Killer Peanut saves the day!

I just chanced upon a website called Killer Peanut. Here you can generate, for free, personalised “alert cards” regarding your allergies in an array of different languages.

Whenever I’ve been travelling abroad, I’ve hunted out someone who can speak the language to do the translation for me, but this does the job perfectly. Not only do you get a little emergency card to put in your wallet, they also give you translations to explain your medication at Customs, find a chemist selling antihistamines, treatment instructions in the case of a reaction, and a guide to give to restaurants.

Now I just need somewhere to go abroad so I can try it out…

Yet more good news

I’ve never been so happy to have medical conditions. First, a legitimate excuse to eat fry ups. Then more reading through my Google Alerts, this time on allergies, brings us to this:

A new article in the December issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology provides strong evidence that allergies are much more than just an annoying immune malfunction. They may protect against certain types of cancer.

Yes indeedy. There has been much research into whether allergies aid, hinder, or do nothing to the body when trying to deal with cancer. Previous studies have suggested that all of the afore mentioned options may be the truth. so a team at Cornell University set off on a review of around 650 pieces of work.

The conclusion? Allergies seem to beef up the immune system, so as well as getting rid of infections it also becomes a pretty efficient way of shifting harmful stuff (like carcinogens and for some reason milk) away from organs which come into “direct contact with matter from the external environment”, like the GI tract and, apparently, the cervix (if only I had one to avoid becoming cancerous). Unfortunately:

Such inverse associations were found to be far less likely for cancers of more isolated tissues like the breast, meningeal brain cells and prostate

Better keep bashing the bishop for a long and healthy life, chaps.

Al Argee

This is a wonderful idea – Al Argee, a game to teach children about food allergies. “Al” is a stuffed toy, who suffers from one or more of the eight major food allergies. Children have to decide whether the food is safe for Al to eat (so teaching them about subtle things, like lactose being milk and leutin possibly coming from eggs), and if things go wrong they learn about the signs and symptoms of allergic reactions of varying severity. The idea is that the kids become attached to Al, and so want to look after him by ensuring he eats the right foods.

The only problem I can see with this is it might convince the kids that there only exist eight foods that people can be allergic to – then those with something obscure like a sodium metabisulphite allergy might have an even harder time convincing people that yes, they really are allergic to that, honest. But anything that teaches people from a young age that it’s not just being a “fussy eater” and that allergies are a serious life threatening condition is good in my books.

Recipe: Onion rings

Onion rings seem to always have egg in them (aside from the ones from Sainsbury’s, which although nice are pricey and not real onion rings anyway…

Ingredients:

• Four onions
• One can beer (Guinness works well)
• Two mugs of flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• Vegetable oil (for frying in)

Instructions:

• Put about an inch thickness of oil in a big pan. Pop on high heat to warm through.
• Mix the flour, beer, sugar and salt in a pot to a consitency like pancake batter. Get the lumps out by blending if you’re lazy.
• Slice the onions into rings – slice the top and bottom off, peel, then cut into thirds. Pop each ring out seperately into the batter.
• Check the oil is hot enough – drop a tiny bit of bread into it, if it floats and fries the oil is good to go.
• Pop the battered onion rings into the oil a few at a time using a slotted spoon. Fry until golden brown on the underside (~2mins?), then flip and repeat.
• Remove using the slotted spoon, and drain on some kitchen roll.

Following in the style of the first post, here’s another food based review!

Why break the habit of a lifetime? Or even just a few days? Today I visited a pub in deepest Norfolk for lunch, the Cat and Fiddle in East Rudham. And I was so impressed that I decided to write about it.

For starters, there was everything that you’d expect from a good pub. An aesthetically pleasing interior (though not so aesthetically pleasing clientele – fat women in thongs should not wear see-through skirts under any circumstances), a range of difficult but hard to find real ales, and friendly, welcoming staff. A clean, laid out table carried a clear, well stocked and very well priced lunch menu (at least by Leeds standards). Deciding to risk another potato and beans after last week’s attempt, I tentativly approached the bar with the standard “I have food allergies…” spiel prepared, Seamless Multipurpose Wear on head (sorry, but I had to work that in somewhere) and order in hand. To my suprise the bar man went and fetched the actual tin of beans they would use on my potato straight away. He was then joined by the chef/waitress lady, who explained her policies on such things as not putting butter on food by default, which is good for anyone watching their diet, let alone someone with a milk allergy. The bar man then went on to discuss his feelings on presentation of ingredients and additives in foods in a modern resturaunt, an idea that many places would be wise to adopt.

And just so you know, it was a damn nice potato too. It’s says a lot when the only thing you can find to complain about a place is that the fat lady sat at the bar was very inappropriately dressed, so if you read this blog, happen to be driving through North Norfolk in the near future, and want somewhere nice to stop that also deals well with food allergies, then the Cat and Fiddle is your place.

A Weblog, or Why I Hate The Cafe On Top Of Snowdon

See, I’ve finally been pushed over the edge. I now have a weblog. I promised never to have one, but now I do. I join the depressed livejournalers, disenchanted trade secret tellers, and other de-somethinged types that populate the blog-o-sphere (my word) with the stories of their lives, although mine promise to be significantly more mundane and boring than the average blogger (and a quick look around LiveJournal.com or MSN Spaces shows that the average blog is pretty damn mundane and boring). So why do I have a weblog?

There’s the obvious “keeping up with t3h J0n3z3z” thing going on, because as a (reformed) compsci, I should of course be at the forefront of all that is new and froody. And currently, all that is new and froody is having a blog. So here is mine, just to prove that I am as new and froody as the rest of you.

The major reason, however, is the godawful cafe at the top of Snowdon. I feel the world should be told.

After a long climb up the mountain, or an expensive train ride if you are lazy, you expect to be rewarded with a warm, friendly, well stocked cafe, and a place to sit and relax. Well no, in fact you expect to have a windy, cold trig point to stand next to and have a photo taken at. But if there was going to be a cafe, you’d expect it to be all those things I just said. The cafe on top of Snowdon is, as you’ll know if you’ve been there, not any of those things. The place was crowded, mainly with people who had just arrived on the train. There was nowhere to sit, at first, until another group gave up their treasued seats with a table to wander off back down the mountain. The food was over-priced, and in many cases not there. There were no ingredients for things available, and these weren’t presented even when I asked, at least not until I quoted the made up “1994 Food Labelling Act”, as written by Ana Dugdale in 2005. The hot drinks that the incompetent “serving” lady (who did no serving except of hot drinks) was so proud of all came out of two machines, meaning that I couldn’t even get a coffee as it would have been contaminated by the hot chocolates and white teas that came out of the same nozzle. And worst of all, the baked potatoes weren’t warm!

I want to now start an alternative “Snowdon Summit Campaign”. I wish to campaign for Tatties to take over the cafe at the top, or possibly Gardis if Tatties are unavalable. At least that was walkers will be gaurenteed friendly staff and good food at somewhere approaching a reasonable price for their efforts.

In other news, climbing Snowdon was trés fun. There’s a video of the intrepid adventurers half way up Crib Goch here

Does this mean I have to continue posting to the blog now?