Happy July…

It’s always strange to be abroad during national holidays. The teaser in Friday’s paper assured us that we would learn “How To Celebrate the Fourth in Style!” on the following day, but alas, we declined to purchase that copy. (We’ve noticed a weird — to us, anyway — penchant for celebrating Independence Day among our non-American acquaintances. Like, it’s a day to wear red, white, and blue, and stars and stripes and have big picnics, never mind the whole bloodshed, sacrifice and, “we’re not your colonists anymore,” thing. It’s …decidedly surreal, let’s just say.) Friday’s paper also warned of violence surrounding the annual Orange March on the 4th — we did not go and take pictures this time — and discussed the worrisome fact that many Scots use chip fat to “binge tan” instead of sun block as most others do in an attempt to avoid skin cancer.

Always such interesting stuff in the paper.

Meanwhile, thanks to our friend from Long Aye-land, we have made the acquaintance of a new dentist, whom we call Quigley Down Under, mainly because he has a basement office, and his name is …Quigley. He is young and chatty and once he found out we were from California, talked incessantly about how shocked his colleagues were every year at international dental conventions about how little he gets paid via NHS, how he should “move to American and put a few zeros behind his paycheck” and otherwise attempted to set T. at ease (?) by reminding her how little this was costing her, and how much more dental care was in the U.S. – as if she’d somehow forgotten. (At one point, she dryly reminded him that he might be in possession of a few more zeroes in the U.S, but things would also cost a few more. His enthusiasm was only briefly dampened.)

He also told both D. and T. that their teeth didn’t need cleaning. “Some people don’t feel like they’ve had the full …experience, unless they’ve got me scraping away,” he confided. “I’ll do it, if you want, but it’s just not necessary.”

This was… confusing. Sure, we have cool toothbrushes that vibrate at sonic speed and run on battery power, but at home we get our teeth cleaned every single checkup — apparently whether we need it or not? T. shrugged and got out of the chair after her ten minutes, as did D., in his turn, but both of us later realized how uncomfortable we were with the whole interaction, not only because it was a.) somewhat manipulative, and b.) cast doubt on whether or not our previous dentists were just cleaning our teeth unnecessarily and charging us. (NOTE: – We don’t actually believe they do. The standards of care are simply different between here and there, in some cases, vastly different.) Sure, NHS may only pay QDU £11/patient, but with that ten minute chair time, he sees at least five patients an hour, and who knows how many per day. And it gets better. T. has to have a crookedly set wisdom tooth pulled — something which she is dreading, after poor friend Neil’s experiences, and the dentist only blocked out a half hour. “It won’t even take that long,” he assured T.

*!*

The high on July 1 at Heathrow Airport was 31.1°C; the high for that same day in Glasgow was 27°C… Yes, it cracked 81°F here, and surprisingly, the streets were…quiet. I think after days of sunshine, people were heat exhausted and limp, and heeding the warnings about excessive drinking and not drinking enough water. OR ELSE, everyone just kited out of town somehow. It was eerie quiet. Of course, July 2 was a different story.

As we darted home from shopping, caught jacketless and umbrella-less in the sudden torrential downpour, a herd of boys tromped along behind us, stomping in puddles, singing at the top of their lungs some song about going out and partying. We thought, “Ah. Back to normal.”

We’re looking forward to our trip to Oban and Mull next weekend. Meanwhile, the sun is breaking through the pewter-colored clouds, and our hair is rising in clouds of frizz as the barometer rises. Happy Independence Weekend.

– D & T

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