Running Out Of Steam

I left work at 3pm yesterday for a dentist appointment. They seem to have the same environment as a doctors surgery - supplements from papers you never knew existed and if they are then they're 3 months out of date. I thought I spied a copy of the Economist which would have provided some light relief but it was a copy of last years shoe catalogue. I'd even settle for a old Beano. Anyway, after 15 minutes of waiting my name was called.

It took 2 minutes between hanging my coat up and putting it back on again and she reckoned I needed 2 fillings. I was gobsmacked. All she did was move the mirror along both sets of teeth and called out the number of the tooth, it's condition and what, if anything, needed doing to it. No probing with the long nail-like device, the scraping, the pushing, would I like a polish? She asked the assistant if she could do the fillings now and was told that there was no time. The whole procedure was more rushed than squeezing the Godfather into a 30 minute film. I phoned them back this morning and explained the above and could I see another dentist please? So I have another appointment at the same time with Vic, not Olga. I guess if service is equal to forename then the service wasn't bad but it cuts no dice with me. No one is putting fillings in my teeth after an inspection lasting as long as it takes me to pee. I take good care of my teeth. Good brush in the morning, chew gum in work and brush again before bed, mouthwash included with the occasional flossing. I don't eat sugary foods more than I should and I haven't needed a filling since I was a teenager.
The next appointment is 26th April so I'll keep you posted.

Last night I went to see Steamboy as part of the Belfast Film Festival. It's about a boy whose father and grandfather work in America for a corporation that manufactures military steam contraptions, while the boy himself shows promise with more a benign form of steam machinery back in Manchester, England. After a mysterious steam contraption arrives for the boy from his grandfather, he gets caught up in a dilemma between his disfigured corporate controlled father who makes steam weapons of war and the boys grandfather who does not want to see the ultamite steam contraption used for war.
As a kids film it involves some fairly grand ideas of morality in selling arms to countries for purposes of starting a war or using the products to further mankind. I was trying to come up with a summary of the film when I found a review that said it for me. "Essentially, Steamboy crams too many action set pieces and grand ideas into a story too lightweight to fully support them, and the plot suffers because of it." It certainly seems to waver and mid-way through the film my attention span was wavering. Then came a full solid hour of action. The problem though was that the action revolved around steam, faulty pipes and a ridiculous machine called the Steam Tower. There was also a girl called Miss Scarlett whose presence in the film was never really justified more than a comedic overblown side piece.
Steamboy was nice to look at but after the steam cleared [hur-hur!] there's nothing left but condensation.
I would give this film 3 boiling kettles out of 5.