If it's through clenched teeth, that's what you driven me to.

[reddragdiva]

eastlondongoths pub meet, Friday 24th September, 6:30pm, Prospect of Whitby, 57 Wapping Wall, Wapping E1W 3SH.

Today I got my final payslip. They have apparently given me pay in lieu of notice, which reads like "you can't quit — we fire you!" Still, it's an extra Thousand Quid in my final pay.

This doesn't mean the drinks are on me, because, as always happens when I get an unexpected chunk of pay, I have some Extreme Dentistry to take up just about all of it quite nicely.

After the checkup on Monday, today I went in for assorted fillings (some receding gums and an old filling that's cracked) and a clean. The moral of this exercise is: floss religiously. The right of my face is still numb.

I felt unusually relaxed in the dentist's chair. I had a really good dentist in Melbourne (Zelman Lew at the South Yarra Dental Clinic, to be precise), who was pretty much a dentistry geek. Like the one in Cryptonomicon. I could trust him implicitly, and also there was no way anyone could call me, ask me stupid questions or anything while I was in the chair with half a ton of pointy metal in my mouth. So I could actually rest. This reaction appears to have carried through to a dentist I don't actually have any prior experience of. Even after the first shot didn't anaesthetise me sufficiently.

We discussed options for my grey front tooth and its white but chipped twin. He thinks veneers are crap — fragile, may come off with crunchy eating and only last a year or two anyway — and will do one if I really want, but strongly disrecommends them. There are three options for crowns: the cheap NHS one and two private ones. "I'm not allowed to tell you the NHS one is bad, but ..." Each front tooth: £400. He wants to do them as a pair (and they do both need doing): £800. FX: winged twenty-pound notes flying into the sunset.

arkady came along in the quest to cope with her severe phobia of dentists and was Very Good, sitting quietly in the waiting room.

Then we bought a shredder. MUWAHAHAHA etc. Instant rat bedding!

Also, Tuesday I bought redcountess a very nice office chair, just like mine. Like a bunch of flowers for the bum.