In yesterday’s post I remarked that I had an appointment today “that I am not looking forward to.”
The appointment was at the practice of Pickering Dental at 11:20 am. According to the Apple Maps app on my phone, it takes around 15 minutes to walk there from home. What Apple Maps didn’t know was that my dentist has her surgery on the third floor, at the top of a steep staircase of 49 steps. I deliberately arrived early so that I could sit in the tiny waiting room and recover my breath.
My last appointment had involved root canal work and had lasted well over an hour. Today’s appointment was for the dentist to finish the job by installing a crown on the tooth. I didn’t know how long this would take and how much discomfort would be involved. In fact, it took about 10 minutes and there was no discomfort at all.
(The only “ouch factor” was the price. Dentistry is the one branch of medicine in the UK for which the patient is required to pay part of the cost. I chose a ceramic crown, which is the most expensive option, so there was a considerable “ouch”!)
According to my dentist, I must wait a couple of hours before having hot drinks or chewing in order to let the crown’s adhesive set. To help me avoid temptation, I decided to take a walk before going home. Pickering Dental is almost opposite St Mary’s Church and I decided to start with a stroll in the church garden.
Beside the church stands this large house. A plaque beside the front door identifies it as the vicarage.
A section of the house that looks as if it might have been the garage, or even a stable, has been given over to a florist’s called Dansk Flowers.
I walked through the church garden (originally the burial ground until London’s cemeteries were closed in the 1850s). A couple of hardy citizens were sitting on benches, otherwise it was deserted.
There I met a squirrel but he preferred to play it safe and take refuge in a tree.
Arriving at Islington Green, I thought I would take a look inside Waterstones bookshop. It occupies a building dated 1897 on the site of the once famous Collins Music-hall, sadly destroyed by fire.
Though bookshops are becoming ever rarer, no doubt because they find it hard to compete with online sellers such as Amazon, there seems to be no shortage of books. The place was piled high with new books, both fiction and non-fiction. I vaguely hoped I might find some books in French but was not surprised to find none. Too often, the shelf label “Foreign Languages” means only bilingual dictionaries and language tutorials, not books in foreign languages.
I walked onto the Green which was nearly as deserted as St Mary’s Church Garden.
While I was there, I paid a visit to the statue of Street Cat Bob. We last took a look at him on Boxing Day (see Boxing Day brunch), when he had been dressed in Christmas finery. Today he was unadorned.
As my visit to Waterstones had not produced a result, I thought I would try my luck at the Oxfam Bookshop where I bought three books recently. Having climbed to the first floor, I found that the French books, which are in a narrow part of the shop, were blocked from access by a stand. I tried pushing it but couldn’t move it, so I gave up.
I walked through the mall called Angel Central, with its lights that continually change colour.
The courtyard with its artificial lawn has been restored to its open aspect. Over Christmas it was cluttered with decorations and figures such as reindeer but these have now been removed. In summer they sometimes put out deckchairs for people to lounge in the sun.
The present management of Angel Central, which has carried out an expensive remodelling if the site, wanted the Council to remove the famous Angel Wings (sculpted by Wolfgang Buttress, 2003) but a “Save our Wings” campaign was successful in having them retained. (See here for the story.)
I passed along Chapel Market which, on Mondays, becomes an ordinary road which motor vehicles can use. There are no stalls and no tables and chairs in front of cafes. I do notice, though, that because it is pedestrian-only on 6 days a week, even on Mondays people tend to walk in the road, something they wouldn’t do on normal roads. Motorists beware! (The new Highway Code privileges pedestrians over cycles and motor vehicles and requires these users to pay careful attention to their safety.)
I now have to be patient for a little while longer to give my crown a chance to “set”, then I can have lunch, including a nice hot cup of tea!
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