Food intolerances

I have decided to have a foodscan intolerance test by York Test people, which is brave of me because it involves pin-pricking a finger to get blood out, and I hate needles. I managed to survive it a few years ago when I did the last one so will this time. I originally wanted to do one in a Holland & Barretts but they only test during the week and I didn't want to take time off work just for that. So I have decided to have it done properly, in the comfort of my own home. I only did the First Step test last time and this time if I get a positive result (I'm intolerant to a food) then I will go on to do the Second Step test which scans for 113 foods. I won't have to do another pin-prick test if I apply within 30 days of the last test because they can use the same blood sample. If I do this then that will be it and I won't do it again because I will know one way or another what I am intolerant to and what not. So watch this space as I will put the results on an entry here.

I can't believe it!

What can't I believe? That I read in the paper over the weekend that Spandau Ballet are reuniting for an anniversary tour. I can't believe it because I didn't think I'd see the day that they'd patch their differences up and get together again. They split in 1990 and had a very acrimonious row over royalties costing Tony, John and Steve £100,00 and then later there was a dispute about Tony etc using the band name. Now they have managed to put those differences aside and reunited to do a tour starting later this year. Don't think I'd go and see them although I used to be a fan of theirs in the 80s and 90s. I have grown out of them now and have other interests that use my time better.

Children in the future

Following on from my last discussion here, did anyone see the pictures in the paper the other day of children who had been digitally enhanced to see what they looked like in 2050? I did. This is not the first time I have seen something like this. A few years ago there was a TV programe called Honey, We're Killing the Kids where they digitally enhanced the children of the families involved to see what they looked like over the years. It was shocking to the parents and made the parents get their children fit and healthy. It worked for the children who saw their future photos recently. This is something that I mentioned in Rosie. The TV programme I mentioned gave me the idea for Rosie to click her fingers and produce an image of what her friends looked like in the futre to shock them into helping themselves. It is a good idea and should be made available to all parents of children who could be obese, esp those 2 year olds I previously mentioned.

Well, have a good weekend.

Living then and now

I have just read Jean Fullerton's (www.jeanfullerton.com) first book No Cure for Love which is sent in the 1830s and it set me thinking about how people lived then and how we do now. In Jean's book it mentions that people died from diseases due to poor living conditions, which was how they did die then, but now it has gone the other way. Living for us is much much better and there is so much choice for us that we have abused it, esp food, and the consequences is that people are dying due to diseases of greed, ie obesity which causes heart disease, strokes etc. And it's not adults only. There was a report in the paper last week of children as young as two (yes, 2) being admitted to hospital for obesity. I thought what are these parents doing. I agreed with Dr Miriam Stoppard who wrote in her column that it's all down to the parents. I think this is one of the reasons I wrote Rosie and the Sick School (inspired partly by Jamie's School Dinners programme) to get my thoughts across to children. I get angry whenever I read something in the papers about children being fat. I do think that the parents should take some of the blame so therefore should take action themselves. So come on people out there, think about this: your children are our future, and what future will there be if they die before you.

There, I've had my say and rant. Back to work now.

Excitement and frustration

The excitement was yesterday when my brother et al came over to see us. As he was ill over Christmas, we still had presents to give and receive, so we all opened our Christmas presents. I got what I asked for, namely the Childrens' Writers' and Artists Year Book 09 and Writing for Children by Linda Strachan, which has info about making the best of the time at library and school visits, plus my mum and I both got 2 lots of sweets (not chocolate) just as I'd decided I wanted to start cutting down and being sensible with food. They had cakes while I ate some marshmallows (one of the packets of sweets I got). They stayed for a couple of hours and went home.

The frustration is being back at work and having to cope with very very slow computers. It's a global problem and it's hindering our work here. It is so annoying. It's taking much longer to type and print letters than it usually does. I am hoping that it will be solved asap. Apparently the problem is the Microsoft update that the machines are doing which is taking up all the memory on the computers and making everything else slow. Grrr..... I shall try and get on with some more work now.

See you soon.

New Year, New Me

Happy new year to all my blog readers, esp Nell who commented on my last post. I hope everyone has a healthy year. Which brings me to my new year's resolutations. Firstly, healthwise, I want to get my health back on track this year as last year I was off work a lot sick for various reasons and want to remedy that. My first aim is to not eat anything which has any form of milk in, inc whey etc. I did last year and wonder now if that has caused my stuffiness. We shall see. I have stopped eating bananas but it's not made much difference yet.

The second resolutions are for my writing. Basically, I want to write more letters and stories for magazines, and get paid for them, and with the first book coming out this year (so excited) I want to try to be brave and get me and my name out there. I have already started by creating a new website for myself and am very excited about it because it's something I didn't think I could do and have done. I still have a bit of work to put on it but it is now out there, so come and visit me on www.julieaday.moonfruit.com. I have a health and beauty page on it and I am working in my mind that is what I want to highlight all my passions about that subject on, so watch that page. Also, any photos that I take about my writing life, will appear on there somewhere. I am getting organised and getting my name out there. Oh yes, and one last thing, I want to get my second book Allie accepted by my publisher. I have been revising hard on it as I ended up making it over 63,000 words which is far too long for the age range it's intended for, and now with revisions it's just over 60,000 words, so am doing something right.

Well, here's wishing you all a prosperous new year and fulfulled with lots of writing.