Around 25% of people with psoriasis will go on to also get psoriatic arthritis and believe me, it's a life changer and can ruin your life.

I first got it aged 30 around 5 years after getting psoriasis, it was mild at first and I managed to live with it mostly by taking pain killers but eventually I had to seek help and was put in Methotrexate. I hated the stuff and I'm known for speaking my mind about it being a poison that should no longer be prescribed, anyway I decided to give it up and just try to put up with it which I managed to do for a few years with some days being worse than others.

But once day around 15 years ago know the psoriatic arthritis came back with a vengeance and my whole body started locking up in immense pain, I took loads of pain killers but it soon became obvious I was never going to cope as I couldn't dress myself or even lift a cup to my mouth properly so I decided to beg for help at my doctors surgery.

I was immediately given an urgent appointment with a dermatologist where I was pleasantly surprised to find that things had moved on a lot in the various treatments being used and was offered my first biologic response modifier (Bio) as I refused to go back on Methotrexate. My first one was "Remicade" and it changed my life as after a month I could already feel the pain going and movement getting easier day by day.

My self-esteem was better and I was walking around with a smile on my face again, but it didn't last and I had to try another Bio "Humira" that worked however I had a reaction to it and ended up in hospital for a week. It was around then that I started trawling the internet for advice only to find there were a huge amount of scams trying to pull me in with their so called cures (there is no cure by the way)  or other sites seemed more interested in advertising, sponsorship deals or pesky requests for donations.

I just wanted some good honest advice from people just like me and even when I thought I had found a couple of places I soon realised that I just didn't feel welcome. So after trying another Bio "Enbrel" I decided to start my own forum and see if I could attract other people like me looking for a safe and friendly place away from the scams and fat cats just wanting to get fatter, and Psoriasis Club was born.

Well today I'm on my 7th Bio and so far it's been the best one ever and I'm pleased to say that my quest to find others like me worked and that forum I started almost 12 years ago is still there offering genuine information about psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis, and over those years it has gained a reputation of being very friendly supportive and welcoming to new members.

You just need just need to find us, but do to not having a large budget, sponsors or donations it's not easy as I refuse to end up like those sites I first found. But if you do want to find us or read more about my time with different psoriatic arthritis treatments you can do so here psoriasisclub.org

Maybe I'll see you there.

Fred.

My good friend Herbert has started his own forum, he is welcoming friends old and new so go and have a look.

Herbert's Club

Cheese and Tomato Bread

This will make one small loaf.



250gms Sifted flour
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon white pepper
1/2 Teaspoon sugar
2 table olive oil
1 teaspoon dry yeast
150 warm water
100 gms grated hard cheese (save some for the top)
1 Big tablespoon of blitzed up sun dried tomatoes. *

Put your dry yeast and sugar in the luke warm water to start activating.

Mix the Flour, Salt, Pepper and Cheese. > Add the olive oil and activated yeast > Mix it all together and turn it out and knead.

After a few minutes kneading add some sun dried tomatoes and knead again. Keep doing this till you have all the tomatoes mixed in nicely.

Shape it roughly to fit your tin and throw it in > Cover with a tea towel in warm place for 1 hour.

Put the bit of cheese you kept back on the top > Bake for 40 minutes at 200 C > Turn out on cooling rack and leave to cool. (Though it's nice warm, don't be tempted to cut it too soon or it will fall apart)

Serve warm or cold with butter, also nice toasted if you have any left over. Freezes well too.



*We sun dry our own tomatoes by cutting them in half, put on a rack with a sprinkling of sea salt and place them in the poly tunnel. Usually takes 2 - 3 days, best to bring them in at night in case the air gets a little moist as they will reabsorb the moisture.

These adverts are from a newspaper dated 12 June 1943.

I sometimes notice different textures around our garden, and it always amazes me on the visual pleasing things that are around us.

These can all be found in our garden.

*Enlarge the image to see the detail and enjoy.

I think this is a lichen. Found on our gate.



An old perspex window on the shed.



A rusty old pan found in the garden.



An old wine barrel now used as a flower pot.



A chunk of old tree.



Washing line post.



An old door.



These two are of the house showing a key stone and some render.





*You have my permission to use them if you want. A shout out somewhere would be nice, but not necessary.

*Make sure you download and host yourself as I hate hotlinking and will change the url's to some thing you may not like.

Some of you will know I am constantly battling with Google to keep Psoriasis Club in search results. You will also know that I will never pay them to get a better ranking, I prefer to follow their advice and give regular and reliable content. But this time they have gone too far and I'm not happy.

Towards the end of last year 2018 our Google performance graph started going down a little before dramatically rising at the beginning of 2019. Nothing had changed in the way we publicise ourselves and there was no explanation for the odd movements.

Then in March as you can see by the graph there was a sudden drop and again nothing had changed. But then suddenly I kept getting Emails from Google offering me £240 of free ad credit if I spent £240. I always ignore them as I'm never gong to pay, and we continued to drop.

After a couple of months I got more offers, this time it was "Get more visitors to your website for £120" Again I ignored the emails. As you can see by the graph this is again where we took another drop. Now call me sceptical. but there is no denying the emails coincide with the movement in the graph.

This is very underhanded and a dirty tactic. We don't have any money and we are just a bunch of people trying to help each other, but Google thinks they can push us around and milk us. Well it isn't going to happen, and although we are loosing our visitors we will never bow down to Google.
 


So what next?

I have been pushing Googlebot back to our website and now they keep saying our forum isn't mobile friendly. I accept that it isn't, but I asked our members and not one of them has a problem using it. The problem we have is that we use free software and it's not mobile friendly, and I know whatever I try Google will keep moving the goalposts anyway till I pay.

So I have now taken Google on yet again and built a homepage on our .com that is mobile friendly.  Maybe it will please Google for a few months till they start dropping us again and offer more incentives if I throw money at them. 

The new page probably won't get used as it's the forum our members want, but it does give some basic information and hopefully will help people find our great group of people. If anyone out there reading this values the small independent website owners they should stop using Google.

https://psoriasisclub.com

Easy to make and very tasty. *This will make two chicken wraps.

De-bone two chicken leg and thigh, remove the skin and marinade.

Marinade:

In a pestle and mortar grind up:
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon of back pepper corns
1 fresh mild green chilli
A small chunk of fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves
1/2 a small onion
Once you have it all pounded up mix it with:
1 pot of natural yoghurt
1 teaspoon tomato puree
1/2 teaspoon lime juice and zest
3 teaspoon olive oil

Put your chicken in the marinade and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours, or at least overnight.

Wraps: These are simple, but be careful as they can go crispy and will break when you try to roll them up to eat.

3 Tablespoon plain flower
3 Table spoon soya milk (you probably could use ordinary milk but I've not tried it)
1 Table spoon of melted butter

Mix it all together and knead it till it goes smooth, wrap in cling film and leave at room temperature for 1/2 an hour.

Cooking:

Heat up a shallow backing tray in a hot oven. add the chicken and cook for about 20 minutes. Remove the chicken and slice it up to bite size pieces (you may need to pour off some liquid) put the pieces back on the tray and brown them off under the grill.

Roll out your wraps to about 3 mm, heat up a non stick frying pan with a spray of olive oil. Cook over a medium heat and keep pushing the bubbles down. These don't take long and you want them a bit like a pancake (too hot or too long and they will go crispy)  we don't want that.  

Serving:

Lettuce
Fresh coriander
Finely sliced onion
Chicken
Mint and yoghurt dressing

Wrap it up and enjoy.



*Play around with the marinade to suit your taste, and add other seasonal vegetables to your wrap if you have them. Cucumber, Spring Onion, Tomato, Sweet Pepper, etc work well.

If you like going to your local Chinese restaurant and trying the Crispy Seaweed you will probably know it is not actually seaweed, it's Kale. But it is very good for you and so simple to make.

Get a good handful of Kale leaves. "Nero di Toscana" works best and is so easy to grow.

Peal the curly leaves off their stalks (keep the stalks in your freezer for use later in stews etc)



Finley shred you leaves and add a little olive oil, a little bit of brown sugar and some Chinese Five Spice powder to your liking.



Mix it all up and put on a flat backing tray in your hot oven for around 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it as it will suddenly go crispy and could burn.

Serve hot or cold. Enjoy.

This is a simple recipe that ends up with some very tasty pork rillons.

Chunks of pork belly. (We use the rough bits left over from when we get a large chunk of belly for sausages or ribs)

One litre of sweet cider.

One table spoon of lard.

Two bay leaves.

Sichuan pepper corns.

Star anise.

Cloves.

Salt.

Black pepper.

Sprinkle your chunks of pork with the salt and pepper then fry them off in the lard till they are nice and  brown. Throw everything in a metal cook pot or saucepan with a tight fitting lid, bring it all to the boil and then simmer very low for 3 hours.

Remove and cool on a wire rack till they are cool and set. You can freeze them for use later or keep in the fridge for a few days.

Serve cold in thin slices or as a chunk with cheese and salad.  

Don't worry about the look of them as they are very tasty.

ArteMie independently designs and bakes arty mugs, e.g. oldtimers and traditional sailing vessels. Freshly designed mugs are ready to ship or pickup in Amsterdam.  

You can find out more about Artemie and her work here:

https://www.artemie.nl/

@emmymeester