What are you all up to

My Dad also suffers from coeliac disease so we have to be very careful when food shopping for him and check ingredients carefully. He gets ready meals from Wiltshire Farm Foods who have a very good selection of GF dishes.

There is an amusing side to it though - every week we take him out for lunch at a local village pub. They have an extensive GF menu and have told him that the sauces on most dishes are thickened with cream, not flour. So every week we ask him what he wants to eat and his reply is always "well there's not much on the menu for me to choose from is there?" How we laugh! 

See what we have to miss out on? No nipping into The Cornish Pasty shop for a quick pastie or a cafe for a bacon butty. No cream teas when in Devon or Cornwall (or even Kernow). No pint of bitter without careful analysis of whether it contained wheat. No tea and cake at Bettys, unless they have a GF (please not the ubiquitous Brownie again) version. 

In Germany I've been told to just eat the top of a cheesecake and leave the bottom! No contamination considered.

Yes, eating out is a barrel of laughs, but whilst not life threatening directly for me,  it would be either agony or a visit to A&E. 

And be aware this can happen at any time. I was 60 before this came upon me. I know of at least 3 other people who have developed a wheat allergy in later life and another who now has a fish allergy plus 2 others with dairy intolerances, again whem mature adults. At least now I know how to manage things and ask the questions in multiple languages. All in all though I consider myself to be quite lucky (believe it or not).

Malcolm, if you're looking in , Happy Christmas and hope everything is going well for you 

Me too Husky. Wonder how Malcolm is getting on with his new car. I hope he and his good lady are keeping well and staying warm

My eldest daughter is a coelliac sufferer and my two grandsons cannot tolerate the protein in cow's milk. Occasionally when I go visit the youngest daughter and grand sons in Leigh and eldest comes with me we will pick up fish and chips from a Leigh chippy where I can order fish with gluten free batter and also with milk free batter. Really appreciated by all

Lovely bright sunny day today.

Painting all but finished in the attic room.

More clearing out OH resisting over certain things but I'm sticking to my guns, its been up there 25+ years its going.

New carpet ordered, paid for and due to be fitted next Thursday so we now have a deadline to get everything done.

Big sister has invited herself and her OH for Christmas lunch  was going to have a quite day but hey ho! they were supposed to come last year but both came down the flu, so we had a quiet day then.

Re negotiated the bulk LPG contract for another 2 years, got a good rate for the amount we use and only up 50p from our current rate, its fixed for the next 12 mths.  Still 1p lower than all their competitors in our area, not a lot but I do like to barter 

Hope you are all having a good day and looking forward to the weekend.

Have been at a local hospital this morning, OH signed off for a year now in the Glaucoma clinic which is good news.

Our DIL also has to avoid gluten, I found M&S had done a lot of gluten free Christmas treats this year so have bought a nice selection for her, life on some of these restricted diets can get a bit dull food wise. It's always good to hear things are improving for those affected. 

Happy Christmas to all absent friends on here, I expect there are readers and occasional contributors who have been in the background on it's lengthy run. DSB David, started a popular thread! 

Keep warm everyone, it feels a lot colder today.

Colder? There I was all dressed up like Nanook of the North and lo and behold a young man passes me by dressed in shorts and T-shirt. Made me very old.

Sent our Christmas cards out today. Weird feeling as there wasn't a queue in the main Post Office. 

Quite pleased though. Nipped into Aldi for some fish and saw our current favourite Red wine back on the shelf. So if Helen looks in on this post, there seems to be a few bottles of the Costiere available.

There's a bitter wind today - but it's fine and the ground has dried up a bit. So yesterday and today the milk cows have gone out after dinner to munch some more brassicas.

I'm making myself get organised and wrap Christmas presents. I love buying them, but I'm not too keen on the wrapping. And the results reflect that. And I have to remember who gets what - sometimes I buy things with no one particular in mind. Anything leftover must be for me!

Hope you have a great time RandR. How exciting!!