Apologies for missing my Friday posting date. I've got a tooth problem - an abscess involving three teeth and a great deal of pain. I saw the dentist yesterday morning at 9 and have been taking two antibiotics since. One is metronidazaole - Flagyl. The other is the standard old some-variety-of-penicillin.

Flagyl - I thought that was one thing that would disappear from my life after deciding against field work in Pakistan. I had to take it periodically for amebic dysentery. The first week wasn't too bad; then it got worse. A taste of iron in the mouth and nausea increased with time. At least this is a short course of treatment.

The dentist said it would be at least 24 hours since I noticed any difference. I'm counting the hours between the paracetamol.  Dentists have great faith in paracetamol. It works - but not from one four hour dose to the next and it dulls rather than eliminates pain.

I hope she's right about the 24 hours. I can't eat, can't talk and hurt from ear to chin. Yesterday's meals consisted of oatmeal and yoghurt. (You take Flagyl after eating.)

I've spent a lot of the last 24 hours looking for distractions. TV doesn't work. Neither do cd's. Books, now. I can focus on reading and forget the way I feel but I can't watch TV or listen to music. So I've read two books by Robert Barnard since getting home from the dentist.

Robert Barnard is one of my favorite mystery writers. Good likable characters, more complex than most. I tend to find a writer and read everything they've written - not a good idea with most mystery writers. Barnard has a little twist at the end of the books. Read a couple in succession and you guess the twist. It always involves someone you like doing something dastardly. After the first couple of books, it's predictable. So Barnard is someone to space the books you read. He did take me through this tooth episode, however.

The two exceptions to predictability in the murder mystery genre are K.C. Constantine and Reginald Hill. They write social commentary using police procedurals. Hill writes about social class, Constantine about the Western Pennsylvania after the disappearance of good union jobs; America's rust belt. During the last election, when Pennsylvania came up, having read Constantine made what was going on clearer than most commentators.

I've got one library book left to read. I hope it's readable. It's by someone I've never read - Glyn Maxwell, The Girl Who Was Going to Die. It's described on the back as 'acerbic and unsettling'.  I'm not sure I want to be unsettled. I want the literary equivalent of milk and chocolate chip cookies.

The dishwasher broke yesterday and every dish in the house is dirty. That's unsettling enough. It's a Miele and over fifteen years old: it's got a right to break. Now, do I pay someone £92.50 to fix it or tell me it's not fixable, or do I skip that part and find another dishwasher online? Or, considering the forthcoming dental bill, just decide to wash dishes in the sink for the foreseeable future?

The last option is, of course, the most sensible. I'm a gardener, and washing dishes daily at least ensures clean fingernails.

But the only thing I intend to decide today is whether to read Maxwell or re-read Anne of Green Gables.