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

Today has been partly spent lazing around-got up late, missing church, as I'd been to a friend's 21st last night which was fun. Went to evensong to make up for it. Now home as I'm a bit tired.

Yesterday was the termly ringing tour-got told off by G for turning up late having overslept. We went to the Newark area, the morning was variable, but the afternoon was good, though I did manage to crack the stay on the bell I was ringing at the last tower-that was an interesting church-grass path with big topiary balls on either side.

Tomorrow I'm back to the usual round of lectures-need to motivate myself to work again.

I was all set to step in indignantly and ask what on earth j'au-æmne meant by 'regular football dullness'. Then I remembered the game I saw yesterday (Bradford City 0, Tranmere Rovers 0) and decided that perhaps I did understand the concept after all.

I read the discussion on internet dating and chatrooms with interest, as I have been using a dating website for a while now. You get to see photos that are supposedly of the person(s) you're swapping messages with - but of course, you have no way of knowing how up-to-date the photos are, or even if they are of the person you're chatting with. One woman I met through the site told me that she'd encountered some men through the site whose photos were clearly about 10 years old, and I have noticed how sometimes I'll swap messages with someone, seem to be building up a rapport, and then find that the other party stops replying the moment I suggest meeting. I wonder if that might be because they're playing the same game as Hyp's 'Sexy Angel'?

Anyway, no serious harm has befallen me. I occasionally get messages from women in eastern Europe, which I ignore as I somehow suspect that they don't want me for myself. The most dangerous thing that happened to me was going on a day of rock-climbing and long-distance walking with a terrifyingly athletic 49-year-old who goes for 50-mile walks for fun. She didn't quite break my heart, but trying to keep up with her definitely put a strain on it - and on my lungs.

I've had some enjoyable dates thanks to the site, but I'm still single, so I can feel free to flirt with anyone who needs it. Hello, gorgeous sexy Agapanthus...

Well, I met blokes off the Guardian Soulmates site when I was going through my Belle de Jour phase, but bloody hell, doesn't it all take TIME?

Had a good weekend. On Friday night I picked Z and his brother up at the hospital and went and had supper at his granmother, gate-crashing in to the family gathering. I love family gatherings, and this was a fabulous example of the genre. Three generations, and everyone slightly under stress so not bothering with company manners. Z's grandmother is as sharp as a knife, by the way, and is one of those women who makes you want to be a matriarch.

Then I went down to Bristol to do the first weekend of my Finance Module. I enjoyed the coursework, and took some, (well over a hundred), photos of the walls comprising the road in the area. I want to pick the best dozen or so and turn them into a photo essay, but that'll take a wee whiley to do.

But now - tis bed time.

Ben

PS - Ag, I enjoyed your description of your grandmother's passing. J'eu - your great grandmother gets more and more interesting, doesn't she?

PPS - I am slightly ashamed that I seem to come across as a gleeful anthropologist in the above post. It wasn't meant like that, and it didn't really happen like that either. I almost had an argument with the elder Dr Z about rural housing, but went and had tea in the other room instead, so I do have some tact and a couple of manners at least.

*sighs*
So I don't qualify for flirting with Ormy...

Which is actually the bitter truth. Every time I speakup and say that I am a single woman from Eastern Europe, I am most likely tagged. For reason, I guess - there is so many girls out there on hunt.

*giggles and bats her eyelashes at Ormy*

*ahem* anyway. Umm

I finally got the shoulder seams acceptable. Then I carefully stitched the sleeves to the body of this sweater, and have after considerable thought decided, reluctantly, that I am going to have to unpick them and sew them in again somewhat more, well, neatly would do for a start. Also, less stretched, as I never meant this to be a bat-wing sweater and I dread to think what will happen the first time it goes through a washing-machine. I should have stuck to booties. I am the reigning family bootie champion after all.

Tomorrow we're going to the Wild-Life Photographer of the Year exhibition. We've gone every year for the past three and I just LOVE it.

Hati, I'm sorry. You can flirt with me any time. But when I get a message from someone I've never met before, even online, talking about marriage - well, I do feel entitled to think that it's probably not my cute blue eyes that have attracted their interest.

Yeah well, I didn't mean it that desperate anyway. It's just I have come across this attitude recently without any cause or reason.

[GDZ]

My, it's getting flirty in here.

Don't blame me! I don't have time for flirting.

Morning Everybody,

Cold and crisp start to a new week, nearly halfway to Spring tra la la. Sympathy to Teuchter from a fellow sufferer. I just carpet bomb my back with Ibuprofen when it goes. Nice laid back weekend that saw me finish my job list on Saturday morning before long lunch at our favourite bistro.

Lots of nice game from various mates to be dealt with later on in the week and the RSPB Birdwatch survey completed on Sunday. Yeah all in all a good weekend. OK bring on the week.

Z glad to hear your grandad is on the mend, hospital can be difficult socially when you value your privacy.

Hope your grandad continues to improve, Z.

[T&R]

*also sends Good Vibes to Z's grandparents

Thanks for the good wishes re my back It's still niggling away and I think I'll have to cancel tomorrow's patients - which is a bit of a bu**er since there's no space to get them back in until April.
Have done the frozen peas and the freezie gel stuff and the ibuprofen gel and the paracetamol - so it's just going to take time for the muscle spasms to unlock themselves.
Strangely enough - I can drive but I can't walk in any other position except 'question mark'. Feel like a real old crone

I missed the RSPB Birdwatch thing at the weekend

The Wildlife Photography Exhibition - at the NHM, I think - is well worth a visit. What amazed me most last year was the standard of photos take by teenagers. Some of those kids have a bright future ahead of them.

>> (can swearing residues contaminate hand-crafts? Discuss).<<

In Fair Isle Knitting, which incidentally used to be done mainly by the men when they weren't out in the boats or mending nets, a deliberate mistake is always made so that any bad feelings can leave the piece via that misplaced stitch.
I think in middle-east weaving of rugs etc they also put in a deliberate mistake since perfection is only achievable by God.

Right - off to walk around a bit and free up these vertebrae again.

Teuchter, when my neck went into spasm last year, the osteo shifted it a treat.

B

Hope the back is easing T

Is anyone here a member of the WI? There is a gaping hole in the EG that I feel ought to be plugged but as I'm not a member myself (yet, am considering it!) I wondered if anyone knows what it is really like, and if I will have to buy a twinset, pearls, and start voting tory...

Good morning everyone!

Z- Glad to hear your grandpa's doing better. It's a good sign when they get bored!

Proposal coming due... not fun...

Morning all. I could swear I just went to sleep.

Morning, GDZ. I could swear I was awake earlier...

(actually in a training course so I shouldn't be doing this at all...)