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

I think the most uncomfortable night I have ever spent was sleeping on the fold out sofa bed in our basement. We have given it away and put a proper bed down there now. It's cozy.

*pokes small air hole in sofa upholstry*

You know, I don't have a guest bed. As I've invited my brother to spend some time with me this summer, I should probably look into that.

*sips through a straw*

New conversation <bigeyes?

back...

Ooh a new thread - look how nice and shiny it looks.

*strokes Lil to calm her down about tax*

Good news about No 1 daughter and the new job Teuchter.

I meant to get my house clean today as I woke up faintly disgusted by it. Still I have done some housework but it's still a filthy mess. Humm. Hey Ho.

Least comfortable night- I can't think of any!

[BB]

A Very large mug of at hand, I managed to spend a few hours this afternoon straightening out the edges of the green bit outside the window, I dare not call it a lawn as that would indicate that it had been domesticated.

The local robin immediately decided I was there only for the purpose of turning thing up for him, he came very close to getting hit with the spade at one point by diving in too fast when I was taking a second bite at a stubborn bit.

My worst nights sleep was in a cheap & C*** hotel near Gloucester, I don't think they had worked out that the springs were supposed to stay inside the mattress not be digging in your back.

I was definitely more comfortable (some years ago) camping on the side of Snowdon over the new year. and pitching a tent on a steep slope covered in sheet ice in the dark does count as an interesting experience, the site had one major redeeming feature it was just behind a pub.

One of the most uncomfortable nights I ever had was being in hospital after giving birth to No 2.

They protect the mattresses with plastic covering, they overheat the place - and you're sweating buckets anyway.
Your nether regions are tender, some bits on the front are tender and you're both exhausted and too excited to sleep.

You're on tenterhooks, waiting for the bairn to wake up - and listening to sundry other bairns waking up and making their presences felt.

And some porter is standing at the nurses' station rattling the pecuniary contents of his pockets plus several sets of keys.

If I hadn't had a post-partum haemorrhage, I'd have been out that door and home PDQ.

Oh, Teuchter, I had forgotten about the horrible hospital beds. May I take my most uncomfortable night back?????

{[J'au]}

Of course, you can take it back, Lady C.

Anyone familiar with an 'accordion' bed? (Danish: Harmonikaseng) An oldfashioned guest bed, which can be stretched out and put together like an accordion. Made for older times' shorter people - 1.70 m. in length 1.20 m. across and with these wooden triangulars sticking up on each side every 15 cm. or so. (I've tried to find a photo but didn't succeed).

I inherited two from my grandparents who lived in the countryside in dark Jutland, and they were very good for kids sleeping over. Quite cool, they thought, because hardly any of daugther 33's friend had seen, not to mention, slept in one.

Well, when Sig. S. and I were in the beginning of our relationship, he had his brother and sister in law visiting, and of course they slept in Sig. S.'s bed. I lent him the two accordion beds for him and his son. I 'happened to' pass by one evening and spent the night with Sig. S. in one of those beds. Not quite unpleasant, but very akward ...and the amount of blue marks the next day...

By and large I can sleep for England, so it can be uncomfortable but I'm usually well away and not in a fit state to notice. So the only times when acute discomfort really registers is usually because I've been trying to curl up and get a bit of kip on some upright seat when getting from A to B on a coach. Which hardly ever happens. Most uncomfortable ride in such a manner is when B had to blag us onto a coach from his village house in order to get us back to civilisation in time to pick my Mum up from an airport. Eight hours curled up on an extremely drafty bus floor is not at all pleasant.

Actually, can we do worst journeys while we're at it. I'm in the mood to relive the horror that was an orchestra tour to Prague in my late teens. Three days trundling across Europe on a coach doing 30 mph which resulted in 15 hour days because someone hadn't got the right travel documents...

These almost represent the sum of my travel experience actually. And people wonder why I have a travel phobia.

Actually, I've realised I have terrible bad luck with coaches. Have I told you about the time I got stuck at a border crossing in 35 degrees C which involved sitting on an _unairconditioned_ coach for an hour? Never listen to me if I suggest a trip by coach, eh? In the same way you don't want to get on a train with Ben (it is Ben who makes trains hide isn't it?).

Actually, campbeds - which I believe the harmonika bed must be a variety of - are almost akin to deckchairs in their comedy value.

Incidently, that does remind me of the time I fell out of a hammock. Still, I was perfectly comfortable up until that point...

At least I made the 2nd LED. I'll go read the backlog now.

DD & G7 beat me in here?!?

See what happens when I have to play the part of Leader for a group project? Ah well, assignments are made, now maybe I can get on to what I assigned myself which, believe it or not, entails a good portion of the work.

I should probably get on to my networking homework also, and maths, and english. I hate end of semester!

Yep, I'm the one who scares trains. The journeys are usually comfortable enough, but ever so slightly delayed. (I wonder if I used to be a member of the French Resistance in a previous life, and the trains somehow sense this and don't like to approach me? )

Most uncomfortable night? Well, when I was at school I decided one winter that I was so cold that I needed extra insulation and put layers of newspaper (the Telegraph, I think) between the two very thin army blankets. It didn't make me much warmer and was very noisy, and it was more a matter of protest than convenience.

The most uncomfortable night which springs to mind was the night that my brother and I spent in an outback pub in the Australian desert. My lovely Big Bro decided that he wanted to give me a taste of Real Australia, but ended up with something rather Realer than he expected.

We drove in to a place called Narrowmine which is between Dubbbo and Cubar, (I think). The place has one street, a railway line, two pubs and a chinese restaurant, and Big Bro walked straight into the first pub, (all clapboard and peeling paint, like something out of a Western), and booked us two rooms for the night. I was fine with the rooms, even though at £7 per night they were in fact rather overpriced, but I did draw the line at going in to the bar. I would have been the only woman, which would not usually be a problem, but that matters more in some bars than others and I could hear the sound of banjos in the distance.

I do remember lying awake at 12.30, listening to trains copulating without anaesthetic, and realising that it was still 35degrees C, that there was no point in either opening or closing the window, and that it was not going to get any cooler very soon.

In fairness, the sheets were clean. The room was filthy, the windows broken, the sink was cracked, but the sheets were clean.

B

Sol, I have never slept/napped/laid/sat in a hammock. They look terribly tricky.

The most uncomfortable bed I've ever slept in was on a boat. It was one of those things where you lower the dining table to the height of the seats. It was like...well...sleeping on a table.

My parents-in-law's futon.

for Lil. Anxiety attacks are horrible. And you don't feel a great deal better for having one - unlike, say, having an unexpected lie-in or a good cry.

Excelling scribing, Hypatia.

SIC's room is now decluttered and organised. I gave her a spot test when we'd finished: you've got a nail polish in your hand, where do you put it? Where does your Princess game live? You've taken off your dirty socks - now what? She scored 100% - not sure if she can maintain that, though

OK gotta go make lists for this week

Mol

Thanks to all of you for your loobrushes -- I felt a lot better after I mailed the check and made financial arrangements to deal with that check. But you're right; an anxiety attack somewhat resembles a gall bladder attack, in that you really feel sore and wasted afterwards.

I'm getting so old that it's hard to keep track of the most uncomfortable beds I've survived, but what I do remember is one extremely rainy morning in Corfu, where I was working with horses at a hotel. I did the morning jobs then sloshed up to the hotel to make sure rides were cancelled. The boss told me to get a cup of coffee and relax a while.

What happened was, I became enormously, crushingly tired, but couldn't find a corner to rest in ANYWHERE. The hotel was crammed with tourists and their noisy children, watching television, running around screaming, and generally occupying all the real estate in the lobby and mezzanines. I wound up in a chair near a very loud television, dozing intermittently while a group of Germans conversed in booming decibels all around me.

I'm glad you haven't ended up living on the streets or anything, Lil. How does paying Social Security work in the States? Did you reach a certain level of income and have to pay top whack or did you make a huge amount more than you have before?

Most uncomfortable night excluding camping? So I can't include the time our scout troop pitched the tent on a hill and I woke up having rolled outside and become drenched with dew? No? Okay.

I think I'll have to blame VIA Rail, the Canadian railway company for this. Their chairs don't tilt back much and aren't comfortable in the first place (okay for sitting in, but you can't really relax). The little pull-out stools they give you seem to be precisely the wrong height to help and the little blankets they bring round utterly fail to stop the draught biting your neck. To top it all every time the train approaches a level crossing it lets rip with a foghorn.

Sol: "Actually, campbeds [...] are almost akin to deckchairs in their comedy value."

Oh heck. I think it was a few Christmases back I stayed at my aunt and uncles and slept on a camp bed, which was right in front of a bookshelf. One night I was kneeling on the bed looking for a good book when I must have shifted my knees to be either side of one of the hinges. With a loud crack the hinge bent downwards and the head of the bed neatly removed an electrical socket from the wall.