The Curse Of The Coeliac Traveller
On Tuesday with my jaunt round the East Midlands, the weather played its part in that my intended pit-stop in Carluccio’s at Lincoln had to be cancelled because of the rain. This wasn’t too serious as I’d had a double-egg pot at Leon in Kings Cross before I left.
I could have got something in Nottingham before I went up the Robin Hood Line, but I decided to do the trip to Worksop first.
Unlike many other main stations like Birmingham, Cambridge, Manchester Piccadilly and Sheffield, there is no Marks and Spencer Simply Food, so there was nothing gluten-free to eat in Nottingham station. Except possibly salads and a banana, which I’ve eaten so much of on my travels, that aversion therapy has worked its evil magic.
After returning from Worksop, I had about forty minutes to get something to eat before catching the hourly train to Peterborough to get home. This was not enough time to have a meal in any number of places in Nottingham, so I decided to go to the city centre to get some sandwiches in Marks and Spencer. But they didn’t have any!
I was quite hungry by now, but luckily I found a Holland and Barrett, where I bought a couple of EatNakd bars to replace the two I’d brought from London and eaten en route.
After all I only needed to keep going for another couple of hours until London, where I could either eat at Kings Cross/St. Pancras or after a short bus ride to Islington.
I got to Peterborough with ease and then I sat for an hour in a train waiting for clearance to leave.
But it never did, as there had been someone killed by a train at Sandy.
So in the end hunger got the better of me and I left the train and walked in to Peterborough to get some supper in Carluccio’s.
I finally got home at eleven, which was about three hours later than planned.
I do wish that people wouldn’t practice assisted dying using trains!
It must be so much easier for non-coeliacs to travel, as they can pop-in to so many places to buy a sandwich or a burger.
Megabrew
The merger of the world’s two largest brewers; Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, that is reported here on the BBC, will not affect me one jot, unless the new company decides to use its power to make it more difficult for everybody to buy real beer and cider.
What to me is frightening about the merger, is that they don’t have one gluten-free product, that I would drink. So single-mindedly they will force people down the route of their chemically produced crap.
I have a feeling that if this merger goes ahead, there will be repercussions that they don’t like!
I Thought All Tomatoes Were Round!
I thought these tomatoes were funny, as they are labelled Classic Round Tomatoes.
I Thought All Tomatoes Were Round!
Or can you get square ones now?
I Finally Buy Celias In Waitrose
They’ve been a long time coming, but today I relieved Waitrose in Islington of six Celia gluten-free lagers.
If anybody should find any Celias in an obscure Waitrose, send me a picture.
Dementia Has Stabilised
According to this report on the BBC web site, research from the University of Cambridge has shown that dementia levels are stabilising.
A few years ago, Oxford University proved a link between having low B12 levels at 50 and dementia, if you had dementia in your family.
Could it be, that GPs, who now check out bloods regularly are having an effect?
When first tested at 50, my B12 levels were non-existent. Now at 68, they’re spot on!
And what is one way to help your B12 levels? – Go gluten free!
As other studies at other world-class universities, like Nottingham, have shown that a gluten-free lifestyle lowers your changes of getting cancer, I think that going gluten-free because of my coeliac disease, wasn’t one of the worst lifestyle decisions I made.
ollybars At The Reilly Rocket
The Reilly Rocket is a cafe on my walking route home from Dalston Junction station and the Kingsland High Road, that I occasionally use for a small refreshment.
Today I popped in and found they were promoting ollybars on the counter.
So I ate one with my pot of English breakfast tea and took another home for later.
At two quid they may be more expensive than say EatNakd bars, but they are very good.
Too many gluten-free snacks are either bland or have the texture of sawdust.
ollybars are not guilty of either fault.
Congratulations to Olly!
Is My Life Going Round In A Curious Circle?
In the 1970s, my late wife; Celia and myself lived, with our then three sons, on the eleventh floor of Cromwell Tower in the Barbican.
The shops in those days in the area were not very numerous and with the exception of the excellent market in Whitecross Street, getting everything we needed wasn’t easy. There was no supermarket, unlike today where there is a Waitrose in Whitecross Street.
So often on a Saturday, we’d take the boys up the hill to the Angel and shop in the Marks and Spencer and the Woolworths in Liverpool Road opposite the Underground station.
I’ve since found out that the Marks at the Angel is a long-established store and it may have been the one my grandmother spoke about, that she used around the time of the First World War, when she and her family lived just down from the Angel by the Regent’s Canal.
Woollies went a few years ago and much to the regrets of many of the locals is now a Waitrose.
My friends, who knew Celia, and myself often share a laugh over the fact that when I can get it, I drink a Czech gluten-free lager called Celia. A few weeks ago, I heard that the beer will be stocked in Waitrose, so I wrote to them asking where it will be stocked locally. This is an extract from their reply.
I’ve looked into this and I’m pleased to tell you that this should be available at both our Islington and Barbican branches from tomorrow.
As these are two branches, that we would have walked past together in the 1970s, long before they opened, I just can’t help thinking that life is truly strange!
Could anybody, who spots Celia lager in their local Waitrose please let me know?
Thanks!
Gluten-Free Food On The NHS
As a coeliac, I get no food from the NHS.
If you take bread as an example, I get through a couple of slices a day, usually spread with honey, in a sandwich or as something to eat with say hummus.
If I was to get this bread on the NHS, a month’s worth would leave me with no space in the freezer and I’d have to defrost each slice as I needed it.
Also, the bread from Marks and Spencer is far superior to anything available on the NHS.
I probably spend about a fiver on specialist gluten-free food every week, but mainly I eat the sort of food, that is naturally gluten-free, like meat, fish, vegetables and fruit.
A more cost-effective system would be that all coeliacs got a monthly payment to help with food costs. If they spent it on cigarettes, then that is their affair!
So what do I think are the best gluten-free foods?
Bananas – A snack in its own wrapper.
Beans
Black Farmer Sausages – Made for real men
Celia gluten-free beer
EatNakd Bars
Eat Natural Toasted Muesli With Vine Fruit – Not the Buckwheat!
Eggs
Fish – Always skinless and boneless
Goats Milk – It lasts forever in the fridge
Honey
Leeks
Marks & Spencer’s Beefburgers –
Marks & Spencer’s Bread – It’s all excellent
Marks & Spencer’s Calves Liver – All that B12
Marks & Spencer’s Still Lemonade – I use it to clear my throat of catarrh
Marks & Spencer’s Welsh Goats Cheese
New Potatoes – I use them as nibbles too!
Rachel’s Yoghurt with Honey – It doubles as a quick pasta sauce!
Rice
Strawberries
Tea
Tomatoes
Rump Steak – Always top quality
Waitrose Chicken Breast Chunks – So many simple meals start with these!
Waitrose Prepared Mango, Melon and Pineapple
Whisky – Scotch or Irish
I do tend to buy food that doesn’t need preparation, as my knife skills aren’t that good and being on Warfarin, I don’t want to cut myself. I also buy the Waitrose prepared fruit, as to buy a whole mango, melon or pineapple would mean I would waste a lot.
I should say I don’t need to live frugally, but if I had to, I could fund my energy, water, Council Tax, phone and daily food from well within my State Pension. Obviously, I get travel in Greater London free and I don’t have a car
Serial Cooking – Roast Sausage And Lentils With Wild Rocket And Cherry Tomatoes
This recipe is another from Lindsey Bareham in The Times.
The main ingredients, are 24 M & S gluten-free cocktail sausages, a 250g sachet of cooked lentils, 125g of sliced chorizo and 400g of cherry tomatoes.
It is exceedingly simple and is shown in these pictures.
It may be quick, but it’s gorgeous.
My First Pork Pie In Almost Twenty Years
It is just a couple of years short of twenty years since I was diagnosed as a coeliac and I have been gluten-free ever since.
Yesterday, I found some mini gluten free pork pies in Marks and Spencer.
The two of the four I’ve eaten were small and perfectly formed. They didn’t taste half bad either.
The Anonymous Widower 