We went off to Norwich today, not for shopping purposes as I was sufficiently discouraged last week and LT shopped in Reading, but to have lunch with Ronan and for me to go to the dentist. It’s a nice place, we’ve met Ro there before, plus Dora and Rufus, it’s very convenient – if you know Norwich, it’s near the RC cathedral – and near Ro’s office, and is in the same road as our dentist. The only downside is the music is a shade louder than it needs to be, so isn’t always that easy to tune out. But the food is good and the service excellent and friendly.
My teeth were praised for non-plaqueness – this is as good as it gets, frankly, at my age – but the dentist wants to replace an old amalgam filling before it gives trouble. That’s fine with me. Odds are that, when it does, it’ll have deteriorated enough that I’ll need serious drilling or even a crown. I don’t stint on dentistry, nowadays and I’m right there with preventive action.
We were amused, they’re raising money for Macmillan Nurses (for non-Brits, this is a charity that provides palliative home care for cancer patients and it’s excellent). They’ve got a coffee morning tomorrow for fundraisers to hold, but evidently the dentist practice decided to hold one all week. They’ve got a coffee machine that makes very good coffee, and the receptionists have brought in cake, and patients are invited to help themselves – a donation isn’t actually mentioned, but clearly hoped for. A rather jolly woman, who both LT and I rather took to, accepted a cup of coffee and a cake after her appointment, and sat there for an extra ten minutes or so eating and drinking, and others were doing so too, later on. Tim murmured to me that the dentists seemed to be drumming up future business…
Anyway, when it came to my turn to make my next appointment, i pointed out that my teeth had only just been cleaned to sparkling perfection, so I didn’t actually want cake yet. But we took a paper plate and a couple of chocolate muffins and put money in the box and, when we had them later with a cup of tea, they were rather tasty. My teeth probably rolled their eyes, though.