16 Nov 2009

Down with the flu



Sorry for the lack of updates and lack of videos - I've been down and out with a nasty cold. And I thought I was doing so well too, trying to stay healthy. The best way I've found to help stave off the common cold is frequent hand washing especially before eating or touching your mouth or nose, getting enough sleep, and eating foods rich in Vitamin C. But somehow I still managed to come down with a cold, but I'm glad it's not swine flu!

My goodness, some people are in such a panic / hysteria about this darn swine flu, rushing to their doctor at the first sign of a cold. Not to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic but the chance of contracting swine flu is probably less than getting in a car accident. I always find it strange how the media manages to drum up a near hysteria as soon as some new pandemic is making its rounds. By all means if your symptoms are serious and correlate to the symptoms of swine flu, a doctors visit is recommended - but some family members were urging me to go to the doctor as soon as I had a sore throat and fever. Several days later my nose is still stuffed up but I'm on the mends.

What are your tips for battling a cold? I'm a big baby and fall back on medicine - NeoCitran, sore throat lozenges, disinfecting gargle wash, cough syrup, echinacea, and Vics Vaporub inhalations are my weapons of choice - the full works. Takes care of it in a jiffy! The sore throat and fever is always the worst for me, and the body aches and chills - hate it! Nothing to do but lie in bed all day drinking plenty of green tea, take meds, and watch TV or sleep. Thank god for my wall mounted flatscreen TV in the bedroom, that definitely staved off the boredom.


Picture source: Wikipedia (not mine!)

But today I feel much better and I was able to have an actual dinner of homemade sushi. We made rolls with tuna, scallop, makerel, avocado, cress, chives, cucumber, tamago egg, and tempura with shrimp and shitake mushrooms. It was divine! Only the makerel was odd - I think the fish wasn't very fresh. I love making sushi because here in Switzerland, sushi is very expensive and the portions are usually very skimpy with barely any fish inside. So we make our own now with a very thin layer of rice, and tons of filling. So much cheaper and tastier! A lot of people on Twitter requested a how-to video on making sushi, so I will try to film one next time and post it on my TheThirdShift channel. It's actually pretty easy once you learn some tricks and get the hang of it.

I can't wait to be back to healthy again and get to making some more videos. I need to film the celeb look that was voted on a while ago, some Christmas looks, and also some videos to upload in December while I'm gone on holiday in Canada, as my video-making time will be rather limited there and I won't have my regular setup.

Anyway that's all for now! Hope you're keeping healthy during this time of year. :)

xo,
Julia

31 comments:

  1. Wow your sushi looks DIVINE! I adore sushi, it's only of my favourite things to eat. My sister in law makes amazing sushi - she lived in japan for 6 months and got taught over there. I look fwd to the video xx

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  2. Anonymous11:57 pm

    get better

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  3. Feel better! All I hear about is the swine flu & swine flu shot. I didn't know you are more likely to get into an accident than get the swine flu! Thanks for that little FYI.

    I love Sushi, but i am afraid of the fish ,if it's fresh. I'm going to try it myself.

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  4. Hope you feel better soon. I was off a couple of weeks ago with the flu, and have just had Thursday, Fri and a bit of today off too with my cold. Not happy enough with being ill once I have to go for the double whammy! I too have been doing the Vicks inhalation trick and it's working wonders for me. :) x

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  5. Sorry about your health, I really hope you feel better. Drink lots of hot tea with honey and lemon, take your medications and get rest, don't forget to eat lots of fruits and veggies, it helps the body to build resistance. I pray you feel better sooner. Stay blessed.

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  6. Elisa1:36 am

    I hope you feel better soon! The sushi will definitely help. The picture you have for your post is awesome - he's so cute

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  7. Your sushi looks SO yummy Julia! I want to see that tutorial! :)
    Feel better! <3 Rest up <3

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  8. Anonymous2:16 am

    Sorry to hear you've been unwell! Be well soon Julia. Although that isn't your sushi pictured; I imagine yours would have been perfect anyway knowing how artistic you are. I look forward to your video. I'd love to try sushi making for myself. I think I'd really get into it. One of my favourite foods.

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  9. I definitely am a baby when I'm sick. Then again, when I get sick, I spike 102.3F fevers so I'm as miserable as I look.

    The best thing I've found is taking Vitamin C and Zinc in a supplement along with sleep. That always knocks my cold in half.

    Take it easy and get well soon!

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  10. Swine Flu hit Vancouver HARD. We're still in 'crisis' mode.
    When you come at Christmas you'll notice hand sanitizer despencers everywhere.

    You can also look forward to awesome $3.00 sushi; I can't pay more than five dollars for a roll. It feels wrong.

    Hope you get better soon <3

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  11. Steffi8:56 am

    Dear Julia, get well soon! I'm looking forward to your next tutorial ;) Lovely greetings from Switzerland :)

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  12. Julia! Gute Besserung!
    My trick against flu.... when I do have fever usually goes down with Panadol (Paracetamol) in pills becuase the powder one..don't know I feel it skeeps somewhere and doesn't make me feel any better. I would strongly recommend to drink a lot of water or tee. Sugar free! If u have this kind of steeky stuff in ur throat (sorry my english it's limited to normal speaking and not to medical terms), sugar will produce even more!!! So, 0 sugar in the liquids! and of course, cutting for a moment chocolate and other candy.

    Hope u get better soon!!!

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  13. get well soon

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  14. I hope you feel better soon!

    Lola Re

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  15. Well when I get sick I drink a "magic healing potion": heat 1 tablespoon of peppermint and 1 glass of boiling water on low heat for 5 minutes, then add a teaspoon of honey. Grind finely chopped clove of garlic and add freshly pressed lemon juice (1/4 lemon). Mix everything together (peppermint, honey, garlic, lemon juice). Drink before going to sleep and you'll be healthy in the morning ;)
    Get better soon!

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  16. hope that you would get well soon. drink more water, eat more med and rest more..

    same here in northern ireland, the sushi here at restaurants are crazily expensive, thus making my own sushi is always my priority option if i were to crave for some raw fish or some vinegered rice.

    oh yeah, maybe the wasabi could help kill those flu virus :P

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  17. shafalism...(twitter)12:50 pm

    Like they always say.. when ur down wif flu, what u reali need is ample rest and simply eat all the healthy food and especially oranges for vitamin C.. take care of ur health.. im sure all of ur fans including me cant wait for more of ur videos.. cheers!!

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  18. Maggysfbayb2:16 pm

    Take Care Julia!
    The most important is to be healthy for your next holiday plans :o)

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  19. Hope you get better soon! When anyone is sick at our house, we'll get take out and order foods like Pho' (Thai noodle soup - with extra hotsauce added) and spicey curries. One of the best things for a stuffy nose and a sore throat.

    Love your makeup videos.

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  20. That's so true about media spreading swine flu panic, it's so much more often to actually be in a big trouble because of the regular flu! They actually temporarily closed a Ukrainian philology department at my faculty due to pandemics.

    I'm a big sushi fan and actually really liked eating out in Yooji's in Zurich when we stayed there for summer some time ago, but I don't know if you live anywhere near to check it out :)

    Get better soon! xxx

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  21. Ahh I've had this terrible cold too - thankfully not the swine, either. I agree with this whole hysteria.. i bet 99.9% of people who have had 'swine flu' probably didn't have it. My dad got it in August and I've never someone so unwell from what really is just a bad cold - he lost 18 pounds in weight within 4 days, and the heat radiating off him was unreal - you could feel it just from opening his bedroom door!! But I'm glad you're on the mend, feel better soon! Also, if people have swine flu, they're urged to stay away from the doctors to minimise the spread lol.
    Caroline.x

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  22. Anonymous6:11 pm

    Get better soon!

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  23. Hi Julia!

    So sorry to hear you're feeling bad! I did want to point out that the chances of contracting swine flu do vary depending on where you live. For example, I live in Miami, Florida in the States and in my county there has been many deaths caused by swine flu because everyone is afraid of the vaccine. It's quite sad.

    I'm very glad to hear that your illness wasn't a serious one. I have to agree that when I get sick (rarely) I go medicine-crazy as well. But, it seems to really work. Go figure lol. I became obsessed with washing my hands and constantly keeping them clean about 2 and a half years ago. I'm a freak for hand sanitizer, especially now that you can find some great smelling ones. I haven't been sick ever since.

    I would also LOVE to see the sushi video. Sushi isn't too expensive here but I love making things home-made. Looking forward to it!

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  24. franklyfrankie6:18 pm

    Oh noes, sorry to hear you're sick, Julia! Haha I don't go to town on medication, I usually just dose myself with paracetamol and stay in bed. The swine flu mania annoys me too, but then I actually got the vaccine so I guess it's different for me!

    And that sushi sounds good :)

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  25. Anonymous8:08 pm

    Hope you feel better!
    I find that my trick to fight off the cold/flu symptoms is tea with lemon, Tylenol (to suppress the fever) lots of rest, and alkeselzter(I KNOW I spelled that wrong, haha)
    Anyways, did you know that lemons have more vitamin C in them than oranges?

    Oh, and it drives me nuts with how people are freaking over the swine flu. I mean, I had a minor case of it, and I'm alive! So there are no worries. People are more likely to die of the standard flu than the swine flu. If the media wouldn't of mentioned the swine flu, everyone would be just getting sick of the yearly flu and get well balloons, cards, and stuffed animals wouldn't be sold out 3 times faster than normal. Hospitals and Doctor's offices wouldn't be flooded with people thinking they have the dreaded swine flu, and taking up all the spaces for the people that REALLY need help.
    In fact, my mother was told at work that they can't call it swine flu because it will bring pork sales down, even though it has nothing to do with pork. Oi vey.

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  26. Anonymous12:42 am

    Positive thoughts heading your way... hope you feel 100% soon :)

    Tootles.

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  27. Take care and get better soon!! I can't wait to see your video about sushi, I've never tried it and I'm very curious!!

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  28. erica.,4:40 pm

    you really shouldn`t use any prescriptive or non-prescriptive drugs, they only make you sicker in the long run. Use all natural products and go see a holistic doctor. You should read the book "Natural Cures, They Don't Want You to Know about" by Kevin Trudeau. Honestly it will change your life, no joke lol. Hope you feel better! :)

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  29. Anonymous8:24 pm

    The only thing that works for me is taking extra vitamins (and an immune booster from the health food store) as soon as I get the first signs of a cold/flu...and drink LOTS of tea (I like Earl Gray).

    hope that helps :)

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  30. I'm sad to hear you are sick .. I hope you get better soon .. Because you deserve the best: (

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