Corner cafe for the UK girls...let's have a nice cup of tea...

So I will start...with a classic one...cream teas are on offer at the Corner Cafe...so when it comes to stacking your scone, do you put the jam on first or the cream? I live in the West Country, home of the cream tea, and I'm a jam first girl myself but I know this is an area of hot debate. Your views welcome!

Also jam type? I prefer blackcurrant but am happy to go with Strawberry.

Not that I should be eating ay of this, you understand - I am grade 2, stage 2 but a whole armpit stuffed full of every single node full and busted open on one side, and fecking c on both sides so a BMX and the full treatment works to get me to where I am now...one year out, on hormonal therapy and working on my weight!  Trying to adjust to the WTF year I have just come through, and to deal with the fears of it coming back...I'm told that my prognosis is "guarded"...eek...pass the jam...

Hey Ho

Hi Jayne, so glad that you could drop by for a nice cup of tea and a sit down. This cafe is a great place to recover from tough chemo like Taxotere, that is a big gun and I really hope that it has kicked the stupid reccurance to the curb. Please be sure to let me know! I am waiting on the results of a blood test and brain scan myself, and am looking for ways to distract myself until next Wednesday...which is why I opened this little cafe for business...

I am thinking of bringing in a shiny big Gaggia cappuccino machine as well so that we can offer proper frothy coffee here at the cafe, what do you think? May encourage a few more UK girls to drop by on their way out shopping or to or from treatment. 

I am sure I remember seeing it written somewhere that cream teas are really good for chemo side effects...and your damson jam sounds lovely!

Hey Ho 

Hi Sam, nice to meet you too! I had FecT as well, but just three armfulls of each...I wonder why I only had six chemo doses when you had eight, and 20 rads when you got 25...I had ILC and loads of nodes. I guess the Honks know what they are doing and design our treatment to suit us all individually...

 Hormonals are a challenge in themselves. I took Arimidex for 6 months and it made my joints ache like anything and the fatique was something else. I was then swapped to Aromasin, started taking it a month ago and the joint pain has really dropped away and I have so much more energy...so glad that my Honk switched me over, 5 years of Arimidex would have been tough. However there is no way I am going to stop taking that little white pill...

Obviously it goes without saying that all cream teas served up in our cosy corner cafe are fat free...so come here often and eat as many cream teas as you like!

Hey Ho 

Hi Jayne, thanks for explaining the rt and chemo dose thing, that makes sense. I am so sorry to hear about the reccurrance - and another trip through chemo. Hope you were able to tolerate it OK. Has the chemo kicked the recurrance to the curb? I do hope so. It is amazing stuff - my second tumor was found after mx no 1, during chemo, so it was measured for response and it was nice to see it getting smaller on US after each armful. So I am hoping that the chemo has had the same effect on your reccurance. Hope the Aromasin works too. I am sure you will be closely monitored to make sure all is as it should be? How did you find the reccurance? I did not realise that a hormonal may not work, that is scary but useful to know. Am so glad you have got on top of it and dealt with it.

Did either of you ladies take HRT? I took it for about 2 years and I am convinced that it was what kicked my sneaky ILC off. The Drs say there is no way of knowing, but the tumor size and grade woud indicate that it had been slowly growing for about 6 years...which would fit with when I was on the HRT. Ugh. To think I may have inadvertantly bought this on myself does not bear thinking about. 

 Well it is Jubilee Sunday and I am off to see Elton John in a live open air concert this evening..looks like it is going to tip it down...oh well, no surprise really, this Is England, and it IS a bank holiday. Of course it is going to rain, its traditional.

Despite the Bank Holiday, the corner cafe will remain open all the time, welcoming alll UK folk, any stage and any grade. The tea, coffee and cakes are all organic, fair trade and fat free. But quite delicious. Try my favourite - coffee and walnut cake. Yum! What is your preferred cake of choice?

HeyHo

Hi Sam and Jayne...sorry to have been absent for a few days, I have been out in the real world ...however i really do fancy a nice slice of fruit cake and an Americano right now...I would like to be out on my small allotment like Sam, but it is absolutely tipping it down so I am sitting in the kitchen instead. I dread to think what havoc the slugs are wreaking on my seedlings.

 Jayne, thank you for sharing how your reccurance emerged and the treatment, that is good of you and very useful to know about, we all keep our radar up for anything out of the ordinary ...sounds like you are really vigilant and also that the drs have jumped on it straight away. Taxotere is amazing stuff, hopefully it will have melted all the internal feckers as well...it certainly did a number on my second primary and pretty much blew it out of the water. I hope you get a positive outcome too, I am sure that you will. Will you be able to have RT to the area after the chemo wraps up? Please do share with us how your meeting goes on 13th, I will be thinking of you and sending you positive support thoughtwaves.

Went to see the neurology consultant yesterday...all a bit complicated as I had peripheral neuropathy in my  feet that started six years ago, and could / could not be a side effect of neurological response to anti gens produced by the body to fight cancer invasion...the timing fits in terms of how long the medics think the ILC was lurking. However nothing definitive can be proved. Not sure that proving a hindsight link really matters anyway, as that ship has sailed...Blood tests showed one marker slightly elevated, but apparently that can be caused by ongoing effects of radio therapy, apparently that carries on having an effect on the body for years after treatment stops..who knew? I thought that by the time the sunburn had faded that the rt had done its job but clearly not. 

Anyway, I was not expecting to be told that the brain scan showed something up at the back of the cerebellum...but not a met according to the Dr. He did not know what it is (!!), but there is a small unidentifiable something lurking there. He is sending me for another MRI brain scan at the end of June to have a comparison scan to look at. Apparently it could just be an "artifact" which he explained as kind of the MRI version of dust on the lens...hopefully this is the case but means another month of not knowing and then waiting for scan results :-( I keep telling myself that there is nothing to worry about, but I kind of distrust the medics when they tell me that now, after I was told six uears ago that the neuropathy was idiopathic so not to worry, then three years ago when I was first sent to breast clinic that all I had was breast pain and not to worry, ha!  and then after the left boob tumour was found last year, not to worry about my right boob, nothing there at all, then ok lets take a biopsy but nothing suspicious on ultrasound, and then oops, there seems to be another primary on that side...so will have my fingers permanently crossed until this next diagnostic is over...

All I can say is thank heavens for this little cafe...so much nicer to be inside with a coffee and cake on a cold wet day... whatever has happened to our summer?

Sam, I went to see Elton John at an open air gig at Taunton Cricket Ground, the day before the Jubilee Concert. It was great fun despite the rain, he really knows how to work a crowd. Was so tired the next day though! Duvet day! :-) 

Cheerio, Hey Ho 

Hi Gill, you are more than welcome! Hope the cafe brings you some lovely home thoughts from abroad. The cafe is open all hours and to all UK folk or international anglophiles...so that includes you too, Kayb! It would be wrong to be exclusive to any BC sister from anywhere who wants to touch base with a little bit of our islands, so just ask us if you need us to explain our peculiar UK ways...a cream tea, for example, is usually two scones, a pot of lovely jam, a big bowl of clotted cream and a pot of tea, all served up on a tray together as a mid afternoon treat. A very British indulgance, and usually very popular with people from all over the world, so make sure to try one when you visit us here!...and please do help yourself to the rain, e have far too much of it at the moment. 

The cafe is looking very pretty right now. I have splashed out on some pretty printed vintage table cloths at a car boot sale, and there are small bunches of herbs from my garden in the jam jars on each table, mint, chervil, sage and rosemary. The scent from the herbs is very relaxing and theraputic. I have also added fresh mint, thyme and fennel tea to the menu. Lovely freshly brewed with a little bit of organic honey to sweeten if you so choose. 

Looking forwrd to hearing from you all!

Hey Ho

PS Jayne, there is a fresh carrot cake here too, so you had better drop by for a slice before it sells out!

Hi Jayne, I have some lung scarring from rt too, so hopefully that is a normal position and nothing for you to worry about. Fingers crossed, stupid cancer. I also have rubbish tomato plants, in fact my whle allotment is just sitting there in the rain looking miserable. So frustrating! 

KB, will be seding you lots of positive vibes on tuesday - I need to work out the time difference as when you have morning I think we are a few hours ahead of you? Anyway good luck and be sure to come back to the cafe and tell us when you got the results on wednesday. We will put a scone by for you.

 Gill, I will go right now and dig out my favourite scone recipe and stick it at the bottom of this post. If you cannot find clotted cream in the shops, serve them with a nice thick double cream, that will do just as well.   And some lovely jam. Yum! 

This is a recipe that one of my best friends shared with me, it is very easy and works every time. Makes about 10 - 12 small scones, depending on how thick you roll out the dough and the size of the cutter.

4 fluid ounces of buttermilk, or 50/50 milk and natural yoghurt if you cannot get buttermilk. (I always use milk and yoghurt as always have some in the fridge!)

9 ounces self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 tablespoons castor sugar (or less if you do not want the scone too sweet)

2 ounces butter

pinch of salt

Rub the butter into the flour till fine breadcrumb consistency, add the salt, cream of tartar and sugar. Mix in the liquid.

Turn onto a floured board and shape / roll out to about 3/4 an inch thick. Cut into scone shapes to the size of your choice. Small and dinky scones are very elegant but you can get more jam and cream onto bigger ones!. Place on a baking sheet and brush on some milk or a beaten egg. If you like a crusty top, sprinke with a little sugar.

Bake at oven pre heated to 220 for about 15 minutes until risen and brown on top. Take out of oven, ut on a baking rack to cool and see how long you can go without eating one...usually about 20 seconds... 

To serve...place on a pretty plate and say Tah Da! as you present them to guests. Spit the scone accross the middle then stack jam and cream onto each half and tuck in... 

 Options: add sultanas, glace cherries, mixed spice or apricots to make variations. For cheese scones, leave out the sugar, add some grated cheese into the mixture and pile more on top before baking. Or add a few chopped herbs. Nice.