Back Troubles and a French Visitor

Erik and Emilie at the Bribie Island

Hi Blog Readers,

Well it's my usual flurry of postings followed by a long silence. After Michelle left, it took us a few days to catch our breath and get back to our normal routine. Well, almost normal, because we still had another guest, Emilie, a French intern from the Alliance Francaise who was staying with us for a three weeks until she found a place of her own. (Any French readers out there: you see we are so desperate for visitors from Europe that we are taking in strangers! :-)

It was a good experience to have her, but as she claimed to not like Asian food (How can you dismiss the flavors of a whole continent?), I had to change my cooking style as I normally draw on the cuisine of India, China, Thailand, and Japan for many of my dishes. Although I did manage to make cheese fondue, madelines, pork cutlets in mustard cream sauce, leek and potato soup, cooking "French" food for French people generally stresses me out, so we mostly ate Mexican and Italian with a few barbecues thrown for Aussi flair.

Also, Erik's finicky eating and table manners or lack thereof became painfully obvious, so dinners were a bit of a hassle. Otherwise, we really enjoyed hosting an intern, showing her around and learning more about French culture. Yesterday, Emilie moved into her new place with another twenty-something Frenchie who was looking for a roommate, so it's just us for now, but not for long, as Bev and Arlyn arrive on Friday.

Erik is pestering me to get off the computer, so I'll finish up by referring back to the above title. I've been having lower back pain and trouble with my left leg. I actually went into the doctor and had a lower lumbar CT done. It was apparently just a little swelling of the perineural sheath, but not nerve or disk damage. I'm feeling somewhat better now though not quite normal; I can kind of lift up my leg to put my pants now. I still need to go to the follow up appointment with the doctor, but I'm pretty sure what the recommendation will be: heat, rest and anti-inflammatory pills that I'm already on. It looks like I'll need a new hobby for a while since 50km bike rides are probably out. Good thing my gym offers yoga and pilates!