Tuesday 3 November - Nerja

[Photos: Nerja, Frigiliana, Pastry, Pool at night ]

 

I felt very tired this morning. I think the driving is getting to me. It is much less relaxed than NZ driving. The roads are either 120km/h, which is just a bit too fast for comfort, or quite narrow. Either requires a lot of concentration. On the way to Malaga a few days ago, there was one place a truck had broken down and traffic suddenly had to squeeze into a single lane, requiring some pretty serious braking. Braking hard from 120km/h makes you realise how much less control there is at that speed than at 100km/h. Our little car, while fine most of the time, simply doesn’t feel as stable at the higher speed. I suppose I could go slower, but then we’d be on the roads longer, and that isn’t an appealing thought either. We’ve now done 5800km since Rome.

 

We all went down to Nerja this morning, partly for a look around, and partly as I too now have a toothache which has been steadily getting worse over the last few days. It started as a vague discomfort, but has now got to the point where a hot drink causes a vicious throbbing a few minutes later.

 

We arrived in town about 10, when the shops were just opening, and got a local street map marked up with dentists’ locations. We agreed on a time to rejoin Sandy & Lynette, and Karen and I went off on a dentist hunt. The first was closed, and the second location didn’t have a dentist at all. The third however was just right. I walked in off the street, and thirty seconds later was in a chair with a dentist or dental nurse having a good fish around. She couldn’t find anything, so blasted the sides of the sore location with cold water to try and get a reaction. No reaction! So we agreed that I would come back in a day or so if it got worse. Cost zero. Couldn’t help compare that to New Zealand. You’d be weeks getting an appointment, and even for a toothache you’d be hanging about waiting for a gap. And an inspection would certainly not be free. Walking away, the tooth went mad, causing me to think the problem might be deep rather than surface.

 

I was felling pretty low. Having a nagging but non-understood pain is a sure way of getting me down, and I wasn’t the best of company for a bit.