Green Tea Magic

Posted in Bumpboobs, Food, Fun, Life by

Here’s a Tea Tip. My mother and I were walking around Westboro this past weekend (taking a break from the world) and I was on the lookout for decaffeinated green tea.

So we walk into this little tea shop that is full of bamboo, tea settings, small round tables and tins (presumably with tea inside) lining the walls. And I ask the young woman there for decaffeinated green tea.

“We don’t have any decaf teas here, because of the processing, but you can naturally decaffeinate your own tea, if you like.”

Yes, I like. And how do I do that?

Apparently caffeine dissolves fairly quickly once the tea leaves hit hot water. Therefore, take your tea of choice, submerge it in very hot water (Does it need to be boiling? She didn’t specify, but I would imagine not simply because green tea isn’t meant to be served at 100 degrees.) and let sit for about a minute. Then drain that water. About 75% of the caffeine will have drained away.

Now how is that for a useful tip?  After wowing us with her helpfulness, she then proceeded to show us several varieties of green teas and had us sniff each container as she explained the tone and taste of each tea. Clearly she knows her stuff.

Honestly, I had just put on some sample hand cream at the previous Westboro store we’d visited, so half the smells were lost on me (She suggested I might notice how one tea was more grassy than the other, but  the subtle  smells were overcome by rosehips and lemongrass – though it was very lovely hand cream.) However,  smelling and learning was nevertheless a lovely way to buy tea. Considering green tea is meant to be all kinds of good for you – it’s nice to see shop owners who take it very seriously, and want you to have the right choice. Actually, I think it somehow gave the tea additional magical powers, because we treated it with reverence, as though it was not just a drink but a total experience of the soul. In the end, Mom and I settled on a green tea which is high in amino acids but has a delicate flavour. It’s in my tea pot and steeping at this moment.

I’m counting down the minutes before I can indulge. Maybe one more. Then I’ll pour a cup.

And that was your Tea Tip, brought to you by that charming tea shop in Ottawa’s Westboro Village.

And the results are in

Posted in After treatment, Bumpboobs by

Yes! Today is a good day – today I receive the exact kind of new you want to hear: Good results. Woohoo! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!

Dr Canada called this morning – it being early morning, I was just waking from my sleep and slipping on a bathrobe, therefore my mom took the call.

“Hello?”

“Hello, is this Catherine?”

“No.”

“Who am I speaking with?”

Now that is funny, cause he called our house and was asking who he was speaking with – but you know what, I love that assertive behaviour in a doctor. Generally it means they know what they are doing, or at least feel confident in their actions. And from what I can tell, that’s a good thing. Besides, we already know that Dr Canada is a great guy, so his direct early-morning questioning might have surprised my mom, but everything was resolved as soon as he actually said who he was – i.e. Dr Canada calling with my results.

So my mom says she’s “Marcelle, Catherine’s mother.” And he says, “Oh great – well you can pass along the news.” Apparently my scans came up clear except for a cyst on my right ovary. And my mom was like, “it is really a cyst?” and he says, “yes, it is.” Or something like that. At this point I was heading toward the upstairs washroom with my bathrobe wrapped tight, so I never actually participated in this conversation and am totally fabricating this dialogue based on the summary provided by my mother.

Anyhow – becuase of the cyst I’ll have another scan in December. I guess this time instead of walking into a gross old waiting room decked out with Halloween cobwebs and skeletons, it’ll instead have tinsel and a plastic tree.

Hopefully by then the cyst will have gone away, away, away. I am hoping, cause I’d hate there to be any reason for further investigations.

But you know what – yes, they found a cyst (pretty normal stuff, I think), but hey: NO CANCER.

WOOOOHOOOOO! YES! YES! YES!

Feel free to join me in a happy dance. I’ll tell you what, this morning was quite a relief. Oh my goodness, eh, what good news today. I hope good news comes your way too. Good news for everyone! They don’t charge for this stuff.

A final post for Lulu

Posted in Life, Love by

Beside her bed in the chalet where Lulu slept are two photographs. One is her at age 20 – it’s a portrait of a beautiful young woman who has her hair cropped short and curled upon her head with pins. She’s smiling and looks fantastic. The other black and white photograph is from when she is twenty two. It is a wedding portrait: she and Benoit smile – teeth showing – past the camera and look young, happy and in love.

Lucienne was born in 1919 the oldest of many children (like seven or eight, I think). When she hit grade four she was forced to drop out of school. The family store had burnt down, and Lulu needed to give up her education to go and clean houses. She dreamed of becoming a nun, but couldn’t afford to join the covenant.

Instead she met Benoit, fell in love and had a family. Parties were always being hosted in her home. All night card games and laughter that would wake the children. And later, I remember, whenever we gathered as a family to celebrate a birthday, we’d all sing a rendition of Happy Birthday after which Lulu would belt out: “Hip, hip, hip!” to which everyone would answer: “Hurray!”  and then she start again: “Hip, hip, hip!” “Hurray!”

When I was maybe five years old, I can remember going to Lulu’s Montreal home for Christmas. Every year she would bake her gingerbread men cookies. And I’d stick my face before the oven and watch as the cookies slowly puffed and hardened. It was the best when she iced them, giving them eyes, buttons and jackets – but the worst was when she stuck on raisons as well.

She spoke and read French. She loved politics. She taught herself English. She headed the Alzheimer’s Society up until the age of ninety, after Benoit himself passed away from the disease and she saw a chance to make conditions better for those in need.

She was stubborn. She had firm opinions. She was smart. She could be difficult. She loved her girls. She loved her grandchildren. She knew her own mind, even if you didn’t like it so much. And in so many ways, I can see that in myself and my mother too. Bull headedness, firmness, determination – call it what you like, but we also have big hearts.

And when shit hit the fan in my life, she was a significant supporter – reading each blog post, talking over skype, saying I looked pretty when really I looked a mess. I am grateful to have been with her on and off these past few months. I am grateful that we laughed together, ate together, rested together and talked.

Lulu died Tuesday in the early AM. She was ninety two years old and had laughed, loved and lived.

To me, she was an excellent grandmother. I miss her already.

How about one last time for Lulu, eh?

“Hip, hip, hip!”

“Hooray!”

P.S. You should have seen her at my wedding reception two years ago – geez! Talk about stealing the show. Everyone was coming and saying, “Hey Catherine, your grandma is cool.” She danced like ninety had nothing on her.