Mo Farah
Mo Farah is another who delights me and brings a smile to my face.
Over the years, I’ve done business on telephone billing systems with quite a few immigrants of Somali origin. I’ve never had a problem and those that I dealt with were a pleasure with whom to do business. They all seemed to work hard to do the best for themselves and their families. We even put in a joint bid for the billing system for a Somali telephone service, based on redundant analogue mobile phone kit.
Mo was born in Somalia and by hard work, has become our best male middle-distance runner for several decades. Let’s hope he gets a medal in London 2012! I sometimes think, I could have been a good club runner, but I didn’t have the dedication and I was an undiagnosed coeliac.
So why is it, that the Somalis I’ve met and people like Mo are a credit to their homeland, but the country continues to be a total basket-case, with lots of death and piracy?
Lazy Day Foods
Just trying some of Lazy Day‘s ginger biscuits dipped in Belgian chocolate. Gluten-free of course! Obtainable from Waitrose.
Delicious! Extremely so!
It would seem that all their products are gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, egg-free and vegan.
Talk about one size to fit all to everybody’s advantage.
The World Cup Goes Cuckoo
Or should it be cuckoo clocks, with the Swiss beating the much-fancied Spain?
And then we have the ambush-marketing row over the Dutch and their orange mini-dresses! I have every sympathy for them, as Budweiser is crap American beer, that has no place in a sport, that is not mainstream in the United States. In truth no-one should be locked up for the way they dress. Budweiser is also not gluten-free. so I can’t drink it. I suppose if I were in South Africa I’d be drinking Diet-Coke or some excellent South African wine. I’d love to know what coeliac friendly alcoholic drinks are available in the stadia for the World Cup.
It will be interesting to see what happens the next time the Dutch play. I wouldn’t bet against enterprising street traders selling everything they can find in orange and we’ll see strapping Dutchmen in orange T-shirts with matching wigs.
Ethnic Cooking
With my problems over the Digestive biscuits and their codex gluten-free wheat starch, it is worth looking at ethnic or traditional cooking around the world.
Indian – Thickened with chick-pea flour.
Chinese – Rice-based and often unthickened. My local and very safe and goodChinese restaurant uses potato flour, but what do they use in China.
Provencal – Everything is thickened by reduction.
Italian – Take out the bread, pasta and pizza and most Italian cooking is about pure and fresh ingredients.
Fish – Traditionally cooked plain or smoked. Look at some Scottish, Greek, Spanish and Italian traditions.
Sausages and cooked meat – Proper ones are usually just meat in Europe.
English – My mother and her generation used corn-flour. Didn’t we always have meat and two veg. It could also be argued that traditional English food is what is in season in the garden or has been trapped or killed, like rabbit or chicken.
So if you take out bread, a lot of traditional food is gluten-free.
We were all and I don’t just mean coeliacs, a lot healthier.
Costa at Addenbrookes
Costa in the Food Court used to have little packets of two Doves Farm cookies. Excellent and reliably gluten-free. Not any more though, but they have a gluten-free chocolate macaroon, which wasn’t bad, but not as good.
Surely in hospital they should cater for all!
Codex Digestive Biscuits
They gave me some of these in Addenbrookes. On Friday when I came out I Must have ate about half a packet, as they were quite tasty. On Saturday, I had a blotchy face and a red neck, which is one of the ways gluten affects me.. Just likeit used to before I was diagnosed as a coeliac and went gluten-free. C was always plastering moisturiser on my face to no avail. Everything else, I ate on those two days was either something I knew I could trust or had cooked myself.
On Saturday I looked at the biscuit packet and found that they contained codex gluten-free wheat starch. It may be so, but I think my body had reacted to it, just like it reacts to maltodextrin. So thank you, biscuits for glutening me! I shall avoid codex products in future and especially those with gluten-free wheat starch. That must be something like alcohol-free Scotch Whisky! If firms like Trufree, Doves Farm, Village Bakery and countless others can get it right, it can’t be that difficult.
Today, I woke up fine and look and feel normal.
Dogtor J
The American vet with coeliac disease has updated his web site.
He’s as forthright as ever.
An Interesting Article on Coeliac Disease
Found this on the Welcome web site.
Thick and Easy
I was given this in Hong Kong to help me swallow. I thought it affected me. When I finally got hold of the tin in Addenbrookes, it said it had no allergies, but contained maltodextrin. I react to the latter, but then the EU says it’s OK for me. Is the EU a coeliac? No!
Tête-Bêche or Herringbone
BA and Cathay Pacific have very different ideas about how Business Class should be laid out. In the former you sleep head to tail, whereas in Cathay, you’re arranged on either side of the aisle.
In my view BA’s layout is much better, as you can leave your seat so much easier, without taking the seat out of the sleeping position. Apparently, the herringbone gives a wider seat, but I don’t need that. I also found the Cathay seat a lot more uncomfortable, probably because I couldn’t lay on my stomach and because my spine sticks out at the bottom.
I should also say that the gluten-free food on BA was much better than that on Cathay, but this might be because it was out of Hong Kong. Strangely, the best I had, was on Astraeus on a charter to Gambia. It had been produced by a small Welsh company.
The Anonymous Widower 