Thursday, 4 February 2010

No, not the drill, please not the drill

I had a dentist appointment this morning. I don't like dentists. However, this was a new dentist. Unfortunately he was just like all the other dentists. Stick a needle in your gum, shove a drill in your mouth then send you away to spend the rest of the day drooling like a simpleton.


To be fair, he was fine, but it's been a heck of a long time since my last visit and just as importantly it was also my first visit since I quit my 17 year smoking habit. The diagnosis wasn't actually as bad as I feared, despite the emergency drill on tooth 4F - although I do have another appointment next week. The picture above (slanted of course - would you expect it any other way?) shows the country roads I had to travel down to reach the surgery this morning. As with much of Aberdeenshire, snow still dominates the landscape and with temperatures at minus four degree's braking did prove a little futile at times with the icy roads instead deciding what direction I should travel.


Still the snow does help provide a pretty picture. Showing the rural nature of our surroundings is easy, especially when you pass fields of Highland Cows on your way home.




Actually, I thought they were from the car but as you can see from the picture above, they were actually of the more bog standard variety.

That's 30 seconds of your life you'll never get back.

I'm off for the rest of the day now, with not much to do. I've had a spot of lunch - I decided fishcakes and custard (separately) would provide a soft and safe enough meal to avoid damaging my new filling - but it was a little unsatisfying due to the necessity of wearing one of Luca's bibs to catch the bits that slithered out of my still numb mouth. I'm glad no-one was here to witness it.

And speaking of Luca................He's on a road trip with his nursery today, visiting the Art Gallery in Aberdeen (http://www.aagm.co.uk/). I'm not quite sure what interest a group of 3 to 5 year olds will have with the latest Tracy Emin atrocity (seriously, is it just me or is all her work just complete cr*p?) but doubtless we'll find out more when I collect him tonight.

The art gallery is actually situated near Aberdeen's Central Library, an establishment well known to our young buck. In fact, a quick mental calculation indicates he's been there on around 40 occasions. Hopefully he won't cause a fuss when he realises he's not going in there today. Rather satisfactorily for his Dad, he loves the library and almost always does a little excited dance just as we walk in the buildings arched door.

Back to weddings (you're going to be so bored hearing about this by the time it comes around), we received our confirmation letter from the band in yesterday - just the £100 deposit to be paid now - and are also now ready to write our definitive wedding guest list. The numbers are rising exponentially now, with the day event alone now encompassing around 60 - rather too many for my liking. Still, Carole and I will sit down again tomorrow night (with various and copious amounts of alcohol on the table too, natch) to confirm who can and can't.

The numbers do concern me, but if our wedding is similar to most others I've attended over the past few years there will be large numbers of invited guests unable to come. At least I hope so.....

My mouth isn't numb any more, yay.

I've been a little reticent when it comes providing Luca stories of late haven't I? I'm trying to think of some, but as it's been a busy period of late we haven't had too much Dad-Son time. He's been good of late, and it's interesting seeing him recognising words now - I guess the significant time his Mum and Granny put in reading to him is paying dividends.

He loves people reading to him. I'll sometimes sit at the breakfast table with him and read the newspaper. "Read it to me" he'll insist while jabbing his stubby little finger on the thin inky paper. He doesn't care what's read to him. I've even read him excerpts from the business section, and he'll sit transfixed as you proceed to read paragraphs about stock fluctuations and hostile takeovers. Weird.

Reading Dad's blog of late, baring particular reference to he and Mums burgeoning interest in US TV series "The Wire" has got me thinking of my televisual habits. Similarly to those last mentioned, I've developed a particular penchance for American telly. I'm presently addicted to:-
"Chuck" (About a computer nerd who has spy secrets downloaded into his brain)
"Better Off Ted" (About a moral man working for a morally ambiguous company)
"United States of Tara" (About a housewife with multiple schizophrenic personalities)
"How I Met Your Mother" (Basically a rip off of "Friends")
"V" (Remake of a particularly weird 1980's sci-fi)

Amongst others. Why can British TV not replicate the inventiveness and quality of it's US counterparts? When "Doctor Who" is classified as one of British TV's best shows it's surely time to weep.

I'll post again on Saturday with finalised wedding details, details of Luca's trip and of course pictures of the boy himself (just in case you've forgotten what he looks like by now)

**Useless fact of the day - In many countries it is illegal to date your gym instructor**

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