Its dentist Tuesday, in fact its early dentist Tuesday, so I am up early and into the shower. Can’t go to the dentist smelly. It takes a lot of spoons (energy) but I feel refreshed and outside world ready, even if I am just walking a few hundred yards down the road. Having scoured my teeth I miss out breakfast and a few minutes after my partner has gone to work I walk down to the dentists. I have a short wait, during which I continue to read Cosmicomics by Calvino. The main character seems now to be in the present but remembering the formation of crystals in the development of the planet. I am quickly called in and my dentist sets to work. There is a lot of work to do to prepare for a long term crown solution to my missing filling of a front tooth. As the work progresses I feel more and more shaky, a combination of the work being done, anxiety and shakiness. At one point I have to stop, I’ve had become very cold and I think I was experiencing “tattoo flu”. My dentist is extremely good and attentive and notes when I need to slow down but gets on with the job, giving my a commentary on how much is done. At last she says “last ten minutes, all the major stuff is done. ” There is one last scan to be done so that the external company can 3D print my new tooth. Its an amazing bit of technology. Then I am done and I think every one is relieved that we got through it. I am shaky and leave via the receptionist who takes for half the fee for the full work being done. I’m due back in two weeks to get my new tooth stuck in.
On my way home I buy a paper, a load of soft sweets and a Lucozade to get some energy into me. On reaching home I hunt out my metal straw in order to drink the Lucozade as my mouth is still very numb from the dentists anaesthetic. I accompany the drink with a few jelly babies. As I wait for the sugar rush I do the days cross words and watch in the background the Post Office Enquiry. One of the Fujitsu system security men who wrote court “expert” witness statements is being torn into shreds by the lawyers. This is the most blood bath like session I have seen to date. When they break for lunch to mop up the blood I make myself filled pasta for lunch. After lunch Andy Dunks continues to be given a torrid time about his court statements that helped convict some postmasters. Once again it is clear that no one explained to this poor guy what it means to be an expert witness in a court of law and the principals of not going beyond one’s own direct knowledge. Clearly the lawyers manipulated some of the “expert” witnesses so ensure risk and blame were shifted off the post office. I start to draft the blog as I continue to recover from the morning. I clear the kitchen and return to waiting for the Tesco delivery as the rain stops and the weather brightens up. I am cheered up by reading the paper and noting that there has been some one older than me to have written and published there first novel. Previously I was aware that Mary Wesley publisher her first book at seventy two but Shirley Hughes wrote her first full length novel at 84 and her last on at the age of 94. I am tempted to start my novel Albertine’s Revenge.
By the mid afternoon I am getting twitchy that Tesco have not delivered. I put the bins out for tomorrow and note a Jaguar is parked, the owner points to small retriever type dog running down the road and asks if it its mine. Apparently it had run out into the road. I think its our neighbours dog so I knock on their open and ask my neighbour if he is missing his dog. He is and so the adventure of Mable starts, At one point there ae at least three cars parked up and the driver plus me and my eldest daughter trying to get a very skittish Mable to come home. Mable has no road sense and at one moment the traffic on the village main road comes to a standstill. Mable is still running around the block when Tesco arrives to deliver to us. As Tesco man unloads our order Mable is reunited with her owner. There are lots of thumbs up all round and the good Samaritans move on. My Tesco order is squirreled away and I return to continue seeing the Fujitsu chap be systematically butchered. Its real lamb to the slaughter job. After the excitement of the Mable chase and everything else in the day I get to the end of the afternoon without much energy left.
I guess my evening is going to be lazy and filled with reading and SWAT unless I start Albertine’s Revenge, but before I can do that I need to re read some Proust. Perhaps the warmer weather will arrive and I will finally get out on the patio and light the chimenea.
