Leaving on an airplane

To Maternal Grandmother:

You're leaving on an airplane
Don't know when I'll see you again
Twenty years have come and gone
All this time was not that long
Can't believe it was already yesterday
that we said "good-bye"

Over the Pacific you will fly
Fighting nausea, fighting tears
Fighting thoughts of yesteryears
You will return again to a home,
To a home that is always yours

Twenty years, was just like a dream
shorter than what it may seem
Yet many memories and stories to tell and retell
So tell them so you may remember us well

Drive to the airport, wait for the flight
Depend on Gravol, wave until we're out of sight
Though physical distance makes us far apart,
We will always be there close at heart.

-Neigenuage

My maternal grandmother came to Canada with my maternal grandfather twenty years ago to seek out a new life, to find a job so that she could send money back to her children and grandchildren back in China.

Ten days after landing in Canada, Grandmother landed a job at a Chinese bakery/coffee shop about an hour away. Although Grandmother did not speak any English or read (she's illiterate), she managed to take a bus, subway train and another bus every working day. She had courage as strong as steel! At 65, she just started working in a new country for very little money. She still had the energy and resilience of a 30 year old to prove that she could work.

Although most of her twenty years have been good, Grandmother did suffer a mugging (a couple of young people knocked her unconscious and snatched her purse one evening while she was coming home from the bakery) and a broken arm. These events were difficult, but I hope that it will be the fond memories that will be travelling back to China with her. I think what she looked forward to least was saying good-bye to Little R and Little S. Luckily, one of my cousins had twins last year just 40 days after the birth of Little S. I told Grandmother to spend lots of time with them so that she can be happy. She said that they will make her think of Little R.

We can just hope and make effort to live a long, happy and healthy life.

Eat, drink and be merry with all your loving family, Grandmother. I hope that we eat with you again soon. And seeing that twenty years was just a blink of an eye, then soon should be sooner than that.

Buffet World

I've just come home from eating at Chinese buffet in town. As I was eating and looking around in the quiet restaurant, thoughts scurried in my head about the "buffet effect."

DH's father has been visiting us since last week. Since he was going to be returning to far away Quebec City (but such a beautiful place!) tomorrow, we wanted to do something that he enjoyed: eating all you can eat.

Since the implementation of our vegetarian diet and Little R's special gluten-free and casein-free diet, we've really kept our eating at home. Eating out is tricky, especially at a Chinese restaurant since they have soy sauce in most of their dishes if not all. Chinese restaurant food also contains too much salt and MSG (mono sodium glutamate); these are not good for one's health, so it's been better to avoid these places. But since we wanted to just enjoy time with the kids' grandfather, we thought that it would be all right to go and see what our experience would be.

The most convenient attribute of an all-you-can-eat buffet is that you don't have to wait for your food. As soon as we found our table, I went into the buffet area to get some food that Little R would be able to eat: plain steamed white rice, boiled eggs (thank goodness for the salad bar), watermelon, orange wedges, honeydew, canned peaches and mango salad. I asked the manager what things did not contain soy sauce, and the response was not very many. Little R did very well at eating all he could eat, though. I think he ended up eating 3 or 4 eggs (just the white part after two whole eggs), 3 helpings of rice and lots of fruit.

Little S stuffed herself as well as wore much of the food. DH and his dad had several platefuls without me even knowing what was on there. I definitely ate too much as well. During our feast of salty food (the taste was actually okay), the waitresses refilled our glasses, brought us more napkins (for Little S) and took away dirtied dishes. So thoughts entered my mind: buffets are very wasteful.

Personally, I would eat everything (that's why I take small portions at a time) that I take onto my plate or bowl including sauce. However, my observation of bussed buffet plates tell me that much food is wasted. Some people just take more than they can eat, so the excess is toss into a garbage bag. Paper napkins are mindless "used" and tossed. I bet if we had to pay for our paper napkins that we would be more conscientious about how much and how we used them. Personally, I prefer a reusable and washable wet cloth or napkin. Aside from material waste, there is also the unnecessary washing of used dirtied plates. I don't understand why everyone doesn't just use the same plate (I've always done this, and people keep telling me to take a clean plate) for their subsequent helpings. This would greatly reduce the amount of bussing, water, detergent and electricity for washing the dishes before the sitting is complete.

So what is this "buffet effect" that I'm talking about? Just from today's experience and previous buffet experiences, the effect is wasted food, water, paper napkins, overly full bellies, tummy aches and a general bloated feeling afterward. I think that if done responsibly, an all-you-can-eat buffet is a good idea. If people can learn to responsibly decide how much they should eat, eat slowly and sip water (guzzling water or any liquid while eating actually hinders digestion), reuse their plates, use reusable clothes instead of paper napkins, a buffet can be a very pleasant outing; you can choose what you want to try by looking at the prepared food, take more of it later, and you don't have to wait to order.

We did have a pretty good time out despite the overflowing bellies. Little S was in cookie heaven! Unfortunately for Little R, he couldn't have any because they all contained gluten. The manager felt bad that Little R couldn't eat the fortune cookie after it was presented to him. DH and I should be more on top of that. Then again, we really don't go out much so we didn't expect that someone would hand our child a cookie... poor guy, he really wanted it watching Little S eat hers and his.

Enfin, mon jardin a moi

I truly do not recall the last time the house was this quiet with the baby (yes, I know she's a toddler now, but she'll be the baby for quite some time) sleeping and Little R away with his dad and grand papa. Perhaps this is the first time ever! I'd better hurry up and type before Little S wakes up.

In the last two months I've been virtually absent from the Internet and away from the screen of a computer. Logistically it's been difficult to be able to come online and then write because of the location of the computer(s), what the computer(s) is/are doing, my lack of time and fatigue. However, I have been able to spend time outside in the fenced off yard digging up sod (literally tonnes - a tonne is a thousand pounds, I believe), turning it, amending it, double digging it, sowing and planting in it. Now that most of the hard work is done, I just go out to water, pull out weeds, harvest (snow peas and greens), stake plants, and just spend time adoring the fruits and flowers of the plants.

How wonderful it is to be in touch with nature albeit in "civilized" nature not wild nature. So far the experience has been very rewarding and enjoyable. But, I do seem to have a bit of a problem with slugs mostly in my front yard where I planted most of the herbs and flowers in a bed where a cedar once ruled. I feel bad about spraying 1/2 and 1/2 water and vinegar and causing the slugs to shrivel up, but I'm not sure how else to save my plants. The fenced off area where all the tomatoes, melons and squash, peas, Chinese leeks, onions, lettuce, chards, cilantro, etcetera are does not seem to be so infested by the slugs. I would just like to find a way to make sure they don't go there.

In sprouting news, the organic avocado pit I poked three toothpicks into and submerged into a baby food jar of water has finally set down a couple of roots! I started this project back in November 2008. I actually had two pits sitting on water held by toothpicks, but I accidentally split the other one open and destroyed the embryo :( I wanted two avocado plants to see if I could actually grow avocado fruit in Canada. Well, I did give one pit to Dana, and she put hers in her worm bin; perhaps if our pits do grow into nice plants we could bring them together to see if any fruit would grow.

I am trying to upload a few pictures, but so far it seems that I've exceeded my daily upload alotment. I'll have to upload the pictures next time... when in the world will I have this much time (which is just enough to write one blog) and quietness again???