I have to admit to having a bit of a problem with New Year’s Eve… All that forced bonhomie, those overpriced meals, the endless famous faces flitting on and off ‘celeb’ shows. All I usually want to do is go to bed with a good book…. So when the fates conspired to leave me home alone tonight, I could not have been happier. The remains of a very tasty Indonesian supper, an entertaining episode of Jonathan Creek on the telly and now a short blog post accompanied by a glass of toffee vodka… Yes, I did say, toffee vodka! Bizarre – and I am not sure that I will be drinking it for too much more of the year – but certainly an interesting way to say goodbye to 2010!
Pundits galore have been and will be pondering over the good and the bad of the last year so I am certainly to going to go there but I just wanted to record a few personal / foodsmatter ups and downs.
In health terms – and that is, of course, what we are all about – there have been several ‘ups’. I am delighted to be able to report that John Scott and his worms are still getting on a treat. From surviving, but only just, two years ago on a diet of elemental infant formula, thanks to a cohort (if that is what worms travel in) of Necator Americanus hookworms, he now lives a relatively normal life and, as he told me in an email on Boxing Day, is enjoying some of the 30 year old, cask-aged sherry that his daughter bought him for Christmas.
‘I haven’t had any alcohol for 30 years or more (couldn’t tolerate it) and I’m sure enjoying it now! Just hope my little friends don’t get too tipsy and relax their grip…’
I am also delighted to be able to report that, thanks to a suggestion from John, I have been applying some oxygen therapy to my electro-sensitivity with very satisfactory results. (I will be writing about it on the foodsmatter site early in the new year.) While I am not ‘cured’ (I don’t think one is ever ‘cured’ from such conditions, just better able to cope with them) I am a great deal better, and thefore less restricted in what I can do, than I was a year ago.
Although we do not know what goes on in the lives of most of those who visit and use the foodsmatter family of websites, forums and blogs, we do occasionally hear of people who are coping better or have found at least a partial answer to their problems. Please do report on your experiments and your successes and/or failures. (An email to info@foodsmatter.com will always find us.) We are always delighted to hear and, with your permission, to put them up on they site where they do give hope and encouragement to others who may not be quite so far down the coping/recovery road.
In terms of the foodsmatter family – although I do know that there are still a few Foods Matter subscribers who mourn the passing of the printed magazine, we are delighted with our first year as an on-line only operation. (Can it only be one year?….) We have gone from one site to four (although so seamless integrated that I doubt that any of you have ever noticed) while our fortnightly e-newsletter (sign up here if you haven’t already) has been a great success with even deeply sceptical ex-subscribers finding its easy links a great improvement on the original magazine.
Meanwhile, the FreeFromFood Awards have moved onto a different plane this year with seventeen sponsored categories, coeliac stalwarts, Juvela, as overall sponsors and over 100 freefrom manufacturers entering up to seven products each! Judging happens at the beginning of February, a shortlist will be out at the beginning of March and Antony Worrall Thompson will be handing out the awards on April 6th! Watch this space!!
So saying, I realise that it is already 11.20 and if I do not hurry I shall fail to have got to bed, read my book and gone to sleep before midnight tolls… So here’s wishing you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous new year and many more to come! From Michelle, Boris (as seen above), Mushkin and Frodo…