My Worst Part Of A Visit To The Dentist
This afternoon, I went to the dentist.
My dentist is only a couple of stops away on the 141 bus route at Newington Green and getting up the hill is easy, once the bus arrives.
It used to be a route, where two buses, the 21 and the 141 doubled up, but now there is only one bus; the 141, so the journey takes longer.
Coming down was particularly bad, as I had to wait perhaps twelve minutes for a bus to roll down the hill.
To make matters worse, it was school throwing out time and there wasn’t any space left on the bus.
Have bus services deteriorated as bad as this all over London?
I suspect, I shall be using a taxi for my next dental appointment! Or cancelling, if it’s not a fine day, so that I can walk down the hill.
World Cup Pub Quiz Qiuestion
Q: Why do the Icelandic team have the best teeth in the business?
A: According to Wikipedia, the manger; Heimir Hallgrímsson is a dentist!
A Game Of Four Odd Goals
Yesterday, I went to the football at Ipswich on a very cold evening.
As I needed to go to the dentist in Felixstowe at lunchtime, I went early. This meant that as the cost of my dentist in Felixstowe is so much lower than one in London, I effectively was able to buy a First Class ticket on the saving, thus avoiding the need to pay rush hour prices to get to the match.
The idea was then to come back to Ipswich and waste time by going to a museum, watching a film, exploring the shops and having a pizza in Pizza Express.
All I did was have the pizza and get very cold, as Ipswich shut down virtually completely around five, giving me nearly three hours to find something to do. Since, I worked in the town, all my friends there have either moved away or now live way out of the town.
The biggest disappointment was that the first showing in the cinema was 19:30, whereas in Cambridge today several films start at around four. I could have walked to the multiplex, but I wanted to go to the cinema in the Corn Exchange, where C and myself had so many happy memories.
Even Debenhams and Starbucks shut at six, whereas John Lewis in Cambridge and Norwich shut yesterday at seven.
No wonder the town centre was as dead as a doornail.
But then the crowd at the football was less than fifteen thousand, which is very low for Portman Road.
The game was a pretty good one and memorable for four rather odd goals.
Luke Hyam and Carlos Edwards seemed to stumble over the ball before they put it in the net and Jordan Rhodes, for Blackburn, got the best of the Ipswich keeper in a rush for the ball.
And then to seal the match, Frank Nouble, thundered in on the Blackburn keeper and stole the ball, before slotting it in the net. Mick McCarthy, summed it up as follows on the BBC report.
He is a handful and a frightening prospect when he is bearing down on you.
He certainly scared the goalkeeper. For a big man, Nouble’s pace is astounding.
At least the train was warm, going home, even if it wasn’t a Class 90 and Mark Three coaches.
It Wasn’t A Good Trip!
The objective was simple, which was to get to Felixstowe from Liverpool Street in time for a dental appointment at 14:10. I worked out I’d leave on the 11:30 from London and then I had fifteen minutes at Ipswich to change onto the 12:58 to Felixstowe. I would arrive at 13:24, which gave me plenty of time. Coming back, I had plenty of time to catch the 15:28 after my appointment and after a change at Ipswich I’d be back in London for 17:19
But things didn’t work out as expected! The train crawled out of London and we were thirteen minutes late at Colchester, so I felt I’d miss my connection. But that was late too, so I caught it easily!
But I don’t like being late.
After my appointment, I walked back to the station and as the train appeared to be on time and it was only15:00, I walked back to the bar in Felixstowe station to see if they had a nice glass of cider.
But they didn’t so after fiddling about, I walked back to the platform and sat and read my paper for a bit.
There was then a bit of commotion and on checking the display I found that my train to Ipswich had been cancelled just a few minutes before it was due to arrive.
I thought about taking the bus into Ipswich, but then I realised I’d have to get from wherever the bus dropped me to the station.
I did think about waiting for the 16:28, but who was there any guarantee that wouldn’t be cancelled as well. After all, as I went to Felixstowe, a driver had told me one train had already been cancelled in the morning.
So I walked back to the taxi rank opposite Tesco and took one to Ipswich station for £25.
I eventually got back into London at about 17:30 and was dropped right in the middle of the rush hour.
Not one of those inconvenienced by this cancellation heard any advice from Greater Anglia.
Discussing it all with the taxi driver, who took me to Ipswich, he said it happens all the time, because they give the freight trains priority. Let’s hope that when the Bacon Factory Curve is completed, things get a bit better. However, it would help if more of the line from Ipswich to Felixstowe was double-tracked, as the Docks said they would be.
This line sets a bad precedent for the row that will happen between London Overground and the freight operators, who want to use the North London and Gospel Oak to Barking Lines to and from London Gateway. I think we’ll see one hell of a row over that conflict, especially when Class 66s thunder through all night keeping the residents awake.
Is It Cheaper To Use An Out Of London Dentist?
I’ve gone to the same dentist in Felixstowe off and on for nearly thirty years. I don’t have any specific problems, but I felt that because of this long and excellent experience, that it would be best for me to return, as my previous dentist in London has sold his business and retired.
Today it cost me £33.25 for the First Class ticket to Felixstowe and the private check-up was £18. That was all I spent, although when I visited my London dentist, I usually treated myself to lunch in Carluccio’s round the corner from his surgery.
Painkillers Can Make Headaches Worse
This has been said on the television this morning. There’s more here.
I used to suffer from bad migraines brought on by flashing lights and exercise, but since being diagnosed as a coeliac and going on a gluten-free diet, I don’t get them any more.
I haven’t taken a painkiller since C died, except when I was suffering two years ago from bad pain in my face due to a tooth and when I had the tooth out.
If I have a slight pain, I use a measure of Scottish falling down liquid, diluted with London tap water.
Return To The Hippodrome
Yesterday, I went to the newly-reopened Hippodrome Casino to see Kate Dimbleby perform in a musical entertainment written in collaboration with Amy Rosenthal, called Beware of Young Girls: The Dory Previn Story.
I must be one of the few people of my age, who have memories of the old Hippodrome Theatre, that previously stood on the site. I didn’t actually go, but in the early 1950s, I regularly had to go to the Royal Dental Hospital in Leicester Square. My mother, who had been to the theatre before the war, and I used to come up from North London on the Tube and get off at Leicester Square, where we exited the station at Hippodrome Corner. It was then a short walk to the actual square and the dental hospital. One day the builders were in and you could see right through the windows, which told how what was happening was the talk of the town. I can’t remember it actually opening as the nightclub called, The Talk of the Town, as we finished going to the dental hospital. It’s since had a bit of a chequered history, with good and bad times and now it has been turned into a casino.
I think they’ve made a good job of it on the construction and furnishing side. As to the gambling side, I don’t gamble in a casino. I would though, if someone was fool enough to set up Canfield. But after my stroke, I doubt I still have the prowess I used to have. I do bet on horses, but only when the odds are longer than they should be. I once had Terimon at 500/1 each way for the Derby. He came second.
But I do, see shows in a casino and once saw Siegfried and Roy in Las Vegas. I’ve been to Vegas several times and I’ve never gambled on anything there, which must be some sort of record.
So how was last night’s show?
I enjoyed the show and it brought back memories of Dory Previn’s show at the Donmar Warehouse in the last 1980s, where I saw her with C. The set was similar too and I wonder if Amy’s mother, Maureen Lipman, who is thanked on the program, saw that show at the Donmar too!
I don’t think there are any original videos of Dory Previn singing, although there is this video on YouTube. It was taken on a toy camera, when she opened an Arts Centre in Springfield a couple of years ago. The songs are Jesus Had A Baby Sister and Twenty Mile Zone. Her last recording incidentally was Planet Blue, which can be downloaded free from here.
I should also say that I liked the venue too Acoustics were good and from where I sat, I had a good view.
I didn’t actually eat, but the food seemed to be reasonably priced and as a coeliac, some of the snacks were gluten-free.
I’ll probably go again, when an artist I like is appearing. Top class style it definitely has, but the prices aren’t out of the range of a sensible fan.
Is It A Case of Hail the Hygienist?
Yesterday, I went to see the dental hygienist to have my teeth polished.
She did her usual good job, but she found a small problem with a tooth, that may well have been causing me the pain in the left hand side of my face, that has been plaguing me the last two years, since I returned home from Hong Kong since the stroke.
Let’s hope so!
We shall see next week, when I go to the dentist.
So perhaps, I was right, when I advocated a walk-in hygienist.
The New Leicester Square Emerges
Leicester Square is an iconic place and I took some pictures as it completed its transformation on Thursday.
Note that two pictures, show the old Royal Dental Hospital, which is now a hotel and the sandwich bar, where my mother used to take me as a treat after a visit.
Dentists
Why does the media ratchet up this fear of the dentist? Children watching BBC Breakfast this morning will have had their fears increased.
My current and previous dentists would be unable to frighten anybody.
I must admit, I’ve had some painful times in the dentist, like when I had my last tooth out. But you have to take it in your stride.
The Anonymous Widower 