It's three weeks now since my hernia operation, the wound is healing nicely, still in a bit of pain but I've almost given up the pain killers, I don't like putting chemicals in my body, I would never have made a rock 'n roll star, I used to love the image but whenever I was offered anything I've almost always said no, (twice I've tried something but neither seemed to have any effect at all, just like the painkillers for my hernia op.) at the time feeling like a square but I felt better for it the next day and even better now.

I spent the first six days of recovery at my Mam and Dad's, I couldn't really do anything for myself, I just stayed in bed nearly all day the first day, only venturing out to go to the toilet. I didn't feel like eating but the nurses told me had I had to eat lots of fruit and veg and fibre and water , but what I really fancied was a Big Mac, sorry but true. The first morning Neave came up to see me and said "Daddy why are you still in bed?" then she just climbed in and laid next to me for ages, which really cheered me up. She was over the moon the next day she came and I was sat downstairs, "Daddy your up , is your tummy better? Are you going to play with me now?" Sadly, not just yet.

While I was at my Mam and Dad's house I watched allsorts of TV that I wouldn't look twice at like Lovejoy and Poirrot and NCIS, don't ask me why I just sat there like a sponge taking it all in. Just couldn't be arsed to switch channels on the remote control. When I did manage to drag myself away I managed to read a book for the first time this year, a terrible confession but I've just never managed to sit down long enough to get engrossed in one. I've started a few but never finished one, not until Margrave of the Marshes by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft. It was one of last years Christmas presents , it was so sad to read, my eyes filled up on a fair few occassions.

Like most people "into music"I used to listen to Peel in my younger days, taping sessions and whole shows , I would listen back to them fast forwarding any songs that I wasn't keen on and then dub the good ones onto another tape, I've still got a couple of compilation tapes with sessions and odd songs on. Off the top of my head I know there is songs by Double D and Steinski, Men They Couldn't Hang, Sensible Jerseys, the stranger the name the better I used to think. I like the fact that there are quite a few blogs and web sites dedicated the shows and sessions. The first time I heard lots of songs was on Peel. Reading this book brought back all sorts of strange memories, I suppose I should have been out enjoying myself when I was so young instead of listening to the radio, just like I should be out now instead of writing this.. Sometimes I would fall asleep with my headphones on and I'd wake to the sound of his (cowboy-ish) theme tune playing, then the pips for the news and if I remember correctly Radio 1 would become Radio 2 until the breakfast show. Before he died I would only occassionally listen to him, usually in the car on the way home, he still played some good tracks, the electronic stuff was the perfect soundtrack to drives home from Geoff's house on those foggy nights after we'd been practising. Reading the book made me want to listen to the radio again and not just Radio 2 while I'm at work.