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

From my front window I peek between the houses across the street at Barnegat Bay. Across the bay is the barrier peninsula that separates the bay from the Atlantic Ocean. Upon the peninsula are anchored many multi-million dollar summer homes owned by people that have way too much money.

From the back window I see our lagoon (called canals in Florida ) by which we have access to Barnegat Bay.

I love this place.

At work, I look up and see some of the windows of flats (appartments) in the Barbican complex in the city of London. Dull brown/beige concrete exteriors and lots of net curtains.
Turning round I can see a few rooftops and lots of dull grey sky out of windows on the other side of the open plan office.
Still I can see daylight and that is always good (even when it's raining - not right now though )

I was at the Barbican Center last summer, Phil. Very confusing place. Saw the Star Wars exhibition....

I never did get round to seeing that exhibition
It is confusing. I was taken to a restraunt that's part of it for lunch the other day. Good job I was with people who knew where the were going! The dull brown concrete though, They could have painted it a nice colour or something

Out of my office window (which will remain after the renovations - it's the other outside wall that will become an inside one) I can see a patch of grass (where the cheerleaders practice sometimes ) then one end of the arena with lots of trees out front.

At our house, we used to have a pond where lots of creatures would come to drink at night. Whenever the motion-sensor light out there would come on, we would run to the window to see who was there. Regular nighttime visitors included raccoons, possums and skunks. The fish in the pond were quite used to it and managed to never get caught.

Last year there was a group of 4 baby skunks that perhaps had lost their mother because they forgot to be nocturnal. You had to be very careful when you went out to work in the garden. One of the neighbours began putting out sardines for them, but only at night. They eventually got the idea.

I saw the Star Wars exhibit at the Barbican last summer, also. I thought that the courtyard with the pond in it made for a nice oasis in the midst of the city. I also learned that Carrie Fischer and Natalie Portman are rather small.

We have many squirrels that run along the back fence. Quite fun to watch as they steal all the peanuts from the neighbours bird feeders. I look aacross my garden to the fence and on up to the houses behind me and the woods on the hill beyond. Can be quite idyllic at times.

The skunks behaved themselves last night, but they were still there when I went to bed. Heard a spoon clink in the kitchen and sure enough there was mouse evidence this morning. Amazing when you consider that I'm listening to cats quarreling in the attic.I assume it's all cats because after the first round of angry yowls there was no musk event...

My north windows look out on the Capitan Mountains, the only range in the US that runs east-west (according to my landlady). The bedroom window has no curtains but is quite high so I've re-arranged the room in order to look at stars when I'm in bed. The south side of the house is close to the road but the windows are greatly obscured by dense plantings of trees and shrubs, so I don't feel as if I'm on display at all. My east doors look onto a very tiny yard and high fence, and the west door is to my courtyard.

A letter from Munchkin on OTD this morning -- has he got home?

I've spotted the doctor online here so I guess he must have. No doubt when he's worked his way through the backlog he'll be around.

[Amy]



*tidies up the backlog ready for Dr. Munchkin and then falls asleep on the sofa*

Morning all!

Well, I haven't gotten to know all of the views from the house yet, but I can see quite a few lovely houses and yards. We took possession yesterday and spent much of the day simply wandering around the house in a daze. In order to cement the thought that this is *our* house in our minds, we took an air matress and an alarm clock over and slept there last night. It was a wonderful experience full of birds in the yard and leaves rustling in the wind... Right up until 6:30 this morning when the cement truck showed up to work at the neighbors' house! It's something that we'll get used to eventually, I am sure, but it came as a bit of a surprise this morning.

The house faces north onto a nice front lawn separating it from a remarkably quiet - with the exception of cement trucks - street. Entering the front door, there are three ways that you can proceed into the house itself. To the right are the door to the garage and the guest bathroom. To the left, up a small flight of stairs, is the sitting room, featuring a large picture window looking out over a brick planter to the front lawn. Straight ahead, you get to the family room, which has walls that very closely resemble a nice dance floor. (Eventually there will be pictures and you'll see what I mean.)

Going south from the sitting room or east - and up some stairs - from the family room, you get to the kitchen/dining room. Other than the distinct lack of a refrigerator, this is a great kitchen and will get plenty of use from me. Looking out the windows in the kitch and dining room, or through the screen door in the family room, you can see the enclosed porch which houses the hot tub. From there you are just a sliding glass door away from the back yard.

Back momentarily to the sitting room and up the stairs there you will find the bedrooms and main bathroom. The first door on your left is what will be our guest bedroom. It faces the back yard and is relatively good sized, but has a cooked hamburger coloured carpet. The next door, moving in a clockwise motion, is the bedroom that is going to become my yoga room. It also has a lovely view of the back yard, as well as the atrocious carpet, but this room also has shelves both on the wall and in the closet. Next on our tour is the master bedroom. A lovely large room, unfortunately afflicted witha coral and teal paint job, it is airy and light, with enough outlets to satisfy even the most power-hungry lamps. There is also a walk-in closet with - and this still strikes me as very odd - a window all its own. The bathroom, which we are considering making the master bath for all intents and purposes, is a sponged blue and cream pattern with an average sized tub, but a very nice tile surround.

Down the stairs and to the family room, we find stairs leading down into the basement. This will become our gaming space, with bookshelves, tables and chairs galore. The light grey carpet is nice, but there are designs - not my own - to paint the walls grey as well and make the basement into a cave. Well, if I can paint the master bedroom, then I'm willing to bend on the grey basement.

And that's the house in a nutshell. As soon as the pictures that I took are developed, I'll find a place to post them and you can all see for yourself.

Matina, some please. Thank you.

Oh, and Sporky, happy early birthday!

G7

*Explodes into the conversation*

Everyone! Marvin The Paranoid Android needs our help! He's been pitted against C-3P0 in a grudge-match, and C-3P0 is winning, somehow! Everyone on h2g2 needs to run over and vote for Marvin! I'll see about getting the URL to you somehow.

BTW, to reach the match, you can email us at [email protected].

Sea, I'm really hoping your trick from a few days ago'll work now. Marvin needs help.

House sounds great G7. Looking forward to the pics. Is it a rule that whenever you move into a new house, the carpets are always horrible?

I think it must be, Sol. It's happened in just about every house we have moved into. The worst one was an old farmhouse that we once bought. It was decorated in the 70's and had shag carpet through the whole place, including purple shag in the bathroom.

Depends on how soon after the latest carpetting is laid. I really enjoyed the carpetting in one house that I moved into. Unfortunately, I'm one of the few members of my household who still enjoys any of the eighties at all.

[BB]
(Views and things)

from home...

Sitting here at the computer the view is over a small piece of grass[1], mostly shaded by a three story high pear tree (with a squirrels dray in it) the shorter green bit is surrounded on three sides with a longer green bit which I normally refer to as the urban nature reserve aka the weed border or slugs salad bar[2] and on the fourth by the driveway.

The varying length green bits are separated from the car park behind by a five foot wall which hides the cars and the wheely bin. (I believe trans-atlantic readers would know it better as a dumpster)

Behind the carpark there is a large Hazel tree [3] and some bushes, that separate our block from the one we back onto, the tree and bushes are currently part smothered by a large growth of Hop bine [4],
along side on the roof of the garages belonging to the next door block of flats our resident urban fox is sunning herself, while being able to see all who come and go (and spot any chance of a free meal).

[1] I can't call it a lawn, they are flat green and regularly cut, this isn't. the delights of living in a ground floor flat in a small block mean that even though its officially communal it's left to me to get round to dealing with it and I've hardly been at home in the last month or so. any gardeners amongst you would kill me

[2] for the excuse for this see the bottom of [1]

[3] I've never yet managed to get any quantity of nuts from that tree, the squirrels always get there first
Come to think of it the tree rats also seem to get the pick of the pears.

[4] Yes that is hop as in beer and I have tried using it in homebrew but with not a lot of success (not a brewing variety apparently).



Work views

The view from my "office" window varies depending on which one I'm at

If at my base in Wimbledon I've got a couple of trees, a public footpath, a bit of green (weeds) then the tram line before the back yards of houses on the other side of the tracks.
A variety of the usual London urban wildlife (Foxes, cats, squirrels) can normally be spotted at some point in the day mooching around the edge of the tracks.


If I'm in Croydon, close up, it's the usual high level views of other office blocks, but in the distance you can see out towards Sutton, with St helier hospital standing out as a large white blob at rose hill and the green bit just south of croydon where the airport used to be (The bit that hasn't been built over with an industrial estate).

From the other side of the office there is Crystal Palace to the north with the TV towers, then a panoramic view of the flat bits of South East London with canary wharf and the top of the tent poles for the millenium dome just visible on the horizon.

Other alternative worktime views depending on where I am that day consist of:-

A wide variety depending on which signal box we are working on varying from views across fields to the coast at one extreme, to the remains of a derelict power station at the other.

Close up views of the sides of trains going past whilst I am trying to avoid falling in the brambles at the side of the line.

A close up of the portacabin next door partly obscured by the Budlia bush which is determindly still growing between the two huts despite many attempts on its life with cigarette ends and the cold contents of the tea pot.

The rear of a large advertising hoarding (boring).

None at all
in the arches under Waterloo station, a great many lineside equipment rooms and of course on nights .

Not forgetting of course...

The bonnet of a ford mondeo and the back end of the car in front, while sat in yet another jam on the M25

oh, man, affy, you're going to have to find a LOT of votes to save marvin... around 200 i think. but i voted.

my front door is vibrating. i find this very odd... and i have yet to venture into the bright sun to find out why. i'm putting off the blindness for as long as i can.

my window looks out onto our little yard. it was a nicer view before we tore up the grass in order to put the patio in, but it'll be even nicer when it's done.

Sea, the thing is, you can vote once every hour. I'll only need about ten people to vote once every hour for twenty hours.