On December 15th, I mysteriously lost access to my main blog, SilverTiger on Wordpress, and for that reason I for the time being transferred my blogging activities to here.
Almost as mysteriously as I lost it, I regained access to Wordpress yesterday and am returning my main blogging activity to my main blog, SilverTiger. Please follow me there.
Despite my ongoing problem with Wordpress (see SilverTiger), I decided that I needed to replenish my stock of tea and therefore took time out to do so. I like my tea and it is my main tipple. Not just any old tea, you understand, but good stuff, tea with quality to it.
At the moment, my usual tea is a blend known as Russian Caravan, because it is supposed to have originated in the caravans of merchants carrying tea from China to Russia, the land of the samovar. As in most cases, however, the simple magic of the story is no longer reflected in the reality. If you buy ready blended Russian Caravan, you usually don't know what you are getting as very few vendors specify what ingredients they include. When they do, you discover that every merchant sells something different and there is no consistency. For example, some add oil of bergamot (this is what gives Earl Grey tea its characteristic taste), something I greatly dislike.
The solution, then, is to buy the ingredients and mix them yourself. A good blend for Russian Caravan is the following: Formosa Oolong, 2 parts; Keemun, 1 part; and Lapsang Souchong, 1 part. The latter is a smoky tasting tea and is what gives Russian Caravan its tangy "lift".
There used to be a lot of specialist tea and coffee shops but they are becoming less common these days. Whenever I come across one on my travels I ask them whether they sell online and if so, note their details. Buying online incurs extra cost for postage and packing, though, and I therefore prefer to go to the shop myself if possible. There are a few specialist tea retailers in London but the one I visit most often is the Tea House in Neal Street, Covent Garden. It is a small shop but has a good range of teas, already conveniently packaged. I would prefer one of those shops where the tea is kept in big decorated canisters and poured out into the scales but these too are becoming harder to find.
Back home, I open the packets and tip out the tea into a convenient receptacle. Currently it happens to be a round tin that once held chocolates. The tea can then be stirred to mix it thoroughly. The teas I use are have fairly large leaves and you need to treat them gently so it's best to stir with something narrow such as a rod or the handle of a serving spoon.
All three teas are classed as “black teas” and are fermented. Each has slightly different sized and different shaped leaves. The Oolong is quite “woody” with a lot of light-coloured stalk visible. It’s also the most expensive of the three and is often drunk on its own.
In the above photo, all three teas are in the chocolate tin and have been partly mixed, using the handle of the spoon. You can see the light-coloured “woody” bits in the Oolong.
Once the tea is mixed, it can be shovelled back into the packets it came in, and these can be closed by rolling their tops and securing them with sticky tape. The toffee tin makes a good storage bin where the tea can wait patiently to be used.
For daily use, I have a large tea caddy with an air-tight lid. It can be replenished from the chocolate tin as necessary.
I brew tea either in a tea pot or in a mug with a large filter basket. In both cases, the tea has plenty of room to move as it should. The tea pot has a wide unobstructed spout because large-leaf tea will simply clog up the silly filtering holes that some tea pots have. The tea can be poured from the pot through a strainer to catch any leaves. In the case of the mug, the finely meshed filter can be lifted out, taking the leaves with it.
All the different ways of making tea produce slightly different results and slightly differently tasting tea. It's best to find the method your prefer and stick with it unless you are adventurous and like variety. The important thing is to make sure that the water is boiling before pouring it on the tea. Many cafes and even restaurants these days make tea with hot water from the espresso machine. This is disastrous because the water is kept just below boiling, as this is the right temperature for making coffee. It is, however, the wrong temperature for making tea and the poor result is only to be expected.
Copyright © 2011 SilverTiger, http://tigergrowl.wordpress.com, All rights reserved.
Today I went to University College Hospital (UCH) for an MRI scan. I don't want to go into details as to why my doctor requested that I do this, so let's just say that it comes under the general heading of "men's problems" and move on.
I spent a rather anxious weekend, not knowing what the scan would be like or, more importantly, what the findings would be. Monday morning came and I got myself ready and started out. Once I was moving and occupied, I felt less anxious and when I reached UCH much too early (rather that than arrive late and miss my appointment) I went for a walk around the area and wished I had brought my camera to catch the early morning scenes.
I returned to UCH in time for my appointment but then had to wait. They told me that the MRI scanner is a little temperamental and that they had had to start it up several times before it had consented to run.
I must say that throughout the whole process, I was treated politely and kindly and everything was explained at every stage so that I understood what was going on. That helped reduce the anxiety. The only problem that remained was that although I have recovered somewhat from the chesty cold, I have an occasional coughing fit and they said that if that happened during the scan it would cause the image to blur. They proposed giving me time between scans to cough if I needed to!
To start with, I was shown to a cubicle and asked to strip down to my underwear and put my clothes and belongings in plastic bags. On the bench was a heap of dressing gowns, so I put one on though it was small and hardly covered my "bare necessities"!
After a while I was fetched and taken to the MRI scanner suite. The machine was already in operation and I had to wait, sitting on a chair and delicately arranging my robe as decorously as possible! Then they inserted one of those plastic taps in my arm so that they could give me a couple of injections during the scan. It was done very carefully and I hardly felt it.
At last, the previous client emerged and it was my turn to be processed. My property was stowed in lockers and I went into the scanner room where I had to lie on my back on a sort of plank bed. They gave me a pillow and a cushion under my knees to make me more comfortable. I was also handed a rubber bulb on a tube - I could squeeze this in the event of an emergency. What emergency? No one said...
In operation, the scanner makes a lot of noise. It buzzes, thrums, bangs and shakes. If you listen, you can make out repeating patterns. The patient is fitted with a pair of headphones to mitigate the effects of the din.
When all was ready, the plank bed was raised and slid into the machine in a way that reminded me of a corpse being slip into a sarcophagus. Fortunately, my head was left poking out. The scanning consisted of several different scans of differing duration and lasted about 40 minutes altogether. Every so often a voice would come over the head phones asking if I was OK to continue. I even dozed off a couple of times.
At last the scanning was completed and my 40 minutes of remaining motionless and trying not to cough were over. The plank bed slid out and down and I got up. The tap was removed from my arm and replaced with a swap attached with sticky tape. I was free to go. I returned to the cubicle and swapped my scanty robe for my usual clothes. Then I sped out into the familiar streets of London, like a bird released from a cage.
They got some nice pictures, apparently, and saw everything they needed to see. In the afternoon, I had to go back to UCH for a consultation. The good news was that there was no cause for alarm. I will be returning for treatment but the main anxiety has now abated and I can get on with my life.
Copyright © 2011 SilverTiger, http://tigergrowl.wordpress.com, All rights reserved.
I am having difficulties in connecting with my Wordpress blog, so I am transferring my blogging activities to this blog, at least for now.
Today is the start of the Chinese New Year and this is the Year of the Tiger!
Happy New Year of the Tiger
to all our Readers!
