Oh I wish I'd looked after me teeth!

Yesterday, I paid £112 for a filling... it was one I knew I needed to have but put it off after the last time I went. Then I got that letter through and had to book in. I hate the dentist, BUT I really like MY dentist. It's a lovely lady called Miss Hayward who I've seen running, sometimes she has Heart on her radio and we have nice little chats. She puts me at ease.

I used to visit a dentist who's stomach rumbled SO loudly, he was a pretty skinny, quietly spoken man and for some reason he made me nervous. I guess I was concerned he might make a mistake due to hunger. I know I'm not alone - many of us have an irrational fear of the dentist. Before I went in to see mine, a family came out and I heard Miss Hayward informing the parent that the children weren't brushing their teeth enough. It's a big responsibility as a parent, and I tried to look sympathetically at the embarrassed Dad who walked past me on his way out. How can a parent convey the future of poor dental health to a kid - without demonstrating it the pain? Are those gruesome pictures on the wall of bad teeth effective? 

I've been on a bit of  a journey with this dentist, she fitted me with a mouth guard, chatted to me about my thinning tooth enamel, taught me about flavourless flouride toothpaste, I needed to use during a course of aromatherapy and she explained to me about how the root canal treatment I now need might be in 20 years time. She gives me hope.. 

As I lay in her chair yesterday, looking up at the beautiful desert island beach scene on her ceiling, above a second equally spectacular  poster of the Amazon rainforest I noted my knuckles weren't so tightly grasped around the chair as she drilled away my old filling to replace it with a new one. So does that mean I now like the dentist! I walked out of their happy before I got the bill! But once I got in my car, after the shock of the cost, I found myself justifying it - that her brilliant bedside manner and skill in helping me overcome my dentistry issues was worth the money. It's official. I'm losing the plot!

Repair your wares!

I don't know why but I seem to break or slightly ruin things. Whilst living with a friend he told me the one thing that mattered was this wonky mug lovingly made by his 7 year old niece.. His words to me 'Whatever you do, don't break it'.. one day, of course.. it fell out of my hand. Luckily we're still friends but I don't know why it happened. 

Now I'm married to a man who takes such pride with his possessions, however he has to bare the brunt of my clumsiness. I've managed to chip several items of our furniture, damage electrical items of his that I've borrowed, stained chopping boards with beetroot or some exotic spice, shrunk beloved items of clothing that have been in possession for years, marked luggage.. .it just always happens to me. 

I don't MEAN for this to happen. it's almost as if I pre-empt it. I think some of us are destined to be more inept than others. I'm not talking as bumbling as Miranda but I definitely have my 'moments'. 

So I was somewhat to relieved to read in the Guardian about how more and more of us Brits are spending time fixing things, as I can do that.. I can repair stuff.. well within reason.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/19/the-rise-of-mending-how-britain-learned-to-repair-clothes-again..

I've started knitting and have almost finished a few items, so that's productive. Not that I can knit the damages of broken goods away, but it's all relative.  You see, as times are still hard, of course we become more thifty. Only the other day a good friend told me about the £10 Jigsaw suit she'd bought from a charity shop for her new City job. More and more of us are also learning how to fix stuff and there is a growing movement of 'Repair Cafe's' around the world where you can bring broken furniture, toys, clothes along and get help to fix them. http://repaircafe.org/about-repair-cafe/


You know those items you're holding on to, cause you want to get them fixed, well now you can!

BLOODY BRILLIANT, I think! I've found one at the end of this month in Cambridge and there's one nearer me in Royston in July, so I'm gonna go along and will let you know how I get on. 





PS. If you like my blog why not sign up with your email to get the next one :) Nat x

Room for Rent!!!

Do you own your property or rent? 

I have always rented..my work life has meant I've often had to move so as yet I've not managed to get onto the property ladder. My story isn't dissimilar to other 30 something's I know, although more and more friends are buying and I just have to swallow my slight envy. My hubby and I dream of building our own whilst watching Grand Designs, we paw through the Home sections of Sunday papers and check Rightmove on a regular basis. The truth is right now we can't really afford the type of house we'd like to buy, where we'd like to live. 

Where we live at the moment is in a gorgeous part of St Albans and we've been really happy for the last couple of years. Our neighbours are generally friendly. Yes a few months back one of them was shagging too loudly, but it soon stopped once I mentioned it on my radio show and the a notice was posted up in the communal hallway! 

'Communal' being the operative word and when you choose to live in a shared building you HAVE to take on board that there are compromises you have to make. One being neighbours who might now always acting how you'd hope (see earlier comment) or cooking smells from next door, parking spaces being occupied when you have a massive shop and end up carrying it from the end of the drive. 

At the moment we have work being done on our block of flats, which to the delight of some of the more senior members means they have something to do with their day. Other than enjoy their retirement going for long walks, playing golf, eating afternoon tea or having a picnic somewhere lovely they can leave notes for the rest of us. Certain members of our block are in their element telling the rest of us mere residents exactly what and how the work is panning out on a daily basis even when there aren't new developments to share. Over the bank holiday weekend we were told by our lovely next door neighbour that a complaint had been made about the small shoe rack outside our front door. Apparently the smell of our shoes was going upstairs to another flat. The neighbour who told us is our ally and we loved she grassed on the more pedantic upstairs neighbour. The amusing truth being is the 'smell' in discussion isn't our shoes it's our lovely neighbour's smoked fish that she cooks on a regular basis. 

So, after dutifully emailing the bossman in our block to tell him a mistake had been made, yesterday we received a very lengthy email telling us that regardless of the odor issue our small shoe rack was actually a health and safety issue! I kid you not. Apparently in a state of emergency a member of the the emergency services might hurt themselves on a trainer whilst rescuing us! 

Ridiculous eh, so I'm thinking of purchasing this attractive item below to see what the neighbors think of this bad boy!