Subject: Public Floggings I Have Known.

Breathing is the hardest thing to do, with all I've said and all that's dead for you.

Wrapped myself in a delicate sheet of silence these last couple of days. Woven fabric that is light as air, soft as the softest silk, resilient and robust but waif-like... impenetrable yet fragile as a spiders' web. Cocooned myself away from the world and enjoyed the peace that ensued. As inexorably loud and grotesque as the world is becoming, it is nice to just sit and listen to nothing but your own breathing and some bootleg copies of songs you have made with your brother. I feel the flow inside me levelling off.

It is hard to say where all this up-ing and down-ing comes from inside of me. I don't choose to be a wreck one day and a serene being the next. I don't like the roller coaster ride I'm on. I would prefer just a straight and narrow road, with no peripheral vision for the time being, so that I can get things into some kind of sane and rational perspective. Rule Number One: Don't forget your pills when you go away on holiday.

And anyway, I haven't enquired lately about you all. How have you been recently, baby-dolls? Have you been marching to the beat of your own drums, or towing the line of someone else's? Freedom from responsibility and care is the bastion all men desire to build; a bulwark of work-free summers and carefree days from which we can never be extricated. I tell you what though, land-lubbers: the day we have nothing to do or nothing to think about is the day we lack any reason to carry on. It is a secret I have learned, and it is very important. File that one away for the biographers.

My writing has been bumped down the priority list these last two days. I have needed the time exclusively for convalescence. Without 48 hours to be alone I may have lost control entirely. Thank you for your advice, Esther, you are wise beyond your young years. I am waning now. Time to put this edition to the press, so you all have words to mull over with your coffee and toast in the morning. Extra, extra! Read all about it...

What is your favourite daily paper in all the world?