In the dentists' chair again

A pleasant mild day, clouds, sunshine and the occasional breath of wind. I woke up just before my phone told me it was time to upload this week's YouTube Morning Prayer and Reflection link to WhatsApp, just before 'Thought for the Day'. It's the fifty fourth anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood today.

I got up just after eight and made breakfast, then hung a load of washing that Clare had started before I got up. As I was about to take a shower, my phone reminded me of something I had forgotten - a dentists appointment. I dressed in haste and was out of the house in the car ten minutes later. I arrived twenty five minutes early due to my tendency to allow time before an appointment which involves a ten minute drive on a road often congested. It meant I had time to say Morning Prayer from y phone app before Mrs Benfield was ready to see me.

Twenty minutes later I emerged, with my back tooth decay dealt with, and numb face muscles. This time, I found then initial injection process quite stressful. I was less relaxed than usual, perhaps as a result of the hasty awakening I had to get there twenty minutes early. The noise of a drill used for excavating the tooth in need of filling and the physical tension, awakened vivid memories of the dentist's chair in Ystrad Mynach dental surgery when I was about eleven years old, being treated by Mr Mason, a large but gentle man, facing the challenge of dealing with a kid with a few broken front teeth, and a few others other worse for wear thanks to a sugar rich diet.

Before returning home I visited the Lidl store near the dentist's for a few items we needed. Then I cooked a pasta dish for lunch. After eating, I slept in the chair for nearly an hour and a half. I needed it having gone to bed too late last night. Then, late afternoon a walk in Llandaff and Pontcanna Fields before supper

I spent the evening listening to a baroque music concert with instruments of the same period which was performed in Dublin, reproducing a concert performed in the city in the days of Handel, a pure delight. As I listened, I made the video slide show for next week's Morning Prayer and uploaded it to YouTube. 

News of more deaths and injuries in Lebanon among Hizbollah operatives, this time from booby trapped walkie-talkies with a dozen people killed. These two days of exploits presumed to have been carried out by Israeli secret services seriously undermine their capacity to wage war. It demonstrates a technological sophistication and ability to infiltrate the equipment supply train not seen or maybe imagined before. No wonder it's causing anxiety among non-military citizens, as distrust of phones and other digital devices being hacked is now spreading. The distribution of booby trapped devices used by civilian and military personnel without distinction is a violation of the laws of war. Another horror of wartime life, in which the political and strategic implications are discussed, and ethical considerations reduced to 'the end justifies the means' when there is no consensus about what that end consists of.