Well THAT was traumatic.

I got a cancellation at the dentist when I phoned them yesterday, so I was able to go in this morning to get the tooth out. On the way in I was quite upbeat - not looking forward to it, obviously, but looking forward to getting the problem solved. Now, two hours later, I am utterly traumatised.

On arrival, I was brought in for an x-ray, then escorted to the surgery upstairs. My first impression of the dentist was that he did not have a very good bedside manner, and boy was I right. The man had no patience whatsoever.

I had been very clear about the fact that I am a very nervous patient and have been badly affected by unpleasant dentistry experiences over the years - the very reason I was in this man's surgery in the first place - but he just didn't seem to care at all. He gave me the gas mask for a couple of minutes to breathe into, then tried to take it away from me before I even felt any effect. I was paying £60 for sedation and he was only going to use it for the first couple of minutes!

I got very upset, and he eventually gave the gas mask back to me for a few minutes more before injecting me with local anaesthetic, and he conceded to letting me hold it to my nose to continue breathing the gas throughout the procedure, but he should never have put me into the position of having to fight for what I was there for. In any case, I was still visibly upset and not relaxed at all as he hauled away at the tooth. The procedure wasn't painful, exactly, but it was extremely uncomfortable and unpleasant, and he just snapped at me to be quiet because there was no way I could possibly be feeling anything.

Needless to say, I have never felt less sedated in my life. It was an absolute waste of money paying for the gas, and his attitude only made me more upset, not less. I went through most of the procedure curled up into as much of a foetal position as I could manage while lying on my back, crying and trying to hold the gas mask to my nose, and trying to ignore his snappish remarks. If he can't deal with a frightened and upset patient, why is he working in a surgery to which people are referred if they need sedation?

He also whisked me straight out of the chair and into the waiting room without even offering to let me rinse my mouth out. I ended up sitting waiting for Skry with a mouthful of blood, and in ever increasing pain (whatever anaesthetic he did give me wore off almost immediately). Our first stop upon leaving the surgery was the chemist, so that I could buy painkillers.

Two Neurofen later and I'm feeling mostly back to normal, but I'm still really shaken by the whole experience. No matter how desperate I get, I won't be going back to that surgery. At least my own dentist is absolutely lovely and she is able to talk me down when I start freaking out. This man hasn't a clue about nervous patients.

Wigs and Wine party

On Friday we threw a Wigs and Wine party, and I would like to say that this theme was the Best Fun Ever. It all started out quite sedately - I was wearing my most realistic wig while greeting guests, and a few people thought I wasn't playing fair because they assumed I'd just got a haircut! People started drifting in from about seven, and there were still arrivals after midnight, so we had maybe twenty people in total in our tiny house. Only a couple of people brought wigs with them, but one of those was a scarily realistic mullet which got a lot of use through the evening, and of course I have a whole lot myself so there were more than enough to play with.

It was very amusing how a new head of hair can totally transform a person, but also how a person can transform a wig. Not only did I barely recognise some of my closest friends when they had a new 'do, but Liz even managed to make the "bleached blonde hooker" wig look quite attractive. Nobody else came close to doing that!

The boys certainly enjoyed camping it up for the occasion, some of them more than others. It was all really good fun, and with the addition of some crisps, pizza, sausage rolls, and a cheese board, the whole thing felt like a proper party. I would definitely recommend Wigs and Wine as a party theme, and this may not be the last time we throw such an event.

It should, however, be the last party we throw in Inglewood Court. After a quick trip to a cheap carpet shop on Thursday, we put in our order, and there will be new carpets and vinyl going down throughout the house on Saturday. We're nearly there now!

Dentistry update

I am all swollen up like a hamster with food in its pouch.
I am in pain.
I am on antibiotics.
I am unable to get an appointment to have the tooth taken out until October 30th, which is six weeks away.
I am not best pleased.

Enforced dentistry

I have a toothache. A tooth which was filled years ago has started to fall apart, and a big piece of filling came out of it a few days ago, and now I'm sitting here hoping that the pain doesn't start to get really bad. Chewing gum seems to help, but I can't do that all night! I'm going to have to visit the dentist - something that fills me with terror. Ever since being frequently mauled by drill-wielders as a child, I've been scared of getting into that chair, and even laughing gas only makes me lie straight as opposed to curling into a foetal ball, rather than properly relaxing me. So you can guess that I'm not looking forward to making an appointment tomorrow. Of course it'll probably be another two or three weeks of popping paracetamol before I can actually get an "emergency" appointment - that's what happened last time - but there's nothing much I can do about that.

I take pretty good care of my teeth and haven't had a new cavity in years, but all the childhood/teenage fillings are reaching the end of their life span now, as are the teeth that were given root canal treatment, and things are just starting to crumble. Lovely! I wish there was some way that I could have all of the back ones replaced with implants at once, so I don't have to worry about them or end up in pain again in future, but I've asked the dentist already and been told that they won't just replace healthy teeth like that. I'm not sure healthy is the word that I'd use, but that was his opinion! I could probably force the issue if I went private, but that means spending money that I just don't have. I'll have to suck up yet another filling and accept the fact that the same thing will happen again before too long.

I suppose it's not a bad thing that I'm getting my teeth seen to now anyway. We should be on holiday before too long (whenever we get the For Sale sign up outside the house), and I can only imagine how awful it would be to be in a foreign country with a toothache and no idea of where to go to get it fixed. If I'm going to do this, I'd rather it be on my home turf - and with NHS prices!

Passport photos

Everyone dreads getting passport photos taken, right? They're usually unflattering and often make the bearer look like a terrorist or an imbecile. Things got a bit better with those digital photo booths where you could see the photo before hitting Print, but even those usually just gave you two or three attempts before forcing a printout.

Since I have to get a new passport anyway, I decided to take matters into my own hand and make my own photos using my digital camera, Photoshop, and the services of Photobox. They offer a set of 8 passport sized prints for 99p, which is very good value.

Irish passport requirements say that the photo can have a light grey or cream background instead of white, so I was able to set up my makeshift studio in the living room. All that magnolia paint has its uses, although strangely enough it turned out grey in the photo anyway. Having taken a few snaps and made sure the pose fit the requirements (neutral expression, face forward, all edges of face clearly visible), the next thing was to fix a few minor imperfections like hairs sticking up, the start of a few tiny wrinkles, etc. I should still have this passport when I am 42, so I want to look as youthful and fresh-faced as possible!

I'm still not absolutely thrilled with the end result, but that's mainly because I look so dour. Since smiling is forbidden, I don't know what else can be done with that - it's all very well to say "smile with your eyes" but I don't seem to quite have that knack!

The passport people prefer black-and-white pictures, so I am getting those printed, but I thought I'd show off the colour version as well so you, my loyal readers, can compare and contrast. All that remains after that is to see if it gets rejected for some frivolous reason like the length of my face being 36.5mm rather than the specified maximum of 36mm. I did measure and it is fine on my machine, so I just hope Photobox print it exactly as sent. I'll keep you posted.

Got a bit more work done, hurrah!

We actually got some work done this morning towards getting the house ready - good start to the week :) I boxed up two cartons of clothes and perfume from the bedroom to be put into storage, and threw out quite a lot of stuff too, while Skry painted the ceilings in the hall and landing. We have run out of paint now, but a quick trip to B&Q should sort that out.

Some more wigs arrived in the post as well, from China, and they are a mixed bunch. One of them is so hideous that I am not even going to attempt wearing it. Another has some potential but needs to be restyled, and while I was combing it handfuls of hair came out. Not a good start. Then there is one that is too dark for me and one that seems quite nice but also needs a bit of restyling before it's fit to be seen. Don't hold your breath for photographs...

A better blonde. And a puppy.

This is another fixer-upper of a wig. It's a very good quality make, and started life as a really long style. I bought it second-hand and it was definitely showing signs of wear, which couldn't be fixed by a wash and liberal application of silicone spray. The ends were just too ratty. So I gave them the chop and ended up with this shoulder-length style.

I think you'll agree that the colour is a lot better on me than the other blonde wig which I was sporting a week ago! That one has never seen the light of day since, but this one has had a couple of outings already over the weekend.

In other news, my next door neighbour still hasn't fixed her fence (it blew down in December), nor has she paid the slightest bit of heed to the warnings we gave her about the weedkiller that was spread liberally through the garden a couple of days ago. I saw something moving about outside as I was sitting at the dining table, and when I opened the door I found her granddaughter's two dogs playing outside. I was really annoyed with this, as I have already asked her to keep the dogs out of the garden, and it's even worse when she knows there's poison on the ground out there right now. But how cute is this little puppy?

The long and the short of it

Two more for your amusement - a Noriko Robin (long) and a Noriko Sky (short).

They are both well made and fit perfectly, which is as it should be since these are "proper" wigs, not just cheap costume pieces. The Robin is great fun to wear and it has had two outings already, including a wedding evening do. The Sky hasn't been worn outside the house yet, but I'm sure its time will come.

My new favourite blog

Read it.

Short and curly

Here is today's look, which is probably my favourite style so far, but unfortunately the least well made wig. It's itchy at the back and the hair feels rough. I shouldn't expect better for 99p plus postage, so I'm not really complaining, but I would like to try a similar style in something that is better quality.

My wig clips arrived in the post this morning, so I will try sewing them onto some of the earlier wigs to see if they improve the slippage. Hopefully they will.

In other news, Skry did loads of work in the garden this week so it is pretty much shipshape now apart from a bare patch at the back where the shed was, and he's going to try some grass seed there to see if it takes. It's so warm and wet this summer that it might be okay even though it's a bit later in the year than recommended for sowing grass. And I took six boxes of things to the charity shop yesterday. Some of the things were really good quality and I could have got a fair amount of money at a car boot sale, but we missed the last two car boot sales that we were meant to attend, for various reason, and I don't know when I'll next get the chance. The stuff just had to go. Oh well, it made the little old ladies in the charity shop very excited to see all this stuff coming in!

Back to brunette

You can all sigh in relief now - I am looking a bit more normal!

This was a long wig that unfortunately made me look like I was going to a Hallowe'en party or something. Yesterday I had the brainwave of chopping it into a bob, and I love it! I had already messed up the fringe trying to make the long version look good, and I accidentally cut it a wee bit too short around the front, but as a rescue job I am very pleased.

The synthetic hair is absolutely gorgeous, so soft and silky, and I love the feel of it against my face. It is made of a fibre called Kanekalon, and it really does feel like my own hair when I am fresh out of the salon and everything is at its best.

I need some wig clips, because I have a big head and everything slides backwards on it (as evidenced in the blonde photo from yesterday). Time to hit eBay again, I think, but that's surely better than tugging at my forelocks every few minutes!

Jenny as a blonde

Well this is a new look! Not sure it's a good look, but it's certainly a new one :) I can't see me leaving the house wearing this unless I'm going to a costume party, but it's good to have options...

The wig itself is surprisingly well made considering how little I paid for it (£3.99 plus postage). It has quite a realistic looking scalp, it's adjustable inside (not that I need that, since my massive bonce just about fits inside), and the "hair" itself feels nice. I'd happily buy the same style in a less bottle-blonde colour.

Wigging Out

This week's flash-in-the-pan obsession has been with wigs. I get these obsessions regularly - they burn bright and fast and wink out in a week or two. It makes life fun, and I learn loads about whatever it is I'm obsessing about, although I do also spend quite a bit of money and end up with more things in the house than I have storage space for.

Anyway, this week it is wigs. For some reason I decided that I wanted one, so the research and shopping began. The shopping part was easy enough to begin with: eBay. The research part was more interesting. I have learnt so much about wig wearing in the last few days. For the record, the biggest hits that I found for wig wearers on Google were:
- chemotherapy patients
- alopecia sufferers (and other sufferers of conditions that lead to complete hair loss due to medical reasons)
- judges in the British court system
- men in drag

I felt kind of guilty surfing for frivolous fun wig-wearing information when I kept coming up against people who really need them. I know several people who have lost their hair because of chemo and I can't imagine how they felt about it. I seem to remember that my uncle had alopecia too at one point but I can't remember how much hair he lost - it's just a memory tucked away in the back of my head somewhere. But it is heartening to read how much women's lives in particular have improved when they have got a hairstyle back, even if their own hair has fallen out. And it's sweet to read about the cross-dressers and how much it means to them to be able to pass as a woman because their hair looks good.

Anyway. Wigs come in the obviously-fake fun type, like the bright blue or tinsel types you see on people at parties, and the ones that want to look like real hair. Of the latter, the two types are real human hair and synthetics. You might think that real human hair is superior, but not necessarily so! The very best type of human wig hair is from undyed, unprocessed, European hair, particularly from people such as Italian peasants (apparently) who take great care of their hair but do not use chemicals on it. Eastern European hair is also popular, probably because the people share a similar makeup. Actually that last is just a guess, but Italian and Romanian are so similar - both Romance languages - that there was obviously a link between those two countries anyway, so why not a shared hair heritage? The wig hair can have the cuticles stripped off it so it doesn't tangle, which is a benefit, and of course if it's human hair it can be styled in the usual ways, with straightening irons, curlers, perms, whatever.

Synthetic wig hair is surprisingly realistic these days. Not your common-or-garden joke shop wig hair, of course, but the stuff that is designed to pass as natural. And it doesn't need to be styled, either - if you buy a wig with flowing waves, or tight curls, or poker straight, it'll stay that way when it's washed. No faffing around with styling tools and hairspray. Bonus!

I've been going mad on eBay ordering various styles from various ranges. The first few that I ordered were the cheapest available on eBay (99p for the wig, plus £10 postage from Hong Kong). They haven't arrived yet, so you'll just have to wait and see what they turn out like. I also ordered some more expensive ones that were almost certainly the cheap ones from Hong Kong, but with the benefit of being sold by a woman just a few miles away from here. I asked if I could get my purchase in time for the weekend, and her husband delivered the parcel in person at our house this morning! Now that's good customer service. And I got a "bargain" - not cheap, but way cheaper than retail price - on a top of the range long-haired synthetic wig that should be here by the middle of next week. I'll be interested to see what the difference is between them all as far as quality, comfort, and believeability go.

Here is a picture of me (couple of tangles, but I was too lazy to re-take it once I realised the problem) in the one that I wore to lunch today as a laugh. I think I look pretty good in it!
Maybe in a few days I'll look back on this and go, "Wow, that looks awful. What was I thinking?!", but for the moment I'm happy. I feel very glam with these flowing locks right down my back.