Andrew, don't worry about laughing at my bamboo splinter comment as one of the most important rules that I live my life by is "if you can't laugh at yourself then you have no right to laugh at others" being able to laugh at myself has gotten me through some very tough times.

When I was younger my excema was quite extreme & some workmates used to call me the cornflake kid (it wasn't meant to be offensive as we all had nicknames & would often break out into monty python sketches to take the mickey out of "big nose"). When my excema flared up & put me in hospital they stopped calling me the cornflake kid & I insisted that they kept calling me it as treating me differently made me feel worse, I told them that laughter is the best medicine & truly meant it