Monday January 25th, 2016

Monday, and the start of new week, unless you’re one of THOSE people who believe that’s a Sunday’s job.  As I’ve maybe mentioned one or two times, they’re all the same to me.

I’M RETIRED !

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This morning was a bit different from most as, for one thing, I was up and about at 9am ! The shock to my system was palpable but I had a dental appointment at 11:15am and I needed to be ready for it.

I’d been very nervous brushing my teeth over the weekend as I did NOT want the remains of my front crown falling off. This morning I could return to normal, safe in the knowledge that I’d be seeing the dentist.

Whilst in the waiting room, a woman came out from having her visit and went up to the reception area to make her next appointment and when given the date and then the time as “half past two”, she repeated them, as you do, but said “two thirty”.  With a straight face and deadpan delivery, the receptionist said “oh we don’t say two thirty here” and a passing patient laughed as he made his way to an empty chair.

Nothing more was said and for a few minutes I was trying to work out what had just happened. Being mid Atlantic, after spending so much time in America, I’m often accused of uttering Americanisms like cart for trolley, trunk for car boot etc. These words just come out – as will happen if you hear and say them most often.

So I immediately went down that path and was thinking the receptionist was saying she didn’t like the phrase “two thirty” as it sounded American but I didn’t think it was. I went over it in my head a few times and then the penny dropped. D’uh.

I’m sure you “got it” when I started this story so I’ll not expand on it now but just put the location and that time together and the old joke becomes apparent.

I’m putting my slowness down to the fact that it was 11am !

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I won’t go into the gory details of my visit, but after the injection, I had the remains of the crown removed, the stump was cleaned up and molds made of my top and bottom teeth.

Wait, that makes it seem like I’ve only one tooth on the top and bottom !

Actually before he put on the temporary crown, I half jokingly suggested I should take a selfie of my redneck look and I wish I had taken one now.  I suppose I’ll get another opportunity when the temp crown gets removed in 2 weeks time when the new crown will be fitted.

I’ll have my phone handy !

The dentist found a hidden filling that was exposed when the crown came away so that was repaired there and then. All in all, the appointment took 45 mins and, thanks to the anesthetic, was totally pain free.

They must use some potent stuff these days as I still felt like I was wearing a gum shield till about 9pm when I had my supper. Hey I’m not complaining.  Much better than in my school days when my dentist didn’t believe in giving an anesthetic for fillings.

Oh I did love my school days.

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Speaking of school days, here is part of the entry from my 1970 diary for today, January 25th.  It was a Sunday.  One other point to make is that, if you’re not aware already from previous posts, my boarding school was half way up a mountain which provided lots of places for excellent rock climbing, which I loved.

“Prof and Corny and a fellow called Chris came to climb at the rock face. They started about 12 noon and by 6pm were in trouble. Prof was half way up and Corny was three quarters. Chris was helping from above as he doesn’t climb. By some misunderstanding Chris thought Corny was going to fall so he kept the rope tight, but Prof, thinking the tugging was coming from Corny, kept his end tight too – so poor Corny was held from going up or down. The wind was so fierce that no voices could be heard so someone (Soapy) ran to get Kerr (Fr. Kerr, the new Dean of discipline) and that idiot called the fire brigade who arrived about 6:30pm with a couple of policemen. By this time the lads were down anyway so after a chat, everyone left, leaving £50 worth of climbing equipment on the face.”

Now you see why I kept a page-a-day diary back then !

As it would have been pitch black by 6pm, I’m not sure how they were managing to climb by that time but it was in my diary so it must be accurate.  I guess they hadn’t expected to still BE climbing but this incident added to the time.  Yeah, that’ll be it.  I guess !

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The movie I watched before going to bed was “Absolutely Anything“, a comedy co written by Terry Jones (Monty Python) with the rest of the Monty Python team providing the voices of the aliens. Given the rating and reviews on the IMDB, I probably wouldn’t have watched it but as it starred Simon Pegg and Kate Beckinsale, I felt it was worth a looky see.

It wasn’t really. I did laugh at a few jokes and situations but overall it was a pretty infantile script, worthy of Terry Jones but never likely to bother the Oscar judging committee, despite all the cast being white !

Oh a little bit controversial there but I’m a keyboard warrior so I just don’t care.

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In bed, I returned to Treasure Island and I have to say I’m wanting it to be over.  It’s a bit of a boring struggle and I’ve no idea why it’s regarded as a classic.  When I was wanting the dry land opening chapters to get a move on to the sea/island chapters, I was assuming they’d be much more exciting.  They’re not.  Maybe it’s Stevenson‘s writing style but for me, he’s managed to make a potentially exciting story of buccaneers, mutineers and buried treasure come across as thrilling as a mid week episode of Coronation Street.

(Apologies to non UK readers for that comparison)

Oh well, I’m only 65% into the book so maybe there will be a big exciting ending.

Maybe a plane will crash land on the Hispaniola or Long John Silver‘s peg leg will get trapped on a train line.

Come on Stevenson.  You were an author.  You could’ve used your imagination, man !

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P.S.  This is my dentist.