an ill-advised but unavoidable 2 am trip to b- for xor owt saw me up till 0600 watching the shining and then casino/ today's been ok/ hearing returning very slowly but any improvement, no matter how minor, brings big joy/ been sipping tea and listening to the orb with the alba who is currently my ears/ this night another early in a bid to speed convalescence/ yes...

s'p'n' scotch and listening mf doom, monkey suite/ can just make out some through my left ear, after an abrupt and painful shift of detritus/ all is quiet otherwise/ really want to watch a film but cannot think what/ besides after this is england i feel i'll only be disappointed/

feeling better tho' stille partial dead/ another doc.'s app. yester. revealed a severe inner ear blockage, the result of an imbalance of pressure in the closely linked e-n-t system/ i was told to expect three more weeks of near deafness which, for a rabid music lust-fiend is near hell to contemplate, lest experience/ i keep looking at my beautiful, expensive equipment and tall pile of recently acquired gems and rarities/ the one bonus is a cessation of my obsession with sonic quality, so it's not all bad/ moreover when i come out from under this cloud i'll appreciate what i've got all the more/ amusingly a neighbour we'd over for drinks last night, when we were listening to fairytale of ny, mentioned she knows macoll's husband well/ he is none other than steve lillywhite, producer of many pogues and mondays records and close friend of the late great martin hannett (or why joy division sounded so incredible - compare live and studio recordings and you'll 'see' what i mean)/ we've been tasked with the care of two maltese terriers for the next few weeks bar the mas d'christo and, whilst i've always been put off by the breed, they are very sweet dogs/ they're also remarkably active: they move about constantly, sniffing, leaping off and onto things but when you pick them up they are inert and can be stroked for as long as one might wish/ great dogs/ i think also with our recent bereavement they might provide some much needed 'dog therapy'/

more lists at

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/
AIZW2PSPI6D06/ref=cm_lm_pthnk_athr?ie=UTF8&lm%5Fbb=

if anyone's interested i just found a series of lists of books and albums i made a cpl years back, and one today, at:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/
AIZW2PSPI6D06/ref=cm_pdp_lm_seeAll

you need to copy lines one and two of the address separately.

also herewith a spot-on quote from bob frost:

the best way out is always through.

ears diagnosed: severe flu and, if i'm not careful, pneumonia/ thus i house bound/ they are as bad today as yester./ last night i caught very little sleep hence nil improvement/ fuggudy fug/ one positive is i've dropped about 2 stones/ it's too painful to eat and for once the concept of booze-oh-hol is so utterly repellent i've touched not drop one in several days/ the distinguished fuckery is my GBP 300 castle speaker stands (for which i paid GBP 5) and thick chord silver speaker cable arrived one half hr ago, along with three pogues albums/ god moves in mysterious ways...

both ears FUCKED/ i can barely hear a thing/ h'ever tho' worrying it brings with it a certain sense of calm and phenomenal, vivid dreams/ p'haps i'll take to wearing ear plugs when it's cleared up/

f'n' a piece improved, ears still thoroughly blocked but/ my journey wasn't too painful tho' 'tis icy without/ narrowly escaped being cornered by a jehovah's witness, the poor guy who succumbed so lonely he ended up handing out his phone number/ do these people not mind their only recruits are the lonely and ill-advised?/ it seems not/ anyhoo...

well managed to rest-sleep much of yester and night without too much pain/ 've been taking ibuprofen with pseudoephedrine which works a treat/ the blockage has now spread to both ears though/ my one consolation was a lot of very sexy dreams (it's nice to have variety and no bad conscience)/ i have to go out the next four days and am dreading it (tho' oft. things are never as bad as one expects)/ anyway, fuck it/

in 'orrible pain/ la noo-E dere-nee-air whilst watching x factor a horrible blockage began to develop in my left ear/ i persisted and watched a self-congratulatory documentary on the emergence of the late 60s-70s folk-rock scene in la, my punishment the pain reaching such a crescendo i couldn't lie down/ thus no sleep/ it is basically the most horrific pressure on the ear drum and sounds like i'm underwater/ occasionally 'it' shifts and affords mild relief but this fucker feels like it's here to stay/ it's sunday so if it gets much worse'll go to a&e/