Month: February 2005

  • My new laptop, Holly's Baby (Baby for short), is finally, finally allowing me to log into Xanga.  And email.  And anything else that requires a cookie.   The pre-installed Norton firewall seems to have taken a dislike to cookies.  Sigh.


    James-the-helpdesk's mitt is finished, he's damn ungrateful or taking the mick again.  Jo thinks he's lovely though.  I reckon today's day in the office was gorgeous partly  because he wasn't in it for most of the day.  In fact, very few people were.  It was peaceful, I managed to extract information out of Fran with the minimum of fuss, and I achieved stuff.


    And Andy said the loveliest thing as he left.  He told me I was a marvellous, intelligent, clever girl, and that I'd go far.  How wonderful.


    I'm really going to miss him. 


    xxx

  • Things have obviously come to a pretty pass, I am sending a Valentine's day card to a two headed, three armed, teddy bear.


    The nice thing about sending a card to a teddy bear is that there is no chance of a reply; they can't hold pens very easily.  So you are spared the disappointment before it's even begun.  I do hope someone helps him open it.  Liz has written the most wonderful poem to go into the card, and I've written it out in my best handwriting.  Photo to follow when I've got my act together and am seated in the same room as the cable and the camera and the laptop.  Two out of three aint bad, right?


    xxx

  • A Plea


    I've got under two months to finish off my Queen's Guide Award Community Action Section.  In my infinite wisdom, I thought it would be a good idea to construct an interactive website about food intolerances, to help people who have intolerances and allergies work out how to deal with them, and give suggestions for alternative foods, and have their own personalised profiles to make life easier at dinner parties etc.  It's called What I Can Eat (or WICE for short - there's nothing public on the site at the moment, so no links).


    Anyhow.  I'm working on the blurb to go on the site, and also in the project folder (there has to be a presentation, preferably before the end of March), and I'd love a little help here.


    If you have a food intolerance/allergy, please could you answer my questionnaire, preferably emailing the results back to me (use the thingy at the side of the page, I can't get my encryption script to work).



     


    Food Allergies and Intolerances: A Questionnaire (return before 1st March 2005)


     


    I know that this questionnaire can’t be entirely anonymous, since I’m asking you to return it via email (I can’t work out a quick way of having it returnable as a form).Please, don’t answer anything that you feel is intrusive.


     


    1.How many allergies/intolerances do you have?


     


    2.What are they?


     


    3.Which is the easiest to cope with, and why?


     


    4.Which is the hardest to cope with, and why?


     


    5.Do you tend to avoid the food(s) you are intolerant to (e.g. no pasta at all), or do you prefer to make direct substitutions (e.g. wheat free pasta for pasta)?


     


    6.What would you like help with, regarding your diet?


     


    7.What ‘top tips’ can you recommend?


     


    8.How did you find out that you had a food intolerance/allergy?


     


    9.Was your GP helpful?


     


    10.Were you referred to a specialist?


     


    11.If not, did you seek specialist help on your own? If you did not seek help, why not?


     


    12.What is your favourite shop for substitute foods?


     


    13.What is your favourite brand of substitute foods?


     


    14.Do you have any other comments?


     


     




    I'm having a bit of a crisis about it all, since there is so little time, so I would appreciate it  if you could spend a little time on me, and, if you can, forward on the questionnaire to anyone who might like to help?  The Community Action can be local - but has to show the potential to be at least national.  I'm going global.


     


    xxx