positivity warning

As prompted by Mrs D, who said that, as I'd been spending a lot of time working in health-related circles, I should focus more on some of the good stuff. So for what it's worth, here is a kind-of gratitude diary.

Music

Obviously having a period of down-time coupled with working from home means that I've been listening to a lot of music, both old and new. According to my Last.FM account, these are my most played albums from the last 90 days:

• Self Esteem "Compliments Please" - gobby pop music from Rebecca Lucy Taylor (previously one half of indie-folk mopers Slow Club)
• Jeff Tweedy "Warm" - grumpy old-man music (what?) from one of my favourite grumpy old men - nowt new but still lovely
• Animal Collective "Sung Tongs" - I've been getting my freak-folk flag on a bit recently. I bought this album when it first came out and didn't really get it but it's actually great and bonkers 
• The Velvet Underground, the deluxe expanded issue of their (best) self-titled third album - just wonderful, loads of previously unreleased stuff and live tracks 
• Tiny Ruins "Olympic Girls" - kind of like a groovy female Nick Drake - I know nothing about this artist, I just heard a track by them on BBC 6 Music 

With some friends I've gotten back into making iTunes-compatible mixtapes. And just like I used to do with actual tapes in my wasted youth my mixes are interspersed with bits of random film and TV dialogue.

If you're interested in hearing them, get in touch and I'll explain why the act of sharing music for which I do not own the copyright is all kinds of illegal (hem hem).

Health

Despite my extended belly-aching on here and in real life, I'm doing ok. Working on the podcast, attending infusion clinics, spending time in hospitals, as always will remind you that there's always someone worse off.

Similarly, there are people who are a lot better off, but still. Things could be worse. 

Podcasts

My top recent picks include:

• It Makes a Sound - this is ancient but my brother recommended it recently. A deeply weird mystery about music and memories. NO SPOILERS as I haven't finished it yet! 
• The Adam Buxton Podcast - so obvious but he's just too good at what he does 
• Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4 - their slogan is they ask one big question about one big story every weekday and it's always fascinating. One of my favourite recent episodes focused on the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest finals in Israel which included respected Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen explaining the conflict in 90 seconds 
• Help I Sexted My Boss - not big, not clever, but charming nonetheless
• The Archers - yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But I don't pay attention to any other soap operas and this is mine. I even created a tribute to the actor who played Joe Grundy after he died…