Sickness and snow

Being sick is never fun, but being sick when you are far from home, in a foreign country when you have no idea what the ‘procedure’ is, it is horrible.
On Wednesday lunch time I went in the space of about half an hour, from my normal chirpy self to a bit of a wreck. So after a very un-productive afternoon I headed home for bed, because everything feels better after a good sleep, or so I thought.

Waking on Thursday morning I gave my boss a ring only to be told that to get a sick day from work I had to have a doctor’s note. So I asked at the foyer reception to find the nearest doctors. I was advised to ring up first, but this wasn’t very successful. In the end the lady just asked me to come down to the surgery because neither of us were having much luck in understanding the other. So I battled down to the doctor’s surgery only to be told that the first appointment I could get was over an hour away. So I battled back to the Oasis to wait for a bit before going off to see the doctor.
Thankfully the doctor (Dr Piquey was lovely. He was one of those lovely people that you mean every now and then who don’t see my lack of French as any kind of problem.
Since being in France I have met three kinds of reactions to my language struggles, The first gets frustrated and makes you feel about as big as an ant, the second are understanding and very willing to help (most people are like this), the difference between the second and the third is very hard to explain. However the best I can do is to say that the third kind of person is so unconcerned by the language barrier that you notice it. It is not even the tiniest problem, they simply explain the word you don’t understand and carry on. With such people I have never felt bad about not understanding, it is one of those things. This Dr Piquey as the third kind of person- a lovely man. So I got my doctor’s note, paid 20 euros for the privilege (chances are that the salary I save from it won’t cover the doctors bill, but never mind).
So then I returned to my bed, and didn’t move for the next four days! I lay in bed alternatively sleeping, watching Quantum leap and watching winter envelope Caen. First we had snow:

Then hail (this didn’t photograph so well). Unfortunately it was too wet for it to settle, but it was certainly something. It did also show up how high a temperature a had. I was lying in bed with the window open, snow blowing into my room (only a tiny bit though) and I was still too hot to have my duvet on! Eek!

The first real trip I made from my room was to Monoprix for some munchies. As I got there I saw that the Christmas market was open. They set up about 40 wooden huts along the road outside Monoprix. It is so cute, all these little huts with small Christmas gift ideas. There were stalls selling chestnuts, scarves, little statues and some little wooden puzzles. Well you know me- I can’t resist logic puzzles and so I treated myself. I got a little wooden star puzzle, though I had solved it within about 2 minutes of getting home. This little outing of mine knackered me out big time, so I retreated back to my duvet cocoon.
Sunday was a thanksgiving dinner that some of my American friends had organised. I was feeling tonnes better that I had been so I thought I’d go. Also I had hardly eaten anything since Wednesday so I figured a bit of turkey would do me good. Now we didn’t have turkey, but he had chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, salad, M&Ms, pumpkin pie and fruit salad (not all at once). It was really nice, good food, good conversation and great company. The company btw was as follows:

(left to right and back to front)
Jen, Etienne, Thomas, Gemma, Charlie, Vincent, Roman.
Jenn, Elaine, Jane, Lauren, Kristen.
Christina, Emily and me.
When we eventually left I was very content, fed, watered and very ready for bed :)