I have been.
It is over.
I mean the dentist, of course, I think I told you that I had an appointment this morning.
With this in mind, I got up early for our walk over the fells.
It is still very cold indeed. Even with my hat, scarf, sheepskin gloves and thick fleecy coat, not to mention my thermal vest and jersey, my fingers and toes were still numb by the time I got back.
It was a good walk, though. I heard a woodpecker. I have never heard one so early in the year but suppose they must have to eat even in February.
Once I got back I brought the firewood in, and had my porridge, a touch glumly. I am a terrible coward about the dentist. Partly this is a hangover from some unpleasant childhood dental experiences, partly from some unpleasant grown-up ones, and partly because my gums have shrivelled away now that I am elderly, and the cold jets of air that dentists insist on employing make me want to leap out of the chair and run away.
I cleaned my teeth and went.
Our dentist is at the other end of the road from us, about a five minute walk. Everything in Windermere is practically next door, it is a magnificent place to live. I am within a few strides of the library, the railway station, the butcher’s and the post office. The dentist is in a very tall house rather like ours, with a couple of tiny rooms on every floor, and my dentist is right at the top, in the attic. It is a good job that she is not very tall, because anybody bigger would have to spend most of their working life ducking underneath the sloping roof.
I made my way reluctantly up the stairs, and two injections later we had started.
The wretched cold spray hurt so much that I jumped and the dentist, who is a terribly sympathetic, gentle sort of person, kindly stopped so that I could pull myself together. Then she had a brainwave. She unwrapped a little square of rubber sheet and wrapped it comfortingly around all the rest of my teeth, the cowering ones that were not being drilled and hence had not been emboldened by an injection.
I was very pleased to find that this resolved the problem instantly, and for the first time in as long as I can remember, the rest of the visit was painless.
I was still trembling so much that I could hardly get down the stairs, and when I had staggered home I collapsed into the chair by the fire to restore myself to calm. This did not help as much as it might have because the dogs, delighted to find that once again they had not been abandoned for ever, leaped all over me excitedly, until eventually it was just easier to get up and get on with the rest of the day.
My job for the rest of the day was cooking. I was catering for myself for next week. Also Oliver is coming home on Sunday, and will need feeding, although I was not quite sure on what. I made some biscuits, to be on the safe side, and then discovered that we still had some left over in a tin from before Christmas.
I put those in a separate box and will probably give them to the dogs on occasions when I want to assure them that they have truly merited being called a Good Dog.
Then I made some of the fruit cake that promises not to make you fat, the sort without butter, flour or sugar. I have been eating this for ages but am beginning to suspect that it might be fibbing because I have still not become any thinner. I made sushi, and oatcakes, and then I made some burgers. This was a Turkish recipe I have been longing to try. I have not tried it because of suspecting that it would make me fat because it sounded so nice, but the cold has made me so desperate for comforting hot food that today I chucked lamb and dates and onions and garlic into the blender with some eggs, and cooked the resulting mush into patties.
It was very nice, as indeed it should be because it has got about two thousand calories in every slice, but I think if I just eat a little bit every day then probably I will not become obese.
I have had some for my taxi picnic this evening, wrapped in an oatcake.
Better still it did not hurt to eat it because I no longer have a sore tooth. The kindly dentist’s filling has worked.
It has been a very good day indeed.
