Graphic pictures for sensitive types follow. I feel that I have given fair warning.






I'm normally a mild-mannered and tolerant person but I'm afraid that this morning my feet have been insulted one time too many.

I've reached my limit.

Personally I think there should be a forum rule that you're not allowed to criticise and insult another member's feet unless you're willing to show yours. I think this will silence a few.

Here are my feet... maybe not perfect or the most aesthetically pleasing of feet but these are a working man's feet and have kept me in business for 54 years now.



They say that every toe tells a story. I have selected three stories for you.

This is my left big toe. Last August I got an infection under the nail of this toe after cleaning out my fish pond and a doctor at Th Bangkok Hospital in Kora gouged off the nail with a scalpel. The interesting thing about this you is that you can see exactly how far the nail has grown back in five months. I reckon in another two months I'll have a full-length nail and it'll be as good as new.

Another story about this toe... you can see the fresh wound right on the tip? Well, a couple of minutes before taking the pic I stubbed it on my piece of fossilised tree trunk in the sala as I rushed to try and save a pigeon from Yogi. It bloody hurts and the pigeon is sadly dead and Yogi ran off somewhere to eat it.



And this is my right big toe.

Last August I also got an infection under the nail of this toe after cleaning out the fish pond. This toe became infected a few days after my left big toe and there was no time to get the nail removed before I flew off to work offshore for a few months. As it was I had to wear these silly plastic slipper things for the flight as my nail-less left big toe was too painful to wear shoes, even after a week.

I doused the toe every day in Betadine and miraculously the nail stayed on, but only just. The nail now seems to have gone black but there's no pain and I think it'll soon grow back to normal, although the dogs do give it a sniff now and again.



And finally this is the toe neighbouring my right big toe. If it was the hand it'd be called the index finger, so maybe this is my right index toe?

The interesting thing about this toe is that you can see a brown stain across the top quarter? Well, last July all of my toes became soaked in Chaindrite and wood stain as I built my pond jetty and became stained a dark brown colour. You can see from this toe exactly how far the nail has grown in six months. I reckon in another month the stained part will have grown out and I can clip it away, thus giving me back a perfect toe. It seems that my toe nails take seven months to completely grow, regardless of size.



Hopefully this will silence all the toe critics unless of course all of you perfectly toed people are brave enough to 'Show us yer toes!'