"Flip Flops Can Damage Your Health!"

Now what do you think of that?
The heading's from an article i saw in the Daily Mail's health section - along with "Getting back to work can ease your backache" and "Keeping your teeth clean could help prevent a heart attack" !
Onto the flip flop lead - well i'm really quite concerned.
Here in Kenya I would say that the majority of my female friends wear flip flops on a daily basis and in fact would rarely be seen out in any other shoes during the day! - By "flip flops" - i do of course mean highly fashionable little numbers made out of leather and striking beaded arrangements like so ......



So you can imagine my concern on reading the headline!!
Turns out that basically if you are a complete pratt and cannot walk properly - chances are you'll end up flat on your face and it'll be blamed on your shoes. Of course twisted ankles are also a danger it has been noted and joint pain and shin splints are on the increase!! In fact ...

"Mike O'Neill, a Windsor-based foot surgeon who regularly treats patients with flip flop injuries, described them as 'dangerous'. "

.. and the best comment of all - "They are also extremely unstable so you are more likely to trip over and hurt yourself."

Now please explain to me - the backward idiot from the Africa region who (along with a few million others in the vicinity) wear flip flops every day - how on earth a perfectly flat shoe can be extremely unstable?!?!?!
Anyway at least i can carry on with my day knowing that with my clean teeth from this morning, chances are I can get away without suffering a heart attack today and I'll be at work ALL day so my backache should be kept at bay too!

Goodness that is a relief!

Foot and Mouth outbreak

Woke up this morning to the terrible news of foot and mouth again in the UK and it broke my heart to see all those raked up images from 2001, and I am now feeling terribly guilty for all the things I said earlier of farmers and their subsidies. I realise they are not trying to take away our market of fruit and veg and that buying locally grown food is always going to be better for any economy and anyway basically I do not know enough to comment and should really shut my gob!
The foot and mouth really brought me back down to earth – those poor farmers have only just got their stocks back on track after the terrible disaster of 2001 and the way the government so badly handled the situation then. I only hope to god they don’t repeat that catastrophe this time and keep this foot and mouth outbreak under control without the unnecessary mass slaughter of animals as they did last time.
Here in Kenya, i wouldn't say foot and mouth is common place but it is not uncommon either, and it has never led to mass slaughter of any animal as quarantining areas – mainly slaughterhouses – in good time and preventing movement of animals from the areas in the vicinity seems to get it under control every time and surely the UK government should know a lot better than us poor backward third worlders!(- or so they’d like to think anyhow!) Keep your fingers crossed and your prayers with all the farmers and animals in Surrey I’d say.