Interestingly, they've changed the speed limit on half the road to Tesco so it's now 40mph instead of 50mph. Which means you can't go round the corner and down the hill feeling like you're on a rollercoaster. I discovered the new speed limit just after the bends, as I was wondering when it was going to be in force because the new signs had been up for a while, just covered up. On the way back was even more interesting because when the 40mph limit ended they chose to put up a national speed limit sign. I didn't make 60mph before the bends and it was 50mph after. So the road has gone from being 50mph to half 40mph apart from 50m where it's 60mph...

This morning I went to the hospital about the wisdom tooth they're going to take out. Usually I get up at 8am, but since my appointment was at 9.30am, I caught a bus at 8am. I was very glad I hadn't tried to drive any of the journey because as we got near to town it was stupidly busy. I got off one bus and straight onto another and made it to the hospital at 9.10am.

Sadly, though, it was the wrong part of the hospital. I'm not used to somewhere so big and the letter helpfully said it was Level 2 which doesn't tell you the building. Fortunately, it was only five minutes walk away. Once inside the main building I found a map that told me the oral surgery department was in the blue outpatients area.

There weren't any signs that said oral surgery at the door to the blue area, but since there weren't any signs saying it was anywhere else either I went in. Reception told me it was actually in the green area - which you can only get to from the blue area.

Once I found the green area it was about 9.20. I passed the corridor with a few chairs and a couple sitting in them and sat in the big waiting area. By 9.35 nearly everyone but me had been called and I decided to investigate the corridor. It turned out that was the oral surgery department. In the big waiting area it had said to report to reception, but it didn't say that in the corridor. It was academic anyway, because there wasn't a reception.

After a while a nurse came out and checked who I was. A while later she asked me if I'd been to reception, which I obviously hadn't. So she gave me directions to where it was (round the corner and down a corridor and through a door - obviously). Then I had to go for an x-ray: back out into the main corridor and not that close either.

So I sat in x-ray for a while and had one of those done - and the machine hit me in the shoulder. Back in the oral surgery corridor it was busier and I sat and waited again. At 10.35 I got called in and spent less than five minutes in the room where they decided to tell me what they were going to do and what it would feel like afterwards. I wasn't worried before I went in.

Then I had to go to pre-assessment where I waited for ages, then they took my height and weight and blood pressure, which really hurt this time. And the nurse established I couldn't fill in the form correctly (funnily enough).

I finally managed to leave the hospital at 11.15 and got back to work about 12.30. So I spent two hours travelling and two hours sitting around doing bugger all for five minutes establishing that yes, they are going to take my tooth out (sometime in the next three months) and they are going to do it under general anaesthetic.

So well worth going (although I did get wished happy birthday twice by people looking at the date of birth on my form).

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