Fred, back from the dentist, still alive!

Relaxed, if not sleeping, on the Omo, originally uploaded by CharlesFred.

Poor chap spent the best part of two hours leaning back in a dentist's chair while being operated on his upper jaw, the dentist drilling holes into his gums, which eventually, after six months will be filled with crowns. It has been something he has not been looking forward to for a long time, but now it is done and he has just had his first meal back home..... liquidised tomato soup.

We both went there (Amsetlveen) together by tram and I left him there to go for a walk in the meadows at the back on what was a gloriously sunny spring-like day. Fred meanwhile was being injected every which way in order to numb him in the sterilised room made available for him. I came back after an hour and a half and peeked in through the blinds to see Fred lying there surrounded by the dentist and his assistants, looking calm enough, although I didn't dare to look for too long. As it happened he only screamed the once when the dentist cut into some area which was no longer numb.

When I was eventually called in he looked a bit like Herr Lipp from The League of Gentlemen, with a protruding upper lip, a bit bloody and a big gap where his teeth used to be, but he seemed to be chirpy enough, and well enough to take the tram back rather than a mafia-run taxi. Unfortunately blood would seep out of his mouth a cover his lower lip making it look as if he had put on some exotic form of lipstick, earning him stares from fellow passengers.

He is OK now and in reference to what we were talking about earlier, his children at school all wished him the best of luck when he left earlier today, while they all go off and enjoy their half-terms.