From 'La Mole' to Penge

It's coming up to 7 am and after another restless night (I slept for about 3 hours), I'm not feeling very bright.



I've had toothache since Thursday, first intermittent, then excruciatingly painful and accompanied by earache. On Saturday evening, it abated but my face started to swell.
Hence the nickname the 'squirrel', or should I say the greedy squirrel?

Finally, this morning I can see the dentist (I'm going to the office first and then pop out).
I hate going to the dentist's but on this occasion not so much, although I could berate him for not working Mondays and especially for working on the troublesome tooth last year. He wasn't sure whether it needed root canal treatment or not, and decided it didn't in the end.
Well it was the wrong decision - not only it has cost me and going to cost me pain but also more money. 

EDIT: Well according to the dentist, it's a tooth with an old filling. But I'd have put money on the fact that he did it - maybe I'm losing my marbles?
I'm going back for root canal treatment next week and the week after, after the infection has cleared (I was prescribed antibiotics).
The cost is £295 - I had to leave an advance of 100 but I ended up pressing the wrong button before entering the pin, and was about to leave £10,000! Luckily I managed to cancel it!

It's not even 5 pm and it's pitch black already, thanks to the clocks going back an hour last week-end.

This evening at 7 pm, there'll be another London Underground strike, the 3rd in 2 months. It wouldn't normally bother me much as I travel by train and bike, but tomorrow I have a dentist's appointment in my lunch break. 

The office is in the West End, home in south-east London and dentist in West London. I think I'll be coming to work tomorrow, hoping for the Central line to resume a reduced service mid-morning, like it did last time.
Otherwise I'll have to rely on my legs and a bike for part of the journey. And my lucky star.

At work things have been quieter this week. Last week I would have happily strangled some of my colleagues in the Indian office.
First they ignored the design review they asked me to provide, then the code submitted was full of bugs. A couple of days later they said that they had completed the review actions but, when I checked, 30% hadn't been done.
And of course it all landed on my desk to fix it with only a few hours to go.
Still, our management is very happy because they are cheaper than us.

Talking about work, the Icelander from Sweden who joined a couple of months ago has been quite friendly. Not just with me, of course. Although I am sure that he probably hasn't touched any of my straight colleagues' legs or rubbed their upper arms.
There's nothing sexual, he's really just being friendly (he rubbed my arm when he asked how I felt  - I was sick on Friday) , and probably didn't even notice it. And no, I don't think that I'm flirting with him, even though he's arguably the cutest man in my company (you'll see him at the Christmas party, london1952 !)

This afternoon I saw my dentist for the 3rd time in 6 weeks - now with a bit of luck, I won't be back for another 6 months.

I took the afternoon off and was planning to have a walk around Holland Park after my appointment.
Sadly, it started raining as soon as I left the office and had to give the park a miss.

I was disappointed. I haven't been there in years and I had a handful of nuts ready for the squirrels.

I could go one week-end but you cannot beat that feeling of walking around the park during the week, where at the back of your mind there's an irrational touch of guilt.

Oh well, some other time, I guess.

I went to the dentist's this morning for a check-up 

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate sitting on that chair and having my teeth tampered with?
I hate the scraping, the noises and the almost horizontal position (with my mouth full of fluid, I struggle to breathe and constantly worry about choking - the nurses suck at sucking).

As soon as I sit on that chair, my body stiffens and cannot relax no matter how hard I try.

I hate being at the dentist's so much that I could agree to almost anything while I'm there as long as I can get out.
This morning I agreed to another crown, which is going to set me back almost £500.
At least now the torture is delayed by another 3 weeks!
 
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The £500 bill means that we'll have to cut down on the accommodation for our trip to Malta at the end of February; they were a couple of lovely over-the-top apartments in Valletta: I guess we'll have to look at some budget options (sorry london1952  !)