Category Archives: Canada

Melancholy is stupid.

Posted in After treatment, Bumpboobs, Canada, Life by

Today I made a potato salad – the worst potato salad ever. Woke up with this brilliant idea for lunch; a triple salad extravaganza. It was going to be a hit outta the ball park. You see, every week my family has this competition entitled: Cook of the Week. Last week I totally owned with a grilled burger topped with a three cheese melange (with garlic and oil mixed in, and a bit of pepper);  a pickle, sprout and cabbage side; and baked potato chips.

Geez. Just remembering that meal has got me salivating.

Anyhow, I woke up this morning with a plan to rule the kitchen. Except that I slept in late, and therefore busted my entire routine. That’s the first bit.

Then I began to peel and boil the potatoes . . . got that salad going, and simultaneously began the quinoa boiling and cleaned the kale. The third salad was meant to be mixed greens with a kinda vinegar dressing and roasted red peppers.

Anyhow – I managed the kale salad, but just barely. As I rounded the corner with the potato salad I forgot to premix the mayo, mustard and salt. Instead it just all went into the pot without comparison or pause. Ugh. What resulted was just this over-salted mess of mushy potato.

So, I had the quinoa, the gross potato, and no third salad. It was at this point that I said to myself, “screw this” and called my dad’s office, asking him to bring home a roasted chicken.

He has brought home a roasted chicken. They are now in the kitchen eating lunch. I feel totally knackered, and am wondering: is it because of a potato salad?

Not sure. But one thing is for sure – right now, at this point, I can barely motivate myself to get off this lovely red chaise and serve myself a plate of food. So weird right? You know that saying, “woke up on the wrong side of the bed?” Yeah. That might be me. I don’t feel entirely un-awesome. There’s a trickle of awesomeness running through my fingers and on my head (wherever the sunshine hits) . . . but today I varied from my routine to the detriment of my potato salad.

Really this whole ‘do a routine’ thing has been going fairly well. I guess it’s just on those slip up days when things get a bit messy again. However, the remainder of this day continues to be my oyster. And I don’t want a dumb thing like mayonnaise:salt ratio ruining this Tuesday.

Screw this screwing it. I’m getting up, eating, and seeing what I can do with this day. Right now.

P.S. Lunch is done. These people finished the entire potato salad – I wasn’t even going to serve the mess, but they got their hands on it and ate the entire batch. Maybe it wasn’t so horrible after all. Hmm.

Routine for success (and tea)

Posted in After treatment, Bumpboobs, Canada, Writing by

Now I realise that success should not be measured in material gain. Giant homes, diamond rings, oil fields and speedy yachts parked in Monaco for the winter can’t make you happy unless you have friends, family and time in which to share the joy (these are just some examples, feel free to define your own idea of material gain). And I personally think a small backyard BBQ with awesome people is one of the best ways to spend a Friday night, and that really costs nothing except an investment of time (to cook & clean) and organisation (to get people to bring along a pot-luck dish), and a little bit of cash to buy the sausages & salad.

So please, don’t get me wrong when I say the following:

This chaise lounge is like sitting on a cushion of happiness, and together we float in the living room as the fireplace warms, the sun shines, and the walls whisper into my ear with their deep red tones. (A bold paint choice, no?)

This is my dream living room. Thankfully it’s also my parent’s house. And I think, one day soon, it’d be nice to have a similar place that makes me feel this cosy. (My old flat in England came quite close with our green sofa and giant windows . . . But then I was incredibly allergic to that place after the mold incident, and the “double glazed” windows leaked with British cold.)

Anyhow, while material goods aren’t the be-all and end-all. They are quite nice on a cosy December afternoon by the fire, and I think there’s nothing wrong with wanting a little piece of heaven in your living room. So long as it doesn’t get excessive. (i.e. No diamond studded coffee table. Although to be honest, I’d very much like to have two homes – thus exceeding what most people would consider sufficient. I’d love to have a place in Ottawa and a place along the shore of Lake Balaton. That would be awesome. The excess is debatable.)

But in order to achieve any kind of material gain, we first need to have long-lasting splurges of success. That basically translates into ‘make money’ – which sounds a bit . . . hmm, unromantic, but it’s the freaking truth. And so for the past week and day (including today) I’ve tried to be more productive than normal.

Here’s my routine. It helps prevents rising entropy (my natural-and-hard-to-resist tendency of personal disorder). Right:

1) Wake up at a reasonable time.

2) Tidy the house. (Every morning there are grocery bags to stick back into the car. How do they keep on getting inside? )

3) Eat breakfast.

4) Get on the elliptical and exercise. (BURN ESTROGEN, BURN!!)

5) Take a shower.

6) Go out and write. This generally results in my visiting Starbucks. Today I tried the library but the chairs are all facing the window and it blinded me as I squinted at my light-reflecting computer screen. So I packed up my stuff and went over to the coffee shop. Notable: coffee shops are a constant trend in my life; places of both comfort and inspiration, plus cups of delicious tea!

7) Come back to the house and make lunch for my family.

The rest of the afternoon is left for the distractions. There are always distractions like cooking, cleaning, ‘responsibility’ing, visiting, tweeting,  job searching, blogging (yes, blogging is distracting. Lovely, but it doesn’t help my novel-writing progress), etc. You never know what the afternoon holds.

And while this routine-following doesn’t directly trigger a cash parade through my bank account, it nevertheless leaves me feeling AWESOME, and feeling AWESOME is great.  (I guess success is really more of a feeling, rather than a measurement of ‘where you are’, no? Today I feel successful. Not much has changed in my life, except that feeling, and about 300-1500 words per day of writing.)

So I’m going to try and stick to my pattern. It makes me feel productive, and that’s a powerful thing – I’d even say it’s better than this chaise lounge. Way better. Although the chaise is a beautiful piece of furniture.

Anyhow. Here ends my brain ramble. Have a wonderful, productive day, and may you be filled with a sense of success.

Finger crossed the routine continues!

The great tree hunt

Posted in Canada, Finding Home, Fun, Life, Love by

Today my family and I hunted down a Christmas tree. It involved sharp objects, muddy fields, roaring fires and free cups of hot chocolate. A reader of this page and all round lovely lady (you know who you are!) suggested we visit Ian’s Evergreen Plantation and to get into the holiday spirit (after Tony the Grinch tried to stomp out of seasonal fun). Therefore, the entire family minus my oldest brother piled into the truck and we drove about thirty minutes outside of Kanata to the Tree Farm.

Hey, if you have children, you have got to take them to this place, assuming you haven’t yet purchased a tree.  Driving onto Ian’s Evergreen Plantation, there are Christmas trees everywhere as you curve along the drive and head up to the main area with its small log cabins, pre-cut trees and – yes – more fields of pine, fir, spruce, etc waiting for the chop.

We pile out of the car and Dad grabs a tree caddy. He looks, basically, like a giant kid with his red metal sleigh, and we head into the land of trees (Daniel carrying the axe, because no one trusts Tony with a giant blade in his hands.) The lady who works there comes out and gives us the quick low down on how it works at the Plantation. Basically if you cut a fresh tree, you have access to hot chocolate, playgrounds, hay rides and reindeer. If you buy one pre-cut, then the rest costs extra.

Honestly we’re all adults – though young at heart – and going on a hay ride in the snow as my butt gets soaked to the core is less appealing than it might have been twenty years ago (oh sh!t, I’m getting older). Had I been wearing snow pants, my opinion would have been different. Live and learn.

Going back to the story: we head into the growing trees. Dad is going on about how awesome this or that tree is, and my mom is shushing him to keep quiet because there are other people around looking for the ‘perfect’ Christmas tree. We don’t want them poaching our choice. Therefore we try and whisper, but that doesn’t last cause everyone’s ridiculously excited.

Stomping through the field Tony sets eyes on the perfect tree.

“That one!” he calls out.

We all move in and I pull out my camera. “Get in the picture!” I say, and everyone gets in the picture. With the photo snapped I head over to the giant fire that’s roaring by our chosen tree. Zsolt, Mom and I go over to warm our fingers. Therefore, I blame what happens next upon both Daniel and Tony.

Mom and I look back over to the men as they take out the saw and begin to cut through our tree.

“Tony!” Mom shouts, “It’s crooked!”

And it is. This tree is shaped like an S. I am not kidding you. But they didn’t notice and by the time my mom yells again, Dad’s gone and cut through the tree.

So there you have it, we’re committed. After we cut down our tree (drive 30 minutes out of town just to cut down a tree that has scoliosis), the tree-lady feeds us hot chocolate and we go and visit the reindeer.

Overall I’d say it was a great little trip. The best bit of the entire day was getting that tree home and watching Zsolt, Daniel and Dad try to balance this sideways, crooked, curving tree in the tree-stand. However, they managed and it now stands (leans) on its own. And that, I think, is a little bit of a Christmas miracle.