For evidence that human beings, far from being perfect creations, are at best a work in progress, you need only look at our teeth. It is hard to imagine a worse design and easy to think of much better ones. The effort of doing so, however, is hardly worthwhile as we are stuck with the teeth that evolution has given us and that’s that.

These and other related thoughts accosted me this weekend when I became aware that a piece was missing from one of my teeth. Although the tooth was not hurting me – at least, not yet! – I knew I must have it attended to and the sooner the better.

Though I would not say that I have a phobia of dentists and dentistry, the thought of lying helpless in that reclining chair while various metal instruments probe and dig about in my mouth makes me feel very nervous. Not that I am particularly ashamed of that: I never claimed to be made of the stuff of heroes, after all.

I should have called for an appointment yesterday but kept putting it off. I told myself that Monday is a busy day for doctors and dentists as people seek attention for all the things that have gone wrong over the weekend and the telephone lines are often jammed. The real reason for not calling was, of course, that I needed to psych myself up to do so.

There are two local dentists from whom I have sought treatment in the past. Deciding which one to call this time provided further excuses to delay doing so. Eventually, this morning, I called the first one. I called three times and each time, after a few rings, the line dropped. A supersstitious person might have seen an omen in this, rather than the simple annoyance that it really was.

Next, I toyed with the idea of calling the second dentist but, then, instead, decided to present myself in person. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, my hearing sometimes makes phone calls difficult, especially if the line is bad or the other person has an accent. Doing business face to face is less fraught. The second reason was that I knew that this dentist, unlike the other, operated a walk-in service on some mornings and I thought if I was lucky, I might be seen today.

The last time I visited this dentist, we patients had been contrained to wait outside on the pavement until called in. That was during lockdown and was a reasonable precaution for the time. Would I have to wait outside again today? Happily, no: the surgery has two doors, respectively labelled as entry and exit. When I approached the counter, I was sternly told to treat my hands with the gel provided. Having done so, I could state my business. It helped that, as I had been here before, my name was on the records so I was an existing customer rather than a walk-in. A broken tooth? Very well, 3 pm tomorrow.

It is a little disappointing that I wasn’t seen straightaway (it turns out that the walk-in service has been discontinued, having fallen victim to the pandemic) but tomorrow should be fine. I can now try to put the matter out of my mind until it is time to return for my appointment.

Out into Upper Street

I left the surgery (remembering to leave by the door marked “Exit”) into a moderately busy Upper Street. According to the Met Office, the sun should be shining from an unclouded sky but that’s not quite how it was in reality. Cloudy with sunny intervals would be a better description.

St Mary’s Church Gardens

To calm myself down, I thought to take a stroll in St Mary’s Church Gardens which are nearby. The garden was, of course, originally the graveyard of the church, in proof of which a few tombs have been left in place, whether as a themed decoration or because they were too complicated to remove, I don’t know. There were people sitting on the benches and quite a few dog walkers whose charges were running about having a high old time.

Puddle

The puddles and the mud on the paths left no doubt that there had been heavy rain during the night. I could possibly have found a vacant bench to sit on but in fact preferred to start back for home.

Rear entrance,Angel Central

I passed through the shopping and entertainment site called Angel Central, entering from the rear. I stopped to take a photo because there were tubular lights flashing different colours. Unfortunately, the photo does not show this. (Don’t say I never show you my failures, only my successes! 🙂 )

I decided that in return for sorting out a dentist’s appointment, I deserved a reward. Accordingly, in Chapel Market I made for Costa.

Coffee with a view

I ordered my usual black americano and, as I had a free drink on my club card, didn’t need to pay. Bonus! I was lucky to find a table at the window, giving me coffee with a view.

Now you don’t see it…

As I sat down, a window cleaner appeared and covered the window with foam!

Now you do!

Fortunately, he soon scraped it off and the outside view was restored. (That’s the window cleaner, on the left.)

Afterwards, I walked back through Chapel Market and decided to take a photo. Then this happened:

Intrusive cyclist

The market is closed to vehicular traffic but too many cyclists seem to think that doesn’t apply to them and ride through the crowds in the market, often dangerously fast. Every day I meet cyclists riding on pavements and on pedestrian crossings and ignoring the traffic lights. Unsurprisingly, there are accidents when cyclists come a cropper in trafiic or, worse still, collide with pedetsrians, sometimes with fatal results. It’s one thing to encourage cycling in the name of some vague ideas about promoting health and reducing polllution but this needs to be accompanied by appropiriate enforcement to make sure that cyclists follow the rules and suffer the consequences if they do not. Otherwise, they become a menace on two wheels.

Chapel Market (as it should be)

This is the photo I meant to take, cyclists permitting.

From here I returned home for lunch and to await Tigger’s return from work when I can boast of my exploit in making an appointment with the dentist!