Podophobia

I’m not a fan of feet (except babies’) but I do see how useful they are and, some years ago now, I worked as an office manager in a chiropody clinic - sometimes even standing in as an assistant for nail surgery procedures despite my squeamishness. Back then in the mid-90s the profession, that is the State-registered graduates as opposed to those who ‘trained’ by distance learning, was just starting to think about changing its name to podiatry in line with its American counterpart.

Etymologically, chiropody (pronounced k- not sh- incidentally, as my boss used to point out to patients every day) comes from chiro, meaning hand, and pod, meaning foot as originally chiropodists treated both hands and feet, you see. The term was probably coined by a Canadian-born US healer called Daniel Palmer in the 19th century. Podiatry though is focussed on feet alone and was adopted in the USA in 1958.

Anyway, as well as taking my bikes in for a service, choosing some tyres at the garage for my car service tomorrow, walking the dogs, going to work, trying to tidy the house and doing a football training run for Son2, today I took Son1 for another podiatry appointment in Cosham. He’s still getting left knee pain and has been referred for physiotherapy to see if that can sort it out.

PS - Fantastic double exposure by Son1 here.