Is Fred Goodwin a Coeliac?
The reason I ask this question, is that we have one important thing in common; we both hate pink vanilla wafer biscuits. In my case, I’ve avoided them all my life even before I was diagnosed as a coeliac and of course can’t eat the normal ones now. But I’d never write an e-mail about it, as Fred did and I reported here.
But hope is at hand, as Sainsburys are now selling Pink Panther gluten free vanilla wafers.
Who’s to know, if Fred might have liked them? If he had, the train crash that was RBS might not have happened.
The Man In Seat 28
The title is a direct crib from that excellent train website, www.seat61.com. Use it if you want to find out how to get anywhere by train.
I did get my sandwiches, after failing at the Angel this morning, in Liverpool Street station, and here they are laid out on the table that I didn’t have to share, as I sat in Seat 28 in Standard Class.
Marks and Spencer's Gluten Free Sandwiches
I should say that Liverpool Street now has three Marks and Spencer food stores and I got my lunch from the one in the Broadgate or western entrance.
They are certainly going to make football a lot easier for me, as now I won’t have to worry about lunch or supper. Especially as until now, Ipswich was a virtual gluten free desert. The Marks there is listed as selling gluten-free sandwiches, but I haven’t checked yet.
Seat 28, also gave a very good view of the Olympic Park, as it was on the left side going towards Ipswich. The seat also has a full window.
The Olympic Park from Seat 28
Unfortunately, if you want the best view, you’ll have to be up front with the driver. I’ve done this once and it’s the only way to travel.
I should say that the jouney home wasn’t as pleasant. I had deliberately taken a later train and I took a table seat in an almost empty carriage. But then three obese middle-aged men joined me, hemmed me in by the window and proceeded to talk loudly amongst themselves all the way to London. They talked mainly about rugby and beer. I may have interest in the first, but I certainly have no interest in the sort of beer they droned on about. I also didn’t like the way they talked about their long-suffering wives.
In the end I decanted from the train at Stratford and took the North London Line home. Perhaps, next time I don’t want to be disturbed, I’ll book First.
Today’s trip and my last one to Plymouth and Bristol illustrate that train catering is getting more and more irrelevant for many people. I haven’t bought anything except coffee, Coke or perhaps a water for months now. I either take everything with me, buy something from Marks in the station or make sure I eat well before travelling. As for example there is a Carluccio’s either in or close to St. Pancras, King’s Cross and Liverpool Street, it can’t be long before most large stations have a sensible gluten-free cafe. Most stations too have a coffee shop at least up to Starbucks standard.
I suspect that train catering will disappear completely within a few years. At the Zoo Late, you could pre-order Gordon Ramsey picnics. How long before someone does luxury picnics, that you pre-order and pick up at the station before you travel? They could even be delivered to your seat in First Class!
If you are a food supplier, the great thing about train passengers, is you get at least two goes to sell them food. Obviously, I bought my picnic today before I got on the train and I could even have bought a glass of decent wine in a plastic glass at Marks. But suppose, I’d been going to Brighton to walk on the promenade, I might have brought my lunch when I arrived. And if you’re changing trains at say Liverpool Lime Street, you could buy your food between trains.
So if you run a dedicated train catering service, you’ve got real competition!
So I think that in a few years, the food available to rail travellers will be very good and probably lightly alcoholic if you want a drink. The catering will certainly be better than that on the roads, where everything is over-priced and over-curled.
I think that some of the new trains are even prepared for the revolution. The new trains, I used to get to Cambridge a couple of weeks ago, are built with trays for laptops and/or snacks. All it needs is to make sure the litter is either taken out by the passengers or cleaned up at the end of each leg!
A Saturday Morning Routine
There are two radio programmes, I like to listen to on Saturday morning; Danny Baker and the unsporting quiz, Fighting Talk, as they appeal to my unusual sense of humour.
The trouble is that if I’m going to football, as I am today, it doesn’t really leave much time for me to get to the shops, as I have to leave by about midday to get the train.
So this morning, I got to the Angel, by bus at just after 8:30. I actually took a seventy-free, as if you sit at the back and get out of the rearmost door, it’s much easier to walk to the four shops, Carluccio’s and the physio, that I visit at the Angel.
Today, it was just Boots for some rat poison, Marks and Spencer for some gluten-free sarnies for the train and a beef Stroganoff for tonight and Waitrose for two large carriers of heavy stuff like alcohol and Coke. I went to Waitrose first and found that if I shopped immediately, could get it delivered before the start of Fighting Talk at 11:00. I think I rather caught them on the hop, but hopefully it’ll come on time. But I do have two hours of total float in my critical path, so if they come by one I’m OK.
The only problem, was that Marks didn’t have the gluten-free sandwiches, but then I’ll pass three of their shops that stock them on the way to Liverpool Street. If they don’t have any, then I shall complain. If there aren’t any, it’s probably because they are too good and all those food fadists on a gluten-free kick have snaffled them!
I was back home listening to Danny Baker by ten o’clock.
It sounds like I’ll be repeating this on Saturdays in the future.
The routine could be even better, if Carluccio’s opened at 8:00 for breakfast on Saturday, as they do in the week.
Update at 11:20 – Waitrose have just delivered, so I have plenty of time to catch the train to Ipswich, after scouring Marks for some gluten-free sandwiches.
Thinking about this post. When C and I lived near Newmarket we would go shopping early, often visit one of our horses in traing and then we’d generally be back home around eleven.
I suppose, I’m only repeating what we did together by myself. In some ways, it was easier in Suffolk, as Waitrose opened earlier. But then I had to carry the shopping from the car to the hall. Here, that is all done by the van driver from Waitrose.
Who said manners and service are dead.
Gluten Freedom For Coeliac Travellers in the UK
When I went to Plymouth, I bought a gluten-free ham salad from Marks and Spencer in Paddington station, to sustain me on the journey.
It was excellent.
Today, I had an egg salad sandwich from their shop in Moorgate. It was equally good.
They’ve even got a list on their web site of all their stores that stock the gluten-free sandwiches.
Travelling just got a whole lot easier for coeliacs in the UK.
The Coffee Obstacle Race
The worst and in some way the best part of the journey to Plymouth was getting down the train to buy a coffee. Obviously, on such a crowded train, you couldn’t have run a trolley, unless it was attached to the roof.
I had to travel through about six coaches to get to the buffet and to say it was made very difficult because of the junk in the aisle wouldn’t be too much of an understatement. Why is it that people load enormous cases, even a full size surf board and car seats, that would fit Cyril Smith, into the vestibules and aisles of a train? Strangely sitting though imperiously in this chaos was a pug, who politely got out of the way as I passed.
The buffet was quiet too and I bought my coffee with the sort of speed you’d expect from a typical Starbucks in mid-morning.
And then there was the walk back. I should probably have stayed in the buffet and drunk it there, but I do like a challenge. It actually wasn’t much of one, as of course, I’d got one of those excellent two-handled small paper carrier bags to carry my coffee. Why can’t other shops and kiosks use them more?
So although I indicated it was the worst part of the journey in some ways, it was also one of the best given the circumstances. The ride of an IC125 is so level and flat, that it made a difficult task easy. It would have been impossible in a Pendolino.
I did make a mistake and that was not to bring a stirrer. So I gave it a quick stir with my pen.
Three Hours on a Train
I wanted to see Ipswich play the first match of the season at Bristol yesterday and instead of going just for the say, went to see a friend in Plymouth on Friday.
I arrived at a very crowded Paddington in mid-morning for the 11:06 to Plymouth. It was crowded, with the usual wheeled cases being trailed everywhere. Do these selfish people realise that their mobile obstacles are a nuisance to anyone with limited movement or vision? I’m alright now and to prove a point, I had everything I needed in my new Samsonite bag.
I was carrying my gluten-free sandwiches and a bottle of wine for my friends, from Marks and Spencer in a carrier bag, but as I’d arrived with plenty of time, I walked straight on to the Standard Class Quiet Coach nto the window seat I’d booked. My two bags and coat spent most of the journey on the overhead coat rack. I only needed to disturb my companion once to get my lunch down and for another to get a coffee and take a toilet break. I should say that I was surrounded by a family of about six, all of whom spent most of the time reading and playing on a laptop. Their mother was dispensing a real picnic, with lots of parma ham, salad and fruit. Surely, they were showing how you use a Quiet Car!
In fact, the whole car was mostly quiet with not even a crying baby and there were some small toddlers there. The only problem was that some had blocked the aisle with heavy luggage. Those going to Plymouth seemed to have used the Baggage Car as the staff had asked them to.
I made one mistake on the journey. Although, I was sitting by the left hand window, I forgot to get my camera out to take shots of the train as it sped along the Exeter to Plymouth line between Exeter and Newton Abbot.
At Plymouth, I got ff the train pretty fresh, which is more than could be said as I got off my flight to Athens on easyJet.
Both journeys are about the same time, but give me the train anytime. Especially in a forty-year-old, but newly refurbished IC125.
El Reconcillo, Seville
C and I ate here twice, including once with my son and one his friends.
Rick Stein certainly has taste to recommend it on his BBC show.
Perhaps, I’ll go again. But it will have to be with a very special lady! It is not a restaurant to eat in by yourself.
The Dragons Can’t Cook!
Or is it most likely won’t?
I watched them last night, when they rejected a lady who had developed a product called a Gloven.
It’s exactly what I need, to get round the problems of my gammy left hand, which responds badly to hot and cold.
I have a feeling that this is a product that will be a success, as it has so many niches, that haven’t been identified yet!
How To Do Food At An Event
If I’d wanted I could have pre-ordered a Gordon Ramsey-styled picnic box, but as I’m a coeliac, it didn’t say if they were gluten-free or not, so I opted to buy at the event. This is the chicken kebab I had, which was certified by the chef who was cooking it as gluten-free.
Gluten-Free Chicken Kebab at Zoo Lates
It was delicious and the salad was fresh and not of the limp variety you tend to get in many places. They also gave me a discount because I didn’t want the pitta bread.
But it was only one of many varieties of fast food and drink, including Aspall Cyder on offer. There was for example this Korean stall.
Korean Fast Food at Zoo Lates
And even this splendidly politically incorrect one.
Buffalo and Ostrich at Zoo Lates
Sadly, there was no Cambodian for me. This is the only completely gluten-free cuisine in the world.
The food on offer did show how fast food should be done. You would have had to be very picky not to have found something you could have eaten.
Let’s hope the Olympics follow the lead set at the Zoo. But I bet they’ll produce the sort of stuff I can’t eat, like they do at Wembley Stadium.
It’s a Zoo Jim, But Not As We Know It
I’m not really struck on zoos, as I much prefer to see animals in the wild. But last night I had a most unusual night out at London Zoo. It was one of their Zoo Lates.
Other than the usual attractions, there was a twisted cabaret, lots of good food, bands and you could talk to the keepers about the animals. There were no children, except for a few baby animals and it wasn’t crowded but for one totally acceptable exception. Even the queues for the toilets were within reason.
Here’s a few general pictures.
It was certainly a good night out. I shall go again.
The Anonymous Widower 