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

I've taken to drinking herbal chamomile when trying to relax, but what I'm really craving is a good cup of coffee right now. I realize that I'm in a tea room, but you didn't seem to have an espresso bar or anything, so I was wondering if you had anything in here....

Well, Irving, you see, tea drinkers and coffe drinkers are two completely different types of
human species, so you should not expect anything for a coffee drinker in a tea room .
But nevertheless, tea drinkers like me are very tolerant people so I don't mind if a
coffeeroom is established here, too. Maybe we can find some other mutual interests ???

Most probably. Quite frankly, I drink my tea in coffee houses, and when I worked in a coffee house, tea was a fairly important part of our inventory. So I don't suppsose that there's really as much difference as all that.

I rather suspect you're right.

(sip)

I always found that the important difference between coffee and tea is that I don't like coffee.

yes, I think I find that difference too.
I like the smell of coffee, but the taste and smell of tea is just...
necessary first thing in the morning

I have always been a coffee drinker. However I do like tea as well, so when I run out of coffee I'm just as happy with a good steaming mug of Earl Grey -- no cream, no sugar please.

I like tea or hot chocolate.

mmm hot chocolate (wanders off to get some (real))

*follows the Mad Hatter by sniffing his choccy thoughts*

dunks in chocolate and lemon pinwheel homemade biscuit
want one? (mumbles through crumbs)

Mmmmm! *nibbles the falling crumblies*

you know, I'm getting nowhere with those ordnance survey flash cards and now my map has crumbs on it!

Yummy yummy! Tea and coffee and hot chocolate (the real stuff)! And home made baked goods! This could just be the coziest little nook I've ever found. MMMMmmmmmm!

would you like an ordnance survey map card? i have a few to spare. there's a nice coniferous forest here, that I am sure would terrorise Mezz@@e if he visited this nook, so we'd better not tell him about it.

I might like an ordnance survey map card, but I don't know what one is... And yes,, Mezz@@e should be kept away from our conifers. And from this wonderful lemon pinwheel thingy!

Ah, well the Ordnance Survey is the Organisation that does all the main mapping for Britain. the entire country is covered with 1:25000 maps prepared by them, with a system of grid references that allows one to work out the exact distance between 2 places on totally different (place or scale) map sheets to within 10m accuracy.
visit www.ordsvy.gov.uk
OS maps have a standard key, used on all OS maps in the uk and most other ones, inlduing our tourist guides for other countries. so you can read any map without having to worry about different symbols.
the flashcards I prepared had different individual symbols on them with their meaning on the back. My guides (girl scouts?) are learning to use OS maps and so need to learn the symbols. Most have already learnt them a number of times, at school, brownies and guides, but it is alwasy uyseful to have refresher before tryign to use a map. All maps have keys - but they're not getting to use them (for this excercise it is important to be able to read a symbol and know what it means without triyng to look it up as maps are often carried in plastic cases folded to show only the route, the key hidden inside all the folds and when it is raining and windy, the last thing you wnat to do is get the map out and unfold it to check the key)

Most of the maps of places I'm likely to need maps in are called USGS quads, and have some sort of minute scale to tell you just how far things are apart. The great thing is that books that recomend hikes and trails usually recomend what quad to purchase and everything. They're based on photographic surveys, I think, so the keys are usually fairly simple. But maps of britain might be useful, eventually...

Well, I'm sure that you will find them useful, at some stage in your life. Are you at uni? , what year are you in? you might choose to do interrailing around uk or europe during a vac.

I'm a student at the University of Arizona in southern arizona. I don't know how soon I'll be able to get to your side of the Atlantic, but you never know...