I had a scary thing happen today.
I had to go to the dentist.
I do not like dentists, and so usually Mark goes with me and sits reassuringly in the chair in the corner. I know that the dentist thinks this is weird, but I do not care. It does not make it hurt any less but I know I have got to be brave if I am being supervised.
Of course Mark was not here to be reassuring. He is on an oil rig, and so I just had to be brave all by myself.
It was only a check up, but it was thoroughly scary all the same. The dentist is equipped with sharp pointy things and a little gun with which she blows blasts of icy air on to the unsuspecting nerve endings at the bald bit where my teeth meet my gum.
I was very brave and marched in as if I did not have a care in the world, only the illusion collapsed once I got into the chair and had to concentrate very hard on holding on to my hands so that they would not inadvertently creep up and cover my mouth.
The dentist poked my teeth a bit before realising, irritably, that I was trembling, and asking impatiently what was the matter.
I could hardly say I Am Scared Of The Cold Air, so I said, stoically, Nothing, and then spoiled it when she said she was just going to blow some cold air on my teeth and my mouth closed all by itself.
We had a small discussion then, and she sighed, put the cold air gun down and instead poked in my mouth with her fingers for about twenty seconds. Then she said that I was perfectly all right anyway and she would see me in six months.
I was just making my escape when the receptionist called after me that that would be twenty seven quid, please.
I was shaking so much I could hardly get down the steps.
I was so relieved to get home I can hardly tell you about it, and once my knees had stopped knocking together I dashed off to Booths for some ethical vegetables and yoghurt.
I have been craving chocolate lately. I am not sure why this is, because chocolate is hardly an essential nutrient, I am quite sure, for instance, that Neanderthals never pined for chocolate. I am not even craving for my usual chocolate of choice, which has always been mild-mannered and creamy chocolate buttons, but for the real hard-core, true-grit, 90% bitter, set-your-teeth-on-edge chocolate.
I wanted it so badly yesterday that I woke up to realise I had been dreaming about it.
Today I bought some.
I only had about four squares of it, but it was utterly blissful.
I had to be self-controlled about the rest in order not to become portly, and I have wrapped it up and hidden it away from myself, but it is wonderful to know it is there, and that tomorrow I can have another four squares.
When I had finished shopping I set to my Task of the day, which was to clean down and reorganise the dresser. We have recently begun to upgrade our wine-glass collection, a glass or two at a time, because the new ones are jolly expensive, and I wanted to tidy away the old glasses and put the beautiful new ones in their place.
They are an absolute joy. They are a set of glasses called Grasmere, handmade cut crystal, from the last place in England which still makes cut glass which fortunately is in Ulverston, and just holding them feels lovely in my hand. I had never considered that the feeling of the glass might add pleasure to drinking, but it turns out that it does, and they have brought an unexpected extra sparkle to my life.
Hence I did not want to leave them just lying about on the dresser, and so today I took everything off it. I washed and rinsed it all and packed the old, far less beautifully desirable wine glasses away. Then I polished the dresser with my favourite mix of beeswax and lavender oil, until the dresser gleamed and my wrist ached.
This was a massive task and took most of the afternoon, but I was very pleased with the result.
There is room left on the dresser, which is fortunate, because we are still saving up for glasses.
I am at work now, and it is very quiet.
It might be some time before we buy the next one.
PS. Elspeth’s daughter dropped in today with a massive bag of plums, so when the dehydrator arrives I can have a go at drying stuff even before the blackberries are ready. I am very excited about this.
I will let you know how I get on.
