Percy's Parting

Before you ask, no this isn't a post about the various hairstyling preferences of human hosted parasites.

Today I travelled all the way up to Oxford to see a specialist about my little companion.  The specialist who saw me turned out to be the brother of an old university friend!

To add to the fun, I had a small army of medical students accompany us for the duration of the consultation. Much ooo-ing and aaahhh-ing could be heard from the fledglings as the experienced hand effortlessly produced a comprehensive diagnosis of my apparently text book symptoms!

Percy's Progress

So today my GP referred me to the Infectious diseases unit up at the Churchill hospital in Oxford. I have to present myself there tomorrow at high noon!!  I'm guessing it'll be a course of anti-bs, but who knows? In the age of austerity and cutbacks, maybe they'll have no option but to revert to medieval remedies like gouging it out with a spoon and red hot poker (Not to be confused with the red hot Polka, which is a rather frenzied version of an otherwise popular traditional Eastern European dance.)

On the plus side, the nurse who redressed my foot after the GP consultation said she had never, in all her 30+ years of nursing, ever dressed a parasite infection! So I brought novelty onto the boring treadmill of someone else's world today! Hoorah!

As for of Percy - he's something of an ugly mug.

Obadiah and Obama: The Prophet and the President Have Something In Common

One thing that Percy the parasite is affording me is time to read whilst waiting to see doctors and nurses.

So here's a question, what do President Obama and the prophet Obadiah have in common? Peter Leithart explains:

Meet Percy

Well here he is, Percy the Parasite, in glorious technicolor as evidenced by the wiggly mountain-pass-style red line on the top of my foot:

This little blighter has been foraging around in my foot for the last however long. Off to the doctor I go!!

The concept of him foraging around doesn't offend me that much, however the thought that, like any living organism, he'll be needing the loo, does NOT thrill me. :-S

The Gospel According to the Moon!

As I write, the moon is full (or nearly full, I'm never quite sure), bright and large. Over the road at the community centre, there's an Indian wedding taking place, which is pleasant enough, but its joyful noise doesn't allow grouch-bag Walker to have an early night.

I've always assumed that in the Bible that the moon was symbolic of the church, reflecting the light of the sun (Jesus) in a dark world, but then I stumbled upon this, which has made me think again.

Go Slowly Richard, Or You'll Miss Much

The story of David and Bathsheba is chiastic:

A - Joab goes out to take Rabbah
   B - David gets Bathsheba pregnant
      C - Uriah dies
         D - Bathsheba mourns for Uriah
            E - Nathan confronts David
         D' - David mourns for his son
      C' - David's son dies
   B' - David gets Bathsheba pregnant again
A' - David goes out to take Rabbah

Peter Leithart makes the following wonderful comment about it in his book, Heroes of the City of Man:

I Have A New "Friend" :-S

So after two weeks of ignoring my various itchings, nausea and discomforts, stoically hoping they would go away, I finally went and visited the walk in health centre this morning.

It would appear that I have two ailments - I'm not one to do anything by halves!

The first is a bacterial infection on the fourth toe of my left foot acquired from swimming with an open wound (I hasten to add it was a very small one, I'm not that dumb! Although, I admit I am pretty dumb) in so called "fresh" open water.