First of all thank you for your support and kind words. They were greatly received.
So I thought I would write on another couple of experiences I have had recently.
The good experience I had recently was in Loughborough. Having lived there as students it always holds fond memories with us, so we decided to go for a walk round etc and I have seen people recommending a cafe there that does gluten free cakes. However, it was a Sunday so this place wasn't open. There were several other cafe's open, so I checked with some of them what they offered gluten free. To my surprise I didn't have to look hard and there were about 4 places that offered various items. I had a choice! Amazing! I eventually chose one where I could have a decaf tea with soy milk and a gluten free and dairy free cake. Lovely! And clearly not that hard to do. My local town needs to take note.
So speaking of my local town, my 'new' friends invited me out for coffee. Well I thought coffee, you've guessed it they were having lunch and it was another friggin pizza place. I'd never been there so didn't realise. At looking at the menu it actually said they did gluten free cupcakes so I thought this may not be so bad, they may have some understanding. The waiter came to take orders so I said do you have anything gluten free. He smirked, let out a small laugh and said 'salad'. I wanted to punch him! He then made it worse by saying well what do you want - to which I said I would rather know what I could have. He said they could do the chicken and brie, without the brie. Reaffirmed he had absolutely no understanding whatsoever. I promptly left with a bit of a tear in my eye. My friends did actually feel bad this time though and brought some flowers round for me, along with jacket potatoes and strawberries. Plus a promise to actually just do coffee next time!