Notice Board

Notice board will keep you updated on all the odd things happening at this site.

It is a smorgasbord of issues about our water and electricity, the place for starches in our meals, and toxic sprays used on our food; and so forth. In essence it is concerns keeping both ourselves and the planet hale and hearty.

We talk about how useful it is to be able to weld for small tasks in the home and garden, keeping free range chickens out of your flowerbeds, and cooking various delicious dishes like bobotie and roasted butternut.

This page was last updated on 27th February, 2020.

E-cars

It is good to dream. Sometimes it may just happen. I has always reasoned, wrongly as it turned out, that an E-car was simply far beyond our means; and then a secondhand Nissan with a new battery fell into our laps. It is the best vehicle I have ever owned. Turning over a blue leaf has never been more successful and sustained.

It is unthinkable but the E-car has landed. It has a range of about 100 miles but range anxiety sets in when you get down to the last eighty; they cannot be towed.

Self reliant

You probably have not seen this interesting video of a man living in Florida who wanted to know if he could go entirely without food or drink from the supermarket, restaurants or farm stalls for a whole year. He is not recommending that we all should try it; certainly worth a fifteen minute watch if you are a greenie.

It did get me thinking, though; could we go off the grid, both for electricity and water from the utilities for a whole year? We are pondering the subject.

Meantime watch grow your own food^[2].

PLASTIC IN OUR WATER

There are great concerns about the amount of plastic we are ingesting, predominantly through our water, even that which is bottled; in fact, depending on where you live, around 5g a week, the weight of a credit card.

What is more we are talking about every single week of the year.

In October, 2019, there has been a gathering of scientists in Amsterdam to collaborate their finding on what this simply huge amount of plastic is doing not to the environment, but to our own bodies, and in particular our immune systems.

It is time for each and every family to reconsider how it manages plastic.

Our children are getting pissed off

Our children have realised that it is this generation of adults who have primarily ruined the world that they and their kids will have to live in; and thank God they are starting to let their voices be heard.

Leave the Earth a better place than when you arrived, they say.

Impossible, many will say. Stuff the children is their underlying belief and many others practise just that though they would never have the courage to come out and say it. Here are the ten steps that I have implemented, not in any particular order of importance, for your consideration.

They take time and energy, I do not deny it; watching less TV is how I am managing it.

1. Recycle plastic, bottles, cans and uncompostable waste from the kitchen.

2. Start a compost pile.

3. Plant as many greens, and other coloured foods as I can in my own garden.

4. Eat more legumes instead of meat.

5. Keep chickens and use white oil instead of toxic pesticides in the garden.

6. Collect and store rainwater.

7. Capture sunshine for hot water and electricity in the home.

8. Start a worm farm.

9. Support local farmers, particularly those who can verify that their products are organic.

10. Keep bees to pollinate plants; the honey is a byproduct.

I will say up front that this is not entirely altruistic. We have saved a lot of money, that we spend instead on more important things; like music lessons for our grandchildren. We take no medication and visits to the doctor are infrequent; less than once a year. The green journey has many benefits beyond the obvious desire to leave the world a better place than when we arrived.

Starches

Starches have come under the hammer but only in countries where highly refined carbohydrate is the norm. So there are many diets eschewing all forms in favour of increased animal protein.

So I have been doing some study on the subject, and finding some very interesting facts, and some interesting little cul de sacs.

Firstly, with my somewhat limited knowledge of biochemistry, I did not realise that the fibre in food is in fact a polysaccharide, a starch; a long chain of glucose molecules. Thus the pectin in citrus and plums is broken down in the gastrointestinal tract, but interestingly not in the small intestine, forming simple sugars but in the colon to form very nutritious and important short chain fatty acids.

Moreover, it is here in the colon where they twisted tau proteins are formed that cause the neurodegenerative diseases in the brain.

This month, at notice board, I am suggesting you read about resistant starch to find out more concerning the friendly microbiota in your colon, and help prevent getting these nasty diseases. Unfortunately you cannot have your cake and eat it.

Neonicotinoids

Neonicotinoids, important herbicides in the agricultural industry have been completely banned in the UK says the environmental secretary, Michael Gove, and it is imminent across Europe, because of the very serious adverse side effects they have on our bees; in fact 75% of all flying insects have disappeared in much of Europe.

Traces are found in the honey, and we can be sure they are one more factor in the poisoning of our bodies; whilst a connection with the explosion of autoimmune diseases that are sweeping the planet is hard to prove, the evidence is that toxic chemicals including pharmaceuticals are killing us.

Farmers will have to find new ways to control weeds; perhaps the old fashioned hoe. We can expect the price of food to rise, except that with better pollination, it could be quite the reverse, and the incidence of sickness to drop; a small price to pay.

Montsanto was able to persuade the EU to re-license glyphosate (Roundup) in 2017 based on various studies that they refused to release to the public. Now in 2019 the European Court of Justice has ordered them to release this research so the public can peruse it; there has been a strong suspicion they are bogus in their methodology; why else would they have held it back so we cannot scrutenise it?

Short stories

You either like short stories or you do not; I have just discarded a book of them by the esteemed novelist, William Boyd; I hated them and refused to read any more. But of his novels are amongst the best books I have read this year.

Perhaps you would like to try one of mine; Drama on Town Hill is set in South Africa, a country beset by host of problems, first Apartheid and now by a government that only be described as weak and corrupt. New criminals coming out of the woodwork are find it is Open Gates. Law enforcement is almost non-existent.

Cry for help

Few things are more distressing, both in the practice and letters from readers, than the cry for help to escape from the clutches of obesity. It is a monster that engulfs our very life, sucking us dry.

There are no simple solutions, but perhaps because you have read somewhere, it is true, that obesity kills twice as many people as starvation in the world, you have decided you want to tackle yet once again this monster who is threatening your wellbeing. As we all know only too well diets simply don't work; they are total waste of time.

What does work is cutting out all the refined starches. You'll find more on that thorny subject at ketogenic diets.

Growing radish

Growing radish is so easy; they will be read to eat in about a month. We always have a small patch growing somewhere in the garden; they do wonders for a perhaps otherwise unexciting green salad. Radish nutrition is worth a thought too; they are more just a lovely spicy taste.

Welding

Welding is a complete new topic at Bernard Preston's site; it is not as difficult or dangerous as it sounds, and apt for our notice board.

There are a few dangers to keep in mind, and electrocution oddly is not one of them; two come to mind; burning your hand in a senior moment on a part you have just welded, and getting flux in the eye as you're chipping it away on the weld; protective glasses are a must.

These new auto-darkening helmets and inversion welders make life a lot simpler. A little over $200 buys you some toys that you'll use for the rest of your life, and pay themselves off on the first project.

This steel gate design is crude but effective; made entirely from offcuts I had lying around, only the threaded rod and nuts for the hinges were bought.

You could do it too.

Free range chickens

The term free range chickens is so abused that it has become meaningless; there is a supermarket chain in South Africa that boast about nutritious foods. Their free range hens occupy 8 hens per square metre; it is our topic today on the notice board.

Nevertheless, it is an important concept. Hens that enjoy earthworms and grasshoppers, plenty of greens and sunshine are certainly going to produce more nutritious eggs than those in cages. And that is researched, and not simply my opinion; three times the omega-3, for example.

Today I spent the day fencing off a new area of our garden so the hens can get stuck into plenty of grubs and greens; they practise a scorched earth policy; everything is stripped from the ground, so you have to keep moving them to a new run. Of course, they fertilise it as they go with their droppings rich in nitrogen; weeding is thankfully no longer a priority; they do it for us.

We now have four such runs, and I keep rotating the flock. The new one is about 100 square metres, so there is plenty of room for eight birds; quite soon I am going to expand. And now in October 2019 we have added the fifth paddock for them to roam in; that is it. There is no more space.

Learning new techniques like welding up your own gate, and erecting a vegetable garden fence is part of the joy of the permaculture life style.

Not too shabby, eh, for a beginner fencer; you, I'm sure could do as well, or better.

First butternut day

Not quite equivalent to Mr Pig day when the porker was turned into sausages and salted for meat for the rest of the year, first butternut day is a big one in the life of the gardener; you have been waiting for six months for the most delicious vegetable in the garden to ripen.

That at the greengrocer is almost always reaped long before it is ripe, and is frankly rather insipid; wait until the skin turns a deep nutty brown colour and you have the most delicious roasted butternut squash recipe; the grandchildren cleaned up every last scrap. Ruth loved her dinner; she said it was delicious.

This beauty was 30cm long and weighed five pounds; and there are at least fifty more ripening in the garden; a veritable feast year.

The seeds are carefully set aside to dry and next Spring will be tossed again into the compost heaps; if you have a pile in the garden, and know how to toss a handful of seeds, then you too could grow beauties like these; growing butternut squash is not rocket science. 

Homemade bobotie

I am not a vegetarian and I confess that I love red meat but because of the warnings from the WHO we eat it no more than twice a week; and substitute much with legumes as in these bobotie recipes; a traditional Cape Malay dish.

The whole truth

The whole truth is an excerpt from Book IV, A Family Affair.  In fact it is the only chapter that is down on paper, so to speak.

With six books published, I confess that the next two from the saga about Janet and Santie is stalled; both are clear in my head, Book V is half written, and this the only chapter from Book IV.

Professional writers aim put put 4,000 words a day onto their computers. Hackers like me write when inspired to do so; that deserted me alas about three months ago.

Just reading The Whole Truth again, I must say has started the juices flowing; who knows.

If The Whole Truth grips you, and you have not read the first three books of the Family Affair trilogy, then that is the place to start. At a dollar apiece, they will not break the bank.

• A Family Affair

Early warning

There is a wonderful synergy of green living; today I had early warning of the arrival of the vervets. The tribe of monkeys can devastate the garden in just five minutes.

The reason I describe them as vermin, and have no interest in their protection, is that they will move through a garden taking one bite of a gem squash, or cob of corn, before throwing it down and moving onto the next plant. In sheer minutes they have destroyed your garden, taking little of value for themselves and leaving it devastated for you.

But we have a new ally; the hens. Their cry of alarm alerted us to the fact that all was not well in the state of Denmark. Paintball gun in hand, I rushed down the garden to protect our territory. Luckily they are terrified of being stung, and made themselves scarce.

That is the synergy of green living.

The troop of vervets can and will devastate the garden in minutes.

In particular, they love corn in flower, ripping off one immature cob after another, throwing it down in disgust. In minutes the whole crop, months of work, has been destroyed.

Home bake bread flour

Make sure that your home bake bread flour is made from 100% wholemeal. If you are going to go to all that trouble to make your own loaf, then use only the best ingredients.

Othewise it is like building an expensive, beautiful home on a poor piece of ground next to a highway; it makes no sense.

It is true that notice board has a lot of unrelated subject; bit of a hotch-potch but it draws an amazing amount of interest from readers.

Brewing a braggot

Braggot is an ancient drink mentioned in the literature back to the days of Chaucer; it is a beer brewed using honey instead of sugar.

When is it ready for bottling is an important question. Today carbon dioxide stopped bubbling off, and I was not sure whether it was because of a sudden drop in temperature, or the honey has all been turned into alcohol.

It is an important question; bottle too soon and they will explode sending glass shrapnel in all directions.

The answer is found from the hydrometer reading; it measures how much honey remains in solution. The answer was 1.030 which means that fermentation is definitely not complete.

Now that the temperature is again above 21 degrees, fermentation has again started. We will bottle in a few days.

Brewing a braggot is just one of my many hobbies; perhaps not worthy of a place at the notice board as it is really only for beekeepers, and for those with enough money to waste on brewing mead. Mind you, even then it is cheaper than that sold in the bottle store, and definitely a lot nicer. Beer hydrometer readings are vital to determine the end of fermentation.

Braggots have progressed to various different meads and melomels all made with honey and a fruit or grain. This wheat beer is doing it's level best to usurp the offerings of South African Breweries.

Succotash

For a short period there are both lima beans and corn ripening together in the late summer garden. This old succotash recipe is a great favourite, combining protein and starch for the perfect meal.

Lima beans have a long growing period, so you have to plan several plantings of corn, one in midsummer to coincide with the legumes if you want to enjoy this traditional favourite.

Notice board is for odd things like making succotash that you may never have made from scratch. It is a particularly nutritious and tasty dish.

Solar Impulse 2

 I do not know how many greenies are also glider pilots but today is a very exciting day; Solar Impulse 2 has just started its first round the world flight using only energy from the sun to power its four motors.

"We want to share our vision of a clean future," said Bertrand Piccard, one of the two pilots; the other is Andre Borschberg. Both are Swiss.

It is a giant plane with a wingspan of 72 metres, but a weight of only a little over two tonnes. The wings are covered with photovoltaic cells which is stored in lithium batteries. The longest leg will be from China to Hawaii, expected to take five days without landing obviously; that is the Pacific Ocean. There will be 13 legs in total, ending in Abu Dhabi in July.

You can follow them by watching the live video streaming at Solar Impulse.

Golf handicap

A patient made my day this week; he comes irregularly being strong and well, perhaps 3 times a year. Said he, in all seriousness, for a least three months after a treatment his golf improves significantly; that is worth a mention on notice board, not so?

Solar oven

This has been a special few days; at last I have had the confidence that our solar generator has the stuff that it takes to energise even an electric oven. Up to now it's been powered by the grid.

I should not have been anxious, of course, because these new electric ovens are super efficient; they draw only 2,5kW and our inverter will supply 10. On a sunny day, the photovoltaic panels are delivering just short of three kilowatts, so what's the problem?

In case you are asking, but how the hell does he cook at night? we have a change over switch that takes us back to the grid for heavy current, and especially heating.

But with the latter becoming less reliable, I decided to chance it, and the inverter handled the oven just fine.

Going completely off the grid was another story; I would have to purchase a huge bank of batteries. It did not make financial sense, but since turning to lithium I have realised that progress does sometimes go forwards.

I notice there are huge developments in the building of batteries; even that of your electric car for storing energy in the home. There is serious talk of the internal combustion engine in motor vehicles ending almost as quickly as Kodak film did. I am considering a Zero motorcycle and a Tesla car; are you?

Our first dish in the solar oven was these pilchard fish cakes, with the vegetables cooked on the tabletop induction stove, all powered for free from the sun. Buttered gem squash are certainly a great favourite.

• Solar powered generator upgrade.
  

Nutritious choice foods

Hobbies for me are not negotiable; much as I love work and family, other activities so enrich life; sufficiently to find a nitch on this notice board. This last week has been four days soaring the mountains around Harrismith adjacent to the Drakensberg mountains in South Africa. Three flights of over an hour were exhilarating, reaching cloud base at just under 10,000 feet above sea level.

Whilst not an accomplished pilot, gliding has added such a marvelous dimension to my life. Probably not your thing, but do find something to keep your mind and body busy.

Sleeping five nights in a drafty hangar with these babes, and risking your neck soaring the lift on a mountain, may not appeal to you, there has to be something more exciting than watching TV around.

• Harrismith gliding camp video

But today, it is back to the Chiropractic Coalface; again I am struck by the fact that a very painful neck ranks very highly; he said it was more painful than gallbladder stones, reckoned to be one of the most agonising conditions.

Luckily after the chiropractic adjustment he felt immediately 30% better; miracles we do at once; the impossible takes a little longer.

Will he call tomorrow, Christmas day? The next appointment is scheduled for 26 December.

The message from our chiropractic notice board is not to put off dealing with issues until they absolutely demand attention; his neck had been painful for three months.

Odd how we have our crises on holiday so often.

Are you passionate about life? It is such fun, but it does mean turning off the television periodically and enjoying nutritious choice foods so that you have plenty of energy.

In August

I am far from home, doing a locum in Holland. One thing I soon learnt was how essential a salad a day is; it keeps the doctor away. Cut off from Helens 15 euro salad, straight from the garden, I soon began to experience abdominal discomfort and rabbit pellets. It was soon after this that I wrote our adult potty training newsletter.

An endive and tomato salad, with lemon juice and olive oil, twice a day soon fixed that. 

The other was that a supper, very low in carbohydrate, was actually very pleasant; no bread, no starch, just half a tomato in the salad, and the other half in a chicken roast. I'm not trying to lose weight, but I realised that if I was, the Banting diet has much to offer. One is not continuously hungry. 

A tomato a day for me is a must; I do not want prostate cancer. And it is working; I have just had a PSA test and the urologist phoned to say it is less than 1.0. At my age anything under 4.0 is excellent, he says.

Perhaps you have read, or heard of, a Bernard Preston book of chiropractic anecdotes and you are wondering if there are any more volumes in the pipeline to entertain and inspire you to greater wellness.

My books are essentially a fun read, but yes, in my heart, I am hoping to inspire you to take that vital step that will mean less pain, and a longer and happier life.

It takes some trigger to shock one out of the crap that supermarkets and the food industry dishes up for us; it might be the death of a loved one long before their time, or perhaps just the still, small voice whispering in your ear.

Deep inside you know that cornflakes and coffee for breakfast, a fastfood lunch, and meat and potatoes for dinner is the way to an early demise; but where do you start if you want to ring in the changes?

Are we on the same page? If not, best go elsewhere right now. The Bernard Preston in me is promoting a full and zestful life; regain the lost ground stolen from under our noses by television. On Saturdays turn away from watching others have fun, and get out there yourself and find the pleasures that used to make life rich and full. Then you can write your own notice board sagas.

Induction Cooktop Stoves

This month I am promoting at Notice Board a whole new concept of heating; soon we will all be cooking this way. Magnetic induction provides heat in half the time, and using half the electricity. Impossible you say; trust me, I am a doctor; and a physics major.

• Induction cooktop stoves ...

The sport of kings and a chiropractor

And you too? Well, why not, it is really not so outrageous at it may seem.

After a long layoff whilst practising in Holland and building our new Gardeners' Cottage, I have started gliding again.  It is simply impossible to describe the kick you get when flying into a thermal and it smacks you in the seat of the pants.

The last two Saturdays it was flying at 7000 and 8200 feet, respectively, both fifty minutes long. That second flight was at cloud base, just the most exhilirating experience; I promise you, watching football doesn't come even vaguely close. Of course, that's Mickey Mouse compared to Solar Impulse 2 that will today fly at nearly 20,000 to cross the mountains on the way to Muscat; around the world in twenty days with not a drop of fuel.

It's not a particularly expensive sport unless you want to own your own glider; in gliding the instruction is free.

Have you got a free Saturday? Go for a flip at your local gliding club; it's one of the most exciting things I have ever done. You will be glad you read about it at Notice Board.

Is gliding dangerous? We often say the most dangerous part is the drive to the club, but yes, gliding is not without dangers. But here I am with 510 flights under the belt and still alive and thriving.

You can read my gliding page in the navigation bar on the left.

Of course, you must do what appeals to you; that might be going fishing, or camping, or a game of golf. It could be crafting a new table, or building a compost pile. Perhaps it's a sailboat that turns you on; go for it.

A village goes on a diet

A smart margarine company has started an innovative wellness kick program for the village of Villiersdorp in South Africa. It's in the rich fruit growing area, as well as olives and wheat.

What's interesting, and it's not an uncommon perception, are the words of a Mrs Baart who has had two bypass operations. I will participate in the program as my cholesterol is too high for a heart patient, says she. Going on, she states that a lot of people in this community cannot afford nutritious food.

There it is; the perception that wellbeing costs a lot of money. Well, it's true olive oil is more expensive than that from seeds. But in the main, the foods that undo our strength are the expensive ones.

Refined wheat costs more than than whole grain flour. Meat costs more than legumes like green beans, chickpeas and lentils. Colas cost more than water and homemade fruit juices. Nicknaks, chips and crisps, pretzels and donuts are the expensive junk foods that raise hell with our hearts.

But there is a big proviso; organised by a margarine company that's encouraging the use of hydrogenated fats and more seed oils that raise your omega 6 to omega 3 ratio? That means increased blood vessel and joint inflammation. Are you still unconvinced? Then just read our hydrogenated foods page. And then type butter is back into Google and now the proverbial stuff hits the fan; scientist have that there is not a shred of evidence that changing from butter to margarine will reduce your risk of heart disease. It's high glycemic carbohydrates like white rice and bread, potatoes and colas, chocolate cakes and cookies that play havoc with our cholesterol levels, not butter. Butter is back, and about time; and the high fat Banting diet is the way to lose weight and get your cholesterol down. Odd isn't it.

Solar Power Energy

You too could build a solar farm. If you have been humming and ha-ing about the free gifts sun brings us, I'm about to put up four new 230 watt solar photo voltaic panels that will double our solar output. Watch the solar power energy page. Just 10,000 rand, about 1000 dollars, plus some effort to install the new panels.

It is worth going on about at notice board.

All done, we now have a small solar farm. It produces 90 percent of our electricity. You could do it too just follow the instructions.

Do yourself a favour, if you decide to go this route, and I do recommend it; install enough panels to cope with the solar winter solstice; it comes every year and will otherwise frustrate you.

The decision to go green is perhaps more spiritual than anything else. It is to do with a longing to leave behind a planet habitable for your children's children. It's certainly not a money saver initially; however, our power utility has just applied for a 33% increase in price to compensate for the vast losses to corruption in the Jacob Zuma era. The power from the utility is still cheaper, though not as reliable, but no longer if they get that increase.

The current flowing from your solar inverter is without the surges and brown outs that the utility produces and makes the perfect uninterrupted power supply for your computers.

Plus, after considerable frustration over bad seed, or seed planted at the wrong time of the year, I am going to start being more scientific about our gardening, and will build a planting diary with details about which seed companies we've been using.

This incidentally is not the best way to go about building your solar farm. Learn from my experiences and use uniform panels. Still, with the use of a couple diodes it works perfectly. There are all sorts of tidbits at notice board.

• Residential solar panels
  

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Google has gone a bit daft and is driving webmasters crazy with a whole lot of new directives. One means we have had to remove many links from our pages. So, if you want to find out about hydrogenated foods, cervical facet syndrome, pubic bone pain, tingling in arms and legs, or my latest book, A Family Affair then you just may have to type it into the search function near the top of the menu bar on the left. Hitherto it would have been highlighted in the text.

There are other daft things too. Remove capitals, hyphens, inverted commas and much more. Don't be too surprised if you see new york spelt in lower case letters on a website in the future.

That won't apply just apply at Bernard Preston's pages but all websites.

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Bought a Bernard Preston book yet? Dirt cheap on your smartphone or tablet, from Amazon. A limited number of hard copies are available in the USA and South Africa.

Update: This week I have been experimenting with a different recipe. This nutritious olive bread recipe takes only ten minutes to prepare, five if you break down and buy them pitted. It is perfect with a green salad.

You know how to use the search function to find the pages on olive bread recipe, and solar power energy, right? You will find it in the menu bar. Visit this notice board periodically, there is plenty happening at Bernard Preston's site.

Because greater wellbeing is about the small things usually, is my report at Notice Board. Adding a lettuce leaf to your daily sandwich. Taking a walk around the block several times a week. Turning off the television and planting a radish seed or two. These are the little things that can make such a profound difference to your life. But I will not deny it, I too am hoping that you will spend a dollar or two to purchase one of my books. Which of us is totally altruistic, unconcerned about self?

You will enjoy them, I promise.

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"I am looking forward to your third book, Dr Preston. I really enjoyed reading Frog and Bats! They make you think, laugh and relax just like a good book should!"

- Emma Maria Nygren

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Wives' tales are sometimes totally without foundation, but taking a hummus wholewheat sandwich and an apple in hand and enjoying a lunch on the foot, away from the stresses of the office is what this notice board is all about. It is totally scientific, apples and hummus and whole wheat bread lie near the top of the superfoods that lower cholesterol.

Don't think statins, with all their nasty side effects, think an apple a day, think oats, think anti inflammatory omega 3.

• Authentic hummus recipe.
  
• Apple diet.
  

Again, use the search function.

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"Gems, both funny and zestful, from the life and work of a Chiropractor."

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Inspirational books, those that challenge you to take that vital step to greater wellness, emotional, physical, spiritual is what Bernies blog is all about. Yes, "Bernie's blog" but Bill Gate's internet has decided that the apostrophe has no place in grammar any longer. I disagree.

• The importance of being ernest ... not the great Oscar, I fear.
  

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"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends."  Oscar Wilde

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Notice board

Okay, so here I am sitting at my desk writing up this Notice Board, far remote from you in your corner, besieged with your problems. What can I possibly  contribute to the tingling in your arms and hands and feet? The sense that you have lost control of your life, that you are swallowing  umpteen pills that you deep down know are not the solution.

Those three books of Chiropractic anecdotes. Enjoy...

Frog in my Throat is about the early, quite scary first days in practice when every chiropractor is faced with both the power of chiropractic, but is also with things that can go horribly wrong, just like in medicine. In my case, unregistered, and under threat of being arrested for practising medicine without a licence.

Bats in my Belfry  follows those middle years of long stressful hours in the clinic, few holidays and soooo close to that pit of despair, burn-out. Saved by the good sense and support of She-who-must-be-obeyed.

Stones in my Clog are the delightful seven year sojourn practising in the polders. Come walk with me and meet the ancient civilization of Limburg in South Holland. The land of Andre Rieu, I hope you've heard of him. You should have! Not all plain sailing mind you. Know what being fired "op staande voet" means?

Another genre, controversial.

I'd like to state plainly, up front, that I am not homosexually inclined, but nor am I a homophobe. Two of my great inspirations, Michaelangelo and Oscar Wilde were homosexuals. The former in great secrecy in fear of his life, the latter was gaoled for his "unmanly manhood" and eventually fled to exile in France. Tchaikovsky took his own life, so plagued was he.

In a profound dream, a whole book was laid out before me, the plot, the protagonists, Santie and Janet, the four children they deceitfully acquire... call it my search for a better understanding of why some have a preference for relationships with their own sex.

• Klein Jan Jansen ... enjoy a sample chapter. 

The cover tells all. Study it for a moment. A Family Affair is a long book, and eventually turned into a trilogy. It's only available as an ebook for your computer, Kindle, smartphone or tablet. The way we will all be reading books within a decade, same as cameras. At a fraction of the price. 99c each. Vote with your feet if you don't like the subject at notice board.

"Readers of Bernard Preston’s previous three books will not be disappointed with his latest work – despite the absence of a chiropractor! The theme of The Bostonians, the first book in a trilogy, revolves around some serious modern-day issues – but his easy-to-read style makes for compelling reading. The author’s ability to make his characters engaging as they become entangled in difficult relationships, whilst retaining a light-hearted theme, is commendable. Another page-turner from a natural story-teller!"

Linda Harris

Guaranteed to stir, challenge and disturb. Not for those who've made up their minds... is homosexuality wrong?

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• Lonely road of faith ...

Bernard Preston is not offering you a utopia that a wish or a prayer will usher in. Greater wellness is a step at a time process of recognising that more drugs is usually not the solution.

For most of us, wellness is about exercising more, eating better and, yes, spending time with the Almighty. He cares about us, believe it. These are frequent topics at notice board.

And an occasional but not too frequent spinal adjustment. There are DCs out there who will try and convince you that you should mortgage your house and consult them three times a week for months if you want greater wellness. I'm not one of them.

But for the most part, we are a highly competent, caring profession who can and will make a different to your form. Find a good Chiropractor ... use that site search function above.

• Greed ...

• Femoral nerve damage^[1]
  

Do you want to know more about what we do, the conditions we treat and our successes and failures? There is plenty about iatrogenic, doctor-caused disease too.

Doctors rarely learn so quickly as when they themselves get sick. Can spinal manipulation fix an extruded, sequestered disc causing severe leg pain. Usually it is considered a job exclusively for the man with the knife, but the answer is thankfully yes. Femoral nerve damage is a seriously painful condition.  Without a doubt the most excruciating leg pain I have ever experienced. It is useful having a very competent daughter in the family.

Simply by saving me from the surgeon's knife probably repaid her whole education in one shot. And worth a comment in notice board, not so.

When planning for one year, plant rice, for ten think of trees; for a century, educate your children.

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Newsletter

Our newsletter is entitled "create a cyan zone" at your home, preserving both yourself and Mother Earth for future generations; and the family too, of course. We promise not to spam you with daily emails promoting various products. You may get an occasional nudge to buy one of my books.

Here are the back issues.

At our sister site you can submit questions about your own neck and back.

At all pages you will find a pose a question which may help shed some light on your unresolved problem.

• Pose a question - use the site search function in the navigation bar.
  

• Tingling in arms and hands ...
• Tingling in feet and legs; again that site search button.
  

USEFUL LINKS

• Meet Bernard Preston ...
• What is potting in the garden ...

Did you find this page interesting? How about forwarding it to a friendly book or food junkie? Better still, a social media tick would help.

Address:

56 Groenekloof Rd,

Hilton, KZN

South Africa

Website:

https://www.bernard-preston.com

Create a Cyan Zone at your home; one which complements blue areas for longevity with green for protecting Mother Earth.