Reading the newspaper this morning.....

.....I came across this report. Now, as I said in an earlier entry, I suffer from psoriasis myself, so you can imagine the way my heart leapt when I read the article. I honestly hadn't realised that so many people are affected by this illness, but I hope that this advance in treatment makes it's way into the mainstream NHS soon. As alluded to in this BBC article, whilst it may not be a life threatening illness, it is a life-altering one. It affects how you perceive yourself, and can colour your interaction with others. Roll on the day when they have a cure....

Paris, Rugby, and Cooking

So, I used the Eurostar to go across to Paris last week for work. It felt weird not having to fly for once, but for the extra 40 minutes or so that it added to the journey time, it actually felt more relaxing. I've suggested that we use it more often, particularly after it moves from Waterloo to St Pancras...

What a weekend for the Rugby World Cup! I'm still on a buzz after the England - Australia result, and as for France/NZ, and Argentina/Scotland, it's really shaping up to be a great competition! :) Strange to think that England were written off a month ago. I had my doubts we would even make the quarter-finals, and now we're in the Semis, and with a real chance to get to the final! Can my nerves take it?!?

Finally, can anyone answer why cooking can be so relaxing and fun? It amazes me that people find it so hard to cook even the simplest meal. My current favourite recipes: Chicken with lemon, paprika, & soy sauce; Sunday Roast, braised Steak au Poivre, and my own take on Spaghetti Bolognase. My mouth's watering just thinking of them all!

Eye of the beholder...

This is a post I've been debating in my mind for a few weeks now. Those who know me know that I suffer from psoriasis. It's a skin condition that I've had now for something like 10 years. For a lot of people (at least here in the UK), it's something they've only heard of through a TV show called The Singing Detective. While my case is nowhere near as severe as what's shown there, it is something that affects how others see me, and so it affects how I see myself. I won't go into depth about what it is or what causes it. Partly that's because there's a lot of resources that give details about it out on the 'net. Partly it's because it's not relevant to this post....

Instead, this post is to give a point of view of a sufferer of psoriasis. For the most part, it's something I don't think about on a normal day. It just means I have to spend 15 minutes on top of what most people have in the morning treating the areas where I get the psoriasis. Those are the good days. Then, there's the bad days. For example, there are the days where I have to get up early (4:30am ish) because I'm flying somewhere for work. On days like that, the psoriasis starts to get dry and itchy after about 10 hours (particularly after being on a plane where they de-humidify the air) so I'm trying to hide the scratch reflex and red, dry areas from customers. Even worse are the times where I'm going out on a date. I dread that moment where I meet the woman, and I can see in her eyes that moment, not of revulsion,, more of pity. You can almost see the wall being built behind the eyes, blocking you off from a potential relationship, purely because of how you look.

I know this looks like a straight-on whine, and to a certain extent it's true. But then, psoriasis is something that creates this reservation in the sufferer and in the eyes of others, separating those who suffer from it from the rest of society. It's based on the old adage that the first impression counts, and sufferers unfortunately can only ever make a poor impression, given the visual impact that psoriasis makes. Am I angry about that? Yes, at times. Do I feel it's unfair, most definitely. Still, I've found that true friends, (those who understand and accept you for who you are and what you look like) are more common that I would've thought. That makes things so much better...

As an aside, we had such lovely April weather here in the south of the UK over Easter. I'll try to post a link to the photos I took of my parent's village, once I work out how to do that!