"OK, there's no need to shout."
"I wasn't shouting!"
"Well it sounded li..."
"That's because you've just had your ears done."
And so I have, just in the last hour or so, and what a difference it has made. I can even hear the clock ticking.
I though that I was going deaf, and my balance was all over the place. I was persuaded to have a hearing test and from that my ears needed de-waxing and it has done the job. I can even stand on one leg again! Going back on the 16th to have a full audiology test just to make sure everything else is working properly.