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

I was always told by my mum that I should have learned latin at school as it would have made english grammer easier as well as learning the languages based on latin.

This weekend I've some friends coming over later. I'd like to go out and do a tethered balloon ride in S. London. The balloon goes up to about the height of the London Eye wheel but unlike that you're in a caged platform outside rather than some fancy high tech glass pod.
The sun is shining, the sky is a lovely blue colour.

In New Zealand the sky is black and the moon is a lovely green cheese colour

..and it's a full moon. A bit like me actually - the full bit (or should that be fool...?)

It's miserable and wet over here. The sky is the colour of a 2B pencil lead and tethered ballooning should only be attempted in scuba gear.

[Amy]

Weather's fine here, and promises (well, makes a piecrust promise anyway) to be a decent weekend. Finally, a chance to relax!

Oh, and Unch, the C in the calling card stands for Christopher, and the same in The Big C - only one never ever says The Big Christopher, 'cos that sounds daft.

[PCT]

A piecrust promise? Wot's one of them, then?

I quote from the age-old film 'Mary Poppins':

"That's a piecrust promise; easily made, easily broken."

Continuous Tense? I don't think we have that in American.

*Looks confused...*

Urgh, I don't want to talk about tenses here - reminds me too much of all the French I have to revise over the next two weeks.

Anyway, got work to do now. I've just re-read the entire backlog of the Netiquette Talking Point, and have to start my draft of a finished article on it now...

*stirs and throws aside trench coat* Uhhh.... Matina? Tea?

Ah, but you do in Ebonic. You be havin continuous tense in Ebonic. But that not it. Here an example: She walkin round the house.

Ebonic is considerably more inflected than regular English.

Florida is considerably enriched by the Cuban culture, and I'm all for polyglotism, but I object to seeing a nominally American city turn into a foreign port closed to English speakers in many places, as I've moaned previously. I have a smattering of Spanish and I consider it high priority to learn a lot more when I get to New Mexico.

I'm really tired. Doing taxes, even on computer, was intensely adrenal, and although I took a book with me to bed I wound up awake until 5:30 this morning.

I'm with you, Lil. The only thing sparing me from finishing my taxes today is the fact that I have to work. Not sure if I should be happy or upset about that.
I find doing it on the computer in some ways makes the process a bit more confusing. At least on paper you can spread everything out and look at it all at once. And that makes panicking feel much much more valid too.

Lil, I understand your troubles. My dad had to fill in all the many many forms related to taxes and tax return a few weeks ago. It was hell, especially when I was the one (as sole person in the house with I-net access) who had to download all the forms, and then print them out.
Most arduous. Still, another year has been completed for us...

Oh, and in case anyone was in any doudt as to the unpredictability of my family, my dad just came back home after suddenly buying a Jag. Knocked me off my feet, I can tell you!

Gah! Sorry, I didn't mean /just/ Lil, I meant d'Elaphant too of course.
I sympathise...

A jaguar! Is your dad having a mid-life crisis? Get him to take you for a ride immediately and give us a report.

Your dad may be having a midlife event ...If he also bought
1. wraparound sunglasses (especially in England) or
2. chamois driving gloves or
3. a long scarf or
4. it's a drop-head Jag
5. it's bright red

Hope you don't mind me teasing your dad, but that's quite the impulse purchase...

Elaphant, I use the software and I file electronically -- this will be the third year I've done so. You can treat it the same way you would a spreadsheet. As you make your way through the "interview", where they simply present you with a long series of questions, and keep a running figure in the upper right corner of the calculated tax.

So what kept me up late was seeing that the figure was way outside my estimates in a bad direction, and I had to go back through it till I found three big errors and several deductions not claimed. I think next year I'll get a real accountant, though. There may be things I could claim that I'm afraid to because I'm not sure and I don't want the auditors to notice me.

Brits, auditors are like VAT men. Say no more.

I'd claim for anything you can, Lil. However, as Arthur Dent rightly guessed, paying bills (or taxes) only draws attention to yourself.

Hehe, don't worry 'bout my dad. He's doing fine. The Jag's a nice metalic blue apparently, not red. No, the Lotus Elise was red!
It's a shame we're going to sell that now...I'm rather fond of it (especially when getting a lift to school in it!).

Dang! And I entirely fail to tell you that I was offered a place at my college of choice; Peter Symonds, Winchester.

Is a college something in between school university, or is it a college in the Cantabrian sense?

I was thinking I might get a nap this afternoon and catch up on the sleep I missed last night from being all wound up... but then a few fighter jets roared in and reminded me that the traffic is about to start coming in.

Which reminds me -- Ioreth, I'm glad you posted even a few words to let us know you're OK. You only have a few more months, don't you, till you come back to the states? I'll bet you're hearing you're share of fighter jets.

[Sol]

[spk]

Yeah, college is bunged in between secondary school and uni, comprising Years 12 and 13. Many secondary schools offer sixthform colleges where the students simply stay on there for the next two years, but Peter Symonds is just sixth form, and no other years.
It's also the best in the country, or indeed the South.