Only six more visits and then I will have a perfect set of dentures. David, my dentist, always has a happy disposition. He is married to an acupuncturist I recall, and has an extra awareness of what he was doing. His wife is also a dental hygienist who works at the same practice.  I have suffered from the attentions of many dentists over my (cough) however many years it is now and as a result most of my teeth have had to be removed.

The National Health Service was not able to perform to the necessary standards so I decided to go privately. I think it’s going to be about £12,500 which is good value considering that a new set of implants would cost about £45,000 at the upper end. David says he will not give implants if the available bone depth is less than 8 mm. When he trained, the minimum they were allowed to do was 11 mm. Some dentists do shorter ones for example 5 mm but they tend to fall out after a few years and as David says – people would be paying many thousands of pounds and would not take kindly to this. I joked with him that I would definitely stay around alive to get value for money for my investment for that is what it is.

At the end of my dental session I also joked about something else. As my readers will know, I had a fairly serious fall last October whilst gardening during which I broke seven posterior ribs and ended up in hospital. This has led to rather interesting chain of events where I ended up being patient representative for a group of hospitals in North Somerset. It does appear that this is not a very popular job or at least regarded as the short straw but to me it is a very interesting way of reducing the pressure on the hard-working personnel of the NHS. As David joked, “the things you have to do to get an interview”. Our sessions always ended in a jovial and conversational way. If as with the NHS you only have 15 or 20 min per patient there is not an awful lot of opportunity for bedside chat so yes I am buying time but talking is all about the oil that keeps things running smoothly.

The ticket to Lyon that I bought with Françoise in such a hurry last night for £91 has just gone up to £146 so that’s a saving of £55 straight off. Outwitting the algorithms involves getting under the skin of the creator – not easy at the best of times.  Françoise got Euro 114 for £100 in Bristol today which in these Brexit times is not bad. Off she goes this Saturday morning

17° today in Bath and the sun was shining. I had my usual number of zany miscellaneous conversations with complete strangers in my efforts to spread a bit of joy and positivity in the world. People are also often very grateful if you take the trouble to talk to them and I do recommend it is a lovely way of passing the time. When I’m on my own in public, I never lonely for this reason. Long may this continue.