How I went to the dentist and what you can learn from it

To start in the beginning, I need to start with beginning of July when over night I got two gum infections. Since the left side pushed the infection quickly to the right side, I (naively) expected the right side to sort it out soon too and in few days I could continue my life as I know it. After eating painkillers for a week I went to emergency room. For 26 euros I got rinsing with the same mouth water that I was using already anyway and a bit of painkiller that was placed between gum and tooth. All that didn't change the situation more than just leaving me without 26 euros. So I called to most of dentist offices in Tallinn to find one that is not on holidays in July and where I could get an appointment before September. Found one. Basically the same procedure, but since they also took a panorama, I left that place with 45 euros less. By the end of the second week the pain started to decrease and I didn't have to take my carry-on to the drugstore anymore to bring the painkillers home. Fast forward three weeks and the gum infection was back, this time straight by the lower right wisdom tooth. I decided to go for the antibiotics. To think back a little, it must have been my first antibiotics in the last 20 years. Or even more, because I can't recall taking or not taking them in the school. At the same time I decided it was a good idea to have the mentioned wisdom tooth removed. Because I had consulted Dr. Google and turned out that the doctors don't remove the wisdom tooth, if there's the gum infection. So, I made an appointment in the face and jaw surgical center. So far so good. But I talked to my dentist about the plan and decided that removing the tooth doesn't fit my plans and changed the tooth removing appointment into consulting appointment. So, we'd have time to discuss and plan it and then find a suitable time in autumn to pull the little bastard out. As said, went to my consultancy appointment on Wednesday and before I realized, I was shown my tooth without a mirror. Although it might have been somewhat confusing in the doc's office, there was no more confusion after looking in the mirror at home. The cheek without the tooth was way bigger than the cheek with the tooth was and without the tooth it hurt much more than with the tooth.

Got a prescription for another antibiotics and an extra strong painkiller from the doc. The painkiller was something to take once a day and was supposed to work its miracles for 24 hours. And I got the advise to take it before the anesthetic started to disappear and then next day based on need. Bought both of them right after leaving the dentist and since I thought that I can feel my tongue again, I also took the first painkiller. Anesthetic left, pain stepped in. That 24 hour painkiller didn't kill the pain at all. I consulted Dr Google again, whether I can mix and match different painkillers and compliment the strong one with the over-the-counter ibuprofen. Google was a bit hesitant, but kindly informed me that the given painkiller was analog for Vioxx. Vioxx itself was banned in US after being on the market for 5 years, because it caused inconveniently lot of sudden deaths. And the mentioned analog didn't get approval from the drug committee in the first place. They must have sold all the already produced packages to the east block here. Threw the rest of the 6 pills away and called the medical line to get a second opinion. I found out that there is not much point to take ibuprofen, because it's from the same family, but I can eat some paracetamol. I had to pay drugstore a visit, because my medical box at home consisted mainly of ibuprofen based painkillers. Paracetamol worked and I slept through most of the night. By morning, the missing tooth used more space than yesterday.

Sincerely
Your Hamster

The Food Critic has spoken

I read the label of my Vitamin C and it stated that taking the vitamin would decrease exhaustiveness and tiredness. I think, my vitamins are defected. 

We visited the recently opened restaurant Ülo just beginning of the July. Since they were out of half the items on the menu, our choice was limited with sweet potato fries and different salads. The fries were nice and crispy and served with green mayonnaise and kimchi on side. My noodle salad was not the greatest, but it can also be that I expected thicker ramen noodle like noodles not the hair thin likes. The fresh salad was, as written, nicely on spinach pad. Few days ago we went there again and since having a bigger group, we could choose from limited menu. For a second I thought of sitting to the next table and place my shrimp order there (in July they were just out of shrimps and this time it wasn't included in the group menu). But getting out from where I was sitting didn't make the shrimps being worth the candles. Our limited menu included sweet potato fries, fresh salad with spinach and mango and beef taco from the starters and spinachorsotto, mushroom ramen and white fish from the mains. Pasta and pizza for the kids. I took the fries and fresh salad. Ramen and orsotto didn't appeal anyone and I think, we ordered at least 8 portions of fries. After the first ones arrived to the table I managed to cut in and tell them to hold the horses and not soak mine with the mayonnaise. Turned out, I should I have been more specific and ask them to serve also kimchi on side. Oh, well, at least my by that time only partly crispy sweet potato fries were only covered with spicy sauerkraut and were saved from mayonnaise. Kika asked Lorenzo, what does he think of the dinner. Lorenzo thought that he will go home after dinner and prepare a nice pasta. 5 minutes later he thought that he can't really wait any longer for that pasta, he gathered the kids and most of the guys and walked next door to have some burgers. His initial dinner choice was beef taco (6.30 EUR) that is pictured with a fork to show the size. While they were having burgers, our next round arrived and instead of expected spinach salad I got a plate full of lettuce with 5 little spinach leafs.

The hottest topic in the last year - whether or not to turn the clock twice a year and to which direction, seems to have reached first interim finish - since the one hour time change every spring is apparently messing up the health of 80% of Estonians so that they spend weeks without sleeping and can't eat a bite, in the name of people's health they will not change between summer and winter time anymore. Next topic to solve, was, whether to remain in summer or winter time. Since our zone time is winter time, all those people with fragile health want to remain in winter time to not to spend the rest of their lives exhausted because they would need to get up an hour earlier. My preference is summer time, as I value our white nights very highly. I don't really care, if we keep switching the time or not, but I don't want to keep living the stress that we might end up in constant dark winter time.

Beginner Gardener

I mentioned in the office that my strawberry is blooming nicely, but I can't see myself cooking jam, cause there are no berries. Turned out that I should have sent an army of bees on them or done the pollening myself with a little brush. Since I can't even see any blossoms at the moment to start an enthusiastic pollen job, the strawberry plant found her place with other organic leftovers.

We ordered sushi from Wolt the other day. I entered our office address as well as directions on how to find the doorbell. Before I started to order, the estimated delivery time was 40 minutes. Well, more or less next door. Or so I thought. After placing the order the estimation changed to 35-45 minutes, which was still OK. And then suddenly it was 71 minutes. And since then every time the countdown reached zero and you thought that any minute now they will ring the doorbell, the zero turned into 8 or 9 minutes. And this happened some three times. I opened the customer service chat and asked where my sushi was. About to start biking, they said. So it did. However not to the office but home. Because their fancy site is apparently not capable to manage several different addresses for one client. The sushi arrived to the office 1hr45min after placing the order. To compensate the one hour delay, they gave me two free standard deliveries. Expiring in a month. And since I don't plan to use them anymore (when I'm huong, I want to eat right away, not in 2 hours), the compensation was basically nothing. Way to go, Tokumaru and Wolt.

Mamma Mia!

I was sitting after writing the previous post with the laptop on top of my lap and thought that I'd really like to write something that wouldn't be the usual whining and complaining. I was sitting, laptop on the lap, fingers ready to attack the keyboard to put astridlindgrenish bright and cheerful thoughts on the paper or on the screen when I started to remember how much of idiots the bicyclers are in Tallinn and that I had to go to the dentist today, that several interviews were cancelled today and that my Click & Grow only grows strawberry blossoms but no strawberries. And so on.

And then I finally remembered that we went to the movie last night. Had few drinks before movie too (luckily, because Vapiano was serving some random shrimp in celery marinade as ceviche) and when T. noticed that the movie will last for two hours, she groaned that we should have grabbed few more wines to survive those two hours with ABBA. Since I had to powder my nose during the movie I decided to catch two birds with one go and bought two wines on the way back in. The movie itself was very fun and one of those where I say that the second one was way better than the first one. And the movie happened to be part of the lifelong education program. I always thought that ABBA song "One of Us" has the lines "One of us is crying, one of us is lying (as in telling lies)". Makes perfect sense - one telling lies, can break the tears loose in the other one. Turned out, the lines go like "One of us is crying, one of us is lying on her lonely bed, staring at the ceiling" where the other one doesn't spend time telling lies, but watching the ceiling.

And we finally had a dog in the office that seemed to like me. One that was sleeping next to my desk and wasn't walking by my desk like I wouldn't even be there. But maybe she just liked the corner behind my chair.

First Bitch

Honestly, every day I do want to write something nice and positive here, but every time I grab my laptop, I can only remember all the things that are f*cked up. Today it's f*cked up next level, because I took my laptop just to express my opinion about how everything sucks.

The heating system in our building will be replaced. Basically old pipes out, new pipes in. Or rather, the work is in progress and several pipes have been replaced by now. At some point in July someone from the building board and one contractor came to see, where the new pipes should be. According to them it was a much better idea to install them right on the wall in the middle of the kitchen and in front of the fridge. Instead of the corner, where they are now. Well, not that much in front that it would block the door, but enough to make them stars of the kitchen. So I sent them an email this week, asking about having the pipes still as close as possible to the current one (which would be nicely behind the fridge). The reply I got, was basically that forget all the pipes in the kitchen, they will be turned to the other side and installed on the wall in the living room. The same pipes, that on 1959 were nicely built into the wall between the apartment and hallway, will be replaced with new ones that are supposed to decorate my living room wall now. I can start drying the kitchen towel in the living room from now on...

I'm convinced that if there is someone in our building board that can use hashtags, they would have #firstbitch behind my name. But also my blood pressure skyrockets every time I see an incoming email from the building board.

Here in London Town. Gourmet

We considered it a good idea to go for dinner in the evening. Especially good idea seemed to find an authentic, but nit british restaurant somewhere near Westminster Abby. We made our way to tube station to take the first tube to the next station, change to another tube and be in no time (read: half an hour) in city center. Got on the ground again, saw the London Eye (that famous ferrys wheel) and decided that that's where we need to go. Until we saw the line. Then we didn't want to go on the Eye anymore. Dinner started to sound good again. We chose a restaurant with huge variaty: one half served Italian food and other half Middle-Eastern. We sat down in the Middle-Eastern part and ordered a bottle of wine. And then some food too. To put it mildly, the food was very average. We paid the bill, including "discretionary service fee" this time and went to look for another place to have few more drinks. Since none of the places next to river had any seats available, we took the bus to our 'hood and ran into a bar 15 minutes before closing time. Got our wines and while sipping on them, all the chairs were set on tables and windows covered. We considered it a good idea to finish the wines and go to grocery store. Because one of us (not me) needed toothpaste. And another one (not me), turned out, needed Peppa the Pig magazine. Shopping done, we returned to the hotel.

Next morning it turned out that the toothpaste, bought after few glasses of wine, was denture adhesive.