Results are in

Well, I got the results of the food intolerance test on Wednesday and ho hum. As I knew already, it tells me I am intolerant to cow's milk and soya bean, but I am also intolerant to...all oily fish, turkey, chicken, duck, pork and lamb. I don't know where the duck and pork come from because I don't eat those (I will ask the nutritionist next week) but chick and turkey, oh dear. We have those a lot for dinner. Turkey came worse than chicken. The oily fish came from the omega 3 capsules I had been having and have now stopped taking those as I believe they could have been the cause of the recent IBS I've been suffering from in the mornings. My mum and I are going to go through the results thoroughly tomorrow so we can work out a menu without the meats for next week and maybe week after. I think the guide it came with says that it's best to eliminate the foods with a number 1 reaction (the lowest) because their antibody levels can reach normal first then the number 2. So it will be chicken and lamb first to eliminate, cow's milk and soya I already don't eat because I knew I couldn't eat them. I looked at the last test results I had done in 2006 and saw that both fish and meats were on there as well, so obviously I couldn't eat them then. I can eat beef as it was on borderline, which means that I may or may not benefit from deleting it from my diet, but I won't. I might investigate quorn as a meat replacement. I will enter the results here as well as in the food diary they have given me. So watch this space. I have a phone appointment with a nutritionist next Wednesday to discuss the results and ask questions about adjusting my diet, which I really need help with if I can't eat meats. Again watch this space....

Back to work now.

Good and bad news

Bad news is that I got an email yesterday from a magazine editor that I sent a short story to and she rejected it. I now have to think what to do about it. I might send it elsewhere or send it for a critique. We shall see.

The good news is that I got another email and this one was from the features editor of The Lady magazine. She said that they have only just found a viewpoint piece I'd sent them and were still interested in it if I could reduce the words and generalise it more then I could resend it to them. I replied, yes I would do that and get back to them with it. So last night, after a lot of searching, I found the piece and printed it out and will work on it this week to hopefully get it back to them next week. It's all happening.

Back to work now.

Star letter in Natural Health

On Wednesday evening I got home to find the new issue of Natural Health magazine had been posted to me. Remembering I had written a letter to them about going organic with clothes, I eagerly browsed to the letters page and what do I find? My letter is the star letter. And for that privilege, what do I get? A set of natural skincare products worth £80, yes, you saw right, £80. I was so excited as that is the most expensive prize I've ever won for any of my letters. I will probably take a photo of it when it comes and put it on here or on my website for all to see. If you buy Natural Health magazine, it is on page 93 and you can see the prize awarded at the bottom of the page.

On another good note. I phoned my publisher this morning to ask if they had an idea when Rosie will be published and answer was...possibly May. May!!! Hurrah. I will send the final proofs back to them next week, then they check it themselves for any errors, then they send me the cover proof, which I can't wait to see what cover they have chosen for me, then that is checked again and amended if need be, then it goes for printing. Oh my word. All exciting.

On the note of food intolerances. I can't wait to see what my results come up with next week as I had diarrhoea yesterday after eating chicken curry with lots of rice for dinner the night before or eating Millet porridge that morning. I ended up leaving work early, which I hated doing but I didn't feel right at all. Will let you know the results when I get them.

Back to work now.

Results

My mum phoned me earlier to say that there was a message from York Test lab's about my test and to ring them back. I did and it is as I thought, positive. I have paid for the next test, which scans for 113 foods I believe, and they use the blood sample from before for it. I now have to wait for the report to see which foods I am reacting to in my diet at the moment, and then get a support pack and an appointment on the phone with a nutritionist to discuss the results and what to do about them. V interested to read what foods they come up with, and if it includes foods I think I am intolerant to. Shall find out within 10 days.

On another note, I didn't go to the talk last week. I saw the weather forecast at lunch and saw the snow to come that evening. It did snow, and might have caused train problems if I'd gone. There's one in April I've been told so look forward to that one, wherever it is. Thankfully the snow had gone the next day so managed to go shopping that day.

I am back at work now, so must get on with it. Will put the results of my second test here when I get them, if I'm not in too much of shock.

Final Proofs

I received the final proofs of Rosie on Monday. Thankfully I am at home on holiday this week so I am reading them during the day instead of the evening like before. This time they want me to get someone else, who hasn't seen the book yet, to read for any errors. I have got my mum to read it too. Once that is done then it goes to the printers and another wait....before it goes out to the shops. Meantime I am still working hard on revising Allie. I don't think I will be able to get it down to 50,000 words so I will aim for 55,000. I have read in a book I got for Xmas that the book can be as long as the story needs to be told. I liked that because I don't think I can cut anymore of Allie without deleting things I want to tell. I am also going to send stories to a magazine and competitions, and I have recently sent an email letter to a green magazine, and have an idea for another health magazine or 2. We shall see what happens.

Tomorrow evening I am off to the Southbank Centre, if I can find it, to a writer's network meeting. Look forward to that because there is a literature festival being held there from tomorrow, so we can see that at the same time. Should be interesting.

I will get back here later this week to let you know how tomorrow went.

Computers!?!

I have major problems with my home computer at the moments. It comes up that my 'display adapter' hasn't configured properly and the graphics are magnified. I got my brother, who's a computer techie, to come over and help. The computer went blank when he worked on it and he had to take it back to his house to work on, and thankfully managed to get it working again. But the graphics are still the same. He has told me that it is a common problem which happens just like that. I am going to get a laptop, which I will probably use mainly for the internet as it will be awkward to use the pc for that with magnified screens.

Well, am on leave next week so will buy one then and will go shopping here and there, if it doesn't snow anymore.

Will be back here next week sometime.