A New Regime

What a yucky week. My groovy dentist completely lied when he promised me great drugs, no pain and a quick recovery. Five days after my wisdom tooth removal, I still have throbbing pain. I also have a bruise along my jaw that's turned the colour of Dijon mustard. Cute! At least my students have been very understanding, with some allowance for condolences directly translated from French. One of the students in my advanced group walked into class today, stared at me for a moment, blinked hard, and then said, "You are not alright. I see your face."

As a result, I've been subsisting mostly on yoghurt, pureed fruit, juice, milkshakes and apple sauce. I have discovered, to my delight, that while I can't yet handle crispy baguettes, I can nibble on brioche, a soft bread made with lots of eggs. MCM also prepared a vat of vichysoisse for me - a French creamy potato and leek soup that can be served warm or cold. He used this recipe from one of the all-time great French chefs, Paul Bocuse.

The lack of food is, however, making me bitter and grumpy. Walking down the street today in my "Parisian outerwear disguise" (long black puffy coat, black leather gloves, black beret, black leather boots) and a deep scowl on my face, I kind of felt like I blended in.

In the meantime, MCM has decided, perhaps in a belated New Year's sentiment, or perhaps because Paris has felt a bit spring-like in the past two days, that he needs to begin une regime. A diet. Yes, the French do diet. So far this has meant that he has been cycling across Paris to work (a bit scary but excellent exercise), refusing extra bread for dinner (oh, the sacrifice!), and hopping on the scale twice a day (not very encouraging yet). This is a scale that we only purchased so that we could weigh our luggage and avoid excess baggage charges on Ryanair. Which, by the way, my students think is a British company. When I told them it was Irish, they first didn't believe me, and then they argued with me that Irish and British were actually the same thing, maybe even the same place.

Maybe I need another milkshake.