There's no excuse like honesty, and to be honest I've been lazy. I've been a bad blogger. I will go to blogger hell when I die for my transgressions. Woe is me.

But then, what's there been to blog about? The intention of this info-dribble is to leave some record of all the exciting things I've been up to in Switzerland. The reality is that since my last info update I actually haven't done anything that qualifies as blog-worthy. No exciting trips, no photo journals, just day to day life working my way through a semi-stable routine of work and play. It's hasn't been a bad six months, merely unspectacular. I haven't been lazy either; I'm quite busy being unsensational.

But lets say I'd had the resolve to sit down and blog about the current events affecting me at whatever present time transpired during the last six months, the only only thing I would have to talk about are problems. My problems. If you want to epitomize bad blogging, you can start by writing about your own pathetic problems. Well I never claimed to be a 'good' blogger, so lets get this over with.

Problems (Reasons to hate the world):
One word of caution: The next few paragraphs contain detailed descriptions of real problems and graphic reality. Some people may find this disturbing.

It started in April. I figured it was high time to go for a dental checkup and checked the internet for a dentist. I spotted a practice in Aarau, which is between Fulenbach and Zürich, and went for a checkup. Checkup + x-ray + three fillings + dental hygenist worked out to be around... lets say 850 franks all up (four separate appointments). One of the cavities went deeper than the x-ray suggested and the dentist drilled to within half a millimeter of the nerve. If it was sensitive to cold it would need a root canal to fix.

Was it sensitive? Holy crap, was it what. I lived with it for a while thinking 'okay... I'll arrange a trip out of switzerland sometime to get it done', and a month or so went by. Then the side of my jaw started throbbing. The pain shifted around, sometimes from the upper jaw, sometimes from the lower, and sometimes from the back. I bought the strongest painkillers I could find and made another appointment at the dentist. When I turned up for the appointment my dentist was too busy to make it so someone else filled in for him. He poked around, did some cold tests, but couldn't find what was the source of the pain. He figured it might be another 'young' cavity which hadn't been bad enough to warrant filling. So he filled it. The fucker charged me 400 franks for something which did absolutely nothing to stop the pain. (I had to argue to get him to drop the 'first visit' fee seeing as that wasn't really my fault, was it?) Actually that's not true - the pain went away for a few days. And then returned with a vengeance. It had evolved as a new type of pain, and I knew exactly where it was coming from; the filling which had been dug too deep.

I called the dentists again and learned I'd have to wait a whole week for an appointment. Now I was panicking. I had a crappy dentist who didn't care enough to show up for an appointment, a tooth that was quietly murdering me from the inside out, and very little time. Emil pointed out there was a new dentist in Fulenbach who might be able to take a look for me. It was a Saturday morning but he gave her a call anyway to see if she could see me at short notice. 'Come in fifteen minutes.' What a godsend.

I showed up. She had recently set up her practice and didn't yet have everything setup (like x-ray machines etc) but she was able to figure out what was wrong. The nerve in my tooth had died, decomposed, and was releasing gases which were building up inside the dead nerve cavity of my tooth. The pressure was driving into my jaw, which in turn was firing millions of pain signals directly into my brain. Apparently if you leave it too long the pressure can actually build up and blow the side of the tooth off (she showed me a tooth where that had happened). I bet the look on my face would be worth a thousand words if that'd happened. The tooth in question is a molar with three roots. Even though only one root had died the other two would eventually suffer the same fate if left alone (probably in six months or so), and so both perfectly healthy nerves would have to be killed and removed.

Michela (the dentist) anesthetized the jaw and drilled deep through the filling and down into the nerve cavity. We were both rewarded by the acute stench of dead nerve matter as the gas escaped. She used little metal rods to draw out the dead material, and we discovered (quite by accident) there was still some live nerve at the bottom of the root. It's interesting to note that teeth nerves are directly hotwired to the fibre optic backbone of the nervous system, illustrated to me in poster-panorama by the exquisite purity of agony I experienced. She cleared out the dead matter, put in a cocktail of antibiotics and sterilizing paste, put in a temporary (soft) filling and sent me home. I was so ecstatic at finding a dentist who actually gave a damn I paid the 420 francs without grumbling to anyone. One week later I came back and had more dead stuff removed and the medicine replaced. I was referred to a specialist for the root canal. In the meantime, I should eat on the left side of my mouth.

Dr Velvart in Zürich had just gone on holiday when I called so the receptionist made an appointment for in two weeks time. He took x-rays and told (warned) me it would cost around 1800 franks. I went home bitter, thought on it and with little alternatives told the receptionist to go for it. My wallet is lain wide open.

One month later (it took that long) Dr. Velvart performed the first phase, which actually just involved another cleanout of the root and replacement of the medicine. That was left for another month and I went back where he cleaned everything out and filled it with a nerve-like substance. He took another set of x-rays and sent it to Michela, who would do the crown. 'Eat on the left side of your mouth till the crown is done.'

In fact until now I have not really known what a crown is. Well I guess I've learned the expensive way. Michela took some sort of a rubber cast of my teeth and then ground the top half of my tooth off. She used the cast to create a temporary crown, which sits on the stump of my original tooth and looks/feels something like my original tooth. (Of course, I shouldn't eat on that side.) I took the cast to a guy who, by the look of it specialises in making such crowns. He had a look at my teeth and chose the right colour. Eh? You mean... tooth coloured. White-like? No, he had a bunch of colour keys with literally hundreds of variants of tooth-coloured teeth.

This morning I was back on Michela's couch. With a certain amount of trial and error, grinding and reshaping, fitting and removing, the crown took the place of its deceased predecessor. A new king has been crowned. And to be honest it looks and feels like, well like it used to. Man that was a long time ago.

And so we come to the happy ending of this story. At the end of a very long tunnel I have found a light. Tonight I shall enjoy my first meal in six months using both sides of my mouth. Now that's something to celebrate.

(Of course, the bill for the crown hasn't arrived yet, but what difference will one more make?)

Oh, I hurt my knee a few months back too. Did it at Kung-Fu and had to take a month off while it healed. Pulled a ligament, but nothing too serious. Didn't take any time off work, just hobbled around with my leg in a splint. But I'm back now, and badder then ever.

And now, the good stuff:
Work: Work is fine. I'm project leader and I have a decent grip on things. I understand most of the process, know most of the key players, and have a degree of control of what goes down in my 'hood.

Music: I've found a couple of guys which jam together every second Thursday or so in a gym hall. I've once taken my electric guitar with me and played with a 'full' band. They have guitar, bass and drums, and I play a little guitar and do vocals. It was fun. I'm taking guitar lessons every so often too. As long as I keep pushing myself I'll keep getting better. I've still got a long way to go. :)

Roleplaying: I play in a group every monday, another group every second sunday (same people in it), I'm running a game which runs once every blue moon, and just started playing in a Changeling game which will hopefully run monthly. My roleplaying schedule is pretty full.

Kung-Fu: I try to attend at least three times a week, and manage to do so. Mondays and Wednesdays there is weapons training, where we learn various weapon forms. So far I've done saber and sword forms, though I've had a little to do with halberd, and we've just started spear form. I recently graded to the second grade. I've been doing it for a year now. I'm keeping in shape, which is important in a country like Switzerland with such rich food.

Computer Games: I bought myself a PC. It's a beast. I've played or am playing Dark Messiah, Civ 4, STALKER, and a little LOTRO (but got sick of it and scrapped my subscription). I'm looking forward to Kane & Lynch, Hellgate London and Bioshock when they come out. Only problem is that gaming cuts into some of my other hobbies.

Holidays: I've been working at iLogs for over a year, and still haven't taken any holidays. It's burning a big hole in my calendar, so I'm pleased to say in the next few months I'll be a little more out and about. From the 10th-25th of November I'm planning to head to Austria to go snow-shoeing. It depends a bit on whether there's snow, and whether Matthais can make it from Germany. Well see. The biggest, greatest event on my horizon is my trip back to NZ next March for six weeks. I'm already making plans to spend time with various people back home. I'm so excited.

Traveling: I went to Lugarno two weekends ago. It's in the Italian part of Swtizerland and it's extremely beautiful. I was there with my cousin Andrea, her husband Marcel and their two kids. We did some walks, visited some of her friends, collected Chestnuts and cooked them at a friend's place. In fact, this is the first real traveling I've done and (other the fact that I'm eating normally) has provided me with a solid reason for posting a blog. Here are some photos.