Our nephew's 18 month old goes to a child minder a couple of days a week. They received a call recently to say that they need to take him to a behavioural psychologist because he got upset when a number of older children surrounded him. Apparently these older children were the kids of the childminder, plus their friends, who were off school for the holiday and playing in the garden during the child minding period. Surely the child minder should be more concerned about the older kids hurting toddlers, than a small child naturally being nervous in that situation. Little 'uns have spent so much time alone, or just with parents, in the past 18 months it's no surprise that they react more to strange situations. He is actually great with smaller numbers of people of any age.
Next - the standard 'Lycra Lout' ignoring red lights this morning. Police really do need to crack down on that behaviour.
Finally, went into our local M&S food hall this morning. None of the tills were open so I toddled off for a coffee then went back in. There was one till in operation but as I was going to get a basket, a supervisor moved a trolley in front of the till and told a lady who was waiting to be served to use the self service points. It was only a matter of 20 minutes between visits so the person on the till is unlikely to have been going on a break. I left again. If I'd been the woman who was blocked from using the till I'd have given my basket to the supervisor and walked out. If I want to operate a till I'll apply for a job in a supermarket.
OH is allergic to soy. It's one of the allergens that has to be in bold on packaging. If you have to avoid it, you're going to find it very difficult. No factory made bread, cakes or biscuits and no chocolate.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
When you consider how many foodstuffs there are that can cause an allergic reaction, it doesn't leave an awful lot of choice
There was an extremely allergic girl when I was at school. From memory, she was allergic to wheat, milk, potatoes, green veg, fruit with stones in, fish, seafood, beef, pork and lamb. Her parents sent her to school with a taped shut lunchbox that she wasn't allowed to open until a teacher had shut her in an empty classroom. Must have driven her parents crazy.
A bloke just spent an hour or so stacking bricks from the building site next door into his van. From the stacking I reckon he got about 5-600 bricks in there. Say 3kgs per brick so a ton and a half of bricks. It was one of those car sized Ford vans which Google says can take up to about 900kgs including the driver. I hope he isn't going far and doesn't need to stop in a hurry
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I used to work in the same company as a young woman who had a severe peanut allergy. She once had a reaction (anaphylaxis) when someone opened a packet of chocolate-coated peanut M&Ms at the far side of a large office. She had never said her allergy was that severe so no-one knew until after the event. She said later that she hadn't wanted to bother anyone. Fortunately she carried two epi-pens at all times and knew how to use them at the first hint of a reaction. Nurseries obviously aren't prepared to take the chance that a child might react like that.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
We had a note come round our office once asking that nobody bring oranges in on a specific date as there would be a visitor who had a severe allergic reaction just to the smell of them. Not an allergy I'd ever heard of before that.
I'm glad they're cautious about these things but I've never had to deal with allergies before now and having to rethink the kid's lunches in a hurry is proving even trickier when I have to read every package and work out what ingredients aren't allowed. I feel sorry for people who have to deal with this every day.
Another label grump: The orchid fertiliser I use for my tillandsia now comes with a big warning label on one side promising serious eye irritation. It's never been on the bottle before so either I've been dicing with death or they've changed the recipe.
Brickman came back for the last half-pallet of bricks. No serious dents or blood on the bonnet so I hope that means the first trip went ok.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I managed to develop a mustard allergy in my 60s. Loved mustard before that - sandwiches, cheese sauces...then one Saturday had a curry that I'd made 1000 times before and tingling itchy fingers, red blotches, swollen tongue and lips - the full Archibald Snatcher. Didn't even realise it was an allergy and thought I'd had a dodgy prawn (as my son was fine, but he doesn't like prawns - so I saw that as the only difference in the food). Took a few hours to subside. Thought nothing more of it. Then the next curry - blam - hit again. This time worse. I promised my son if it happened again I'd see a doctor. Just after Christmas we had some cauliflower left and my son was out - so I thought I'd have a nice cauliflower cheese - loads of wholegrain mustard. Tasty. Bolted down the first plate, and just started on my 'seconds' and the symptoms kicked in. This time hard to swallow and the symptoms lasted all evening and into the next morning - bloody scary. Given that I'd had cheese and cauliflower in between bouts, I checked the Madras curry powder for it's ingredients - and lo and behold - mustard. The doc was a bit scolding when I spoke to them (@B3 - pronouns?) - saying the attacks can abate and come back and hour plus later and that I was lucky.
Proved the point a few weeks later when we had some frozen beer battered fish that triggered the allergy and the battered fish had mustard.
How does that work? Decades of no problem, then an allergy that causes anaphylaxis... barking. And for anyone else who needs to use an epi pen - make sure you check the dates on the pens! I didn't realise they had a shelf life and had two pens that were out of date.
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“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Must have driven her parents crazy.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.