The text book lies ...
... when it says that the bottom thousand feet are the worst from the POV of pressure changes affecting the ears.
OK, so I'm nearly all better from a bit of a cold, right, and as far as I could tell it never got anywhere near the ears anyway, right, and the text book says that the bottom thousand feet are the worst.
So, if I flew a circuit with an instructor (being one day out of currency) and had absolutely no detectable effects in the ears whatsoever (as I expected from the cold being nearly all gone and not having affected the ears anyway) I'd be OK going a bit higher on the subsequent solo, right? (Point being that if I was going to have a problem it would be whilst there was an instructor in the aircraft to sort it out.)
Wrong.
The book lies.
I had no symptoms whatsoever on the check circuit, and then my ears blocked up on the descent from the solo trip.
I learned about flying from that. I should have scrubbed the trip and waited a few more days.