Plugs

Finally got 'round to making the much needed investment with part of the money I earned this summer: custom ear plugs.

Went to 'London Hearing' in Harley street,which (I didn't knew) is one of the most posh streets around London. It's next to Oxford circus, and houses writers, musicians, politicians, soldiers and scientists. Also, more than a 1000 doctors apparently.. Didn't count them, but there were many.

Got to the adress, rang the bell and was received by the receptionist. Ah, Mr Proost, we've been expecting you..
I was kindly invited to fill out a form and wait in the waiting room which looked like this:



It's a tiny photo so here's a similar one from another doctors' waiting room in Harley street, you get the gist.
Pure old British class: leather saloon, fire place, high ceilings, all newspapers of the day arranged on the massive table, free espresso- and tea machine in the corner.. The works. This wasn't your ordinary GP's practice.

The doctor came, asked if I wanted something to drink before we went on and had me follow him to his cabinet. I have to say he did a very good job and knew more about working in the music business and hearing damage than I'd expected him to. Anyway, after some initial questions we came to the most feared bit of my visit: the free included hearing test. I was put in the isolation boot with headphones and a beeper etc.

Result: My hearing was well within the nominal range with a slight (but not very abnormal) dip around 6kHz. With most musicians and audio engineers this dip goes out of the normal range and hearing loss eventually makes your hearing response frequency chart look like a mountain side, starting the deep descend at around 4kHz. He said it was a very good decision for me to come and see me at this stage in my 'career', as custom ear plugs can prolong an audio engineers' ability to work for a very long time (if not indefinite). Ears are the only tools an audio engineer really can't do without, and they can't be replaced. Many go for custom ear plugs when it's too late.

So now, in a couple of weeks I should get my very own molded ER15's that are completely useless for anyone but me. Lovely.
Too bad they don't longer make them with a cord attached though, but hey.





Brunch a couple of weeks ago. I was bored at the time I remember, which is often the cause for creative cooking. Just like in the American movies:
'blueberry pancakes'