Tea and Sympatico

I'm back! It's been quite a long break from blogging as I prepped all my Mofo posts in advance in October. There were some gaps and I had hoped to do some more throughout the month but life kind of got in the way. I've started a new drug treatment for my hyper sensitive cough reflex syndrome. It's sort of the last resort in the drugs they give patients as I've tried everything else and nothing has worked. It's morphine therapy where I take a controlled low dose twice a day. So far it is having really good results with my cough being about 30% of what it usually is which is great news. I'm still in the stage of dealing with side effects (and hoping they wear off) so that's fatigue, brain fog, nausea, anxiety, headaches, stomach cramps and other fun things! I am trying to feel positive though and trying to incorporate self care practice into my day to day life more than ever. One of the things I'm doing is making sure I stay hydrated. Alcohol is o...

A while ago I got an email from a company in China called Teavivre asking if I would like to try some samples of their teas. Teavivre is run by a group of tea lovers from China, Canada and France and they will ship Chinese teas worldwide. They also offer free samples with each order. Lots of their teas are organic and their website is packed with information on all things tea related. My samples arrived and one rainy Sunday afternoon I assembled a team of tea tasters comprising of Matt, Ann and Rae. Although tea is in my blog title I must confess that I am no expert and apart from Lapsang Souchong I don't drink any Chinese tea at home. Luckily Rae does and brought along all the correct brewing gear as well as his tea knowledge. We got to learn all about washing leaves, optimum water temperature, brewing times etc. This special teapot has a section in the middle for the leaves which you fill with water and then when the brewing time is up you press a button to release the...