Updates On My Life

[andrewducker]

1) I AM ON HOLIDAY. YAAAAAAY! Three days in NI with Julie's family, and then a week in The Lake District, wandering around woods and sploshing around the pool at Center Parcs. I am looking forward to that a staggeringly large amount.

2) My phone is now switched over to GiffGaff. Worked very smoothly, except for having to set up my phone's various settings to work with it (APN, voicemail number, etc), which was a little faffy, but bearable. I now get my unlimited internet/texts for £10/month. And they do something that I've never seen before - after each call I get a message popping up on my screen telling me how many of my included minutes I have left. Now that's useful.

3) My laptop charger stopped charging a few days ago. If the cable was held at just the right angle it was fine, but if after a few seconds it would move very slightly and stop again. I was very worried that it was the charging port, but I ordered a new charger, and that works perfectly, which I am very grateful for, as I really didn't want to spend £400 on a new laptop.

4) Julie has also finished her latest chapter and sent it to her supervisor, so we are now free! Free to tidy the flat for when my Mum arrives the day after we get back from holiday! Yay!

5) Following the prodding of many people, primarily fjm I have decided to eat some wheat each day so that I can be tested for coeliac. I can put up with the uncomfortableness and occasional hiding in the toilet, and Julie says that she can also put up with the consequences, so in 5-ish weeks I can find out how severe I need to be with my gluten restrictions. Joy! I am very intrigued to discover whether a week of lower stress levels makes a significant difference.

6) HOLIDAY! DID I MENTION?

7)
(via draxar)

Comments

[pozorvlak.livejournal.com]

What's coverage like with GiffGaff?

[andrewducker]

They use O2's masts.

If you're giving them a go then the link above is an affiliate one, which will give both of us a fiver if you sign up through it.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Holiday = good.

Centreparcs were most enjoyable when MLW et al went there last year.

[kashandara.livejournal.com]

2) The message about your remaining minutes sounds incredibly useful. I've been looking at giffgaff with interest for a while now as I love the coverage I get with O2 but they're currently only cheap because I'm still on the same deal I set up lots of years ago. Is the unlimited internet REALLY unlimited as I'm considering upgrading to a proper smart phone and I don't want to not be able to play with it fully.

3) My current laptop has had exactly the same issue 3 times now and on all three it's been the cable not the dock. Thankfully, but it'd be nice if they made the cables a little hardier.

[andrewducker]

It does not include tethering, so if you attach it to a laptop and start downloading gobs of data that way then they'll cut you off. But browsing the forums the only people who seem to have been cut off otherwise are people who were literally downloading TV for hours a day onto their phone. And even then, they were told that they could get it turned back on by talking to a support rep. So if you just want to watch the occasional video, surf the web a lot, update music, etc. then you will be just fine.

And, as I said above, you get a fiver free if you use the link above!

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Have a wonderful holiday! Hope the gluten eating isn't too horrible.

[zz]

*love* that picture.

[pigwotflies.livejournal.com]

Aw, yay! Enjoy your holiday.

[ophelia-complex.livejournal.com]

Happy hols! being totally gluten free isn't too bad, my mum has serious coealiac condition and manages very well on it.

I loved that cartoon you posted a while back about darkness and the periodic table, can you repost?

[dreema.livejournal.com]

hope you both have a good holiday :)

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

If you do end up gluten-free then just ditch it. You know it makes you feel crap - I am a bit puzzled as to why you want to suffer just to (maybe) get an offcial label but hey ho.

Anyway, just to tell you that life totally without any form of wheat (or grain) product is actually a doddle - you just have to have a change of attitude to get away from the social programming that says OMG BREAD IS LIFE!!!

I'd recommend that you read The Diet Delusion by Gary Taubes, that will give you nice info on why all the things you'll be eating more of (like meat and fat) are NOT in fact bad for you in the way that the popular opinion insists (and will entertain you with the skullduiggery as to why that IS the popular opinion!)

I wouldn't bother with any "substitutes" - just eat meals consisting of meat/fish/nuts/eggs/veggies/small amts fruit/dairy (if that's not an issue) and don't fear the fat! You need to make sure you don't go hungry and if you try low fat with this you probably will. Leave out the unecessary starchy filler totally - not just wheat etc. also ditch the rice/potatoes/corn etc. You mentioned you also have blood sugar issues, so this will very probably make you feel tons better (and lose fat if you have any to lose - THIS bit I guarantee).

Yeah, your food bills will go up a wee bit, and you will probably have to prep your own lunches (soup or salad are good) unless you want to pay over the odds for ready-prepped salads etc, but it's really not hard. I eat like this 99% of the time, only really eat bread/pasta etc. [and subsequently suffer wind and lethargy] when it'd be really awkward/rude not to and sometimes not even then as I just have the part of the meal that's meat/veg and just leave the starch. It really is not hard at all. Just have to ditch the 'brainwashing'....

[andrewducker]

It's harder than that. At the moment I'm happily 99% gluten free. But, for instance, the local supermarkets only have soy sauce that has wheat in it. I don't worry about that right now, but if I'm coeliac then I'll make the effort to order some gluten-free stuff in. And there's lots of little things like that, where it turns out that something innocuous has a small amount of wheat starch in it as a binder, or similar. Or most gravy powder/thickener.

Cutting out bread and pasta is a doddle (although I do miss them). Cutting out all of the things that use wheat in them at all is much harder. And it will make many restaurant trips trickier, as lots of sauces will contain wheat in them, hidden deep in the seasonings.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

ah - I never use sauces, rarely use condiments (mustard only one I can think of) and don't often eat out, so I never thought of that.