Went to the dentist today. I went earlier in the month to get two fillings done on one side and today was two fillings on the other side.

The first visit was no problem. I was really impressed by the relative pain-free nature of it.

This time was quite a bit worse. The cleaning was at times awful. He already cleaned the right side the last time but he seemed to do it again this time. It was just painful.

Then the fillings. He's drilling and then there's a big sigh and he says, "There's decay here." So he gets a different instrument out, it makes some kind of vibrating motion (although I guess they do) and then a stench of death.

Sometimes when you get a filling done, including the first time I was at this place, it smells. Indeed, the dentist and dental assistant the last time were coughing and clearly put off by the terrible smell. But this is normal. It's a normal, terrible smell that teeth emit when they're being drilled.

But this decay was quite literally the worst smell I've ever smelt. I had to stop and gag for a few seconds. I was close to vomiting. But then I thought, "I have ####ing clamps in my mouth and there are two huge holes in my teeth, vomiting right now is going to cause a lot of problems". So I managed to keep it down.

Then he used that vibrating tool some more, presumably removed the decay, and things were relatively okay from that point.

Just unbelievable. Now I know why he sighed. When you hear "decay" at the dentist, that's your signal not to inhale. Absolutely horrendous.

They had to take off a point of the tooth. I guess they do this for big cavities. He didn't say this but this is my conjecture due to having a missing tooth point on the other side where there's a big cavity. So that's not good but it doesn't affect eating and it's the point on the inside so it's not visible. Good thing I opted for the white fillings because the gray of the filling would probably would show through the tooth like the other one did.

He also mentioned that my teeth should feel less sharp. I think he was talking about the front of my teeth because it was in relation to the cleaning. And he's right. After that first half-cleaning earlier in the month, my front teeth felt really sharp and it bothered me so much that I ended up getting some kind of painful bump on the tip of my tongue from rubbing my teeth so much. But now the teeth feel fine. That bump went away after a few days of refraining from rub the teeth.

So a terrible experience but at least it's done. I never begrudge dentists for their salary. It's the go-to profession for people who deserve everything they earn. Imagine doing that every day. Drilling teeth, smelling that shit, having to look at it, people vomiting on you. If there's any truth to the myth that dentists have the highest suicide rate of all the professions, I'm not the least bit surprised. What could be worse?

And they're doing that for, let's say, £80,000/year. Not worth it. If I worked every day, I'd make £80,000/year and what I'm doing is ridiculously easy by comparison. Becoming proficient with the machine takes years but once you have that down, the job itself is a breeze.

Speaking of work-related news, I bought a "pocket" "diary" a couple of days ago. I thought it would be good for putting my jobs in. I keep all my jobs on a Notepad file on my computer but when I'm out, I don't have access to my computer. So sometimes I'll get a call while I'm away asking if I can do a job and I say, "I'll have to check my diary first, it's on my computer" and by the time I check, they've gone with somebody else.

"Can't you just put the diary on your phone?"

Yes, but...I don't know...this seems easier.

The problem is that this is bigger than I had expected. I bought it from a store so I knew how big it was when I bought it. It was £35 at WH Smith so it wasn't even cheap. But it's pretty big.

It's refillable, so I can buy pages for next year, next year. It has little binder clips in the middle that you can open and close.

The problem is that it's heavy. Even this somewhat small book adds noticeable weight to my bag. I could take a lot of the pages out. About half of these pages aren't diary stuff. But...who knows...maybe one day I'll need to know how many quarts are in a gallon. And I paid £35 for this thing. I might as well get full use out of it. The extra blank pages may also come in handy.

What I noticed about WH Smith are a lot of elderly people buying newspapers. I suspect that these old timers are the only thing keeping the business profitable. "Time to go to WH Smith to get my newspaper, Martha." Martha, being this man's elderly wife.

Once this generation of non-internet savy octogenarians pass on, it's over for WH Smith. The young people aren't buying books, stationery, and periodicals. I don't even know why the elderly are getting these items from WH Smith. There have to be newsagents that are closer to their home.

Maybe they're racist. Or it could just be the terrible service at these newsagents that puts them off. Or the high prices, although, I'm sure they don't jack up the price of newspapers. But yeah, 90% of the time in these newsagents, it's a South Asian person talking on the phone in some non-English language or they're talking to a family member or friend in person at the shop in some non-English language. I have no idea how these places are making money. Terrible shopping experience, terrible prices, sometimes a unique selection of items, though.