Sweltering.

http://www.halfmoonbaymemories.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/hotdayinfrance.jpeg

Today was 43C.

Yesterday was 38C.

Tomorrow is forecast to be 21C.

I know:

??????

Anyway, yesterday I went to the Dreaded Dentist for my 6 monthly check up. The appointment was scheduled for 2:30 pm, so beforehand we went next door to the Korean Buffet. All you can eat for $13.

Sadly, due to my nerves I only ate a fraction of what I'm capable of achieving. The Dreaded Dentist got the better of me, and while I ate, all I could think about was Dr D finding another rotten tooth that required yet another filling.

I'm still traumatised by my experience 5 years ago, when I bit into a JATZ cracker and half my tooth broke off. Admittedly, I hadn't been to the dentist in a while (give or take a decade-- I was one of those people who never needed braces okay?? So there just didn't seem to be a need to check my teeth, because they looked fine).

Anyway, ever since that day I feel like I robbed 20 years off the life of my teeth and I dread, fear and hate going to the dentist. The sound of the drill is enough to make me cringe and squirm and I get unbelievably nervous when check up time comes around.

Wired on my nervous energy I make irrelevant chitchat with Dr D and and as he instructs me to lie back, I marvel at the whirring chair as it reclines, and inform him that I absolutely positively hope that there is nothing wrong with my teeth. He stares back at me to say "I feel for you, but this is also my livelihood, so I can't feel for you too much". Fair point. I say a silent prayer as he clips the bib around my neck.

He takes an x-ray, pulses some air on my teeth and gives my teeth a clean bill of health. Save for the existing 5 fillings.

I am estatic and bound out of the room.

Meanwhile, my dad decides it's so hot that he needs a haircut, and so we walk across the street to a tiny Korean barber shop. When we get there everyone is sitting in the chairs where customers sit when they're waiting for their turn. For a moment I wonder where the barbers have gone. As we draw nearer and nearer, all three suddenly bounce up and busy themselves, getting their scissors and greeting us like Koreans do: Ahnyong ha seh yoh! A ha- So they were the barbers.

One particular man wandered in halfway through my dad's haircut. He had the shaggiest haircut, and with his flaming red tshirt paired with his puffing red face, he really looked like a haircut would give him some reprieve from the heat. He chattered on and on, and whilst I didn't get most of it (because my Korean is really that bad), I was super impressed when he went for the full head shave. Nothing left on his head. Not even a whisker. He admired his reflection before leaving a substantial tip and strutting out.

The hairdresser turned to the rest of us and confided that she was guessing that guy might be a little drunk because no sensible Korean man would do that. We giggled- she really was the archetypal gossiping hairdresser.

Today Man from Mars got his hair cut and I got a wavy perm. It took three hours. Tell me about it. But my hairdresser, whose name is a trendy single letter: "J" did a meticulous job and I'm very impressed.

Anyone looking for a perm with great service, go to Ivy Hair Co (9482 5700).

You give'em a picture, they'll give you the haircut without a strand out of place.