Speech!

Two meanings for this...

First of all, congratulations to my good mate Tara Seroczynska on the news of her engagement to her now fiance Matt Deeney. Jolly well done to both of you, and I really do wish you both all the very best. Speech!

Secondly, I was back at the hospital last week for my second ever laryngoscopy (endoscope up the nose thing). This time it was most unpleasant as the doctor went a little bit too far and the thing seemed to touch my vocal cords, or at least it felt that way. Cue me gipping, having a sort of convulsion, pulling my head back and ripping the endoscope out of my nose. It was all to no avail though as he simply went back in, but this time up the other nostril. Not nice. The long and the short of it is that my vocal cords look fine but I'm always straining them when I speak, holding them open when I shouldn't, and that's why I feel permanently croaky and my throat feels like somebody is standing on it. So, I'm back on the flixonase steroid spray and will remain on it for the foreseeable future, I'm back for a third laryngoscopy on 8th January (woo!), and I've been referred to a speech therapist so I can learn how not to strain my voice and how to rest it properly. Hope I don't lose my Salford accent. So that's "speech!" as in lack of.

Went to see Jasper Fforde do a book signing in Manchester last week. Very badly organised state of affairs at Waterstones (no drinks, no ventilation, no air conditioning, no management of the queue so lots of people at the front had ten books each and wanted to chat to Jasper, so even though I was maybe thirtieth in the queue I had to wait an hour to get my book signed. By the time I reached the front I was a bit grumpy, handed it over with a "hi, can you sign that to Pete please?" then left with a "thanks" and that was that. Talking of books I've just bought a second copy of the new Haruki Murakami hardback, this one being a signed, slipcased, numbered limited edition. Hopefully it will follow in the footsteps of my similar copy of "Kafka On The Shore" and be worth about £300 in a couple of years - current price on Ebay for the new one is about £60, which isn't bad seeing as I paid £35 for mine yesterday. Bargain!

Haven't written anything for a few weeks now but have another piece of flash fiction rattling around in my head. "Gone" is the title, and I'm a bit torn as it seems ideal for a piece of flash, but it feels such a strong and powerful piece that it could be extended into something much, much longer though. I'm trying to resist the temptation and will keep it short all being well.

Just booked tickets to see Jason Spaceman of Spiritualized in concert at the Lowry in Salford. I'm a big fan, so it should be good. This will be about our eleventh, maybe twelfth concert this year. We are doing well.

Less than five weeks now until we go to Lindos. Santorini feels as though it was a long time ago (we came back about a fortnight ago) so we can't wait for Lindos, as per usual. We're also talking about going to Edinburgh at Christmas-ish, and London in the spring. Yes, London, even though I hate the place.

One final piece of good news... Had my first appraisal at Remarc last week and they like me. Yay! I also got a pay rise. Yay again! Lots of stuff planned for the coming year so I'm getting my head down and hoping to achieve all targets ahead of schedule. We shall see.