B is for "boren"

"Boren" means drilling in Dutch. And I've just come back from the dentists. My new dentist - I changed from my Amsterdam based dentist in December, and registered with the Monnickendam practice that both John and Jolanda use.
I should have done this ages ago, as soon as I stopped working in Amsterdam, but I have a fear of dentists (we were butchered as children by a local dentist with enormous hands, and poor social skills) and changing dentist seemed worse than the journey into Amsterdam for my six monthly check ups.
However the Amsterdam guy became a bit too happy to pull my teeth out, rather than preserving them, so I finally took the plunge after the second extraction; and when one of my remaining teeth broke into pieces I decided to give a new dentist a chance.
Of course you go along and they find loads of things to do - not only mending the broken tooth, but also finding an infection within a root canal treatment I had done about three or four years ago(this will need specialist treatment at over EUR300 per session!), as well as discovering another tooth which had developed a hole to the side of an existing filling.
So today I have had the second filling done, and I'm sitting with a face numb with anesthetic, dreading it wearing off, because then the after-ache will begin.
Self Pity is an unattractive emotion, so on the positive side, after this work is all completed, around about the end of April, after the sessions for the infection have taken place, and I've had my appointment with the dental hygienist too, I'll be moving into summer with a pain free, lovely smile.