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

Toc!

Phil, I have been out and checked the bluebells and they are the native species. I thought they had to be established for years before they really got going, but they grow in the garden like weeds and I don't like to pull them up. I know this area was covered in orchards until the mid 1950s when the houses went up, so perhaps the bulbs lie dormant until the soil gets dug over.

Obviously Governments have got to be elected to represent the citizens, after all you can't have the entire voting population of the UK hopping on a cross channel ferry to Eurostar to express an opinion in Brussles, but when they don't listen to the voters you begin to wonder who they are representing.

It is a huge change that is afoot and I have heard very little about how other EU countries feel. Although the Governments appear to be as bad as each other from T's posting.

I am not Europhobic, the more I get to know my fellow Europeans the more I like them and for travel and trade to be easier between the member states is common sense. But I am concerned about taxation, law enforcement, health care etc and the effects that such sweeping constitutional changes could have.

I've just been on the phone to my old temping agency, and seem to have been offered work on the spot, I just need to go in this afternoon for a credit check, because it will proably be banking work.

I've got a four week holiday and really need the money to go towards my "car fund" the things is I've implied that I've just failed my finals, saying "I've just completed my third year at university, but I don't have a degree yet". I don't have any choice, as i can't go back to my parents, (I have to complete an extended essay in the four weeks, but the unveristy libaray is open evenings and weekends).

The prospect of it just fills me with dread though!

I've just been on the phone to my old temping agency, and seem to have been offered work on the spot, I just need to go in this afternoon for a credit check, because it will proably be banking work.

I've got a four week holiday and really need the money to go towards my "car fund" the things is I've implied that I've just failed my finals, saying "I've just completed my third year at university, but I don't have a degree yet". I don't have any choice, as i can't go back to my parents, (I have to complete an extended essay in the four weeks, but the unveristy libaray is open evenings and weekends).

The prospect of it just fills me with dread though!

Hi Caerwynn (and everybody!).

I'm looking forward to being a part of the United States of Europe, although I realise many aren't. Some public discussion would help to clear the waters, IMO. One reason for the USE is the lumbering colossus currently trampling the world, lacking any opposition now that the old bear (USSR ) has gone. There are other, better, reasons too....

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

I'm thinking of going to the Summer Meet-up, but I need some help formulating the specifications for the room...

...last year I asked for an allergy-friendly room - in Sweden, most people know what I mean when I ask for that, otherwise they'll ask - but in London I got a room with a wall-to-wall carpet...

Carpet:
Do I write 'no carpet' or 'no carpeting' or 'no wall-to-wall carpet/ing'?

Bed:
'No feather in bedclothes' or 'no down in bedclothes' or 'synthetic filling in bedclothes'?

Scent spray (yes, they seemed to use that in the hotel room I stayed in last year:
'No scent spray' - I don't even know if you call it 'scent spray' or 'refresher' or whatever...

Air freshener. I think you'd have trouble finding a room like that in the US, but then I've never tried to find one. Is that common in Europe? Maybe you could ask for a "hypo-allergenic" room - that' the word they use on cosmetics and soaps.

Great pictures, Lil. Did you do any photoshop work on them? I didn't think a digital camera could do so well in long exposure shots.

HUmm, I can't think of many hotels that have roomss like that in the Uk, but I've not stayed in Many, your best bet would be to ring the hotel and ask. As far as I can see the main problem would be carpets, as there are pretty much everywhere. You can ask them to leave off the air freshener(that's what the scent spray's called) and ask what's in the duvents, most places I think would use sythetic contents.

I'll be staying at university halls of residence if I can. Whilst they will probably have carpet, they won't use scent spray and you have to take your own sleeping bag for beding. and they're half the price of a hotel room in London! We'd love you to join us, and we could make a block booking!

Ah - but this is one of the few opportunities I get to stay at a Hilton (don't know which one yet, the London reservations office will 'assign' me one that has rooms available) at staff rate, including big breakfast buffee (wouldn't want to miss that!)

...and I thought that if I could specify in detail what kind of hotel room I'd like, the better chance I'd have to actually get a room that is at least a little bit 'allergy-friendly' (you mean there isn't such an expression in English? If so, it must be Swenglish!)

I have never come across such rooms, T. But most hotels use sheets and blankets and if you have room in your suitcase, perhaps you could bring your own pillow.

Low allergy might be another term you could use, but I have heard allergy friendly being used here.

Once the room is booked perhaps you could phone or email confirming the type of bedding and requesting no air freshener.

I suppose I just feel badly informed when it comes to the whole EU thing, which is more fault than anyone else's. I have tried to read the Maastricht Treaty, H got hold of a copy but it is really heavy going. But when it comes down to it, life on a day to day basis doesn't really change, except that bananas are even straighter.

[Sol]

Good luck Toc!

Good morning, everyone!

I was outside after midnight, photographing the rise of a waning moon, and since the exposure times were purely experimental I'm hoping something or anything will come out! I've downloaded the files from the microdrive but haven't had a chance to look at them yet.

Pattern-Chaser, the calling cards are an expression of our rather antiquated etiquette; we, collectively, always thought it rude for people to drop the word 'BOOKMARK' into a perfectly civilised conversation, so we devised the idea of the calling card. You just drop your card on that little occasional table over there at the head of the stairs.

While I was out there last night, one of the horses was snoring very loudly, and two mockingbirds and a whippoorwill were singing, but it seems to still be too early for that full cricket chorus that I love so dearly.

Toc, good luck on the interview at the brewery! Is this coincidence, or part of Munchkin's sinister design, to have a flatmate who is a beer professional?

I was a professional brewer a few years ago, before I ever met Munchkin.

Still, he certainly hasn't discouraged me

<...our rather antiquated etiquette>

There's rather too little of that, IMO. As a young man, I was as contemptuous of courtesy as the next teenager , because no-one told me what it was for. When I heard on "Thought for the day" [UK BBC Radio 4] that courtesy was a set of rules that allowed you to express yourself forthrightly to a stranger, *without* discovering a need to kill or injure one another, I saw things in a new light.

Nice table; antique?

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Good luck with the interview, Toc.

on my way outside to tackle the lawnmowing. Apparently Frank is never going to offer to do anything again. He does great at his exercise classes, so I know he is physically able to help out again. He still won't even drive himself anywhere.

Then I have to put some planter boxes together for the cemetery. And do this week's shopping. And finish my reports for tomorrow night.

Toc, congrats on the interview! A flatmate who brews...I have trouble enough just working in a pub! You, dear, would be extremely dangerous.

Off to finish the paper. Hopefully, it won't be too dreadfully difficult.

Toc - congrats.

Pattern-Chaser - funny I don't feel like a set of rules

Courtesy

Courtesy38 Rules, Dude!

B4

Hello, all!

Hey, is this the same Irving Washington every Salonista has been talking about? This oughta be good...

Hi there, IW!

B4