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

Does that mean when I leave thursday that I will be welcome back on Monday? I cannot wait to go to Moab. I willb e there for four days to relax and do some 4wheeling. I hope it gets a bit warmer there too...
marv

I can't wait to go on vacation... i wonder when and where I should go... suggestions anyone? I've never left the country, or been more than five hundred miles from my home...

[]
Sporky, got any relatives living in interesting places you could visit? I'll be visiting my mother during Easter... *fearing backlog too*

I used to wish I had rellys in interesting places something chronic. My parents idea of a good holiday destination was the Lake District year after year. It always rained. Not that I dislike the LD, mind you, but I longed for exotic locations.

On the other hand the one year we did make it all the way down the south of france it was an unmitigated disaster.

And thus it was back to the lake district for the remainder of my family holiday years.

The irritating thing is I'm starting to miss the place.

[33]

Huh. Backlog, thank goodness the seagull conversation wasn't ressurected

Missed everyone. Sea, Greebo, Sporky, Gw7en, Phil, Marv, Loony, Lil, Chris, Sol, eats,.....

Never actually been to the Lake District. What ammuses me is the fact that travelling down the M6, signs say "Welcome to the Lake District" and you pass through, and not a lake in sight!

There is a similarly entertaining sign as you enter my home town. It says "tourist attractions."

Argh! I had a nice reply written, and as i posted it, my connection dropped out!!!!!

Anyway the gist of what i had written was that roadsigns amuse me.
I always think of Triffids when i see a "Heavy Plant Crossing" sign, "Possible delays until [insert month of choice]" make me shout "But I can't wait here until [chosen month]" however my favourite is "Roads Liable to Icing" which conjurs up images of little old ladies with icing bags in hand, doing pancy piping along the edge of the road, hiding in the bushes and sneaking out to do it once the cars have gone by. Mad, aren't I. It's my warped sense of humour

There, now to see if it posts this time.

How to Defend a Thesis: The simple answer is don't panic. As long as you know your subject, which it sounds like you do, you'll be fine. One of the advantages of doing a PhD one is that, if you've published a couple of papers then they can't say your work stinks. They just have to see if you did it or not. Basically, its a wee chat to make sure you haven't stolen the work or anything, and if you haven't, you have nowt to worry about. Of course, I didn't believe a word of it when I went through mine

B-17 Did the Triffids scare you witless, or was that just me?

I would not eat asparagus for several years, partly because they reminded me of triffids. I did like to pretend the asparagus was crashing down across my dinner plate and invading the table, a practice that my mother frowned on.

[Amy]

Missed Greebo's visit.
Not seen Styx for ages.

{WM}

It always amuses me when I pull up the only hill in town to the traffic light; as you come to it, there's a sign saying "Prepare to stop when flashing." This is good advice for all dirty old men.

LOL, nice one Lil.

Munchkin, yes they did. One memory that is still very vivid in my mind goes as follows: Having reread the book just prior to the tv series commencing, and being only one episode into it, I had to go down to my grandparents in Devon, while my parents were off on holiday, and since my grandparents hadn't long moved into the house there, there were no curtains on the window in the room i was staying in, subsequently, just as I was dropping off to sleep, having seen the latest episode, the wind got up and the trees started swaying, making ominous triffid like shadows on the bedroom wall, and one branch tap-tap-tapping on the window. Didn't sleep much that night, and ever since, I swore that triffids lived in a section of woods near my house on Islay. This would have been about 20 years ago.
However, I still will not look directly at a shower of meteorites. My eyes may be bad, but I prefer to keep what little sight I have
(Plus i've always wanted to play the hero, and have many thoughts on survivial and escape routes should anarchy finally descend down upon us. Sad really, isn't it. My mum always said i read too much for my own good)

I know exactly the episode of which you speak. The whole thing scared me and my parents had a habit of referring to any overgrown weed as a Trifid, which didn't help my imagination any.

Now there is a nice short series the Beeb could do with reshowing.
John Wyndham was one of my first and still is one of my favourite authors. I love 'The Kraken Awakes' I would honestly have to say that I have read 'Triffids' more times than HHGTTG (infact probably twice as many times)

~Greebo slouches over from the pot plant she had been sleeping behind...~

Can me have my chocolate milk now???

I love John Wyndham, too and just finished rereading a book of short stories by him last week. I didn't know that the Triffid book had been made into a serries. I just reread that book about 6 months ago when I introduced a sentient triffid into the space station biome thread. Now I wonder if that thread is back yet ...

Hey Marv - did you check the link I posted for you at the other place? Might come in handy for your 4-wheeling expedtion.

The Day of The Triffids was made into a BBC TV series in the early eighties (Well, I was wee, but old enough to be scared) and is sadly not available on video. It was really good, especially the opening bit in the hospital, although the plants would probably look quite shoddy these days, due to being plastic. It was also a black and white film with Howard Keeler (?) which was a bit poo rightly. I believe The Kraken Wakes was made into a Radio 4 serial not so long ago, and is available on tape. The Midwich Cuckoos has, of course, been made into several films, which I have never got around to seeing. Oh, and Chocky was an ITV serial of the mid eighties, and struck me as being weird as cheese at the time.
This burst of Wyndham info has been brought to you in association with Munchkin's Hind Brain Fact Repository

So you store your facts in the brain of a hind. Is that a golden hind, or just a white hart? Do you have problems retrieving the information?