Pouques and Teeth

While I was in Guernsey I learned a lot about the local folklore in the main museum. Guernsey folk seem to have been a very superstitious lot over the centuries and believed in all sorts of gremlins and nasties, fairies, ghosts and ghouls. One example was that a lot of old houses on the island have ledges up near the apex of their roof to allow witches to rest when flying about. 

It was believed that supplying this kind offer of rest kept the witches on their side and avoided having something nasty happen to them. Another such superstition was about Pouques. See here all about them. I'm not sure if this word was of French origin, but this is an explanation about them. It got me wondering whether we get our word "spooky" from it.

In other news, I went for the follow-up appointment to have a dental bridge fitted. It started here.  It was supposed to be three weeks between the dentist fitting the temporary bridge and the permanent one. Halfway into the first appointment to fit the temporary bridge, the dentist informed me that his lab technician was away on holiday and the 3- week interval would not be possible. Great! Because of my holiday in Guernsey, it meant that I had a six-week interval before the permanent version could be fitted. Suffice to say, I was terrified for the entire six weeks that the temporary bridge would come loose especially while I was on holiday, so I was armed with a cement mix I could use if the worst happened and I made sure I had good health insurance cover while on Guernsey.

The second fitting went well. The dentist gave me an anaesthetic injection which meant I couldn't feel a thing until well into the three hours back home again. It was then I noticed a problem. The bridge teeth look from the top like the top of pearl barley, with tiny slits instead of the bowl-shape I am used to. 

image courtesy of "from the comfort of my bowl"

Which means when I eat anything doughy like bread, cereal, crisps, the food chewed into a paste gets really stuck in the slits and makes my bite difficult between upper and lower teeth. I'm tempted to complain (after all this has cost me nearly £5000, but my dentist son-in-law assures me (when I asked his advice) that I should give it more time to get used to the feel of it. I'm not convinced.