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Food is a major part of my life. It has been since I was little. If you come from a family like mine you would understand. Even before you have wiped the last vestiges of sleep from your eyes you are bombarded with the inevitable question. “What do you want to eat tonight?”  Well the good news is whatever it is it will be amazing, because my mother is without a doubt an amazing cook.

She can make a Malaysian rendang curry that titillates your senses, and her trifle is exquisite. In fact she is such a good cook that I think that quite possibly my husband fell in love with me after he tasted my mother’s cooking!

This spring I was struck down with a sudden inability to eat what I want. Shock. It all started in the months leading up to Easter. I kept getting stomach problems, pains in the upper chest. At one point I went to the doctors fearing that I was having a heart problem. My doctor confirmed that my heart was fine so I carried on.

I travelled up to Edinburgh on the train with my two teenage daughters and seemed to be fine. Then one morning I was woken with terrible stomach pains again. I went to my parent’s doctors surgery, and met with my first obstacle, I had to fill in a temporary patient form. The receptionist looked at me sympathetically, she asked, “Is it an emergency?” I began to wonder if it was. Luckily I managed to get an appointment the very same day. I was examined by a chatty Scottish doctor who I think thought I was tippling into the whisky. My gallbladder and liver area seemed tender. Ok so the week before I had consumed more than my usual amount as we had been partying, but I am not a heavy drinker! When I returned to see him after my blood tests he prodded my liver and said, “You’ve only got one of these.”  My heart sank. I forgave him his jocularity, I was even faintly amused, living in England for such a long time hadn’t made me forget the Scot’s wry sense of  humour. Well if you lived up in the cold all the time you would make weird jokes too, wouldn’t you?  Of course you would. Anyway, he meant well!

Well it looks likely that I had gallstones. Which I most probably have passed out of my system. I won’t dwell on this, I don’t want to put you off reading my blog. So everything should be ok now shouldn’t it? WRONG. Forget eating what I want. Enter bland, boring diet, plus no alcohol. GREAT. Let’s just hope that this settles down or disappears. This is when I really could do with a magic wand. Shame I write magical stories but can’t quite cure myself. It happens on paper but just not in real life.

Well spicy foods are off my list, plus chocolate, biscuits, cakes, puddings, coffee and tea.  Oh and of course no alcohol. Is there any point in living?  On the positive side, there are positives! I will most probably regain my flat stomach, a relic of the past. Also I can eat fruit. I love fruit.

For all those high calorie delicacies I get by stalking food on tumblr, salivating over cappuccinos,

cakes,

and donuts,

Photos Courtesy of Google Images.