Home for a rest

...The pedalos have gone from the beach so its officially the end of the Summer season. Over the past few weeks I have had dental problems and had to go to the Spanish dentist. Initially I had a cavity, left after a previous filling fell out, then I got another cavity on an upper front tooth and to really force me into action a gold cap fell off.

My wife has used a dentist around the corner called the "Dentalium" so off I went to see the dentist. She speaks perfect English so communication was easy. She told me I needed a canal root filling on my bottom left wisdom tooth (on my way to the dentist I bumped into Steve my friend and ex-prison Officer, and he enquired if they were going to put some wisdom teeth in, the cheeky blighter), a filling at the top and a general clean. The bill for this was going to be 271 Euros, so I said OK. Within seconds my mouth was beginning to freeze and she had the drill in my mouth working away. I thought I would have a stay of execution as it were until a further appointment, but this is private dentistry so no time like the present.

She drilled, filed, reamed and filled the tooth with a medicated temporary filling, then she stuck my gold cap back in and said: "We will complete everything at your next visit" I asked how much she wanted which was a bit immaterial because all I had on me was 70 euros and she took it all. leaving a 201 euro balance next time. The next time came around and she finished the wisdom tooth, finished the upper filling and then did the hygienist bit, where she found 2 more fillings so that was another 60 euros.

In the meantime me and Ange went to England for a week. We always enjoy looking up our friends back in the UK, but the week we were there was absolutely none stop. We arrived at Manchester airport at 12.30 am, I had hired a car over the net so went to pick it up. I am used to driving on the right hand side of the road, so for a brief while I had some intense concentrating to do until my mind snapped into UK mode.

On the following morning we got up early and went to see my dad who lives in a nursing home (he is 92 nearly) and spent an hour or so with him and he was in great spirits. Then we went to town Ange was meeting her friends, and in the evening we went to Deb's and Mike's for dinner. Day 1 was hectic but very nice. Day 2 Ange went to visit her mum in a rest home, and we met up with our friends Dave and Ali in the afternoon. Day 3 a Plumber should have come to our flat to fit a new gas boiler, but he cancelled until the following day, Ange went to the drop in centre for a blood test and in the evening we met up with our friends Joe and Julie in a pub. Day 4 I had to go to see the Cardiologist for a check-up, then go see my Dad again and in the evening we went to our friends Brian and Christine for dinner and were joined by Ian and Christine, our son and Brian and Christine's son, another excellent night. Day 5 Ange had an appointment at the hospital, then we went to see her mum again, Ange went and met her friend Glenys and in the evening we went to Tiggis restaurant in Bolton with Anne, Bill, Fi and Colin. Day 6 Ange went to meet ex-work colleagues, I went in town for a few errands and in the evening we met Jackie and Alan and Jackie's cousin and new partner at a great pub called the Wagon and Horses in Hawkshaw near Bolton. Day 7 we flew back to Spain. The week was very busy, but we had great weather, not as good in Spain apparently..

Back in Spain the rain had been teeming down, floods once again removed half the sand from the beach, but apart from a rainy arrival, the following day was nice and the following day Sunday was raining first thing, this was the day that Peter, Dave, Patrick, Neil, Trevor, Andrew, Laurence and Tony and Trevor's brother and his wife were going up to Las Palmeras restaurant at the embalso de Guadalest. So instead of sitting out under the arbor, they had to sit in the main dining room.

They still enjoyed it, I was meeting them after they came back, which turned out to be 11.30 pm for me because I had a previous appointment. When I arrived they were all having a singalong, much to the bemusement of their fellow international drinkers. To say they had imbibed a sufficiency of the falling over water would be an understatement. Dave was semi-recumbent in his seat, Trevor had that kind of glazed over look, Pete was uncharacteristically slurring his words, Neil had a fit of the giggles and Trevor's brother Brian was leading the communal singing.

I received an excellent reception from them and I was directed to a chair and Jesus delivered my first drink of the day a bottle of Mahou, with a strange smirk on his face, knowing that I was sober and my friends very drunk. There is only one thing to do on such an occasion and that is catch them up quickly, so I drank a few drinks quickly, to try and get into the same mood. It was too late they were way ahead of me there was an impromptu pub quiz, where questions were asked but even the quiz master didn't know the answer. Eventually everyone decided they had drank enough and the 8 gay men jumped to their feet to give each other a hug goodbye, whereas me and Brian stayed sat down acting all butch offering a manly handshake. But by now the lads had thrown caution to the wind they dragged me and Brian to our feet and said you are getting a hug too, I decided it would be churlish to refuse so there was I being hugged by 8 gay men with Jesus looking on shaking his head in disbelief...................I didn't realise how much I had missed Spain..........I rolled home at 0145......Oh and this morning I went and had 2 more fillings done..