Three Good Things

Fantastic Richard, happy belated birthday mate.

Stuart x 

Hi Remoh

Belated birthday wishes from me to you. I have been to York a couple of times and I went on the Jorvik ride too. 

I don't know if you noticed but Mord the fisherman has Dupuytren's contracture. It's a syndrome that causes one or more fingers to bend towards the palm of the hand. 

The strange thing is I spotted that straightaway as I also suffer from that, in my case it's the middle finger that's affected. I have copied a few lines from a medical page that is at the end of this post. It was present in the Viking age.

I also suffer from Haemachromatosis which is a condition where "a mutation in a gene that controls the amount of iron your body absorbs from the food you eat. These mutations are passed from parents to children"

That is also nicknamed the "Celtic Curse" and again that can be attributed to the Vikings! There's no doubt in my mind that I have Viking blood. Has anyone any suggestions as to what my username should be, instead of...

Tvman?

"Our leatherworker, Mord, is attempting to sew together the pieces of a shoe whilst sat at his stall on Coppergate, where he is selling his wares of shoes and scabbards. He is struggling as he suffers from Viking’s disease or Dupuytren’s Contracture. You can see it’s caused the fingers on his hand to become clawed. It’s a genetic disorder that runs in families, and seen particularly in middle-aged men. Tradition has it that it originated with the Vikings"

Sounds lovely I spent a weekend in York a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

Dupuytren’s contracture can be cured by a zig zag incision by the plastic surgeons if the finger is very badly bent over. 

York is a great city to visit. We used to love the many old bookshops there, though most gone now, but the place is very atmospheric. Sounds like you had a lovely birthday Richard. May you have many more. Rainie x

Lovely Tony73! We visited redwoods on our trip to California in July, they are almost mystical. And some were super old old old, hundreds and hundreds of years old, which is amazing because we don't generally have things that are really old here in the US (a little bit of Native American stuff maybe).

Happy birthday Richard! TVman, my uncle also had that contracture and got surgery to fix it.

3 things:

1. I am not sick. Which is super important, because I am in the middle of a quick visit to my parents, with my son, this weekend. The last time I tried this, I ended up in the ICU on a respirator and my wife and son had to live here in Florida for 2 months while I healed. My wife was pretty anxious about me visiting again, given what happened last time! I think the whole family has a little ptsd around it.

2. The visit is only 3 1/2 days, which is easier on everyone - my parents (82 and 89) don't get as tired, and my son doesn't get as bored.

3. I am well enough to help out with helping my folks out. When I was here before, my brother was also visiting and working on cleaning up and setting up services that my parents are starting to need as they age - lawn service, cleaners etc. I wasn't well enough to help much before, but can now. In fact, that reminds me, I need to go look online for a form for a disabled parking placard for them.

PatriciaV

Connecting with nature has been therapeutic

Wishing you a good weekend