Well, surprise in that I’d forgotten it was coming!
For the past year or so I have noticed the banner ads appearing on my browser and Facebook becoming more and more relevant to things I have been searching for or information I’ve given, thanks to the increasingly widespread use of web analytics tools. Now I know a lot of people find this a bit intrusive, perhaps even scary but I actually think it’s brilliant. I am now being shown messages that I’m actually interested in so I don’t have to spend time looking for them and ok, there are things I might not have looked for if they hadn’t come up in an advert but I’m not going to click on anything I don’t genuinely want or am not interested in, so for me, being shown pretty shoes like the ones I’ve been looking for can only be a good thing!
Besides my penchant for shoes though, something that has clearly been picked up on is that I follow a gluten-free diet, so I keep seeing ads on my Facebook for gluten-free brands that I recognise: Genius – the fresh bread brand I mentioned in a previous post, Dietary Specials who have an extensive range of gluten-free products in all the big supermarkets, and Juvela who provide much of the gluten-free food that you can get on prescription. So a week or so ago I saw one come up for Juvela inviting me to visit their new website and receive samples, enter competitions, get prescription advice and ‘much, much more!’ 
I actually already receive paper copies of the newsletter from Juvela which features a few recipes and news bulletins, but I signed up to receive them online instead and also requested a free sample of Juvela goodies. Now I thought this was quite cool but would probably be a couple of slices of bread and maybe a couple of biscuits or something, I mean it’s not exactly cheap! But no, last week I had one of those cards left by DHL saying they had tried to deliver a package, please ring to arrange a better time. Well, I’d completely forgotten about the Juvela stuff and assumed it must be my graduation photos so when I received a text from Mum the next day to say the parcel was from Juvela I got rather excited. (I rarely receive any sort of post let alone parcels!) And my surprise was doubled when I got home and this was waiting for me on the kitchen worktop…
I was rather impressed with the size of this package, and the contents did not disappoint either…
Inside was a pack of two pizza bases, a box of fusilli pasta, a box of tea biscuits and box of savoury biscuits, a white flour mix and a ‘fibre’ mix, a four pack of mini ciabattas and a loaf of white bread which I had already scoffed by the time I took this photo. (I do realise I say that quite a lot and I will try to stop being so greedy!) Anyhow, as well as all that food was a prescription guide and a couple of booklets and leaflets with recipes and all the products available from Juvela.
So what’s the outcome I hear you ask? Well, I have suspected for a long time that it would be far more cost effective for me to get my food on prescription and just pay for a year’s supply, but it always seems like a lot of effort when I can now get everything at a supermarket which is far more convenient as I can obviously just pick it up when I get all my other shopping. However, being prompted to think about Juvela again and being led to their website to peruse their very accessible and useful information and then receiving this box, has not just made me feel quite good about Juvela in general but has made me seriously consider again getting my food on prescription, something I haven’t thought about in a long while.
So going back to the old web analytics and clever targeting of Facebook ads, I really do feel that in this particular situation it’s perfect: I will hopefully save a bit of money, Juvela will make a bit of money (as will the NHS which, let’s face it, they could probably do with), and most importantly of course, my belly will be filled with lots of nice gluten-free food!
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I read a while ago, I can’t remember where, that M&S were doing gluten-free sandwiches in some of their stores but I hadn’t managed to find any of the branches that did them until a couple of weeks ago. I was in the Marks and Spencers in Westfield Shepherd’s Bush with my family looking for sustenance before we all trotted off to watch QPR beat Leicester 1-0 (hoorah!) and it was then that I finally laid eyes upon the wonderful sight you see above! Well I must first say that it was lucky I did actually spot them as I think you’ll agree they are a little on the small side. Still, I am used to that in gluten-free food, and it was pretty tasty too although nothing can beat a home made sandwich in my opinion – especially when buying it ready made costs about 4 times as much . Anyway the fact is that now there is the option of having a sandwich at lunchtime if we so wish!
