I might be on a manly dose of antibiotics, but boy, does my ear still hurt. Lying in bed last night, I could barely hear Lisa asking me to rub her feet. It's like someone's banged me hard in the side of the head with a tub of Play-Doh. And I'm talking from personal experience there.

But the good news for the hard of hearing is that I can finally pump up the volume in my Skoda. My new car stereo arrived at the weekend, and having spent an hour sitting in the driving seat and feeling like I was going nowhere, I eventually managed to get the old one out...


I'd say it was like pulling teeth, but judging by the past five weeks, that's not as difficult as it sounds. Frankly the Americans had an easier time getting out of Iraq. The release keys I got on eBay didn't work, and although a pair of flattened picture hooks did, the stereo was wedged so tight it wouldn't budge. In the end, I had to remove three buttons from the panel above, and prise it out with a screwdriver.

But having done so, the rest was as easy as pie...


That's 'American Pie' by Don McClean, which I think I still have on cassette. Obviously I'm far too old to listen to Radio 1, so the picture's for illustrative purposes only. The only banging tunes I ever hear are the complaints about noise from the neighbours.