In an effort to get my psoriasis under control I have decided to try the dietary method. There is so much stuff that I am not allowed to eat that it would almost be quicker to list all the things I am allowed. Anyway, my psoriasis has been really bad over the last week and a half and I can only put it down to the amount of junk food i have been intaking which has increased dramatically in the last three weeks.

So this is the current state of play

and this

I have about 30 patches on my human body; luckily most of them are smaller than the ones in the pictures, but there are about 10 or 12 that are around the size depicted. Hopefully I will start to see changes in the next 4 or 5 weeks. Fingers crossed.

–edit–
I just did a thorough count and excluding my scalp there are 47 patches ranging from 0.5 cm diameter to 6 cm diameter.

We went to the summer palace with Rob and Irena on Tuesday.

I decided to start taking pictures of the people I noticed taking pictures of us.

There are more on flickr.

Doing the shopping

A break for coffeee

The coffee break continues

Navigating treacherous sidewalks

Yesterday (Sunday) we went downtown again, but this time it was for the indoor majesty of FunDazzle. We invited a bunch of M’s peers and their parents and so there were more than just a couple of kids there with brown or blonde hair, which amazed a lot of the locals.

Luki had his moments, but it was M’s show, so here are a couple of M highlights.

Yesterday we went to Ditan Park because the weather was nice and there was almost no pollution. I am pretty sure we ended up in Ditan Park, but even so, the park was beautiful and there was a 500 year old temple there.

M is working on being cute

and Luki is working on being mischeivious

There is a little amusement park (Chinese Style) and we had some fun there, but being the only westerners there, we were part of the attraction. I wonder how many hundred photos taken by strangers included us and I wonder how many hours of footage in total, were shot of M and Lukas.

Yesterday was M’s first day of school for the new school year. I took the morning off work and went with her.

There is a video that will be posted as soon as I have the time.

Our guest bed arrived today, just in time for Paul and Cornelia to test it out tomorrow night. Here is a picture of the bed with me on it. You may notice that I am wearing a bed helmet.

I am wearing a bed helmet because to move around in our basement is too risky without one. I have a couple of spare bed helmets so if there is more than one 180cm (or taller) tall person in the basement on the bed at the same time we are still golden.

We were at a first birthday party yesterday and the topic of vaccinations came up; luckily before one set of parents that have decided not to vaccinate their children turned up. Luckily because it would have gotten heated and maybe we would have had a problem when I laughed at them; I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself.

I do understand a healthy skepticism when viewing the drug companies, but to ignore the massive amount of evidence gathered by the medical profession since Edward Jenner’s time seems foolishly dangerous. I’m wondering how I would feel if an unvaccinated child made my child sick, because I think that’s what it comes down to.