Easter and prawn mee

It was Easter. Usually, we would spend the long weekend (monday is a holiday) at Seb's parents place watching our nephews searching for eggs in the garden. This year however, we just spent our weekend at home.

Since baby is due in 3 weeks time, I decided to cook prawn mee. Conforming to the confinement practise, I can't eat prawns after giving birth for at least a month. And I love prawns. This was the first time I made prawn noodles. I used the Prima Taste package and found the soup to be too sweet for my taste. I doubt I will cook this again. I prefer the Prima mee-siam.

After dinner, I was craving for chocolate. Once said, my neighbour knocked on our door and gave us an easter egg. It was lovely. Seb and I did not wait long to break up this lovely rooster egg.

I wish everyone a happy easter.

Balcony updates

Spring is here and my balcony looked so bare. The flower boxes were empty and waiting to be filled with flowers. I just could not resist the temptation. On Sunday, Seb and I went to Truffaut to get some flowers.

I had never seen Truffaut so crowded before. Everyone was buying plants and flowers and the queue for the cashiers snaked almost all the way to the end of the shop. I got geraniums for the row of flower boxes. As April can still have cold nights, I chose geraniums that were in buds and not blooming yet. They should last the whole summer until mid-autumn.

My pot of wilted Azalee looked so depressing. Last winter was too cold and I did not cover it in time.
This time round, I replaced the pot with Cineraire. There were many different varieties of colors available. We chose this color to go with the pot.

Seb helped me with the heavy tasks while I planted the flowers. It felt good to be out on the balcony with the sunny weather.

These two days, it had been rainy. The flowers are adjusting well to their new environments.

I do hope to enjoy dining at the balcony before baby arrives and me being confined indoors during the confinement period.

Toxoplasmosis

Since discovering that I was pregnant, I had to do blood test each month to check if I was infected with toxoplasmosis during these 9 months. Most countries (including Singapore) do not make these blood test complusory but in France, pregnant women who have never contracted this disease are routinely screened for toxoplasmosis. This disease can be fatal for the unborn baby if the mother gets it during pregnancy.

Most Asian women are not immuned to this disease as we do not have the culture of eating raw meat or semi-cooked meat. Also, we hardly eat salads. Food wise is not a problem for me as I make sure that all meat are well done and that I avoid salads. Fruits have to be washed and peeled.

Cat's faeces can also contain the disease (for a few weeks) if the cat had been in contact with infected birds/mice (through hunting). Seb and I are very cautious on this point. Poor Bao Bei has not been to Chartres since many months as we do not want her to go into my in-laws' garden. Seb has been cleaning her litter box every morning. When Seb was away on work trips, I would clean Bao Bei's litter box with gloves. I wash my hands every time I carress her. She still sleeps with us every night at our feet. This is a habit since she was a kitten so it was not possible to keep her out of our bedroom.

Gardening is also a big NO as soil can contain this disease. Though we doubt that the little pots on our balcony contain the parasite, I just avoid gardening totally. During winter, it was still bearable. But now that spring is here and I am at home, I am dying to go Truffaut to buy flowers for my bare balcony. If baby is here in May, I won't have time to do planting.

Each month, we waited with suspense on the blood test result and so far so good. I am still toxoplasmosis negative. Thank God! Once baby is here, I will start to eat more half-cooked meat and salads. I do hope to get this disease and be immuned to it.