Barney, our puppy.

Barney the dog joined our family in October 2009, he's almost six months old now, he's brilliant fun but occasionally a nuisance, especially when he starts barking at just after 5am! 

Normal Service is resumed.

So after falling into the grip of an Arctic winter, Tuesday night was the final night of snow in Exeter. The surrounding hills and moors got a hammering and two major southbound road routes were closed for several hours stranding several hundred people in their cars. Exeter escaped and just had really heavy sleet and rain for several hours. Glad I only live a short distance from work and can walk home in the evening. All that is left of the snow are the remains of our snowmen on the dental practice's front lawn.

This week has been busy in the practice, catching up from last week, but I've had the chance to do some interesting work. I have to sing the praises of a new material that I have been using for about a year now. Ivoclar Vivadent's E.max system produces some of the most beautiful all ceramic work that I have come across in my practicing career. It has great aesthetic properties and is very strong and is ideal for all ceramic crowns, veneers and inlays.

If your a patient and interested in this type of dental work to achieve the stunning smile you've always wanted, please contact The Spicer Road Dental Practice and our reception team will be more than happy to make you an appointment for a dental healthcare assessment.

The snow arrived in Exeter. A winter wonderland in chaos!

Today, was a strange day. I was awake fairly early to let the dog out, the clock was showing 5:30 am, there was still only a faint dusting of snow on the ground. A few flakes were blowing in the air. Within an hour it was snowing heavily and a good inch of snow was lying on the ground. It continued snowing heavily during the morning. Exeter started to look like a snowy winter wonderland.

I arrived at the practice to find three inches of snow on our entrance path and spent the first 10 minutes after I arrived clearing snow from the path to make things safe for the arrival of our patients.

I went back inside to get a well deserved cup of coffee to find that we were cancelling patients because some of our colleagues were snowed in and couldn't get into Exeter. So, a strange day began. Initially things were busy, my first group of treatments arrived and were all treated satisfactorily, during this time the weather worsened, the snow was falling more heavily and gradually settling. This was probably the heaviest snow I'd seen since living in Exeter. Then the cancellations began, patients probably quite sensibly didn't want to travel in such awful conditions and who can blame them! By lunchtime I had two patients left for the afternoon and by 3pm I was finished and heading home.

I did wander around Exeter and did see some amusing sights, a snowman in the middle of the main roundabout at Paris Street, and a poster of David Cameron urging us to vote Conservative being pelted with snowballs. Our nurses even made two snowmen in the front garden of the practice!

More snow on the way so I expect to see more chaos later in the week!

Maybe I should write about some dentistry, work done by me at Spicer Road Dental Practice

Today marked my return to work. I've only worked a day and a half since the 17th December. I have had this short break because I was due to have an operation but unfortunately this was cancelled at short notice. My nurse had booked leave so I was only able to work when other dentists were away from the practice freeing up members of support staff.

2009 was a year of big change for the Spicer Road Dental Practice, a long time member of the team left, and a new dentist started in August. As a business owner 2009 was hard, but things have begun to settle down. The management team have been working with a management coach and now have a clear idea of our future vision, purpose and goals. 2010 is the beginning of a new decade and a new beginning for the Spicer Road Dental Practice.

I am looking forward to another year in dentistry, working with my great team, restoring and

rebuilding smiles, giving our patients the confidence to dazzle their families with their new smiles.

If you are interested in seeing us for a dental health and smile check, please take a look at our website at www.spicerroaddentalpractice.com , and contact our brilliant reception team for an appointment. Your new smile awaits.

This is a sample of some of our work.

Happy New Year!

Yes I know it's a day late but belated happy new year to the world.

Yesterday started cold and frosty, but it was great to see the sun after a few days of gloom and cold.

Rebecca and I went for a walk on Exeter Quay taking Barney the dog with us. Here are some photos.

By the way, Rebecca has started blogging too and her musings on TV can be found at http://newtvcritic.wordpress.com/.

So I'm going to enjoy the rest of the weekend before returning to work on Monday, a big day of dentistry ahead I think.

Christmas.What I've done and what it brings.

Christmas has been wonderful at our house. We have had a great time with our families. Rebecca and I received and gave some wonderful gifts and a great time was had by all.

Fortunately the weather broke on Christmas Eve, and a minor thaw set in. Our families got to see us and we weren't affected by the travel chaos that affected much of the UK.

I've loved my presents, Rebecca bought me a digital SLR camera and I hope I will be able to take some wonderful pictures with this great piece of new kit.

Today, Rebecca went away with her sister and our niece to see Miley Cyrus in Manchester. I think they will have a great night but the journey up was pretty tough, I think they were on the road for almost eight hours.

I took the opportunity to go and see Avatar. This was the first time I had seen a film in 3d. The film was certainly impressive, visually it was stunning. The 3d effect really brought the movie to life. The conceptual art was interesting, James Cameron's artistic design looked like the cover of certain prog rock albums from the 1970's.

The plot wasn't particularly original, it was a bit like Dancing with Wolves (with aliens instead of Native Americans). Despite these short-comings it was

still a great film and I reckon it will be showered with awards (especially technical awards) in the Oscars in the Spring.

Here's a look at the trailer at www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRdxXPV9GNQ . Watch and be amazed!

Christmas preparations begin.

December has begun. Christmas decorations went up yesterday, lounge is looking festive, black tree with silver decorations looks cool! Haven't really started Christmas shopping yet but a bit of time left to do this.

Our new lounge furniture, finally arrived from M&S, a bit delayed (almost 10 weeks). Worth the wait the its very comfortable and stylish. Hope their gesture of goodwill makes up for the wait.

Great DVD to buy is the final series (series 3 ) of Gavin & Stacey. Our copy arrived yesterday and we had an afternoon and evening watching the remaining episodes (a little before they go out on TV).

Truth be told, the ending is lush.