Yum

John bought me some gluten free chocolate chip and pecan biscuits last night. I just had one. It was delicious. That is all.

The new job

Right so I shall take a minute before lunch to blog about the new job. I feel like I am starting to get settled in now, but then it does not take much to throw me off track. I am haunted by the feeling that any day now someone is going to walk into my office and tell me it has all been some kind of cruel joke and they never meant to employ me. The feeling that I am playing at being a Professor is a prominent one. However, I do love it here. TCU seems like a fabulous place to work and study. The more I learn about the university the more I realise how lucky I am to be here. But enough of the abstract thoughts let's deal with some facts.

1. My office here is bigger than my last flat. It is still in need of some bookcases, I am getting a little tired of my books being on the floor but they are on order and with all the space I have there is really very little room to complain.
2. A lot of the faculty eat lunch together every day. This is nice. It makes me feel welcome.
3. I love being back on a campus and this campus is great as there are not the mass amounts of undergrads around that Tennessee had (my fellow TN grad students will understand this one).
4. The nameplate on my door says Dr. Mayne and people keep calling me Dr. or Professor. Today I got an email to Professor Rhiannon. It made me laugh, overall it just seems silly and I feel very old.
5. There are so many meteorites here to play with. I need to spend more time playing with them.
6. I am taking just about every course the university offers at the moment. It is scary how much I have to learn.
7. I love my job.

Scolded

I received an email today pointing out my recent blogging inadequacies and thoroughly scolding me for them. I apologise. I do feel like I have been busy but I have not been busy enough to justify not sitting down for five or ten minutes every few days to write a little. Blogging is one of those things that is so easy to put off till tomorrow.

So what have I been up to?

Well obviously we moved to Texas. John and I are now residents of Fort Worth. John is only here two weeks a month though, the rest of the time he is still in DC so he can keep his current job. We are hoping he'll find something here soon as, quite selfishly, I want him here as I miss him when he's gone. I am now in the throes of my job at TCU and I love it. It is all a bit overwhelming and deserving of a blog entry of its own really so I won't go on about it here.

The last two months have also seen me attend three weddings in the UK (well one was a vow renewal but it counts as it was the wedding they never had). I felt so fortunate to get to all of them and had a wonderful time at every one. It is so interesting to see the personal spin every bride (and groom) puts on their big day. I actually only just returned from wedding number 3 last night. I went to the UK for the weekend - not something I would recommend but totally worth it to see the people involved become husband and wife.

Right well I will probably expand on all the points above in future blogs... well I intend to but let's see if it happens, no promises. For now I need to go and teach.

Darn and blast it

I have gone and forgotten the one thing I needed to do my work today. Bother!

Ho hum....

Now can I find something else to do or shall there be much thumb twiddling?

Food glorious food

My black bean lasagne was lovely, well I thought so anyway. John seemed to like it but I am beginning to wonder if the boy will ever say anything I cook tastes bad... so he might not be the person to ask.

We bought goat sausages today - another unusual one to add to the list.

My legs are a bit wibbly wobbly from the gym earlier. I have been trying to go every day this week to combat the massive amounts of stress the move seems to be putting me under. Trying to finish everything at old job, preparing for new job, visa worries, and the whole packing thing is just too much. On the plus side I have three wonderful things to look forward to soon - WEDDINGS!!!!

What I have eaten this week that you may not have

The new no gluten, no dairy me has made things a leetle interesting on the food front. I have been trying a lot of new foods and this week has been no exception. So far:

1. A cake with no wheat flour, eggs, or dairy - instead it had chickpea flour and tofu in it. Odd. I made lemon chiffon cupcakes. They were not truly awful but would I prefer a "normal" fairy cake, why yes, yes I would.
2. Umeboshi paste. This is made from pickled Ume (some fruit somewhere between an apricot and a plum - Japanese thing). I did not eat this neat, I made rice balls covered in toasted sesame seeds and the umeboshi went in the rice. They were delicious, especially served with:
3. Tamari. This is just wheat free soy sauce really.
   
4. Three different kinds of milk, none of which were from a cow (or any animal actually). These were rice, soy, and almond.
5. Ice cream made from coconut milk (guess that makes four types of milk). I think I prefer coconut milk ice cream to the ordinary cow based.
   

Tomorrow I will be making a pasta, dairy, and meat-free lasagne! (Black bean lasagne - corn tortillas instead of the noodles and I have soy cheese and sour cream).

Countdown to Texas

This weekend I have actually commenced the packing up of all my belongings. Cannot believe it has been a year since I moved here, time has flown by.. but in some ways I feel like I have lived here for much longer than that. My landlords invited me for dinner last night and their kids made me feel very guilty for leaving. Nothing like a 6 year old pouting and getting upset for laying on a guilt trip!

I guess my biggest news of late is my new eating habits. I decided enough was enough with my digestive and stomach issues and I tried the elimination diet. The way it is supposed to work is that you cut a ton of food groups out of your diet for a while and then reintroduce them one by one to see if any of them cause your symptoms. I got a few big red flags:

1. Dairy - well I knew this one, but I guess it is good to have it confirmed.
2. Wheat (gluten)- this is the big killer, wheat is in so many yummy yummy things that I love to eat (pasta, bread, cakes, crackers, soy sauce.. it is in freaking everything). However, wheat also seems to be the worst thing for me, every time I eat it I suffer.

So I am now a dairy and gluten free eater. I feel fabulous. On first glance it seems like a really difficult thing to do but the payoff is so great that it has been easier than I thought it would be... so far anyway. Have to see if I can keep it up.

Hmmm what else:

• I was supposed to be in France last week and then in the UK for my friend's hen party yesterday. Alas I went nowhere because of the issues related with having to get a new visa. I am really sad I couldn't go but the extra time here is much needed.
• John and I have been together for a year now. That seems incredible. I get all soppy thinking about it, which isn't like me so I'll shut up now. I am so excited to move to Texas with him.
• My motivation at work is severely lacking. Urgh.
• I am going to go make my lunch now. Roasted tomatoes with toasted pine nuts and basil in RICE pasta. Yay for rice pasta.