because of my over-indulgence, real over-indulgence, in chocolates, candy bares, sweetened condensed milk and all things sweet. (You get what you pay for!)
But, in all my 26 years in Finland, I never missed a day at work or never have fallen ill.
My daughter, a doctor in Newcastle has been ill last weekend. She mentioned that as a doctor she had patients coughing at her all day! She went on to comment that "Dad, you are superhuman!"
I replied that I was in no way "superhuman"! :-)
It was my old fashioned bringing up in Bombay, where we were exposed to the real deadly infections all around us that built up my immunity.
I remember those really dirty ice lollies I used to consume after a game of hockey or football on the Oval Maidan. These were made by the old man with a cart, where he crushed the ice onto a stick with his bare hands and poured all sorts of coloured liquids on it.
My daughters would be horrified to allow any of their kids to have any of that!
But it is that and the Polymango and street roasted corn on the cob with chilli powder and salt, Bhel Puri, Chat and Pani Puri in the back streets of Bombay that built up the inbuilt immunity in me that has lasted half a century.
Living in a sterile country, like Finland, only makes us nambi-pambies! I am glad to say that all my kids are only half nambi-pammies! But as time goes on me and they are becoming full fledged nambi-pambies!
