everybody knows that a toothache can be excruciatingly painful. i don't have much space to literally describe the two agonizing sleepless nights i had with the bugger. i woke up a few days back with a swollen left face and the harrowing realization after a de rigueur quick mirror check. that i look like a lopsided nasty version of a fugu puffer you'd find on a fish platter in a sushi restaurant from hell.
2
i would like to thank the sincere concern of my senior coleague at work and the advice to take antibiotics when i phoned in sick sunday morning. and the shock horror of the mere mention of herbal medicine. and the warning not to poke my gums with a sharp object. critical care nurses don't take hippy flower-power therapy. seriously. i am resolute to give it a try. i heard that clove oil really works well with toothaches. not a lot of people probably know this, but clove oil is used as an anaesthetic and in concentrated doses, euthanizing fish. the dead fish imagery is actually quite attractive after a few sleep deprived nights. i may add that samurais use it to clean their hattori hanzo swords. the ones they used to 'kill bill'. more important though, especially in this day and age of economic shambles: i managed to save a few pennies if not a few bucks and a few torturous hours on a dentist's chair subjected to the most vile cheesy saxophone muzak.
3
glad i'm so finished with management month. now i can appreciate the enormity of hard work it actually entails to run intensive care. not so much with the clinical aspect of the job but the politics behind the smooth operation of the unit which at times feel like directing aircraft traffic movement in and out of the world's busiest airstrip. warning the wards that you are discharging a patient to them: giving them time to prepare a little bit makes it easier to apply the pressure later. talking to the family that you are 'transferring' (the word dishcharge at this point can be a little bit politically incorrect) a relative to the wards. not necessarily a well patient but the fittest in the bunch. obviously not attached to a life support machine.
4
it helps to mention that the ward is the next step to going home. a bit like a departure lounge of the airport. works all the time. behind the cloudiest skies the sun is still shining. then you get a phone call from accident and emergency. a much busier aerodrome. they mostly handle unexpected events, emergencies and unscheduled traffic. at this point you call the ward sister and ever so lavishly elegant, refined and poised, you say: 'i want a bed now'. if you are nice you are always guaranteed a comfortable ride.
wino billboard. saw this at whitecross street when i went to london a few months ago. i thought that duffy cycling with one hand chugging a can of coke is pretty road safety irresponsible. who's duffer now? lol!
5
yey. i'm on holiday for a week.and no more toothache. i'm planning to cook biryani or any indian type food one of these days.i went to sainsbury's yesterday to pick up some cardamom, turmeric, and cinnamon stick. and definitely, a little bag of cloves for good measure. also picked up a 3 quid dvd of danny boyle's 'sunshine'. i've seen the movie before, but danny's not too bad. what with 'slumdog' and all this year. goes well with the indian theme. and i've got 'trainspotting' already. what a nice way to start a collection. 3 quid is just equivalent to one piece of your supermarket variety frozen seabass. or a packet of 6 x first class royal mail stamps. good value for money.
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for such a beautifully shot film, the story of 'sunshine' is actually quite dark. set just around 50 years in the future, humans will be faced by the imminent death of the sun. not exactly good news, except maybe for skin cancer. and tanning salons? bad news for coppertone and other pedllers of spf lotion. or rayban's. good news for night clubs and club kids. whatever. anyway, like most stuff that 'alex garland' has written, it has a filipino connection. one of the astronauts on a mission to save the ailing star is a filipina named corazon. she could be seen planting herbs in a neat little space capsule. apparently, 'the beach' his first novel, also made into a movie by danny which i also happen to have is loosely based on the philippine islands where alex spent his teenage years backpacking. alex wrote his second novel called 'the tesseract' about ganglife and some weird metaphysics stuff in the philippines. you see, a bit of culture and hyper science work for me. i love the book. but if it is ever going to be made into a proper movie, i want quentin tarantino to direct it. i say proper, because apparently there is already a movie about it. albeit, a rubbish one.
7
thank you mothernature for clove oil. "see number 2". now i couldn't underestimate the power of herbal medicine. ever. the spicy mixture you would normally associate with a friday night indian saffron rice takeaway could be your escape bridge from the torments of toothache purgatory into the light. fact. behind the seemingly cloudy pseudoscientific world of alternative therapy is a ray of sunshine. apparently, there is also compelling evidence that it is quite handy in treating premature ejaculation. but let's not go there. i'm more worried that (having applied ample drops and swallowed substantially) it can actually stop me breathing. funny how a few drops too many can tip the balance of the life-death continuum.
