on the brink of a weekend

[dichroic]

1.4 sleeves done, more or less. It feels like we have always been at war with Eastasia I have always been working on this sweater.

Work’s been eating my brain too – not long hours, just intense. Then there was knitting Wednesday night, Rib Night with a bunch of local expats last night, and a doctor’s appointment today. He says it’s not really worth doing meds for the migraines (I concur, but I forgot to ask what the European equivalent for Excedrin is, dammit) and that the blood pressure’s not really anything to worry about – but just in case, one day next week I get to wear a 24-hour blood-pressure-taker device. That should be interesting, especially as the timing of the appointments to get it and drop it off mean that I’ll have to bike to work those days. Wonder what that does to my BP. The doctor said I can work out or do “anything except shower” with it – it might be interesting to experiment with that “anything”. (Do you think a spike in BP at bedtime would be too obvious?)

Speaking of blood pressure, though this is very tangential… we need to start inviting people over for dinner, especially those who have had us over. (Not so much as an obligation: we *want* to. I like feeding people.) So last weekend I made jambalaya as a test run to make sure it comes out OK with locally-available ingredients. It was excellent, but too salty. I’m not really trying to reduce salt, but with the whole blood pressure thing (see, there was a connection) it seems stupid to eat excessive amounts. I didn’t actually add any salt, so it must all come from the Cajun seasoning I used. Anybody have a favorite recipe for Cajun seasoning so I can just season itwithout using a blend? Online recipes seem to focus mostly on garlic powder, onion powder (which seems silly, with real garlic and onions both in the jambalaya), white pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and salt. Some use paprika – I’m guessing most of the commercial mixes do, for color.

We’d figured on a fairly quiet weekend, just some shopping tomorrow, but that may not quite work as planned. The weather is supposed to be foul all weekend, so they have moved the arrival of Sinterklaas to Eindhoven from the canal, as planned, to the Markt square. So there may be huge crowds.

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.

Comments

[adrian_turtle]

I forgot to ask what the European equivalent for Excedrin is, dammit

Excedrin is 250mg acetominophen, 250mg aspirin, and 65mg caffeine. You may need to get the components separately. A pharmacist should be able to help you find paracetamol, whatever the local brand name is. (I think it's Panadol. GSK makes Panadol Extra, with paracetamol and caffeine--I don't know if that's available in the Netherlands or just the UK.) Be careful not to read labels, and not take too much acetominophen.

Many people drink half a cup of coffee with aspirin and acetominophen, trying to get the vasoconstrictor effect of the caffeine. If you suspect coffee might be a migraine trigger, you would probably do better with tea or soda.

[dichroic]

Thanks! I do have paracetemol on hand, and I'm pretty sure it is Panadol. I'll keep an eye out for Panadol Extra. It's useful to know the components, because I often don't recognize the Dutch words for the symptoms - I have been known to stand at the drugstore staring at the shelves, plugging words into Google Translate in my iPhone. Though I'm pretty sure migraine is migraine and I know headache is hoofdpijn (lit. head-pain).