h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ah, sneaky clean up of cookies to prevent detection. I'm not going to ask which sites you visit that require such secrecy! I really should have a clean up too but I would probably delete files I actually need. I'm the only person to use this PC and I'm at home so I don't mind what my cookies say about where I've been The last time I decided to sort out this computer I wiped the hard-drive (intentionally) I just got fed up and thought it was easier to start again from scratch!

I can't post URLs here, but have you tried looking at Radio station websites? They might have lists of top tens. The two English stations that come to mind are Capital Gold and Radio 2. Actaully, I tell a lie. I can give you the URL for Radio 2 as it's a BBC one. http://www.bbc.co.uk/Radio2 They do a weekly show when they play top 10s from various years so might be worth a look.

I should too, I supposed to be writing an essay or 3!

It's not the sites I actually visit that bug me - its those OOH-NASTY ones that "self activate" when you leave somewhere else! The SA constitution [Bill of Rights Ch2 Cl16.(1)(b)to be exact!] entiles me "to receive or impart information or ideas" but this does not extend to "advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion". As my laptop is maintained by another section and I prefer that they do not have business knowing what information receive unintentionally - hence the occasional munching.
Our national cricket team performance in Oz will not be commented on at this time! Perhaps Jonty Rhodes can inject some life into the sorry bunch of
Our practice didn't happen as Owen's (lead guitar and general host of rehearsals) house half-burned down before New Year! Nobody tells me anything!
A major loss for him and the family but nothing of great sentimental value was lost - the rest is the insurer's headache. Amazingly, two antique violins locked in a cupboard were undamaged despite the whole room around it being razed - lucky !
Good luck with the papers - I'm still strategizing (sp?) about job creation!

Thankfully no nasty sites self-activate for me. I did have a rather strange amount of spam offering me pictures of real next door neighbours wives with little on, alleging I'd visited their site, but I just blocked the account they kept getting sent to. I'm sure I'd remember if I'd seen this site Sounds like you get some really nasty sites though.

I have no authority to make any comments on your national cricket team, I'm English, it would seem rather hypocritical. We will be great, oh yes we will!

Poor beggar, what a time to lose your house Have you got to find somewhere else to practice now? Now you've got more time to come up with some playlists That was some cupboard for the violins to survive.

The essays are still not anywhere near completion but I'm cool, calm and collected and I can do them before Monday. I always do this, I promise myself I won't but I always do. I wonder if I quite like the adrenaline rush of that much stress. What ideas have you got for job creation?

So the Proteas beat both the Oz and NZ teams in their one-day matches! Seems that they feel bored with the 5-day variety. I recall myself on a cricket pitch in primary school. I was placed w-a-a-a-a-y-y out on the boundary and spent the whole innings without touching the ball. I got bored and decided to do a handstand to relieve the monotony. Of course the batsman immediately hit a full cover drive right at me and it passed under my arms for a boundary - the only one scored that day! Somehow I wasn't picked to play again after that! I wonder why?

No rehearsal yesterday either as the music room at Owen's is piled full of unburned furniture awaiting sorting, storage and the like. Should be OK next Tuesday. Playlist circulated yesterday is 85 songs long to start with! I'm itching to start again - I must have music-withdrawal !

How did the essays go and are you doing essays as a student or be you an academic auntie? I have been working with Wits University on some post-graduate dissertations and am toying with the idea of doing a PhD this year but my wife thinks it's or, alternatively, .

Happy days!
PS: What is a pootler?

I'm glad I'm not the only one that used to spend my time fielding doing handstands. We didn't play cricket but rounders at primary school, I always used to deep field. Stupid really as the ball was rarely hit that far and I can't throw to save my life, but I did perfect my cartwheels!

The essays are done and handed in but I'm not sure if I'll pass one of them. I'm a pre-registration ing student. I went back into education a few years after quiting uni because I didn't like what I was doing. The course I'm on has a real spread of ages, very few students come straight from school. If you fancy the idea of doing a PhD then go for it. Why does your wife think it's so funny?

Mmm, a pootler. It's a made up word of sorts. It's not in the dictionary but I've known lots of people use it. Pootle used to be a character in a children's TV programme back in the 70s and early 80s. I think pootling just came about as that's what he did. It's a bit like pottering. That thing where you wander around aimlessly, just enjoying strolling around. I quite like the sound of the word too

My wife thinks it's just another fad I'm going through - we married in my third year of Architecture and she still doesn't think I studied enough to pass my degree. Eighteen years after graduation, I believe she thinks I'm past studying! She forgets I completed a diploma course last year in Project Management with a First class pass and I didn't even get a for my achievement.
Common links I plan and supervise the building of hospitals for the Gauteng Province. I am currently engaged in a major upgrade of a 10-Theatre / CSSD block at a hospital serving a disadvantaged area in the west of Pretoria. How to upgrade and downscale at the same time without losing jobs? - that we do anyday but miracles take a week or two longer!
Must - I'm off to a Job Creation Strategy meeting!

PS: Keep an eye open in April for a major contribution I'm preparing for the guide - the Stately Society of Stoep-Sitting Hedonists (or SSSSH) for short.

Well done on the 1st class diploma and a belated Didn't do enough studying to deserve a degree? Good for you! A lecturer I respect summed it up perfectly. Do the minimum work required and save your time and energy for important things. I would rather really know my stuff from reading and experience than spending all my time essay writing. At the end of my course I want to be a good nurse with good interpersonal skills not a fantastic essay writer.

Upgrades and downscales Rather controversial where I live. They are downscaling our local hospital and it's a very unpopular move among both staff and local residents. No chance of job losses round here though. All the hospitals in the trust have vacancies. The big problem round here is how to recruit and retain staff. I don't think we've poached many South-African nurses yet. Plenty of doctors but our nurses seem to come from Finland and the Philipines. Hope your meeting went well.

I like the sound of SSSSH already - great name and you're halfway there

Meetings, meetings, meetings! Job creation is a provincial (and National) priority at the moment as we have very high unemployment rates (over 47%) in places. Regrettably, only a growing economy produces jobs and ours isn't! Last year, the SA Rand depreciated from about ZAR12 to the Pound in August to ZAR16 to the Pound in November and nobody seems to know why . Zimbabwe and Mr. "Robber" Mugabe's antics are believed by some to be a major factor but others say "No!" Construction employs many people for a short time, and as the project nears completion, the productivity drops to stretch the duration of the job. We had hopes with some solid waste recovery projects, but new research has now found these to be non-sustaining.
South Africans of all colours are leaving in droves to earn better money off shore - my son Alan spent a year in London in 2000-01 and saved more per month than I have as disposable income. SA nurses are offshore to UK, NZ, Oz and places like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. They work hard & earn top-dollar and in the Middle East, they pay no income taxes . Two Senior Theatre Nursing Sisters I know are now working in ME and presently SAVE more every month after taxes than they used to EARN in SA before taxes.

A recent SA visitor to NZ slipped and fell whilst visiting her (emigrated) son. Very worried about being in a foreign country, she taken to the local hospital. The ENTIRE night staff on duty spoke her home language, Afrikaans! She felt perfectly at home although many thousand of kilometres away from SA.

Just last year, three of the four qualified black ICU nurses from a provincial hospital south of Johannesburg resigned to take up posts in UK. Our Minister of Health is trying to get Tony Blair to ban SA doctors and nurses from working in UK. But at the same time, she says we can't afford to improve the pay-packets of nurses above the inflation rate.

My wife Jenny is a primary phase teacher and earns the same salary now after ten years experience as a newly-graduated inexperienced young thing who takes every day of sick leave that she is entitled to and job-hops as the urge takes her. Jenny on the other hand hasn't taken a single days sick leave in four years with the same employer. But they would retrench her tomorrow and fill the post with any other available if the Employment Equity quota required. I regret to say that merit has given way to racial quotas and performance has taken a back seat to 'potential to learn'.

When a life-long friend of mine successfully graduated LLB with a pass mark of 65% he moaned - 'I did 15% too much studying'! My son Steven is an absolute slavedriver of himself - he brought back a final report for Form 2 with a 90.5% average and 6 out of 9 A+! Marvellous for him, but too much sweat for me, I think!

Keep at the books and may your patients appreciate your dedication and care!

I'm really lucky where I live. Britain's got low unemployment anyway and I'm in the South East which is one of the most prosperous areas in Britain. I also know that when I'm qualified I am guaranteed a job as there is a national shortage of nurses. A large number of British doctors and nurses are leaving to go elsewhere. Places like Australia, USA and Saudi Arabia pay their nurses far more than here and nurse's pay is a big issue. The problem is nowhere near as serious as you describe in SA, but comparatively nurses are on a low pay. I do the same amount of training as a teacher or social worker and more than the police. Nurses have a lot of responsibilty, work under a lot of stress and work unsociable hours, yet nurses get paid about £3 000 - £4 000 less than teachers, social workers and policemen. The Govt then wonders why it can't persuade more people to become nurses and why so many nurses either go abroad or retrain as something else. It's becoming more controversial as nurses are expected to do more and more work that junior doctors used to do and doctors get paid a vast amount more.

From the experience I have of what happened here about 10 years ago, construction is a very short term solution to unemployment. About 10 years ago a lot of jobs were created in this area when the Channel Tunnel was being built. People moved into the area for the jobs. Once the tunnel was finished there was a sudden rise in unemployment. The additional problem was that all these people who were now unemployed had morgages on houses in one of the most expensive parts of the country. Not only were people jobless but there were also in a large amount of debt and at risk of losing their homes.

I can't see your Minister of Health persuading Tony Blair to stop the employment of SA nurses and doctors while all our 'home grown' ones are going elsewhere. I worked with a lovely SA psychiatrist last year. He really missed home and even carried pictures of it with him. The nature of his work permit though made it very difficult to leave Britain. He had the problem of nationality. Once his two years of work had been completed he could apply for duel nationality but he was too worried to do this. He said that any trouble in Africa would cause one of his passports to be taken and it would most likely be the SA one, therefore, he wouldn't be able to go home. I wonder how many SA nurses and doctors have felt forced to get a British passport and are unable to return home.

Your wife sounds like an I don't know how she manages. The teachers here always threaten to strike and make plenty of fuss about their work and pay.

I'm wasting time before band practice so I caught your note today.
I have friends in Caterham, but I don't know if that counts as SE?

SA is an unusual situation, to say the least. Employment in the construction industry is fine, as long as you keep constructing things! We build schools, etc, but we can't keep pace with the housing needs of the communities. The present government will pay a subsidy to first-time home buyers of R15 000 (currently about UKP1200) but that will not buy you a complete house! At the moment, starter houses comprising one large room with a separate bathroom in the one corner will cost you R12 000 for the land and services (no tarred roads mind!) and the superstructure will set you back another R10-15000. So banks, finance houses and the like fund the rest on a morgage basis. When (not if, I'm afraid) the buyer loses their job, the bank forecloses and the house is gone - and the buyer can NEVER get another subsidy again!

A proposal was prepared by the Trade Union of Unemployed Workers (yes you may say )that had great merit. They propose that the subsidy pay for the land, the cost of the materials content of the services (drain pipes, cables etc) and the superstructure. Design and supervision of the contruction of the services etc would be carried out by salaried government employees (not private sector professionals hired at market rates by housing developers). This would enable the new home-owner to invest valuable sweat-equity in the form of their own labour to dig trenches, mix concrete, lay bricks and the like, using skills learned from training courses already offered by the State. This would give them a new, bigger house (maybe two rooms + bath) that is fully paid for and not at risk from financiers. Even unemployed could keep their houses, albeit without electricity.

Unfortunately, this is an echo of a 'serviced site' scheme that was proposed by the previous white government and is politically unpalatable to the present government.

You are right, I am married to an , although she can be drained into a by 30 or so and kids after 6 hours + extra-murals. Then she schlepps the kids to music lessons, swimming training, whatever and back home again. If I get home first, I cook the evening meal (we call it supper - I think UK says Tea), otherwise she does that too - like tonight. But every seems to have a for a mother and she and I do not sit at the same table together by mutual dissent.

I've got the prospectus from Wits University and am considering the Masters / PhD thing seriously - if I can get a bursary from my employer, the Province. I believe they do not easily grant them for second degrees so I hae me doots. Time to go with the boys in a half burned-down house

I hope the practice went well and that your friend is getting his house back together. Dancing went well last night, particularly as I ended up in the pub afterwards listening to a Jazz band. Would have prefered rock but they were OK.

The situation in SA sounds awful. It must feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall sometimes. I think having a Trade Union of Unemployed Workers says it all really.

It made me reading about your mother-in-law Yet another good reason I can add to my list on why to stay single. I hope you remember to tell your how wonderful she is!

I should really be writing a reflective piece to take to tomorrow's lecture but I keep putting it off. I'm not sure why we've got to take it as they'll be over 40 of us there so we're not going to be sharing our thoughts. It sounds like it could be a very interesting module though and the lecturer in charge is definitely a character.

Good luck chasing a bursary.

Practice went sort of OK! The vocalist arrived after two beers too many sang flat and forgot all the arrangements (Twit!) Alan (our drummer) has enrolled for a MSc in Environmental Engineering and has asked us to replace him ASAP. We almost caused another fire with all the long electrical chords to get enough power connections for the amplifiers, etc.
But we have our first gig on 2nd Feb and we will survive! We have a double-header on 16+17 Feb, one at a very P-O-S-H, larney, horse-trials sort of event (we doubled our fee for Sunday work) and we have arranged a pro drummer to fill in for the moment - even on a permanent basis if necessary. At R16 to the pound, we charge under UKP200 for the night - for a six-piece band that must be dirt cheap by your standards! Have a real and getonwithit!

I am so excited about going to the meet tomorrow. I'm wearing a from ear to ear.

The lectures were interesting. Very touchy-feely. We had to all give our names and what they meant. The lecturer played a very distracting tape of music, chat, sirens, general noise while giving our lecture. Apparantly it's to develop our filtering and teach us to ignore the irrelevant noise and concentrate on the patient talking to us. Later on in the module we'll even be doing massage

Ah, the sweet sound of a flat vocalist In the pub I've been in the last two Tuesdays, during the band's break an old punter gets up, takes the mike and sings very old songs, slightly out of tune and a little slurred. It's very amusing.

I shall have a real for you tomorrow at the meet

Have a good weekend.

First I write a l-o-n-g reply to your posting and then I somehow touch 'Esc' and the whole lot dumps and I am left staring at a blank screen with a blinking cursor!
I compose myself and re-write it, forgetting half of it again and I'm reviewing the posting when my ISP dumps me and redials to renew. Care to guess what happens? The refresh button wipes the screen again and I'm staring at a fair representation of a blizzard.
So I wrote a quick third and just pushed the post message button. My laptop computer sort of stares at me and says until the IE screen says "site not available". I pushed back button and recovered the previous srcreen and tried ten or so times to get through until Windows itself "performed an illegal operation" and shut down.

I had hoped that it did get through, but I now realise this was an act of utmost uptimism in the first place. Sometimes the web is slower than a snail bearing a cleft stick.
(What about a snail smiley to counter ?)

I had a shock on Monday when I went into my usual morning-coffee hangout to hear that my breakfast-buddy Carl had shot himself on Saturday. He went in for x-rays to establish the cause of some backache and must have got very bad news. Without talking to anyone, he went home. He put all his essential papers together on to the desk, wrote the telephone number of his son on a piece of paper tucked under the cradle of the telephone walked outside, locked the door behind him leaving the key in the door and put the gun in his mouth and blew his brains out under a gazebo. Klaus (a neighbour and tenant of Carl's) found him and did the necessary. His most touching remark was - "That was just like Carl - he did it outside the flat so that no-one would have to clean up inside after him!" We all resolved to drink a (it's a black beer) to him on Wednesday when he will be buried. I'll miss him!
I'm feeling morbid - I'd better end.

Thanks for your notes - I really enjoy them.

I can't imagine how shocking it must be for a friend to shoot themselves. I suppose all sorts of questions must run through your head. It's a lovely idea for you and your friends to toast him. He sounds like he was a very kind and considerate man.

Computers and the internet can be a flippin nuisance at times, I think a snail smiley would be very appropriate.

Carl will be toasted on Friday instead at a local hangout. I have a Bike Club function and cannot attend, but I have left instructions (and cash) that a Guinness be poured for me and that it be drunk in his honour.

Thanks, keeper of hugs!

It doesn't matter where you are.

Carl is gone, the tears were shed, the stout was drunk and obituary read.

Life flows on. Our gig on 2nd was cancelled late Friday by the restaurant owner unhappy about table bookings. He didn't advertise the event at all - not even a poster up in his own establishment. It would seem that he feels we have the obligation to find and fill his restaurant with paying customers if we want to be paid! Well! Chuck you, Farlie! (The gigs for 16+17 Feb look OK though.)

PS: I'm looking at a change of career and employer - I'll let you know if it comes off.

Do you take deposits from your bookings so you still have some money if they cancel at such short notice? Hopefully the next 2 gigs will go well (and you'll have some customers to watch )

I went to a party Saturday evening It was awful. My friend had booked the worst DJ on the planet. He seemed to be under the impression that he was on a local, golden-oldies radio, wind down zone rather than at a birthday party. He was playing slow, relaxing music from the 70s 'so we could have a chat with each other' and then talking between each record. He would then play one old disco classic from the 70's and wonder why no-one was in the mood for dancing and then return to the slow, relaxing music. Most of my friends hadn't even heard of the music he was playing! When he did play about 3 records people wanted to dance to, he still talked between each record so that everyone on the dance floor had sat back down before the next record started. I left as soon as I could, I think he was playing Lionel Richie as I walked out of the door. This was at 10-30pm when parties usually get going.

Does the change of career involve going on the course you are interested in? Good luck, and I look forward to hearing what happens.

My son Alan's girlfriend Maxine had her 21st last night great fun. We all went to a local seafood restaurant and were the only table all twenty of us, ranging from teenagers to fossils like me! Great food, good music (even if it was just CD's) and we chatted and joked until they closed their doors at about 11.00 then to bed .

We had clubbed together to buy Max a CD car radio for her "new" VW Golf (we still make the boxy o-l-d Series 1 in SA called the Citi-golf). She bought hers used with a little over 200 000kms on the clock (that's about 120 000 miles) all for the equivalent of 800 pounds. She is most chuffed with the little red thing.

I'm applying for a post at the University - a technical position, not teaching! More money, no commuting and lots of nice fringe benefits for educating the kids. I hope I get an interview at least!

Ciao-for-now.