Unkk. Can't believe I've got another 2½ months of this to come (just spread around the mouth). Apart from the pain of the moment the whole upper left where he has worked feels sunken in at the moment - like my whole cheek is being attracted to my teeth all the time. It is very disconcerting and begining to get on my nerves.

So, we have two people being chucked out of the Big Brother house tonight in a break from tradition. Could be interesting - I wonder what that will mean for the rest of the series. Perhaps the speculation will be right and they are planning to add someone new to the house. I expect we will watch with matchsticks at the ready to keep the eyes open as the second eviction is quite late (although Joan did suggest we go out again after it if Smiths in Felixstowe are doing midnight opening for the new Harry Potter book!). Still, no need to get up for anything any time in particular tomorrow or Sunday. Woo.

I think if weather and mouth permit I am going to just load Joan and a picnic in to the car on Sunday and head off into the scenic Suffolk countryside for the day. I quite fancy that. dontchaknow.

Oh, and here's a quote nicked from someone else's blog that made me laugh in a Matrix meets Lord of the Rings way:

Nothing to do with Games...
...but inspired by the fact that actor Hugo Weaving plays both Elrond and Agent Smith.

"You seem to live two lives, Mr. Baggins. In one, you are a peaceful and productive resident of the Shire. In the other, you flit about the world in the company of wizards, dwarves, and other low lives, apparently attempting to hurl a magic ring into a volcano.


"One of these paths has a future, Mr. Baggins."

Spoken to the dentist and it seems the sensitivity is normal and should go away again in a couple of days, which is good news. If a little disheartening to know it will probably be something I have to put up with for the other three events as well, and if it does happen for the last one it will probably be while we are on our holiday. Great. I just wish I could switch off from thinking about the whole thing for a couple of days, but every time I even consider eating or drinking the whole enormity of what is still to come thuds down on me. I'll try to be a brave little soldier!

We were both too knackered to even think about cooking last night so went round to the White Horse for our dinner. Don't seem to have been for ages but it was just as tasty as normal.

Joan starting her weekend off today, and should be coming in to Ipswich with Mum for a spot of shopping this afternoon. I don't expect I will be able to pop out and see them, but it will at least give me an excuse to leave early. And hopefully we will then get a good couple of days off together with sun and fun.

Time for a spot of lunch now.

Hmm. Teeth gone all sensitive this afternoon. Wonder what has caused that. I hope it will not be a permanant thingy as a result of the work - all very well having teeth that don't fall out and a dazzling smile but not much use if I can't actually eat anything hot or cold without going through the roof.

And now we have just seen off the director. By which I mean he has retired not that we chased him out of the building. Good presentation but plenty of waffle.

Time to go home.

Wooo! I can eat again! Or in other words, I went to Colchester this morning and he took the stitches out/gunge off and there was no blood and my jaw didn't fall apart. Which gives me even greater confidence for the rest of the treatment now. OK, so I still can't brush that quarter of the mouth with anything other than a really ultra-soft brush for another four weeks (by which point I should be getting the stitches out from part two) but after that it should be back to normal there (so total normality by October then). And of course being back to normal feels particularly strange - amazing how quickly you can get used to having a load of junk in the mouth. Now I need to get used to it not being there again!

So, I was done with him by ten past nine and decided to come in to the office after all (despite having the day booked as Special Leave). And have managed to get some useful stuff done so it was woth the effort I think. Especially as one of those was the final, final, completely and utterly final check on the book covers and approval so they should be here next Thursday at last. Hooray. Had a few moments of feeling a bit funny, mainly when I let my tongue wander up to that corner of my mouth and notice the slight dent where I guess he did some of the work which doesn't feel quite the same as before but I expect I'll be OK if I finish early. I am taking it fairly easy whatever.

Yesterday was quite good if tiring (didn't get home until 7 pm after leaving at 6.15 am). Some interesting speakers and I think Mitchell's talk (with my maps and photos) went down well. Also had a bit of a chat with him and Sonic on the train so although no real insider information was released I reckon I picked up one or two hints as to where the group might be headed. The building we were in (the Institute of Electrical Engineers) was suitably impressive too - and strange to think that I've never been there before despite Dad having been a member since before I was born. Only real problem on the day was the heat in the horribly crowded trains but that's old rolling stock for you. Hopefully they will be able to introduce the new stuff they have sitting in sidings waiting for approval soon. It looks very swish.

Today they have announced a full England football match at Portman Road in August so we are going to try to get them to recommend Park & Ride as a way of travel and open up specially for the event. Should be an actual money-spinner for us if we do it right. We shall see.

Me and my big mouth - some timetable changes have turned up today! Still at least it has given me something to do. A plague on all bus companies though.

Stinkingly hot and sticky here today. I did go out for a wander in the sun at lunchtime but it was just too much to be out in for long. And the shops were all roasting as well so not even any decent air conditioning to lurk in.

Nothing much else to say actually. Seems we are getting the 0657 train to London tomorrow, which I am not looking forward to but there you go. Just think of the flexi hours boost!

And so another week rolls past. Here I am once again on my own at home while Joan is slaving away in a hot shop (and I know from bitter experience just how hot in can get in that shop too). And once again there were people wanting to get in and but stuff before we arrived with the keys. Now, I know that we do sometimes shop for non-food things on a Sunday when it is the only chance we get to go out together, but really. It must be at least two years now that they have been regularly open on Sundays and the hours haven't changed from 10 to 4 in all that time. Surely people should have worked that out by now. Or am I just being overly optomistic about the mental stat of the general populace? So, I've washed the car (the only trouble with having the driveway is that part of the car always seems to end up under the tv aerial where the birds perch...) and will shortly be getting back to the ironing.

Friday night was pretty good - I managed to eat the Chinese tolerably well, Alexander was pleased with his presents and things generally went well. Yesterday I was on my own again so some ironing, some shopping, a bit of snoozing and some Richard visiting. Then last night we killed some time watching Miss Congeniality which had a few good moments.

Have finished rummaging in ...Capt. Flint's Trunk and definitely enjoyed it for the nth time. I wonder how many times I have actually read it. Three or four I guess but I can't put a definite figure on it. I know I haven't read it since June 1997 as since then I have been sticking the date I finish each book in the front of it as I was wondering that very question of how often I get through some books then. Probably a very sad thing to do (and worse to reveal!) but what the heck. There are some books (indeed whole series) sat on the shelves that I have been through many times over the years to the point that I can sit and recall huge chunks of them at will. So I thought it would be interesting to see how often I did go back there. Not much is the answer in the last six years though - always so many new things to read makes time to squeeze in old favourites that little bit rarer. Anyway, have now dived in to the last part of the Otherland saga from Tad Williams - Sea Of Silver Light which is by far the largest chunk of the series. But already some of the loose ends are starting to come together along with explanations for things I've been puzzling over the first three books. All told I can highly recomend what I've read so far.

Not particularly looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. In some ways less so than I was this time last week after having had the whole week off, not just a couple of days. At least then I was fairly confident of having something to get on with when I was there, but the last few days have been a real drag. I know I've spent most of the last five years wishing for some sort of stability in the bus service network of Suffolk so I didn't have to keep changing the timetables, but at least that meant I had something to do. At the moment it just seems as if I have nothing to be getting on with (there are a few things I could do but can't seem to get motivated for them). And of course I'm still annoyed with all the dealys to getting the books finished. Still, they will be with us soon and I can spend a couple of weeks out and about trying to foist them on people. And I'm only in for three days this week anyway - Tuesday is a Park & Ride conference in London which if nothing else will add a few hours to the flexi-time total and Wednesday I'm back to Colchester to get these stitches out. No appointment time for that - just turn up and he'll fit me in between other patients. So that could be a long or short visit, I really don't know hence the whole day off.

But, it pays the bills so I have to get myself going again and do the best I can. Saying that, I do have an application form to fill in this week as well - for a personnel post with the Police which looks interesting. We shall see how it goes.

Right, time to do something useful.