The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

England, the dentist, and a new blog format

Not at the same time though. Three different stories actually! We had some news regarding our trip to England in June, and Ruth went to the dentist yesterday. And you might have noticed the new blog format. First, the dentist story.

Most of you know that going to the dentist in Mexico is a much more economical experience than going to the dentist in Canada or the United States. In fact, if you are looking at having anything major done, you could fly to Mexico, have a one week vacation, get your dental work done and fly back to Canada...and still be cheaper than going to the dentist in Canada.

For example, I had some major work done a few years ago. I had been for estimates at a couple of dentists in Canada and they wanted $3,500. I had the work done at a dentist in Chetumal, Mexico for 6,000 pesos, which at the time worked out to $550 Canadian. I have been totally happy with the work, even now three years later.

Anyhow, Ruth wanted to get her teeth cleaned and said she had some minor irritation on a tooth she had repaired in Puerto Escondido last year. So Barb recommended a dentist in town and Ruth had a 6:00pm appointment yesterday. We arrived at 5:55pm and Ruth was taken in right away. In fact, we were the only ones there.

The dentists in this office are a father and daughter team. The daughter was looking after Ruth, and she even spoke enough English to get by. Better than our Spanish. She did the inspection, found no problems, and proceeded to do the cleaning. At the end, they talked about the tooth that was causing some minor irritation and said that everything looked good from a visual inspection, but it was up to Ruth if she wanted an x-ray to check things further. Ruth decided it wasn't worth the extra effort because it wasn't really bothering her that much.

Total bill was 200 pesos ($16.00).

On to the England story. Our friends Glen and Steve who we talked about yesterday just happened to send us a note that Glen's cousin was looking for a house and dog sitter for their place in Wakefield, England. After some contact back and forth, we have agreed to look after their home and their dog Sophie from June 22 to July 9, almost two and a half weeks.

Wakefield is in the northern part of England, just a few miles south of Leeds.

This is exactly what we've been looking for, and it's in an area that some of my ancestors are from so I'll be able to do some more family history research. In fact, my grandfather was born in Wakefield, England, and my great-grandfather is buried there.

And of course you've noticed the changes to the blog. I'm not done tweaking things yet, but I like the cleaner format. Might be a little too much blue though, what do you think? I've decided to stick with blogger now that I've figured out how to get things to look the way I wanted them to. It was going to be too much work, and more expensive to change things to a different "supplier". So for now, this is the new look. Constructive criticism is welcome!

Oh! Almost forgot to remind you to vote!

http://aussieexperiences.com/contest/entry/red-centre-kevin-read/

Had our best day yet yesterday, with 217 votes! Thanks everyone!

18 comments:

  1. I like the new look..maybe there is a tad too much blue but on the whole it is very appealing!..nice price on dental work!!

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  2. I like the new format as well. Maybe the blue will grow on you, give it a little time. Great to hear about your satisfaction with the dental work. I'm thinking about going myself soon. Enjoy your trip to England.

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  3. We go to the dentist in Mexico all the time. You are right...the price is amazing!
    What wonderful news about England. It will be fun seeing some of the sights through your eyes. Glad you are in an awesome area.
    I really like the new format. It is clean looking, and I really don't think there is too much blue but it is your call. Good job.

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  4. As long as the format is easy on the eyes, which this is, that's all that matters. No 'magenta' or any such crud. I stay clear of anything that taxes my weak eyes, or has too many gifs or those annoying musical interlude whatevers. It's never any music that I like either.
    I suppose when we get to the point when we have to pay for our dental work ourselves, we may just be tempted to nip off to Mexico. The hope is though that we'll only need some cleaning for the next while, although most of the fillings in my head are so old now they could be drawing a pension.

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  5. I agree with Bob - as long as I can read it, I love it. You are going to have so much fun in England. Looking forward to your posts.

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  6. Yes, the contrast is what matters to me and it's still good. I've heard the debate is blogger vs wordpress. But I don't know why.

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  7. Nice that you have a spot in England, it will be fun. The new format is nice and clean, easy to read, I have always liked the tabs you have across the top, can't figure out how get them on our site thou.
    And dental work in Mexcio is kinda a nobrainer for sure.

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  8. Your header picture from Oaxaca is great and makes me wish we had made it there before coming back to the states. It will just have to stay on the bucket list for a while longer. Your dental experiences are similar to what we had when we spent our year in Mexico. Great work and low prices - can't beat that!

    I like the new clean format that you selected for your site - very nice.

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  9. The UK trip sounds like fun! I like the new format, but also think it may be too much blue. On the other had the contrast is good. Some blogs have a color scheme that actually makes it hard to read the text. Yours is good:)

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  10. The color doesn't bother me. I'm just glad you didn't switch to wordpress. That one gives me a pain when people use it.

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  11. Got a fatal error message trying to vote from your link...
    Not sure if it is on your end or not.

    Good luck!

    Kent

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  12. Nevermind - third try worked!

    Kent

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  13. I like the new format. The blue doesn't bother me and it is easy to see and read!
    Great deal on the UK trip!! I am sure you will really enjoy digging into the family history!!!
    What an amazing price on your dental work! Wish it were that way here.

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  14. New format seems light and breezy so I give it a vote too. I guess I'm so totally blog ignorant that I don't get how you have your URL without blogspot in it if you use blogger. I agree with George and Suzie I have drop down menu tab envy and cannot figure out how to do that or a slide show on blogger. Wish somebody had a blog on using blogger! :-)

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  15. Hi guys, I think it is funny the dentist asked Ruth if she wanted the X-ray, in the U.S. it would be mandatory and cost an arm and a leg.

    I have saved thousands over the years. Two bridges in the U.S. were 3600 dollars, only 1000 covered by insurance so I would have only been able to do one each year. Came to Mexico, had the work done, instead of permanant bridges that require destroying the teeth around it, I had Valplast removables. Cost, 350 dollars. I even sent it to my insurance and they paid the whole amount, no deductible.

    Gotta love Mexico.

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  16. the new blog is lovely and refreshing. Feels great to me.

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  17. I'm with Judy on the WordPress thing. The blog has to be tremendous for me to read it, aka Nina and Paul and Roadrunner Chronicles. I like simple and quick and effective, which your new format fills perfectly. with that light breezy feeling mentioned previously. Fits the new travel mode as well.

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  18. Kevin,

    You could write your blog on the back side of a leaf of lettuce and I would still enjoy it!

    Cindy and Herb

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