What’s that smell? Episode 5
<- Episode 4 Sweet potato. That was the first thing that Piglet ever ate: a sweet potato wedge. He was cautious at first (as were we, paranoid that he’d choke on it or inhale it or whatever else a nearly six month-old baby can do with a soft piece of food…) but he developed a…
Tragic News – Sesame Allergic Reaction
Front page of the BBC News – a 15-year girl died on a flight to Nice in the summer of 2016. The cause: an allergic reaction to sesame eaten in an Pret-a-Manger baguette. I am overcome with a variety of different emotions reading about this: Utter sadness that a child’s life was ended so early;…
Want a double entendre? Here, let me give you one!
I work in an office. It’s a fairly typical, open plan office for a modern, large business. It’s dull, fine, but dull. I am also commonly sleep deprived as is par for the course as the dad of a two year old. Conversation varies wildly from Fantasy Football leagues to how each employee’s favourite football…
Surprisingly Suitable – 21st Sept 2018
I thought I’d pull together a list of things that we can eat (i.e. dairy and soya free) that you might not have known were suitable. Effectively edible food hiding in plain sight! (I should point out that such is the nature of mine and Piglet’s allergies, we don’t usually have to avoid food that…
Zizzi and the entire dairy-free menu
Sunday was a trip into the big smoke to see some university friends we hadn’t seen for far too long. To be fair, most people fall into the category of ‘haven’t seen them for too long’; I think it’s just a bi-product of being two working parents of a two-year old child. Well, that and…
What’s that smell? Episode 4
<- Episode 3 It’s 11pm on a Tuesday evening in April 2016. I’m sat in my car – suddenly overcome by emotion and exhaustion. I’ve just moved it to free up a parking space outside the house for the midwife who is now tending to my wife. My wife who, to varying level of intensity,…
Sausage Rolls
So I feel a bit bad claiming this to be a ‘dairy-free’ or ‘soya free’ suggestion as it doesn’t actually include any substitute ingredients. However, it’s a really easy and tasty lunch/snack that adults and little Piglets will enjoy alike. It’s also the kind of thing that could well have butter in if you were…
Foggs in Windsor
There aren’t many non-big-chain coffee shops in Windsor. It’s crying out for something like the Boston Tea Party we had in Bath and Bristol, or Brew and Brownie as we recently found in York. I can’t help thinking that if someone was to tap into the barista-quality coffee market here; there’d be queues round the…
Dairy Free Milks
There are a lot of dairy-free alternative milks out there. I can honestly say I’ve tried most of them. To anyone hoping they’re going to taste like cow’s milk, they’re going to be bitterly disappointed. Having experimented with many of them, we’ve settled on Cashew Milk (it fits my tendency to only drink unnecessarily obnoxious…
What’s that smell? Episode 3
<- episode 2 Present day: I’m sat in bed in M&S pyjamas; typing on my new Bluetooth keyboard (I thought I’d treat myself on the back of reaching 10 whole blog posts!) having just finished a honey, lemon and ginger tea (the theme of pretentious drinks continues – maybe I should set up poshdrinkwanker.co.uk as…
Ah, Pizza Express, my comfort blanket of a restaurant!
Oh I do love P.E. No, not Physical Education. I don’t think it will take many of you by surprise to hear that I was not a physical Adonis of a school child. I was the kind of kid that got friction burns from playing rugby! I most certainly didn’t look forward to going out…
What’s that smell? Episode 2
<-episode 1 Once upon a time there was a boy called Louis. A cute, blond little boy (yes, I know… the years have not been kind!) who lived in Oxford with his parents and his sister. A slightly solitary but mostly content boy; as long as he wasn’t crying out in pain… I have to start…
Soya-free soy sauce
I love Asian food. Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Indian, Indonesian; brilliant for not only being delicious but also fairly good for not relying on Cow’s Milk as an ingredient. My love for Asian food is encouraged by the fact that my wife’s family are heavily linked to Asia; China, Malaysia and Singapore in particular. As a…
Longleat Adventure and Safari Park
Piglet was treated to an extended family day out today: A trip to Longleat Adventure and Safari Park with his parents and my dad and step-mum. Despite it only being 15 minutes from their house (and considering I lived there for a while after Uni) it seems funny that I’ve never been before and didn’t…
What’s that smell? Episode 1
Allergies suck! They do. They’re a pain in the a**e for an adult even when you supposedly have all the cognitive function to be able to plan around them/communicate the reactions/read the allergen menus/take calculated risks etc… but for a 6 month old baby, and the parents that slowly realise they’re poisoning their bundle of…
Tossed, not shaken or stirred
A quick review on the road: Travelling back from the stag do I stopped at Oxford Services for some lunch (and, more importantly, a coffee!). Service stations are often difficult; fast food, with an emphasis on fast can lead to poor service and difficulties in requesting allergy info. To be fair, the allergen info is…
A Dairy-Free Stag Do
Its Monday morning. I’ve just made myself fairly unpopular by forgetting to turn off my work-day alarm clock. Sore heads groan at being woken at 6:40 rather than the agreed 8:10 and I am now convinced that there is a business case for an AI alarm clock that checks if you really want it to…
The Oat Milk Test
Today we deliberately fed Piglet an allergen. Twice. Or at least we think did. One of the things that we found out when we were discovering Piglet’s allergies (another series of posts to come) was that in addition to milk and soya, he seemed to have a reaction to some other substitute milks as well.…
The Great Mimic
My son left for work today. He was on his bike, with his rucksack on, waving goodbye having ceremonially given Mummy and Daddy a “kiss and a cuddle” and announcing proudly that he was “going to work”. He headed out into the garden, astride his “ride it, sit on” (balance bike) to do whatever great…
Strattons Hotel
So when I first came up with the idea for this blog, it was posts like this that I was looking forward to. Sure, highlighting places that are getting it wrong or even just helping people make decisions of places to go/avoid seems worth doing in its own right; but singing the praises of a…