The Dentist (now that's a title to put anyone off!)

I've just gotten back from the dentist! No fillings this time, nor teeth that need to be cut up before they are removed! Just a simple cleaning. Though, how can anything that involves someone with their hands in your mouth for half an hour, chipping away at your plaque, be simple. I was supposed to be there for an hour appointment but I knew that it would be more than I could cope with. So, just the bottom ones this time and another round to look forward to next week. There is nothing pleasant about this procedure and luckily, I have a hygienist who doesn't pretend that there is. I was going to say that there wasn't even any music playing but now that I think about it, perhaps there was. Barry Manilow and Lola keep going round in my head but it probably wasn't that.

Undergoing teeth cleaning can take on a surrealistic quality, rather like waiting for a bus in England or a ferry to the Greek islands. I also get the same feeling whenever I read the book of Revelations. I decided to try and think of something else. What? I have just written a new first chapter for my book and needed to re-write the 'romantic encounter' of the now second chapter. Yes, that would be my distraction. Wrong. How can anyone have romantic thoughts, even if they are just fiction with the noise of the cleaning tools boring through your head. I couldn't hear myself think, let alone conjure up romantic prose. Sam and Evie decided to skip the kiss and went their separate ways to anywhere quiet.

When my hygienist had finished, she asked me about flossing. Yes, I do it but apparently, you could drive a bus through the spaces between some of my teeth and I now have to use a bottle brush instead. No, of course it's not really a bottle brush. For one thing, my brushes are more expensive. I came out of there poorer, and feeling my age, or some older person's age which would be mine one day. As I walked home, I couldn't shake the picture of a woman, soon to loose her teeth, followed by her hair turning gray and falling out too. I have all ready experienced the joys of loosing my hair and it wasn't that bad. However, in the mood I was in, it was just another indignity to be faced, probably sooner rather than later. When you're 27, growing old is a long time away. When you're 57, it's a reality you will soon have to face. Or not! I choose the latter for the time being.