Foody

My phone rang. Some people get booty calls; I get foody calls. 

It was my daughter’s teaching assistant, quizzing me about what menu items would be suitable for my girl to have with her classmates at an end of term pub lunch. (We had custard creams and squash at the school disco if we were lucky. This lot get a meal out - it’s not fair, I tell you, not fair).

It’s the kind of phone call I wish people didn’t have to make, and yet I love that they do.
In an ideal world, my girl would be able to take part in food-centred activities without the need for forward planning. But it’s a Prader-Willi World we live in, and foody calls are needed, and appreciated.

“The pub is doing a barbecue for us: we can get some low-fat meat if you like, and something she can have for dessert - you tell us,” the T.A. said.

I rattled off my girl’s barbie faves (Weight Watchers’ Cumberland Sausages, Asda spicy bean burgers, and ‘light’ (lower fat) ice cream. 

“No problem,” was the reply.

Two words. Loaded with so much meaning. It wasn’t a problem. Because the school is on board with the importance of thinking ahead, and communicating with me about the potential meltdown minefield of food. They were going to sort, and even shop, to make sure my girl was included. 

“They can all have the light ice cream and be the same,” the T.A. told me, warming the already toasty cockles of my heart, which got another blast of heat when I picked up my girl from school a few hours later.

“Mum, mummy, I made some excellent choices today, the teacher said - really excellent.”

“Oh, what was that about?”

“We had a list of things to choose from for when we go to the pub, we have to be independent and choose what we want but we have to choose the right things that we are allowed and we have to choose them ourselves, and I chose low fat sausages and a bun and a salad and low fat ice cream and fruit, and a tomato juice to drink, and they said I had made very excellent choices, and I did, didn’t I?”

You did. You had advance team help, but yeah, you really did.

Song is Brother Jack McDuff - Hot Barbecue