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

"...let's all claim to be over 60 years old."

Some of us are!

And some of us are right behind you!

Hoorah. The year* is finally over. Now we can get down to some work without getting students or staff pestering us.

* the academic year at the university I work for.

Why do some exam results take so much longer than others?!

I got a B in my dissertation. Thats a good sign, so hopefully I have got my 2:1

Oh dear. When I saw all those posts I thought a really interesting topic must have come up. Instead we had a couple of careless adolescents. Why did they pick on us? d'E is right, we've had some brilliant and articulate 14 year olds in the atelier. And, of course, we've had some terribly childish adults...

Glad to hear the passport came through, d'E -- did you say you'll be gone for two weeks?

[MTG{KEA}]

I've written to them -- F7321482?thread=4289387 -- and if anyone can think of anything to add to that thread, you're welcome to add it to that thread. I hope it helps.

Oh, and congratulations to you, little miss nicky, on your dissertation result!

Lil, you said it clearly, consisely and compassionately.

Well said lil (I think we Brits bored them with talk of the weather as well )

When I popped in just now and saw "122 posts" I thought you lot had gotten into a another political brawl or food discussion.

I had a bit too much of an adventure yesterday. I had to go to a work-related meeting in a town 150 miles to the east. On the way back, late in the afternoon, my car went (and excuse the official mechanical talk here) "pop" and then went "kerplooey" in the middle of fricking nowhere. (On the top of MacDonald Pass, for those who know Montana geography.) I coasted down the pass to the nearest small town. The people there were lovely. The fellows at the gas station took a look at the car and tried to fix the problem. It was unfixable. The temperature gauge was through the roof, the check battery light was on, and there was oil in the coolant reservoir. The folks in the bar next door let me use the phone to call long distance--my stepbrother owns a tow truck business here in Missoula, which is 95 miles away from this town. Unfortunately, his "big truck", the one with the flat bed for hauling cars, was across the state working on another kerplooeyed car. So I had to wait six hours for my stepbrother and the big truck (everyone in the bar bought me drinks and dinner, and provided good conversation to pass the time), then he got a call to get yet another kerplooyed car up in Seeley Lake, two hours away from where we were. By the time I got home it was 2am, and I left messages for everyone at work to let them know what happened, that I have no car, and depending on what happens I either won't be into work or will be in late today.

To make a long story even longer, he looked at the car late last night/early this morning. The belt that runs the water pump and the alternator exploded--thus the "pop". This caused the battery to short out, the engine to overheat, and the oil to be spread everywhere. Luckily, he also owns a mechanics shop. His boys are looking at it right now. I hope it's fixable; a new belt, a radiator flush, and things will be okay. If not, then I guess I'm in the market for a new car. Dammit.

In the meantime, my aunt is letting me drive her car, and I'm still at home recovering from a case of the frazzles and almost no sleep.

Oh, and SC--I think it was lemon peel, but judging by the rest of the recipe you really don't need it. It could also be a thickener, but the cooking instructions don't allude to that, so I largely doubt the need for cornstarch, tapioca or flour.

*sends healing thoughts to FG's car*

[Watches, bewildered, as a tornado of adolescence swirls through the salon in a cacophony of incoherence...] Well, that was interesting!

> 1 tsp ... " [big piece of right corner missing]

SC, that might have been one teaspoon of vanilla. Or if you have it, one vanilla bean. Yum!

http://www.recipes-from-friends.com/forum.pl?frames=n;read=105132

Other recipes call for a tablespoon of cornstarch, as a thickening and smoothing agent.

> If not, then I guess I'm in the market for a new car. Dammit.

Boo, hiss! I hate shopping for cars. After this last abortive effort to purchase a new car, which left me $1300 in the hole and no car, I've been taking it easy for a while.

FG, losing a serpentine belt is a pain. I shoudl know, it's happened to me. However, for most cars it's a fairly simple fix. I wish you luck.

I too logged on to find >100 posts and wondered what on earth had been happening in the Salon.

* feeling very, very old

Phew, FG - that was an adventure and a half. I'm glad you found a decent place in which to go pop&kerplooey.

Well, FG, if you do have to replace the car, I hope it goes as well as the one we just got. Tom was looking in the classifieds while we were out having lunch during errands, and spotted a '92 Suburu Legacy for $650. He called, we checked it out, we got it for $500. It runs very well, the inside's pretty clean, except that the driver's and rear right shoulder belts are rather extensively dog-chewed. There's a few dents on the outside, but nothing too annoying. The only real problem with it is that it's a stick, and I currently don't have time to learn to drive it, so I'm just as stranded, grocery-shopping-wise, as before I got my license. sure, I can walk to the store, but there's only so much you can fit underneath a stroller (that Faith's technically too big for now, anyway...)

Congratters to Little Miss Nicky on her successful dissertating.

at FG's adventure.

Ummm. I'm kinda glad I wasn't here for the afternoon.

And now for a good whinge:

Those of you that have met me, do I have the words 'London Tour Guide - Stop me and ask one!' tattoo'd across my forehead and embroidered on my shirts? I walked the few hundred yards from work to cafe and four, FOUR, separate people stopped me to ask directions/ ask advice on places to eat/ ask whether the British Museum is free/ and ask really complicated directions plus advice on bus routes. I mean, how the hey would I know? Why do I look like I know? Today was a bit extreme, but this sort of thing happens to me every week. I wouldn't mind, only people seem to take it for absolute granted that I am going to be useful and aren't quite so delightedly grateful as I personally would be if a complete stranger kindly stopped and answered my complicated questions about navigating a very big city indeed.

And what I'm really cross about is the amount of boxes I moved single-handed this week despite being a five-foot-six girl in an office containing six-footer men (and I'm ILL, dammit); the way apparantly completely functional adult women nevertheless leave the loos in a state I'd spank a four-year-old, nay, a four-year-old pig with the runs, for leaving them in; and the fact that my insulin levels have turned out to be amazingly high. And I had to pay a private clinic to get my insulin tested in the first place, as the NHS couldn't be a**ed. Excuse me while I go out onto the balcony and scream very loudly indeed.

*goes to the balcony door and offers Ag a choice of of

WA on Canada: "Nobody seemed to identify themselves as Canadian but as Quebecois, Hindu, Scottish really but that was three generations back."

When I was over there I asked a "French" guy which part of France he was from. Funny, I thought Quebec was in Canada. Still despite all that it seems to work as a country. I like it at least.

Congrats to Nicky and d'E.