shadows of echoes of memories of songs

I'm registered with the only dentist within about 25 miles who claimed to take new NHS patients.

They did a checkup and an xray, and a few days after the xray they phoned to tell me that I needed a filling. (Bummer, thought I, I nearly made it to 30 without needing any fillings.)

So I went in for the filling, and when I was on the chair with my mouth propped open they asked if I wanted the NHS filling (mercury filling, lots of drilling under anaesthetic, painful, unsightly grey lump in the tooth, cost = £45) or the private filling (non-mercury, very little drilling, painless, invisible, cost = £70). I opted for the invisible/painless option, which took about 5 seconds of drilling and 2 seconds of holding some kind of instrument against my tooth (I'd been told to close my eyes so I have no idea what).

After that was done, the dentist showed me the xray and said that there was another 'shadow' visible on the xray and I might need another filling. "It's only a very slight shadow, you probably won't even be able to see it," they told me, pointing at a completely blank bit of xray. They were right. They took another xray from a different angle and said they'd phone me back if anything showed up.

Surprise surprise, they reckon I need to pay them another £70. This feels like a phenomenal ripoff; for all I know, they are inventing these 'fillings' out of thin air. They can't provide any evidence except a blank space on an xray where they claim to be able to see something. Now obviously being able to spot things that mere mortals wouldn't spot on a postage-stamp-sized xray is the sort of thing that one might get from 7+ years of training to be a dentist. But they're certainly not inspiring me with confidence.

The 'drilling' is apparently only a tiny bit (no pun intended) on the surface of the tooth, so the 'filling' must only be the merest cat's whisker of the dental equivalent of polyfilla. I've always taken the view that teeth are worth protecting; but, if I was being completely cynical, I would point out that it is hardly rocket science to work out that people of my age a) were probably brought up to take this view of toothcare, b) probably feel slightly guilty about not brushing seven times a day and not using all the available tooth-cleaning technology, so can probably be persuaded that the fault is theirs, and c) have a reasonable amount of disposable cash.

I don't think there's any way I can get a second opinion without paying outrageous amounts of cash to some other private dentist; there simply are no NHS dentists in the area (and of course you still have to pay for checkups even on the NHS). Of course, they know that, too.

But if I just told them I didn't want to have it done, then a) they'd kick me off their books (they'll only take NHS patients in the first place if their teeth are okay) and b) I'd feel as though my teeth were a ticking time bomb in my mouth. Maybe £140 isn't too much to pay for peace of mind. But it still leaves me feeling as though my mouth is full of snake-oil.

NEW LIVEJOURNAL MEME!

Think of ten people on your friends list that you want to say something to.

Now go and tell them those things... (here's the catch) ...without the aid of LiveJournal. By email, or phone, or even face to face.

Didn't that feel weird?

Now pass this meme on to at least 10 friends otherwise you'll have 482 years' bad luck.

Dear cyclists,

Cycling on the pavement is illegal. The reason it's illegal is that it is ANTISOCIAL, STUPID, and potentially DANGEROUS.

Cycling on a crowded pavement, even if it wasn't illegal, would still be ANTISOCIAL, STUPID and potentially DANGEROUS.

When you are told "stop cycling on the pavement" by somebody you have just nearly run over by trying to cycle off a busy pedestrian crossing onto a very narrow pavement, the correct answer is not to point at a nearby toddler on a plastic trike (on the pavement) and say "He's cycling on the pavement." Nor is it to yell "FUCK OFF".

Toddlers are allowed to cycle on the pavement, even though it's still fucking irritating and still fucking painful when they run over your heels/toes. However toddlers have an excuse for being as annoying and stupid as 2-year-olds, namely they're, like, actually two years old, and are still in training for being useful and non-irritating members of the human race. If you are riding a bike that's nearly as tall as me and you're old enough to have a stupid haircut, a tweed jacket and a cocking iPod -- and to shout FUCK OFF at strangers -- then I'm guessing you're actually old enough to learn to cycle on the road.

Furthermore, even if some OTHER CRETINS have parked their white vans and their sodding vanity-numberplated SUVs in the cycle lane and the zigzags so they can sit and read the paper while their morbidly obese other half waddles the 1.5 metres to the shop to buy fags and cake, that STILL doesn't make you NOT a cretin for cycling on the pavement.

Oh, and while we're here:

Cycling while smoking or using a mobile phone is probably not, in itself, illegal. It is, however, STUPID and potentially DANGEROUS. Yes, I know, you have superhuman balance and control and psychic powers which prevent other people doing anything unpredictable within a 5-metre radius of you; you are therefore quite capable of cycling while smoking, texting and juggling chainsaws, WHILE BLINDFOLDED. So get a fucking unicycle and join the circus. Oh, by the way, unicycling on the pavement? ALSO ILLEGAL.

No love,
me.

P.S. AND NINTHLY I don't want to know how ACTUALLY you ALWAYS cycle on the 40-foot-wide well-lit pavement outside your HOUSE and it's just the fascism of the nanny state and health-and-safety-gone-mad that says that's illegal and besides bikes have a decree from THE QUEEN that says they're allowed to run you over if they want to whereas cars are evil and are technically disallowed by the second law of thermodynamics. I also don't give a fuck how you cycled on a pavement when nobody was there to see and therefore it can't have really been illegal, unless you also prove at the same time that you can SHUT THE FUCK UP in the woods when there's nobody there to listen to you.

There's a bit about 2 minutes in to Venetian Snares' "Frictional Nevada" which is like that grin-till-it-hurts caffeine hit you get from strong, sweet, gritty Turkish coffee.

http://download.yousendit.com/DE6C8D9A33DBF9CD

That is all.

"there's no limit to what gay and lesbian people can do, even being a wizard" - Stonewall

Unrelatedly (more or less), when I came to make this post there was a 'saved draft' still lurking from Friday evening. I think I should preserve it here for posterity: ( what I didn't post )

I say "more or less" unrelatedly because, well, nearly everyone at work is a wizard.

SO UNBELIEVABLY TIRED. But how am I supposed to do all the things I want to do if I have to sleep as well? Yes, yes, I know.

( Things I have done this evening )

In lieu of real content...

( that unread-books meme )

Owen and I spent most of last week on holiday in Dublin. I took heaps of photos, and for once I even managed to get them all online within a day of getting back.

Before we went, my work colleagues asked me: What on earth is there to do in Dublin in September? Answer: wander round lots of interesting libraries, churches, and museums; go along the coast to the nearest sandy beach, pick up interesting rocks, and paddle in the sea; enjoy the sunshine; go shopping; sit in pubs and cafes, drinking and eating and talking; and get engaged.



For me, the best holidays aren't necessarily the ones where the aim is to find as many things as possible to fill the time, or the ones in the weirdest places; they're the ones where I get to spend time with someone I love, doing things we enjoy, finding things to be interested in, and sharing an umbrella when it rains. I could try to count how many photos we took on holiday, how many books we bought, how many coffees we drank; and it might be fun to make those lists; but when does the holiday start? When we step out of the house? When we start packing the bags, when we start planning the trip?

In 8 days' time Owen and I will have been going out for 3 years. In that time we've (between us) lived in 5 different houses in 3 cities, had 7 jobs, been on 4 holidays to 3 countries, and become 6 years older. We could measure out our lives in Scrabble games. What is there to do in Oxford or thereabouts, for a lifetime or so? The holiday's already begun.

---

( And because people keep asking... )

Hello! I'm not dead. But I do seem to have lost my LiveJournal mojo a bit. I have plans for Strategies for sorting this out. But for now, as an example of the way my exciting life is pottering along, this weekend (starting from Friday night) I have:

- been to a gig (Daedelus, at the Luminaire in Kilburn; review to follow...)
- been to a play (of sorts: "Potted Potter", all the Harry Potter books in 60 minutes; review to follow for that, too, hopefully...)
- nearly scored a goal in Quidditch as part of the above :-)
- met up with smallbeds and rgl for a coffee
- played Boggle in the Far From The Madding Crowd
- written some perl (for work)
- finished reading two books
- sorted out a stack of documentation, mostly car-related
- tried to register for an OU course in digital photography (need to phone them tomorrow, their online registration is rubbish)
- got all my personal email inboxes down to under 100 (but not my work one)
- emailed one friend and phoned another, both of whom been meaning to phone/email for about 2 months
- fixed my mac laptop (which had decided it didn't want to have a Bluetooth thingy any more)
- got my mac to sync with my phone at last
- phoned my parents
- catalogued some more of our books on LibraryThing

I rather feel as though I'm always busy and never actually getting very much done. I also feel as though I'm losing touch with people a lot, though I'm delighted that so many more people are on Facebook now -- I do find it a good way of keeping people on my radar. So this is a sort of LJ keeping-in-touch amnesty: if you feel neglected or not-kept-in-touch-with or you just want a reply to something, please comment here, and I promise I will reply to your comment.