Moderator for UK-Coeliac

 

I've just been made a moderator for the UK-Coeliac Yahoo Group.

I like that!

Bella Italia

 

I had a coffee at the new Bella Italia in Cambridge on Sunday. (Celia and I went to see In Her Shoes. I liked it, she didn’t, but then she is more impatient than me! It was a bit slow, but Shirley MacLaine was great!)

As we often go to Cineworld there and this seems the best place to eat after, I asked for a menu. The manager then asked me why, as I had said I wasn’t eating. I said I was a coeliac and was seeing, if I could eat something. She said, that they now do gluten-free pasta.

Haven’t tried it yet, but have followed this up with their head office.

Virgin Trains

 

Took the train from Euston to Coventry yesterday and found that in the shop on the train, they are offering a gluten-free chocolate brownie. I didn’t buy one, as they are not to my taste, but the lady in the shop knew all about them.

Marks and Spencer

 

Stuart Rose, the chief executive of Marks and Spencer, was in impressive form on Radio 5 last night. He virtually offered to meet anyone with sensible suggestions.

So I wrote :-

"With food I have always been a fan. Note that as a child in North London, my mother purchased a lot of food in the Wood Green store in the fifties, which was close to where she worked. Now we buy a lot of food from Cambridge and also from the convenient Simply Food at the station. Where are the latter on the motorways?

I have no complaints here, but a serious suggestion.

I am one of the one percent of the population who is a coeliac and therefore must avoid wheat, barley and rye. You are making a lot of play about organic food, lack of additives and quality. You are also providing some excellent gluten-free sausages, fish cakes and ready meals. But sometimes you show a lack of consistency with some ready meals by switching between containing gluten and gluten-free.

If you published your policy on gluten, avoided the wheat-derived additives like maltodextrin, substituted unnecessary flour for cornflour etc., I’m certain you’d steal a march on competitors. You only had to be at the scrum that was the Gluten-Free Food Fair in Newmarket this July to know how desperate some coeliacs can get."

Flu Jabs

 

Last year I conned a flu jab out of the GP and felt a lot better.

But Celia has just told me that when she phoned her doctor for a private jab, she was told she couldn’t have one as the Government have said that only companies in approved schemes can have them.

Sounds barmy to me!

Or are we that short of flu vaccine?

Lost Symptoms

 

I was diagnosed with coeliac disease at 55 or so and the symptoms I’ve lost are as follows.

1. Bad skin – much better now
2. Mild depression
3. Tiredness
4. Wind
5. Occasional migraines
6. The runs
7. Dandruff
8. Aching Joints

Last week my tennis (real) was rubbish. I missed about half my volleys. I had my B12 injection on Tuesday and today I played a lot better. But I was able to follow the ball better and only missed a couple of volleys.

I’ve noticed this before and you wouldn’t think that lack of B12 would make so much difference to hand-eye coordination. So tennis is one thing, but just think how it must affect all the other things we do, where quick visual control is needed.