intestinal distress, I love thee so

Eh, I feel horrible. Combination of not enough sleep and a bad, bad stomach - I've got a headache, nausea and horrendous wind, which is making me even more nauseous. I actually went to bed just after midnight, but couldn't get to sleep even though I was exhausted and sore-headed, so now I'm sitting in bed LJing until my body'll let me sleep.

I'll admit that some of the tummy trouble is my own fault - I ate a (not terribly large) amount of whipped cream today, but eh, I didn't expect it to be this bad. So I need to make a new Note To Self: Even with lactase enzyme tablets, I can't seem to eat any quantity of milk, cream or ice cream without real distress afterwards. I can have a reeeeally small amount of milk or butter in cakes or biscuits (like if a cake is made with margarine that's 60% vegetable oil and 10% butter) very occasionally, but liquid milk turns my insides to ugh - which means that all creamy sauces are out unless they're made with delicious soy milk. I can have one meal containing melted hard cheese once a week (preferably once a fortnight), but can't have any soft cheese or cheese sauces, and I've never eaten hard cheese unmelted, so I don't know if it'd be okay or not.

Left all this in a public entry in case people want to cook for me anytime. ( A bit more about what I can and can't eat. )

the rest of my day, or not death-by-lactose

Bittersweet day in general. It's a couple of weeks after the anniversary of Richard's mother's death, so we wanted to visit her grave. Wanted to go on the actual day, but we were doing something else, and as neither of us drive, we're dependent on there being someone with a car available.

So Richard & I and Tim & Peter got up horribly early - well, Peter is a morning person, so he probably bounced out of bed at daybreak by choice, but I dragged myself out of bed at 11 having only fallen asleep a couple of hours earlier - damned insomnia. We drove down to sunny Wiltshire, and it was... well, not sunny for one. Lovely day when we left home, halfway down the motorway and an enormous black cloud came overhead. Had lousy food at a Little Chef - I've had their Veggie Breakfast before and it's been absolutely fine, though more deep-fried than I'd eat by choice - but this one was Not So Good. Obviously different branches have different standards - avoid the one on the A303 at Popham! There's another two within half an hour on the same road, anyway!

Went up to the cemetary and ( Don't read this if it will upset you )

There wasn't much to see until we got near to Devizes, where we saw Stonehenge, burial mounds, and a couple of Victorian follies. And after the cemetary, we went to Avebury (Avesbury? never been sure if it's singular or plural), another stone circle near Stonehenge, but much older - and the main road drives straight through the middle of it, so you can see it without even getting out and walking. Although we went in memory of his mum, who took us there once on a freezing cold day in midwinter when it had been raining and the field the stones stand in was muddy, and she was wearing a pair of high-heeled shoes. Mad woman, absolutely mad I tell you. (Richard comes from a long line of eccentrics, on both sides). Then afterwards we went to Marlborough where there is a lovely place that does cream teas from 8.30am to 7pm, which should cater for most people. Then we drove home. Was nice to get out of London, but... *sigh*.