One food I've particularly missed since being diagnosed coeliac in February is pies. I never used to eat that many of them, but I always enjoyed them a lot when I did. But gluten-free pastry is not the easiest of things to make, so I regretfully resigned myself to a pie-free life.

Yesterday I decided to make a pie regardless, using gluten-free flour for the pastry; I had found some GF flour which (a) had a pastry recipe on the side of the pack and (b) came recommended taste-wise by a non-coeliac (which tends to mean they can't easily tell the difference). Got to be worth a try, I thought.

In fact I didn't end up making the pie myself, due to mentioning the plan to Gareth and Verity on the phone; the next thing I knew it was being made at the Gallery on the grounds that they already had all the necessary equipment whereas I'd have had to go and buy it first, and also Verity did most of the work on grounds of having a lot more pastry-cooking experience. The result was definitely not indistinguishable from normal pastry; but it was undeniably a beef and mushroom pie, and it was the first pastry I'd eaten since February, and mmmmmmmm. Definitely something I'll attempt myself at some point.

In other news, this is possibly one of the more surprising ways to find out what became of one of your exes: http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/mail/news/tm_objectid=15642946&method=full&siteid=50002&headline=mp-in-love-child-shock-name_page.html.