The Whole Tooth, and nothing but the Tooth!

It started with a blocked drain a week ago on Sunday night... OK, let's be more specific... we couldn't use the toilet, or run a tap! Fortunately we were due out for a meal with a good friend of ours that evening, so it was nice to leave the horrid situation until Monday morning to sort out.


7 am Monday morning saw me hacking through curiously verdant plant life and digging with pick axe and shovel to try to locate the sewer pipe and any inspection traps. I found an inspection place quite soon, and was fortunate to avoid chopping through the water main, which turned out to be only about 6 inches under ground! The plumber called just after 8am, and was able to clear the block quite quickly. Plumbers are Saints when they cure such things! After we cleaned up outside, I really enjoyed a shower. Ahh, the wonders of hot water!

I have not been all that well for some while, with glands up in my face and a general lack of stamina. To rule out some possibilities, I plucked up courage on Wednesday and went to the Dental School in Dunedin to have a tooth looked at. The poor thing had been grumbling and complaining since before Christmas, and I had been trying to ignore it. Xrays confirmed my suspicions that the tooth was dying. I was offered the choice of root canal, or extraction. I opted for extraction.

Yes folks.... that is my right upper second molar with enough mercury in it to power a thermometer

The Dental School is of course..., the place where Dentists learn to do their job, so it took me a few years (more than 2 decades) to get the courage to visit there the first time. There is something a little scary about the thought of a young person sticking a fast revving drill into one's open mouth, especially if you suspect that they have a text book of instructions lying open on the tray just hidden from your view amongst the spittoons, needles, and wads of cotton wool!

Joking aside, I have to say that I have been impressed by the care that I have received at the Dental School, and I have found that the student dentists are really good at giving injections. In fact they seem better at it than many Dentists. Probably they take enough time for the anaesthetic to actually work.

Having a big tooth out is never going to be pleasant, but it was actually quite interesting listening to the advice that the tutor was giving to the student as she pushed, rocked, pulled, and shoved, at what was a very firmly attached part of my head!

On reflection I find that I am now less fearful at the Dental School than when seeing a qualified dentist. I think that this has something to do with the fact that I am interested in helping the student as much as I can, and my focus is more on them than on me.


I have had a bit of a rough week really, but I have been quietly working away at making some more pots and vases for crystal glazing. Whilst the brain has not been working well enough to really think about testing glazes, actually sitting at the wheel with clay running gently through the hands is quite therapeutic. I have been throwing quite slowly, for me, and some of the larger pots have been thrown and coiled, then thrown some more.


It has been nice working at a more thoughtful and gentle pace. It makes the individual pot the important thing, rather than a run of them.


Gallery On Blueskin at Waitati, just North of Dunedin, has asked me to put together a little exhibition of my pots for April, I took in some of my crystal glazed pots there on Saturday, and they would like more of these for the exhibition. I am not sure of the dates for this yet, but will keep you posted, just in case someone from our part of the world is reading this... you might want to come along.