours, depending on how busy they are and the level of urgency of your illness. I have to say, I was super impressed with the service. 

Yeah, Dr SOS smelled of cigarettes and it was the weirdest thing ever to be examined on the taupe couch in my living room - don't mind the drying laundry! - but it was awesome not to have to leave my house with the gastro (impossible!) and the visit cost me 50 euros (which I'll be reimbursed for by my health insurance). Yay for France and their resistance to change - otherwise this whole house call thing probably wouldn't exist. (ps - why don't they have this in the states??!)

I got a prescription for a three-day treatment (there goes another weekend!) and a doctor's note for work if needed. Voilà. Merci SOS.

Since my pharmacy is at the end of the street, I crossed my fingers for no gastro within the next 10 minutes, ran downstairs, got my free medicine and felt good enough to stop for chicken soup ingredients and ginger ale at the market next door. 

I'm about 5 pills and two bowls of chicken soup in, but still no improvements yet. I'm starting to get annoyed and feel trapped in my teeny Parisian apartment! 

Vive le gastro en 2013 - hopefully this less-than-amazing beginning to the year has nothing to do with what the rest of 2013 holds in store... 

Homemade Deodorant - Oh Yes I Did

I've been inside all day with a horrible sore throat and nasty cough - no bueno. Poor Copain didn't sleep at all last night, because I was up every five minutes pouring honey down my throat. Note to self: keep throat lozenges in the house at all times.

In any case, this morning he was a papa poule (a "father hen"), as they say here in France, and got me meds, made me tea and covered me up with a quilt on the taupe couch. We watched some TV, had some soup for lunch and then, when I realized that I had basically been horizontal for the past 15 hours, I decided that it was time to actually do something.

I got dressed (boo), walked up the street to my local organic market, BioCoop, and bought everything that this blogger told me I needed to make my very own deodorant. Why on Earth would she do that, is what you are probably thinking to yourself. Well, I had used a bit of Copain's deo that morning and had my annual revelation that I should really stop using anti-perspirant. 

This happens to me every so often, like when I decided to go shampoo-free, or 'poo free as the hippies call it, using just baking soda and apple cider vinegar to wash my hair.  Copain just about had a mini flip out about that one. 

But I digress...back to BioCoop...

I gathered all of the necessary, organic supplies, but got coconut oil instead of cocoa butter (they didn't have any at that store). Once back home, I sterilized my tools, melted the butters, added my baking soda and arrowroot, threw in some vitamin E, lavender and clove essential oils and 10 minutes later, BOOM! Homemade, totally organic deodorant!

All of my ingredients, plus my little pot of deo, down right.

It's sitting in the fridge right now and I'll be testing it out tomorrow. I'm admittedly a bit cynical - I've tried it all in terms of natural deodorants...but I have high hopes for this homemade one. Plus, it's always more fun to try stuff you've made yourself, right? Apparently, this one will go on like a cream and I'll smell like a daisy (or a lavender bush) all the live long day. Ca à l'air pas mal n'est pas?

Je vous tiendrai au courant! (I'll keep you posted!) Worst case scenario, I'll just have really moisturized armpits right? 

Want to test it out with me? Here is the recipe I used:

- 3 tablespoons of shea butter (beurre de karité)

- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil (huile de coco) or cocoa butter (beurre de cacao)

- 3 tablespoons of baking soda (bicarbonate de soude)

- 2 tablespoons of arrowroot (arrowroot) or cornstarch (maizena)

- 2 vitamin E capsules (you squeeze the oil into the mixture)

- 5 drops of lavender essential oil (lavande fine)

- 1 drop of clove essential oil (clous de girofle)

Note: you can use whatever essential oils you like. Many websites recommend tea tree oil for its anti-bacterial properties. I unfortunately didn't have any. 

Sterilize all tools, including the jar that you will use for the final product. I placed a glass cup in a pot of  boiling water, added the butters, baking soda and arrowroot, then mixed it with a wooden stick until it was smooth. Once I took the glass out of the water, I added the vitamin E and essential oils, then gave it a final stir. Finally, I poured the mixture into my specially purchased container and popped it in the fridge to harden. Voila! This took me a total of 15 minutes, tops!

Has anyone ever tried this before? Am I a total weirdo? Wait - don't answer that.

Malade

The plethora of viruses running about Paris has finally caught up with me - bah oui, je suis malade. 

Maybe it was the one time I took the metro last week, maybe it was when I kept closing the restaurant door to keep out the cold at brunch, maybe it was the brunch! (cough, cough, sneeze - gross!)  Whatever, wherever, it hit me yesterday - at work. super nul. 

It's a lovely little maladie that keeps you at home - lest you want to share in the pleasure of running to the bathroom every five seconds with your colleagues - it's what the French call...Le Gastro.

Ah, the almighty gastro - spreading around Parisians on shared metro poles, Velibs handles, through airborne bits of nasty - mutating into various strains that have actually KILLED two children this year.  The gastro is not to be messed with; it disrupts your entire intestinal tract and basically works to clear you of anything and everything in your system, by whatever means necessary (I'll let you extrapolate on that - you know, in your head).

If I'd had a thermometer at work yesterday, I surely would have taken my temperature, seen that I had a fever, and hit the road. But I didn't notice my flushed face until the end of the day - the cherry on top of my aches, pains, and complete lack of appetite. 

Thankfully, I don't think I have the killer gastro, just a mild one (nothing like poor Copain's bout back in November). But still, this little dirt-bag has kept me home from work today, in bed until 12pm with wonky sick dreams...

Dude.

Copain - Monsieur Malade

Copain is malade. Super malade. Like had-to-come-home-from-work-and-has-been-on-the-couch-for-two-days malade.

What's worse: we have plans to go to Strasbourg for the Marché de Noël this weekend. Our train tickets are for tomorrow morning.

I asked him if he wanted to cancel, but he tells me that this bug he has should only last 24 hours.  It's what the doctor said when she came to our house yesterday - right after he heaved his guts up all over Paris on his way home from work.  Good times.