Teeth!

 A busy in bits day today...rattling through the housework before going to town with Pirate. Today was Tooth Day! Our usual dentist had thought that this tooth should come out...next March..a large important molar....it was mended three years ago by a dentist in Whanganui who did a really good job..but for the past two years we think that it has been affecting his health..

This called for some hard decisions. Which meant jumping ship to a cycling friend who is a dentist. To get things done meant going private....one sick nerve and an abscess came out first..that put paid to the nagging long term earache....then a temporary filling to keep him going...and today the job was finished!   Two more nerves out, then the equivalent of Rawl plugs before the fixings to build the top of the tooth.  When you think about all the work £500+ doesn't sound too bad!   Thankfully the bike bits selling will take care of a fair chunk of that.

Lunch afterwards for me in our favourite bookshop then home via our favourite tree...which is no more..

It's one that I used for a print..I am glad that I have a record of it now.

Then home for a quiet afternoon walk around Hannahston and a relaxing evening.

Tomorrow we finish tying things down before Storm Dudley

quandary

We've been offered a month in Brisbane..or near...only one ticket to buy....just need to pay for everything else.

I'm thinking how can we afford that..and everything else we've planned...I've been working on affording going back to NZ again....

Its such a one off chance, but....

It could also be a chance,if only Pirate goes with his friend,I get four weeks with time to work and de-clutter....

and it could all be off if said friend's offspring doesn't get international selection......

walking and planning

Went for a pre-lunch walk at the nature reserve/ex-opencast coalmine by Drongan. The farm by there has alpacas, one newly brought in from New Zealand.

 
 There are benches around the paths, used for walking, cycling and riding

 This is "Kenny's View"  over the site and towards the village

 We found a gate.....

 and I foraged

I didn't pick any of these...

The shortening days mean we get out as much as possible.  The Pirate is getting a little sad, partly because of less light,partly because getting over his treatment takes a long time.He is running out of being a patient patient as he sees himself getting older.....riding his bike helps massively.

Meanwhile we do have something to look forward to...airline tickets booked, lodgings reserved (a garage sleepout!).

Hesitating while confirming lodgings cost us £200 each as the pound sterling continued to fall...and "Brexit" hasn't even happened...the Gods help us if it ever does....we are too old and too skint to emigrate.  My Irish ancestry is just too far back to get an Irish passport. We don't have family anywhere we want to go.....

So inertia must be fought, art done and sold so we can feed ourselves while we are away.   The Pirate has already sold some bike kit, now to sort,clean price and photograph the next batch.

writing..

Today I'm trying to find what to write, to safe deposit scotland, as evidence for why we should keep our deposit on our last rental.
We left it spotless..cleaner than when we arrived,with a tidy garden.  We left nothing.

Apparently she is claiming that the property needs re-carpeting and redecorating and she had to pay to have our belongings removed...none of that is true. We even brought rubbish with us...
 It will be interesting to see her "evidence"...

Thankfully the money is safe with the scheme until their decision is made-how many of us have lost money in the past in like circumstances?

It leaves us with a hole in our finances, which is growing as we are "in the red".
The process could also take another six weeks....

project in progress

I bought some medium weight card today, with the hope that it will pass through the printer.

The new project is inching towards fruition, but so much gets in the way....Life, I suppose, is like that.

The Pirate has remembered that he has some fine wood carving chisels AND knows where to lay his hand on them-a minor miracle at present!!   So as well as reviving my lino printing skills and learning how to use the scanner and printer together with older drawing books, I could extend my skills with woodblock printing.....

I'd still prefer to be working in clay, but it will be creating something.....ANYTHING!!!

It might just bring in some sorely needed income as well.

wealth and inequality

This is in the USA....but I'm sure it applies in most places..