Pride Proceeds The Fall ... into bracedom

My claim to fame used to be that I still had one baby tooth that had never fallen out, at the age of 18. It never occured to me that while this baby tooth had no intention to be taken away by the Tooth Fairy, the adult tooth was feeling useless and therefore decided to grow in some other place, in the pursuit of a purpose for its existence (it should have been reading The Purpose Driven Life instead). I happen to belong to the category of people disliking numerous visits to the dentist. As a result, I wasn't confronted with the consequences of what a baby tooth outliving its purpose meant until it was too late. Too late to do anything about it without calling upon our wonderful high-tech-for-the-teeth's intervention. I was given a choice of three different ways to seek remedy to the posed problem. Which really is quite a luxury. I could either get both my baby and adult teeth removed and fill the gap with a fake tooth. Alternatively, I could have the baby tooth removed, have a big complicated bleh demanding surgery done on my adult tooth to pull it back in place, and have braces put on to make room for it to grow back to its assigned place. Still, though this option was never proposed to me, I could have just settled for the toothless look. But, I reasoned that the no-tooth look was perhaps a little premature. I also came to the conclusion that to have a fake tooth put in when you have a real healthy one wasn't a very wise thing to do either. So I saved the life of my adult tooth, put my baby one under my pillow and caged-in all the other top teeth with metal bars - also known as braces. Well, 31 months later, two surgeries down the line, all this meticulous work has lead to positive results: my teeth are about to feel the sweet taste of freedom once again, and my adult tooth has been rescued from its wandering path of deviant nature.

On Monday then, I have a hot date with EasyJet, who will be flying me homewards.

(Those of you called Joey need read no further)

Home at the moment looks like it's stuck in the ice age. Everything by the lake is frozen. Cars are frozen down to the ground, tree trunks are covered with ice. Boats are sinking. It's crazy. Things like that never happen when I'm there, funnily enough. But I'm hoping to catch the last remains of the solidified city before leaving to the mountains on Tuesday. You see, I thought it would be benefactory to fit a bit of snowboarding into my trip. It would be pure foolishness not to. Especially since the snow is the lushest right about now. Five days of snow-riding await me and after that, when I return to the city streets of Geneva, the no-more-braces-time will be right around the corner! When that day comes, I've planned to start re-writing my own version of The Purpose Driven Life, which will be aimed at errant teeth. Just watch it become a rival to the original "#1 New York Times besteller".