All The Way To Eastfield for a Loaf and a Moan
This afternoon, as I had nothing better to do, I decided that as I’d failed to get any bread this morning, that a quick trip to Eastfield was in order. Waitrose didn’t have the bread I wanted, but they did have a brown Genius and one of Genius’s excellent fruit loafs. So I bought both and then went into O2 to moan about my Junkberry. It’s not their fault, as they didn’t come up with the crap design. I think to be fair too, the Junkberry bubble has now burst with the share price heading towards Antartica. I’m afraid I don’t buy products from losers, unless the price is absolutely right.
I’ve already had an e-mail from Tonik, saying that my two old Nokia 630i will be back with me soon. In fact, knowing couriers as I do, I suspect that they’ll get my phones from Enfield, quicker than O2 could swap my phone.
I can do without a phone in the interim anyway, as no-one outside of a few people and scammers ever phone me these days. And the things I want to do with the phone, like texting where buses are, it can’t do.
I Can Now Cook Scrambled Egg Again
I’ve now got my new cooker, which fits neatly in the space, where the other one made itself a nuisance.
My New Zanussi Electric Cooker
The space at each side can be used, whereas the other cooker was so wide it just blocked the cupboard doors from opening.
I can now cook scrambled egg again.
Scrambled Eggs, Smoked Salmon and Cold Potatoes
I didn’t have it on toast, as my local Waitrose won’t stock any bread at the moment, so I used smoked salmon. Coeliacs, like me, often cook extra potatoes and eat them as snacks, so I added some to the plate, as I have a massive bowl fill of them.
I think too, that I’m feeling better, as the cooker is not creating all those oxides of nitrogen, that could be poisoning me.
I’m Getting Paranoid About Waitrose
Coeliacs are very particular about what they eat.
My list of must-have foods apart from the usual things, like meat, fish, vegetables and fruit includes :-
- Waitrose seeded, thin-sliced loaf. It makes good toast and lovely sandwiches.
- Waitrose semi-skimmed goats milk. As good as any, and there is no smell.
- Eat Natural gluten-free toasted muesli with vine fruit.
- St.Helen’s Farm semi-skimmed goats milk yoghurt. I have this with my breakfast cereal.
- Rowse organic honey. Again, I have this with the breakfast cereal.
But my branch in Islington does its best to annoy me :-
- They haven’t had the thin-sliced loaf for weeks. But they always seem to have the thick-sliced, which has the texture of the stuff with which they make IKEA furniture. It is ideal for making sandwiches for masochists!
- Recently, there have been days, with the full-fat goats milk, but not the semi-skimmed.
- They haven’thad this for months, but they’ve always got lots of unsold packets of the buckwheat version. So it means, I have to go to Sainsbury’s next door.
- I make sure, I always have the yoghurt in the fridge, as sometimes this isn’t for sale.
- The same applies to the honey.
And then of course there’s the check-outs, which were designed by a man or woman with two perfect hands.
It is any wonder, that I’m getting paranoid?
I suppose this afternoon, I had better go all the way to Eastfield to get a loaf.
Pasty Tax
As a coeliac, I can’t eat pasties and most takeaway food, so the pasty-tax was for me creating a level playing field in taxation.
It just shows how the country wants to eat themselves to hell and then travel there in a dump truck.
Vandalism In The Service of Ignorance
The title of this post comes from a phrase, describing the protestors, in the third leader of The Times, which defends the work at Rothamsted to create a strain of wheat , which has a natural repellant effect to pests, by crossing it with mint using gentic engineering,
Genetic engineering is a touchy subject to many, but properly used it should benefit mankind. The aim of the Rothampsted experiment is to produce a strain of wheat that uses less pesticides.
On the other hand, I would be against genetic engineering, that produced wheat with the so-called terminator gene, that meant farmers couldn’t use some of this year’s crop for next year.
There are now drugs coming on the market, that have been created by genetic engineering using plants or hens’ eggs as a starting point. Would these protestors stop this process as well? If I suffered from a disease, where the drug could be produced by genetic engineering, I would not be happy.
As I said, provided that the purpose of creating the organism by genetic engineering has a moral purpose, I can see no reason to ban it.
I’m also a coeliac, which is a minor genetic disease. I suspect a few decades down the line, they’ll be able to correct the faulty genes in babies by some clever genetic modification.
The NHS Gets Gluten-Free Food Spectacularly Wrong
According to a report to be broadcast on Newsnight tonight, the NHS pays things like £17 a go for a gluten-free pizza base. If I remember correctly, that buys more than one gluten-free pizza with a topping from somewhere like Sainsburys. i don’t as I like to buy my pizzas made in a proper oven, by someone who knows what he is doing. The last time I ate a pizza was in Naples.
Apparently, the NHS spent £27 million on gluten-free prescriptions last year and say it helps people stick to their gluten free diet.
I don’t get anything on prescription. I used to until I went through the boring list available with a pharmacist and I decided that as I liked food with taste, I’d pass. For instance on the NHS approved list there are no chocolate biscuits. A couple occasionally would liven things up.
I’ve just returned from the shops and for my lunch today and tomorrow, I’ve bought some gluten-free rolls, some smoked salmon, an egg and potato salad and some melon. I could have bought the salad and fruit unprepared, but with my gammy hand, I’d prefer to let someone else do it.
It is much easier to buy it in the local supermarket, in this case Waitrose, than get the bread delivered by post.
At the moment, I’m not cooking, as my cooker has gone and the new one is not delivered until Monday, so a couple of days a week, I live on gluten-free ready meals from somewhere like M & S. But when I get cooking again, there are so many simple things to cook that are naturally gluten-free, like fish, meat, vegetables and fruit.
So in some ways the solution to the NHS’s £27million bill for gluten-free food, is to get everybody to eat healthily. We already have a pasty tax, so why not have a super-tax on burgers, unhealthy sandwiches and other foods, that cause obesity. I would be pleased, as every day, someone has dumped the old fast food packaging on my front patio, sometimes with the burger remains in it.
If people need help to cope with the expense of a gluten-free diet, then they should get the help directly, not with food parcels, where the administration is the major cost.
There also might be a virtuous circle here, in that if the NHS stopped prescribing gluten-free food, the supermarkets would feel it was a market worth developing.
One interesting development over the last couple of years, is the Marks & Spencer’s widower’s range of ready meals. They call it Fuller Longer and the range contains very few allergens, with perhaps a third of the dishes being gluten-free. Probably the most common allergen is fish! I can live with that!
With food like that who needs the hassle of collecting a prescription of a load of cardboard-flavoured rubbish.
The only problem is probably bread, but then all supermarkets and many other stores, these days have a selection of gluten-free bread and rolls.
Perhaps the £27 million would be better spent on education. Let’s face it, the most expensive gluten-free products are things like biscuits and cakes. I wasn’t a coeliac, when I lived with my mother, but some of the biscuits and cakes she used to make in those days, are well within the skills of the average eight-year-old. There is always the old staple of a chocolate rice crisp, made from Rice Krispies or a gluten-free equivalence. Kelloggs also have an interesting alternative here. Just search Google for chocolate rice crisp.
Let’s assume that in the UK, one in a hundred are coeliacs, which means every coeliac costs the country £43.50 a year for gluten-free food.
Not Getting Pregnant
It is reported today, that the Government is changing the IVF rules. But they should also change a few other things, based on my experience.
I have recently traced my family tree back to the 1820s. What is rare, is that in my father’s line, few of the women have given birth. My sister didn’t for a start.
Ten years ago, I was diagnosed as a coeliac, which showed itself in a severe lack of B12. I now moderate a list on the Internet for coeliacs and have come across several examples of female coeliacs, who have been unable to conceive, because of this lack of B12. A few were diagnosed early enough and after going on a gluten-free diet, they conceived and gave birth successfully.
Remember that coeliacs make up one in a hundred of the population. The incidence is higher in the Irish, Askenazi Jews, Italians and some from West Africa. Some have said that coeliac disease is linked genetically to sickle cell anaemia.
A Gluten-Free Guide to the London Olympics
For those like me, who must remain gluten-free, the Olympics in London shouldn’t be too difficult, although I do worry about the Olympic Park and some of the venues. The reason for this, is that I’ve been to Wembley a couple of times and the food is your usual burger and chips rubbish. The organisers say they will make it better at the venues, but I have my doubts. It’s sad really, as East London, where the Games are being staged, has a large variety of ethnic cooking, like Bangladeshi, that is very much gluten-free. Incidentally, if you like curries, all good curry houses, such as in the famous Brick Lane, use gram or chick-pea flour and are never offended if you ask. A lot of these restaurants, though don’t serve alcohol, but don’t mind if you bring it in and they will then give you glasses and a cork-screw, if one is needed. The best ones always have proper linen tablecloths and napkins.
The big Olympic Park at Stratford is at present very much an unknown as to gluten-free food, as it hasn’t opened yet. But the Westfield Shopping Centre (Eastfield to many) next door is bad, if you want a gluten-free restaurant. However, it does have two big food stores, that are always a good stand-by, if you want to buy a picnic; Waitrose and Marks and Spencer. Both have a wide selection of picnic food and gluten-free bread and rolls.
In fact, for some picnics will always be a safe way out, when on the move. The main Olympic Park, is next to one of London’s largest parks; Victoria Park and they are going to put a lot of fast-food stalls here with big screens. But even if nothing is gluten-free, there will be plenty of space to sit on the grass. In fact, there are large green spaces near to most of the venues.
If you want to eat out, there are quite a few mid-range chains with gluten-free offerings. I eat regularly in Carluccio’s and Cote, but others also have a gluten-free menu.
A lot of pubs, like my local, the Northgate Arms in de Beauvoir Town can do reliable gluten-free food. With the Northgate, the chef is coeliac from Sierra Leone, so you can be absolutely sure.
I shall add more to this as I travel round the Games.
Why Does Rebekah Brooks Remind Me of My Endoscopy?
I’ve had two endoscopies to check on my coeliac disease. Neither was any problem and both were done without any sedative at all, as the first doctor explained, this was better in a lot of ways. In both cases I was able to walk out the hospital and drive myself home.
Every time though, I see a picture of Mrs. Brooks, she reminds me of the doctor, who performed the second procedure. It’s the hair mainly, although both are probably about the same height and build. But that’s probably as far as it goes.
I certainly know, who I would prefer to perform an endoscopy.
The Vatican Has Its Troubles Too
According to this report on the BBC, the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland is discussing the Church’s future.
And as they are sensible reforms, in areas like celibacy, contraception and woman priests, the Vatican is not pleased. I wonder whether they are discussing whether coeliacs can be priests, something that the Pope is personally against. Even though that rule would have stopped Liverpool’s excellent Archbishop Warlock being a priest.
The Anonymous Widower 