Hermano!

I am indeed very sorry to read that you are now suffering from diabetes. And allthough I myself am blessed to not do so, I do have a number of friends whom so do, just as you have discovered to also do. There is, from substantial reading that can be found online, evidently a link between defoliants used in SEA, and diabetes. As early as atleast 1959, defoliants were stored in/at US base-areas in the Philipine islands. (Records of this exists, according to an US attourney at law, allthough I have personally not read the actual records first hand. I have his name in my computer, somewhere within my folders, but am unable to remember it "by hand" so to say, as of right now when typing this very post). Use of defoliants on the SEA mainland, as early as late 1950s, may have occured, allthough in such small quantitys and on such goeographical areas, that landbased distrobutionsystems most likely would have been used, rather than areal spraying. This detailed fact however, I am yet to find actual record-info of though. But most likely, this would have been in primarily the areas of where US heli-instructors worked, in Laos, when they first arrived there during later half of 1959s first half-year. (The month of June of 1959, unless my memory fails me).

Tea is something I too do enjoy, allthough I much prefere coffee. Have since a few years now, begun to "explore" coffee, from various parts of the world. This, by often buying ungrained coffee-beans in special packages, from clearly on the label defined areas. For the most part, I still drink coffee from the "big coffee companys", such as for example "Gevalia". Especially for breakfast and so on. But in evenings, and/or when for example having guests, I take out ungrained coffeebeans from specific areas of the world, and grind them "fresh" so to say, myself. I never use an electric coffee-machine though, when "brewing" my coffee! Just pore just boiled up water on the coffee, and let it "sit" for a few minutes, before poring the coffee.

As for tea, I have stopped using sugar to it. Instead use honey, and sometimes flavoured such actually. Blending tea with lemon, and pine/"piñe"-flavoured ("!") honey, results in a very pleassant taste-experience I feel. I have however, never found "green tea" or "red tea" to be to my liking though. Just "regular" or "black" tea, is what I keep at home.

One "fun" thing, is to during cold weather, warm a cup of ice-tea in the microwave. Yes, I know. Sounds odd to do so. My wife just stared at me when she saw me do so the first time. Her question was: What is the point in buying ice-tea, if you then warm it??? Well, certain flavour-variants of flavoured ice-tea, especially "forrest-fruit", when warmed up becomes close to "hot berry / fruitsoup", allthough not as "thick and sugary" in taste as the soups, yet a bit more "body" to the fluid compared to regular tea. Perfect when coming home after having been outdoors for a while, during a cold winterday!

Regarding wine... I have to confess that, my wineconsumption has dropped dramaticly over the last few years. Have not stopped, but considerably less occuring nowdays. Not for any specific reasons though. "Just is" so to say. I do however not drink all the wine I consume though. Many times of when using wine, I use it in the food, during cooking it. Even if I at times do not drink wine for the meal, I yet have use some when preparing the dish in the stowe. Wine really is a wonderfull "spice" also. I would dare to say that, perhaps half of the times that I do uncork a winebottle, I only pore the wine in the frypan, and then later do Not pore some in a glass when eating the actual dish I made. There is a lot of really very good mineralwater on the market. (Mineralwater on bottle, have been "big" over here, for a bit over a decade now. Walk in to a larger sized foodstore's "fluid-section" over here, and the mineralwater-part of the entire section is atleast a quarter of it all. More often around a third, sometimes even more, of the entire section).

Have been back home from the summerhouse since Tuesday of last week, and have done a workshiftserie since then, which I just this past morning have compleeted. Now I am "off" until this upcomming Friday. Not much vacation while down at our summerhouse. A lot of things I had to do down there, so it is not until today I feel I can realy rest. One thing that "drained" my strength, was the unusually high temps. Well, unusually high for us up here that is to say. Warmest we meassured was 96 degreese F. Allthough some nights were, temperature-wise, more comfertable, we were yet not able to really use outdoors-temps to cool the during daytime upheated bedroomair during nights. This since we have yet to put up mosquito-net over the windows. This year is a bad "flying critter"-year over here! Not just the mosquitos, but hornets and other larger mean insects, are extremely numerous over here this year. Trimming the lylac-bushes this year, made me feel as a singel target for an entire squadron of P-51 Mustangs during WWII!

Ops! Post is getting both long and rambling. Best end here. But again, I am indeed truly sorry to learn of that you suffer from diabetes. I hope that you however otherwise "are in good health", as that also your loved are aswell so.


T G C!


Sincerely
A.B