Feeling Ble

I've actually been feeling a lot better over the last few weeks! Still exhausted but, as my dietitian explained, my iron levels were so low that I need to replenish my stores before the levels in my blood return to normal and I can get some energy! I've put on weight too. All in all I'm feeling quite positive...

...Except for a very silly slip up. I was in France for a friend's wedding a couple of weekends ago. I checked up the celiac travel website (very good, check it out) and although I didn't print out the restaurant cards in french, I did take note as to what the offending ingredients were translated. This meant that when I came to buy some sweets in a shop I could read the ingredients and know that they were OK. Or at least that was the plan! I managed to completely overlook the word "ble" (with an accent above the e), which is wheat. I had been munching on the sweets for a week before it occurred to me that the word looked familiar. I felt progressively worse all week and it's taken me a while to recover. Next time I'll print out the restaurant card and save myself the trouble!

Anyway, apart from that, I've been making some exciting gluten free discoveries thanks to The Fiance and The In-Laws. Tinkyada Joy rice pasta - available in the USA- is great, just like normal pasta. The In-Laws brought some over for me when they visited, plus some exciting cake mix that I've not tried yet. My mum bought some wonderful gluten free sausages for my visit home, I'm not sure who made them - she got them at a farmers market - but mum is going to find out and see if they do mail order. They were definitely the best sausages so far. The Black Farmer sausages are also very tasty and are sold in Tesco.

I've also have some restaurant experiences. My absolute favourite visit was to the Beech Trees near Killern, just outside Glasgow. All the gluten free items were marked on the menu and they showed real understanding about cross contamination. My mum had been there previously and when she enquired about dining with someone with Coeliacs they gave her a copy of the menu to show me before we got there. Very helpful. The food was delicious and the servings were huge, I almost didn't manage dessert! Sarti on Bath St in Glasgow, were rubbish. The hostess/waitress was rude and seemed to find my questions about gluten free foods tiresome, they do provide gluten free pasta but don't offer any guidance on the pasta sauces. Also, the waitress only really told me what was wheat free, I don't think she knew, or cared, that there is more to it than that. It's so important that restaurant staff understand that this is something that makes us ill, we're not just being faddy or fussy.