LANDSCAPE VIEW FROM THE DENTIST'S SURGERY

You may remember we were due to go to the Dentist today and off we went and fortunately managed to find a parking space not too far away.  I remembered our masks, but had forgotten to take a pen, but we did have a pencil in the glove box of the car, and when we got there were told that a pencil would be fine.  Phew!

We had to wait at the door until the Dentist’s wife, AKA Mrs Smurf (!) came to let us in - when we were zapped to make sure we didn’t have a temperature, and thankfully, we didn’t - asked to sanitise our hands and then given blue rubber gloves to put on.  What a palaver - but all necessary, of course - and we were happy to comply.

The receptionist, Debbie, looking very different with her regulation mask on, asked the same questions as we had been asked yesterday - and then we were invited to sit down until we were called upstairs.  I went up first trying not to touch anything on the way - the surgery is in an old house with a very steep staircase, so it wasn’t easy, but I made it to find Claire, the nurse, waiting at the top.  

Then it was into the chair and the inspection started and following that Sat, the Dentist, poked and scraped to get rid of the build-up of plaque.  Not sure whether it’s just me, but it always feels as if my teeth are going to pop out with all that scraping, but to my knowledge, they are all still there so that’s both of us “done” for a few more months.

This photograph was taken from the waiting room when I got back downstairs - and is a view of the tented market with the David Murray John Tower in the background.  Sadly the market closed in 2017 and there was talk of the Council pulling it down and building a tower block of flats with restaurants on the ground floor.  However, I think that plan has now been shelved but the developers are still anxious to build restaurants and shops.  Time will tell, because of course, this pandemic has changed a lot of things.

The David Murray John Tower, which stands at 83 metres high and dominates the skyline, is named after the Swindon politician who was the Clerk of Swindon Borough Council from 1938 to 1974 and his energy contributed to small industries coming to Swindon after the Second World War.  Sadly he never lived long enough to see it completed and opened in 1976.   It is 83m high and dominates the skyline having 21 storeys of mainly residential properties with the first four floors being office space and cost just over £2 million to complete.
 
After yesterday’s rain, today is a beautiful sunny day, so I was pleased to get this shot of the tented market but of course, have fartnarkled with it a little in my Distressed FX app and Snapseed to give it this rather surreal look for Abstract Thursday.  I have also put a shot of the original in as an extra.

I have to say we do love going to see our Dentist - all his staff are wonderful and they have certainly got their heads around the procedures to keep us safe.  Hopefully we won’t need to go for a while, but we know they are all there if we need them.

“I’m always amazed to hear of air crash victim 
     so badly mutilated 
          that they have to be identified 
               by their dental records. 
What I can't understand is, 
     if they don't know who you are, 
          how do they know who your dentist is?”   
Paul Merton

P.S.  A fun song after a visit to the Dentist!