Coincidence? Funny how the day after you email requesting a catch up call, your email is returned with the example formatting, but the request for a call not mentioned. Hey ho. I acknowledged receipt of the example (not difficult) and reiterated our desire for a call (which happened Friday). Less than ten minutes on the phone and all our current questions answered. There, it is that simple.
We very much liked the chosen layout, font size and spacing and pretty much approved it on the spot. However, What I shall refer to as the two ‘inside title pages’ we did not like – seemed to us that the style from an early manuscript had been used rather than the recently returned approved edited version – and had to return the example with a request to amend these pages. The amended version arrived back yesterday and all is looking good, therefore we gave the publisher the thumbs up this morning to finish formatting the rest of the book, which with luck, should be completed by the end of the week. After that, all the files get sent to us for final approval before they are uploaded to Ingram Sparks, Amazon et al. We are closing in on getting the book published, albeit latter than desired and just in time for Christmas: something we were hoping to avoid (as you will discover when reading our book, we consider hope a negative word). We were fearful of competing with all the books, normally written by famous people/celebrities that get published with Christmas sales in mind. Alas, we are already too late and should probably fly the white flag now. Not only are we releasing our book at exactly the time everyone is suffering from the huge rise in the cost of living and trying to pare back their spending, but we are now facing an opponent who cannot be beaten. Yes, we know life is unfair, but how bad is our timing? What the hell am I talking about you maybe wondering? Well, I have just read (Tuesday afternoon) an article in the Sunday times (I’m always late in reading it – it provides reading material for the whole week) that Prince Harry’s forthcoming book, ‘Spare’, is number one bestseller in both the UK and the USA, and it does not go on sale until January 13th next year. Now, if only we could generate pre-orders on that scale. It’s a bugger when you are a nobody.
It’s also a bugger when you get toothache an hour after your dentist has closed for the weekend (5pm on Friday) and there is no out of hours emergency service, except for a visit to A&E. To be honest, on Friday it was just a bad ached – I often get food stuck in my (not very good) teeth that cause similar issues, but this time no amount of flossing, mouth rinsing or teeth brushing was having any affect so it was break out the painkiller time. Following a bad night, I was rather grumpy come Saturday morning but had to rouse myself as we were booked in for a training session at the tennis club at midday, not for coaching, but to learn how to operate the new ball machine and it turned out to be good fun. I only took part in using it on the court for a short while, because not only was toothache getting worse, but my back was not yet completely recovered. The funniest part of the training was when we were shown an attachment that fits on top of the handle of the ball machine that allows you to affix your mobile to it and record you efforts at returning the balls fired at you. Oh how we all laughed at that.
It was only late on Saturday that I looked in a mirror and realised that I looked a wee bit like a guinea and pig – my cheek on the side of the toothache was all bloated and squishy to the touch. That almost guaranteed I had an abscess. Another night of painkillers and disturbed sleep followed by a day on the couch watching sport in-between bouts of sleep, no food – it was too painful to open my mouth (but the silver lining was the loss of four pounds in one day; very good for my recently started change of lifestyle i.e. stop eating and drinking so much crap) and another early night. Boy, how I was looking forward to 0850hrs on the Monday morning, the earliest time I could ring the dentist to make an emergency appointment.
All my life, my teeth have been troublesome; apparently they are ‘soft’ – whatever that means – and I do not help by having a ‘sweet tooth’ and I definitely know what that means! The ‘soft’ term was first used by a Camborne dentist during a 1977 check up appointment and whilst he was foraging in my mouth he said, “with teeth like yours I hope you are not thinking of doing that”. For a while I wondered what the hell he was on about before the penny dropped; I was wearing my ‘Whitbread Round the World’ (a yachting race) sweat shirt. I was 23, what a cheeky bugger he was.
Being a rebel, I rang at 0847hrs and guess what, the line was engaged. Here we go, I thought, by the time I get through all the emergency appointments will have gone: the story of my life. But no, upon redialling the phone was answered. What a shock. I explained my situation but was even more shocked to be told that “there were no dentists in today, they were on holiday.” This stunned me somewhat and before I could answer the receptionist said “we have an arrangement with Millennium Dentist in Cheadle (this is Stoke Cheadle, not Stockport Cheadle, and is a 45 minute drive from Congleton) and she could try and get me an appointment there if I wished”. Before I answered Judith shouted through from the kitchen, “say yes,” which I did. Millennium rang back shortly afterwards and I was booked in for 1330hrs. “You have a huge abscess” said the huge dentist, a softly spoken big man whom one would not want to meet down a dark ally, “I’ll give you a course of antibiotics to help and once the swelling has gone down arrange for the retained root to be extracted. There, job done and we had a scenic route via Leek to get there and back.
At lunchtime today, we had our monthly U3A’s Tennis Group lunch, where I had a chocolate fudge cake with ice cream because my mouth is still very tender and chewing food is difficult. Talking of the U3A tennis group, I think I failed to mention last weeks ‘Pink Morning’ fundraising event for Breast Cancer Awareness Month; unable to play tennis, I still wore my pink outfit – I trust the picture has not scarred you too much – but along with Judith (who is also not yet recovered from her bug) we ran the kitchen serving drinks and cake (I made two; a pistachio, cardamom and white chocolate one, and a lemon drizzle one, both of which disappeared very quickly). The event, organised by our leader was a great success and at last count had raised just short of £700 but I believe there some donations not yet received.
So there you have it, another week in the life of the Elliot/Lea household.
See you next week
love you all
philip
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