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

Hullo all, I made it through the blog!

PWM, Yep I have tried Badgers products I do prefer the darker beers.

Liked the hats, And for Info, Munchkin (and I if it comes to that) Have sorta Stetsons (bought at last years Surrey show in the pouring rain as it happens) We both wore them this weekend while wandering around Arran It rained a bit, but not too much. and got just hot enough to be pleasant, rather than oppresive

Caer, Imac changed to Veet to bring us inline with Europe and save on packaging printing I assume?

Titania, Munchkin & I went along to the DNA lecture. Munchkin wrote it up for the Post and there is a video of the lecture available here: A1023256 I enjoyed it

Oooh Tsatsiki does anybody have a recipe?

Hi All went to North Wales for the weekend. It rained a bit, but not enough to spoil the fun. Llandudno and Betws-y-coed were as pleasant to visit as ever, which might account for the very large number of people who chose to join us there!

Colwyn Bay (where I grew up, and where my Mum still lives) continues its slide toward demolition on social grounds. Many of the shops are now pound shops or charity shops. The place is dirty, and clearly not benefitting from any form of investment (from the outside, or by its own residents). Colwyn Bay used to be the best place in the area to live. Now it's somewhere to be avoided.

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Thanks Toc!

Recipes (a couple of different ones) for Tsatsiki:
http://www.recipecottage.com/sauces/tzatziki05.html

Throws a merguez on the smouldering BBQ. I think that beer is like most foods, in that the fresher it and its constituent parts are, the better it tastes. There is a micro brewery in Fulham, Nodnol, the Freed*m Brewing company that puts a sell by date on its wares of a couple of months - and whilst beleiving that lager is generally nothing much more than agressively carbonated camel micturition this stuff is really rather good. You stil cant beat a foaming pint of english ale brewed with twigs and a little bit of particulate matter in teh barrel, on a warm twighlit village green with birds tweeting and the sound of 16 year old hooligans trying to over rev their FS1E in the background - ah - bliss. Toc - my memories of Arran involved voracious midgie mutants the size of parrots that not only took blood but bone marrow as well!

Pattern-Chaser, the Land of my ForeFathers ain't what it was. It seems the grime of the collieries has been replaced with green grass, conifers, and no employment for the majority of the inhabitants. When No1 son was at Glamorgan, they nicknamed Pontypridd the 'Valley of the Damned'.

Much to H's astonishment I had a half pint of at the Show: Hogs Back Brewery's Hop Garden Gold (the Hogs Back is a well known local topographical feature). It was rather delicious and I would have more but ours where the last of the barrel. H encouraged me to try their T.E.A, but too much has an embarrassing affect on me .

What I don't understand, Toc, is why Veet changed to Immac in the first place, perhaps it too continental at the time, early 1970s I think.

I dragged myself to the gym and am still wading through treacle, but feel better anyway. I'm am now going to ignore the paperw*rk and run a few errands.

Sadly, yes. What annoys me, though, and accentuates my observations, is that Llandudno, at which we used to look down our noses (from Colwyn Bay in the 1960s) , is a clean, beautiful *and thriving* town, to which I would happily move tomorrow, if local employment was available....

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Planned lessons and thought I was well ahead of myself, but now I realise that it is four o'clock after all and I have to get a wiggle on. At least I am caught up with the huge mountain of marking after my holiday and being ill ("No, I haven't marked your writing. Why not? Because the way I was feeling you'd have got band 2 [very bad] and a snotty note telling you that for goodness sake how many times to I have to tell you that speechmarks go here: '' not there: ,' ").

Got through the backlog, but still have to tackle Affy's message. But I suppose that since it has a temporal base, I already will have tackled it in the future.

/* Grabs a burger, and taps the monitor. */

I wonder if this gets... Oh! It does!

http://www.captainscarlet.tv/



/* Taps Zeppo */

I used to live in Colwyn Bay in the late 80s it seemed a nice place to live, to a 8 year old anyway, thought knowing my parents it was probably picked because it was cheap.I don't think they were in work at the time.

I really love Llandudno, and have often considered moving back there when I grow up, or even Colwyn Bay, (where I could afford to live)..

THis is going to sound really sad, but in July I'm moving out of the a fairly nice area of Birmingham (near Pebble Mill) to a no so nice area, and I'm really looking forward to having charity shops and pound shops near by. Living in a "posh" area is so much more expensive... and I feel at home with chairty shops!

I just bought a copy of the South Beach Diet for the library. It sounds like an excellent plan.

The woman who was the library director before me has died from cancer. I was hoping she would make it to see the new building. She would have enjoyed it so much.

I finally have beans, squash and cucumbers planted. The weather has been so odd this spring. Last night it was in the mid-40's again.(F) Very strange.

I have a busy week as usual. I have to proof all of the blueprints before June 3 and make whatever changes I think we need. Which means I have to learn how to read blueprints. Most of it looks fairly simple to understand, thank goodness. But they're hugh and I don't have a place n my office to even lay them out. I'm not real happy withthe reading room, so I'll tackle that first.

[p] Busy weekend. A tour of the White peak on saturday (cheese shop at Hartington, onew of the many original pudding shops in Bakewell ) Then off to Harrogate for a visit to Harlow Carr gardens (the RHS northern outpost).
Now just recovered from the b'log...

oooh time to do some shameless self promtion, if anyone is coming down to the London meet I'm trying to arrange accomodation in central london walking distance from the meet and most train stations, in a Univerity hall of residence, which will work out at £23 a night inc break fast, (Believe me this is cheapfor london!) and that's for a single room!

This year I'm not going to the summer meet in Nodnol as I'll be out west doing Glastonbury for the first time instead.
It was so much easier to find somewhere to stay down there when I lived in Nodnol

Z, you live near Pebble Mill? Is that what used to be called Cannon Hill Park? Near the Edgbaston Cricket Grounds? I seem to remember taking the 48 bus home to Moseley through that area, or a corner of it...

What's a merguez? PWM, did you get a chance to meet any of the local mosquitoes while you were at MacDill? They're so big that they find it easier to use airboats when they're in the swamps and marshes.

It's nice to see just about everybody back from the holiday weekend -- Toccata, will Munchkin no longer be posting in the daytime or is he waiting out a good-behaviour period or what?

Is a "charity shop" like a "Goodwill" store or a "St. Vincent de Paul"? Those things are great and wonderfull.

Hypatia, I gather you are a librarian? How do you like that? My mom is a librarian, and she finds working for the city, um... stressfull. Apparently the theme that the teen volunteers have chosen for this year's summer reading program is "Shut Up and Read." Seems some people have a problem with that, but any library employees who disagree with it aren't allowed to say so to the public.

I can see the logo... a stern librarian, her hair in a bun, with a finger raised to her lips. Ssssshhhhhhhhh!

yes Lil, I live about 5 minutes away from Cannon Hill Park, and Edgebaston cricket ground, just off the Pershore road, I don't think the 48 goes through any more, but the 37 I think goes to Moseley.

Chairity shops are ones where the public donate second hand clothes and books, and they are staffed by volenteers, (usually elderly women!) the clothes and books are sold very cheaply!

Like this?
http://www.theportables.com/librarian.gif

Yep! That's like Goodwill, alright! Great type of place.

And I think that may actually be the logo, Witty... I'll check with Mom.

Charity Shops, in the UK at least, are run by charities (strange that )You donate things in good condition that you no longer need to them and they sell them to raise money.

I love them, there are so many bargins. In posh areas, there are not so many of them, but the things they have are amazing. I once got a Laura Ashley Ball gown for £5!

Lil, Munchkin doesn't really get internet access during the day, and he's not getting home till gone 8 (having left at half 6 ) so he's not posting much at all. Still, once the panic settles, he should be working better hours.

Caer, sorry I didn't pay much attention to hair removal in the 70's so didn't know Imac was formaly veet! I don't know why they did it then.

I got up the courage to call the brewery I intervied with last week. He has been so busy, he hasn't had time to think about it. He still may need me to go and brew for a day, so there is still hope.