New products from Udi's Gluten Free

Blog post about some of the new products available from Udi's Gluten Free.

At the recent Allergy and Free From Show in London I spotted some of the new gluten free products from Udi's Gluten Free.

Following feedback from customers since the UK launch in 2013 Udi's have launched 27 new gluten free products.

I was given samples of the new Soft n' Chewy Chocolate Banana Cereal Bars, Chocolate Flavour Sandwich Cookies and the Milk Chocolate Wafers by the Udi's team at the Allergy and Free From Show. So far I've had one of the chocolate banana bars, which was nice

Yesterday I received a nice surprise hamper from Udi's!

It's always nice to receive a surprise food hamper! Especially when you know all of the contents will be gluten free and suitable for coeliacs!

Last December I blogged about the first products launched in the Udi's Gluten Free range, and its going to be great trying the new products which all sound interesting and tasty.

In my pre-Coeliac Disease days, back when I was able to eat a 'normal' diet, I wasn't a big fan of bagels. However, that changed when I tried the Udi's Cinnamon & Raisin Bagels. The chocolate chip ones sound even better. Everything tastes better if its got chocolate in it!

The gluten free hamper contents were Soft & Tasty Chocolate Chip Bagels,Soft & Delicious Blueberry Muffins, Soft & Chewy Cherry Flavoured Breakfast Bars, Chocolate Flavour Sandwich Cookies and the Lemon Flavoured Wafers

I'll be scoffing my way through the new products in the coming weeks, I think i'll start with a toasted bagel, followed by a blueberry muffin...

Udi's Gluten Free launched here in the UK at the end of last year and have been operating in the USA since 1994. Check out the Udi's website for further details of their range and stockists near you.

The Udi's philosophy is creating great gluten free foods that bring happiness. Read more of the Udi's story, from starting out in Colorado, USA in 1994 to the UK launch on the Udi's website.

Udi's Gluten Free was the headline sponsor of the recent Allergy & Free From Show at Olympia.

A wall of Udi's gluten free products at the Allergy and Free From Show in London, including some of the 27 new products added to the range

If you missed that event then you can attend the Allergy and Free From Show North that is taking place on the 25th & 26th of October at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool.

Links:
- Udi's Gluten Free UK
- Udi's Gluten Free USA

Related blog posts:
- Udi’s Gluten Free – more than just mince pies
- Awareness Week: Coeliac Facts from Udi's Gluten Free
- The Allergy and Free From Show 2014 at Olympia
- Gluten Free
- Coeliac

The Allergy and Free From Show 2014 at Olympia

Visiting the Allergy and Free From Show at Olympia.

My haul of information and freebies from the Allergy and Free From Show

Today I visited day two of the three day Allergy and Free From Show at Olympia in London. The event had dozens of suppliers, thousands of free from products and tens of thousands of people with allergies, intolerances, sensitivities and autoimmune diseases, disorders and conditions (such as Coeliac Disease).

Among the thousands of 'free from' products at the event were many I hadn't seen or tasted before, such as those from Delicious Alchemy, Venice Bakery, Focaccia per Tutti and 1-2-3 Gluten Free.

The Allergy and Free From Show 2014 at Olympia

I spent a good four hours checking out the stands, finding out product information and sampling food and drink. It was great to see some of my favourite gluten and wheat free brands at the show, including Celia Lager, Honeyrose Bakery, Eskal Foods, Kabuto Noodles, and the event's headline sponsor Udi's Gluten Free.

Udi's Gluten Free are the headline sponsor of the event and I picked up three of their products I haven't tried yet

I also really enjoyed speaking to a number of people who are really passionate about providing great quality (and interesting) food and drink for people with Coeliac Disease and getting info on their brands.

Visit the Allergy and Free From Show website for details on how to attend the third and final day.

The 2014 Allergy and Free From Show is co-locating with three other shows at Olympia and if you attend you can also visit the V Delicious, Love Natural Love Organic and The Back Pain Show.

If you can't make the final day of the 2014 London show then you can attend the Allergy and Free From Show North that is taking place on the 25th and 26th of October at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool.

Its going to take me a while to digest all the information from the event and I'll be writing more blog posts about my visit and all the great gluten & wheat free food and drink I tried and discovered at the show in the coming weeks.

I'm always keen to find out about gluten and wheat free brands that are suitable for people with Coeliac Disease so please do get in touch if you know of any, or are a producer/supplier.

Links:
- The Allergy and Free From Show
- Udi's Gluten Free
- Coeliac UK
- Gluten Free related blog posts on the Ham & Egger Files

UrbanCrazy Blog Post - The UrbanCrazy World Of Miniature Golf

Head on over to the UrbanCrazy website to read a guest blog post I put together for the team.

UrbanCrazy's Garden Mini Golf course in East Finchley, London is one of the courses I wrote about in my guest blog for the company 

UrbanCrazy is a UK based minigolf company that designs and build permanent miniature golf courses, provide portable layouts and more. Check out the links below for more details.

Links:
- The UrbanCrazy World Of Miniature Golf article
- UrbanCrazy website
- UrbanCrazy blog
- UrbanCrazy on Twitter
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

The Cereal Quest breakfast cereal blog

The Cereal Quest blog - one man's quest to eat every type of breakfast cereal available in the UK.

Fellow Crazy Golfer Phil Botto is renowned in the Minigolf world as the man who plays the World Crazy Golf Championships with a different 'themed' Putter each year!

In previous events he's used everything from a Black & Decker Strimmer to a converted camera tripod, a bit of wood and even a ukulele!

At the 2013 World Crazy Golf Championships in Hastings he used a very irregular club made out of cereal boxes!

Phil is on a "Cereal Quest" to eat every main UK cereal and he's into his second year of the adventure! He's documenting the quest on his fun blog/diary and raising money for The Trussell Trust - a UK charity that that works to empower local communities to combat poverty and exclusion in the UK and Bulgaria.

Check out The Cereal Quest website for more details and posts. You can view a list of Cereals he's scoffed so far (in a chronological order) here.

My favourite breakfast cereal is a gluten free one made by Barkat and called Chocolate Pillows. I view them as less of a breakfast item though and more of a chocolate snack!

Once Phil has eaten his way through the 'mainstream' cereals he may consider giving the gluten and wheat free ones a try. I notice from the very first blog post on The Cereal Quest that he's an IBS sufferer, he may find that the gluten and wheat free breakfast options may alleviate some symptoms...

Links:

- The Cereal Quest website

- The Cereal Quest's Just Giving page

- The Trussell Trust

Plaque-ing Interesting

Doing a spot of historic plaque spotting on our travels.

Travelling around as much as Emily and I do its inevitable things leap out of the surrounding area and catch our eye.

While we are primarily interested in visiting each and every seaside in the UK (175 and counting) and all of the country’s Miniature Golf courses (currently at 536) over the years our interest has been piqued by a wide-range of other bits and pieces.

From funny signs to interesting places, missing letters to brown tourist signs, bollards to bun throwing, abandoned shoes to Bar Billiards tables, and wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube men to milestones we’ve spotted and done a lot of very different things on our thousands upon thousands of miles of road trips around the British Isles.

The latest ‘thing’ that’s piqued our interest is Plaques.

Last year I bought a book called 'Signs of life', by Dave Askwith and Alex Normanton, that contained photos of spoof signs and mock street furniture the pair had created and put up around the country. One of the photos showed a faux 'English Heritage' Blue Plaque commemorating the ‘famous’ Jacob von Hogflume (1864-1909) – a noted Time Traveller who lived at the site of the blue plaque in Golden Square, London in the year 2063! Oh yes he exists, he’s even on twitter so he must be real.

Sadly when I visited the location in the book the plaque was no longer there, instead I snapped this legitimate blue plaque put up by English Heritage.

The Marquess of Pombal lived here. Jacob Von Hogflume will live there in the future

From there I found the Open Plaques website and online resource (with a very active Twitter and Facebook presence).

Historic plaques come in a number of shapes, sizes and colours, and act as historical markers commemorating links between famous people or events. There is a range of criteria as to how one gets installed and by who, and we’ve spotted a lot of different types on our travels. One of my favourite ‘spots’ to date was in Enfield, Middlesex recently.

Me and the plaque that commemorates Reg 'Stan Butler' Varney's use of the world's first cash machine in Enfield!

Ahead of our visit I’d consulted the excellent Londonist website for ideas of places to go and things to see in Enfield. As well as the great riverside pub – The Crown and Horseshoes – the Londonist article reminded me that Enfield’s branch of Barclay’s bank was the location of the world’s very first cash machine – opened and used by Reg Varney in 1967!

As a big fan of On the Buses I had a chance to see the Reg Varney Star Plaque on the Elstree & Borehamwood Walk of Fame by the train station during the On The Buses Fan Club 40th Anniversary event in 2011 and it was great to follow this up with the chance to have a photo at ‘Stan Butler’s’ cashpoint!

Do check out the Open Plaques website for details of plaques worldwide. If you spot any that aren’t on the site do let them know as they are keen for more contributors.

So far we've spotted a variety of plaques including blue, green, red, black, brown, gold, silver ones; ones that are official, some unofficial; round ones, square ones, rectangular one, oval ones; plain ones and some more fancy. And by the looks of the Open Plaques website and community there are thousands more to find!

As well as the English Heritage plaques we've spotted those put up by the Cecil Court Traders' Association, the Stone Federation, the City of Westminster, Westminster City Council, Hastings Borough Council, the London County Council, Bournemouth Borough Council, Worthing Borough Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Walton Community Forum, Barnard Council Town Council, The Corporation of the City of London, The Ipswich Society, the Greater London Council, Barclays Bank Plc, Luton Borough Council, the African Caribbean Community Development Forum, the Rotary Clubs of Worthing and Worthing Steyne, Heritage in Sutton and the Republic of Texas!

Here’s a selection of our favourite plaques spotted so far…

At the headquarters of the Monster Raving Loony Party in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales with my World Alternative Games Egg Throwing Championship winning team-mate Jas Kukielka

One of the many plaques on the Barnard Castle Blue Plaque Trail and one of many about Charles Dickens in the UK

A black and gold plaque from the Stone Federation

London's Cecil Court has blue plaques...

...blue paper plaques...

...and a green plaque.

"The Concrete King's" plaque in Hastings, East Sussex

Chatham House didn't keep this huge blue plaque quiet

The Old Bank House in Hastings, East Sussex

The Communications Building in London's Leicester Square has two brown plaques for Sir Joshua Reynolds

A fuller view of the lower brown plaque for Sir Joshua Reynolds

An elaborate Corporation of the City of London plaque

The Piece of Cheese Cottage in Hastings, East Sussex

One of The Ipswich Society's new blue plaques

One of a number of plaques about Sir Winston Churchill that can be found around the country

A part of Market Hill on George Street in Luton won a design award in 1998

A rectangular blue plaque in Luton, Bedfordshire

The new Minigolf course in Barnard Castle, County Durham has a plaque in memory of the man responsible for bringing Minigolf to the town

A close-up of the dedication plaque to Alan Wilkinson on the Barnard Castle Minigolf course

The train station in Needham Market, Suffolk has a variety of blue plaques on the station house building

The Tom Cribb pub on Panton Street, near Leicester Square has a blue plaque...

...a blue board/plaque...

...and a gold plaque detailing the history of the pub and the fighter it is named after

Heritage in Sutton has put up quite a few very interesting red plaques around Carshalton

One of the redder red plaques in Carshalton

A small and high up plaque in Hastings' Old Town

The house where T.E. Lawrence lived in Westminster, London

The City of Westminster has a lot of green plaques dotted around the borough

There's an intriguing plaque at Pickering Place in London

A close-up of the Texas Legation gold plaque in London. The Texas Legation was a type of Embassy for the Republic in the 1800's

A black plaque from Westminster City Council on Victoria Street in London

One of Worthing's many plaques

A nice plaque on a nice building in Worthing, West Sussex

Sir Dan Godfrey's blue plaque in Bournemouth, Dorset

A plaque at Enfield train station

Hastings has a Winkle Island

The Pedestrian Shopping Street in Hastings was re-opened by Carry on... star Bernard Bresslaw in 1987! 

The blue plaque at the train station in Walton on the Naze in Essex

A close-up of the Walton Station Hotel blue plaque

Related blog posts:

- Behold...

- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

- The Piece of Cheese Cottage in Hastings

Links:

- Open Plaques website

- Open Plaques on Twitter

- Open Plaques on Facebook

- My contribution near Piccadilly Circus - Sir Simon Milton

- English Heritage

Not Winning at The Buttons in Bournemouth

While down in Bournemouth earlier this summer Emily and I headed to the amusement arcades on the seafront with our friend and Minigolf rival Seth ‘Wandsworth’ Thomas.

In the pier amusements we spotted a great looking bumble bee prize in one of the Prize Every Time grabbers and it would of made a great gift for another friend and Minigolf rival (and sometime blogger) Oliver ‘Oflo12’ Florence.

The players look at the buttons bee

However, while playing the £2 machine I jiffed it and grabbed an orange thing that made a squeaky noise.

Jiffed, robbed, diddled, fiddled and daddled

I was not best pleased.

The incorrect toy was sold for 20 pence on a car boot stall last week.

Related blog posts:

- Seth Thomas

- Oliver Florence

- The Buttons

- Amusement Arcades

- Bournemouth

300,000+ blog pageviews! Blimey!

The Ham & Egger Files blog reaches 300,000 pageviews.

The Ham & Egger Files blog recently saw the 300,000 visitor to the site! Amazing considering that this time last year less than 130,000 people had visited the blog, and between December 2006 when I set-up the blog until December 2011 there were 100,000 pageviews.

While writing this post the most recent visitors to the blog have been from the UK, USA, Italy, Japan and Russia. The all-time top visitors by country are the UK, USA, Russia, Germany and France. While overall the Ham & Egger Files has been visited by people in 115 countries - with the last ten 'new' countries being Andorra, Uruguay, Malta, Tanzania, Equador, Iraq, Laos, Bolivia, Antigua & Barbuda and Mozambique!

The most popular blog posts on the site are about Minigolf courses in & around London, me and Emily's Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, the Dinosaur Safari Adventure Golf course in Arkley, playing Crazy Golf on Selfridges' roof, Bad Postcards and a broken sign on a shop in Stevenage! A fairly diverse mix.

As a Coeliac I also blog about Gluten Free stuff and while none of my blog posts make the all-time top viewed posts the most popular amongst them include a trip to Merrivale in Great Yarmouth, Gluten Free Beers I've sampled (hic), Gluten Free Fish & Chips we've found on our travels, Gluten Free Sausages & Black Pudding and more Black Pudding (& a Haggis), 

Thank you to everyone for reading my blog, commenting on posts, suggesting places to go, things to do, gluten free things to eat & drink, Minigolf & Crazy Golf courses to play and new sports & games to try. Many thanks also go to people linking to the site. Special thanks go to Tim 'Ace Man' Davies at MiniatureGolfer.com - the premier resource for anything Minigolf-related - for all the links too.

Related Blog Posts:

- A Quarter of a Million visits to The Ham & Egger Files

- The Ham & Egger Files – An Introduction
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Behold...

How much does this guy weigh?

How much does this guy weigh?

As a fan of Wrestling I recently enjoyed re-watching the 1994 WWF King of the Ring Pay Per View event on VHS. It stands out as a great WWF PPV show for a number of reasons - Owen Hart winning the tournament being one of them. But the best part of it in my mind is that one of the commentators for the event was a Baltimore Colts American Football Legend, one Art Donovan. The fact was he knew very little about professional wrestling, the WWF or the wrestlers involved in the show. This, combined with one of his fellow commentators, WWE Hall of Famer Gorilla Monsoon, ignoring his questions for most of the show. For fans of wrestling (and Wrestlecrap 'quality' stuff) then I highly recommend you dig out a copy of the show.

If you've got 12 minutes to spare/waste then check out this YouTube video showing the 'highlights' of Art Donovan's WWF commentating career!

After watching the tape I headed online for more info on the event, why Art was booked, and who exactly was Art Donovan! My search led me to a number of sites, one of which is the brilliant "How Much Does This Guy Weigh?" blog by Art0Donnell. The name of the author of the site is a play on words based on Gorilla Monsoon's incorrect introduction of Art Donovan on the show (he called Art, "Art O'Donnell". Not a good way to start off a broadcasting relationship). Check out Art0Donnell's blog post about Art Donovan at "King of the Ring 1994: Enter Donovan".

The Art0Donnell blog is full of brilliant old school wrestling reviews and nostalgia and other stuff. As a big fan of underdogs (those loveable Ham & Eggers) one of my favourite posts is of "Jobbers of '93", which gives a rundown of all the enhancement talent local athlete jobbers that 'competed' on WWF Monday Night Raw in 1993! Brilliant stuff.

Links:

- How Much Does This Guy Weigh? blog

- "King of the Ring 1994: Enter Donovan" post by Art0Donnell

- Wrestlecrap - the very worst of Pro Wrestling

- WWE

- The Art0Donnell YouTube Channel

- The Ham & Egger Files – An Introduction

Whatever happened to the blogs of 'The Machine' & 'Clockwork Orange'?

Two Minigolf blogs go unwritten on for a year and a bit.

It's been just over a year since my friend, fellow blogger, Minigolf rival and occasional team-mate Oliver 'The Machine' Florence blogged.

The last post on his blog - The Minigolfer - was about the dreadful weather conditions that prevented me making a trip to Guildford in a blog called "Snow luck for Gottfried as Guildford curse strikes again". It caused a blog post be written here in Luton too.

I did eventually make it to the county town of Surrey for a day of games, a visit to the castle and a look at a giant beetle in April last year. There was also an incident involving a car that Ollie should of blogged about. Maybe in a podcast format considering the vocal outburst made by Mr Florence.

Another blog to have fallen by the wayside in the last year is that of another friend and Minigolf Wunderkind Seth 'Orange Clock' Thomas, whose Forever Pushing Buttons blog hasn't been updated since January 29th 2012!

I wonder if either will be updated in 2013...

Link:

- The Minigolfer Blog

- Forever Pushing Buttons

Related Blog Posts:

- Oliver Florence ones

- Guildford ones

- Seth Thomas ones

- "Go With The Flo" Minigolf Doubles Team finish 7th of 14 at the GMGC Green Doubles Minigolf Championship

- Another Blogging Minigolf Team - Richard Gottfried & Seth Thomas Team Up

A blog post for 12/12/12

Here's a blog post for no other reason than the next repeating date won't be until 01/01/01 (I wasn't blogging at the last 01/01/01 and it's doubtful I'll be around in the next century).

Saying that I never blogged for 11/11/11, 10/10/10, 09/09/09, 08/08/08 or 07/07/07. 

I suppose the next one is actually going to be on the 2nd of February 2022 if you think about it! Depends if you leave the zeros in. Then there will be a 3/3/33, 4/4/44 etc. etc. etc.

Oh well.

I was tweeting at 12.12pm today.

Minigolf on the Golf Stinks Blog

Check out the latest post on the Golf Stinks Blog - it's all about Minigolf!

"There's Nothing Miniature about this Golf"

It follows on from a piece written on the site last week "Golf Through Miniature Eyes".

There's another good piece on Minigolf on the Golf Stinks Blog at "Variations on the Game of Golf - Mini Golf".

Links:
- Golfstinks
- Golf Stinks Blog

A Quarter of a Million visits to The Ham & Egger Files!

Today The Ham & Egger Files received its 250,000th visitor!

 

From my first blog post in December 2006 until the end of December 2011 the site received 100,000 hits and in the last nine and bit months it's received a further 150,000 visits!  People that like "Ham" and/or "Eggs" must be sorely disappointed to find a blog predominantly about Minigolf upon their visit.

 

Thank you to everyone who has visited, read, commented and linked to content on the site. It’s very much appreciated.

 

Some of the most searched for terms from visitors to The Ham & Egger Files are 'minigolf', 'crazy golf', 'crazy golf London, 'laser quest' and 'mini golf London'. From 1,527 blog posts the most visited with 21,053 hits is the 'Minigolf and Crazy Golf courses in and around London' blog post.

 

In addition to details of our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour, The Ham & Egger Files also contains posts about a number of different things including Air Hockey, Amusement Arcades, Arm Champs II Arcade Games Arm Wrestling, Brussels Sprout Competitive Eating, Bun Throwing, Christmas Tree Throwing, Conga Dancing, Crazy Air Squash, Crazy Golf, Crystal Maze Games, Darts, Dodgeball, Egg Throwing, Fake Alligators/Crocodiles, Gluten Free Food & Places to Eat, Guinness World Records, Lazer (Laser) Tag, Picnicking, Piers, (Ping) Pong, Pirate Flyer Laser Monorails, Rock Paper Scissors, Shooting Shacks, 'Tat' Challenges, Tea Rooms, Thumb Wrestling, Town Criers and Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm-Flailing Tube Men!

 

The most views of the site have come from the UK, some 171,530 hits. In second place with 38,705 is the USA, while there have been 3,935 visits from Germany and 3,649 from Russia. Visitors from Canada, France, Ireland, Australia, Netherlands and South Korea make up the rest of the all-time top ten page views by country.

 

The blog has now received hits from over a quarter of a million people from 112 countries! Quite what the person from Réunion, a French Island in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, was looking for I don’t exactly now. Here’s a list of the 112 countries that The Ham & Egger Files has been visited from:
 

1. Afghanistan
2. Algeria
3. Andorra
4. Argentina
5. Armenia
6. Australia
7. Austria
8. Bahrain
9. Bangladesh
10. Belarus
11. Belgium
12. Bermuda
13. Bosnia and Herzegovina
14. Brazil
15. Brunei
16. Bulgaria
17. Burundi
18. Canada
19. Chile
20. China
21. Colombia
22. Costa Rica
23. Croatia
24. Cyprus
25. Czech Republic
26. Denmark
27. Dominican Republic
28. Ecuador
29. Egypt
30. Estonia
31. Ethiopia
32. Finland
33. France
34. Gabon
35. Georgia
36. Germany
37. Ghana
38. Greece
39. Guatemala
40. Guernsey
41. Hong Kong
42. Hungary
43. Iceland
44. India
45. Indonesia
46. Iraq
47. Ireland
48. Isle of Man
49. Israel
50. Italy
51. Jamaica
52. Japan
53. Jersey
54. Jordan
55. Kuwait
56. Laos
57. Latvia
58. Libya
59. Lithuania
60. Macau
61. Macedonia [FYROM]
62. Malaysia
63. Malta
64. Martinique
65. Mauritius
66. Mexico
67. Moldova
68. Mongolia
69. Montenegro
70. Morocco
71. Myanmar (Burma)
72. Namibia
73. Nepal
74. Netherlands
75. New Zealand
76. Nigeria
77. Norway
78. Pakistan
79. Panama
80. Peru
81. Philippines
82. Poland
83. Portugal
84. Puerto Rico
85. Qatar
86. Réunion
87. Romania
88. Russia
89. Samoa
90. Saudi Arabia
91. Serbia
92. Singapore
93. Slovakia
94. Slovenia
95. South Africa
96. South Korea
97. Spain
98. Sri Lanka
99. Sweden
100. Switzerland
101. Taiwan
102. Tanzania
103. Thailand
104. Tunisia
105. Turkey
106. Ukraine
107. United Arab Emirates
108. Uruguay
109. USA
110. Uzbekistan
111. Venezuela
112. Vietnam

 

Here's to the next quarter of a million hits to the blog.

 

Related Blog Posts:
- The Ham & Egger Files – An Introduction
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour
- Behold...