22/12/2025 Dental Experience in Auckland

My day started with beautiful sunshine streaming in through the apartment windows so I took my coffee outside to drink it. I'd been in the pool at 0600hours for an hour, I figured if I was awake, I may as well be doing something productive for myself. 

I returned to the balcony after my swim and stayed out on the balcony until lunch time, just watching the world go by and my mind wandering to Si as it always does. 

I had my dental appointment at 1400hours, so after a shower, I started downtown to locate where I needed to go so I'd be on time. Amazingly i located it very easily, and as I had plenty of time I did a bit more exploring. I found a nail salon, and tried to book an appointment so I'd have nice nails for Fiji, but given the time of year it was booked out for today, I was able to make an appointment for tomorrow morning so I was more than happy with that. In the same arcade as the nail salon, I located a craft shop for sewing, knitting and crocheting. I refrained from entering because I wasn't sure how good my will power would be today, but it looked like my kind of shop!

The black friday sales are in full swing and I was so tempted to go buy stuff, but for what purpose? I don't need anything, I would just be buying because I'm miserable and that's silly. Also the Sturdy rucksack is not equipped for buying loads of stuff I absolutely do not need. I walked away. Well I say walked away, I did go to the chemist warehouse to pick up two cans of mosquito spray, they are little fuckers in Fiji and I dont want to be chewed on. They loved Si as much as I did, so we always used to carry industrial strength mosquito repellent, antihistamines, anti bite cream and cooling gel but invariably his bites got infected and tracked. He would take brewers yeast before and during our travels to deter the little bar stewards and it really helped, before he started taking them he ended up on antibiotics so many times whilst we were away.

With my heavy duty mosquito repellent in my bag I went to the dentist. It's a random one I found online but the reviews looked good. I was impressed that they responded to my email on a sunday and was even more impressed with the facilities. They were ultra modern, bright and airy with a futuristic feel to them. I was given a form to fill in by the smiling receptionist and once done I was collected by the dental nurse. The treatment rooms were bright white, glass fronted, and looked out over the city. I was a little concerned as to how much I'd end up paying for the treatment given the luxurious surroundings.

When I was seated in the chair the dentist had me open me mush and had a good look around. He spotted my filling issue straight away but gave me a check up anyway. He wanted to do an xray just to check that there were no deeper seated issues with the tooth, which was done really quickly and once he'd ascertained it was all good and just a small filling required, we discussed the matter of anesthetic, which I politely declined, although it didn't cost any extra. He cleaned the tooth out and tidied up the area to be filled in. Usually my dentist uses those awful metal things clamped around my tooth to do a filling. I find them to be quite awful little things that shred my gums and always make me bleed. I was delighted when I realised that those pesky objects weren't being used. Instead, he placed a cotton wool roll either side of my bottom teeth and proceeded to build up the tooth free handed. Such a pleasant and gentle dental experience, I could get used to this kind of treatment! When it was done, I expected all of the usual filing and grinding, but to my amazement there was none needed, not even after he had  done the carbon paper test  where you bite down on the paper. After he’d polished the tooth up, the nurse handed me a mirror to show me the finished treatment. He has built up the outside of my tooth with white filling instead of using the normal silver stuff. I was mightily impressed, my tooth looked and felt amazing. When I went to pay, they forwarded me a copy of the xray, all the treatments and the invoice so I could claim on my travel insurance  when I get home. The bill came to $326.40 NZ Dollars which works out at £140 (ish) which I was pretty pleased with considering the standard of work I received and what they did. Also I didn't have a numb mouth either which meant  I could go for a nice coffee without fear of drooling everywhere. Because no one wants to see that in a cosy little cafe. 

I came out of there feeling pretty chipper, and carried on doing some exploring up the little side streets, right up until it started to rain, really hard. I completely forgot I had a phone now with unlimited data which I could have used to order an Uber back to the apartment. Which would have been perfectly fabulous. As it was I just got wet. Which was ok as it was warm rain.

Morg rang on his way home from work and he’d had a pretty annoying day, so we decided that I wouldn't go over there tonight.  I really don't want him feeling obliged to entertain me, he's going to be sick of me after a week in fiji, and sometimes I really need to be on my own. I've got to get used to it at home, and if I spend my time with Morg, the emptiness will hit harder when I finally return to the Barn.

I went down for another swim and utilized the sauna which was beneficial before going back up to have dinner. It was only left overs from yesterday's Nandos but damn it was good, and

no cooking required which is always a winner.    

Much Love

Mrs Leonard

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