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

Is it wrong to send your child to bed just so you can turn in early?

Only if you insist on her actually going to sleep! I spent many nights reading until the wee hours of the morning, long after my parents had sent me to bed. Regretted it the next day, of course.

for Santra - I *hate* losing my purse because the disruption is so huge. Had my handbag nicked in Hamburg once, appropriately.

for GDZ - you deserve it!

for sizing. The average woman's size in the UK is a 16, but the fashion stores only go up to 16, and then only if you are lucky. A2973855 has some interesting rants about sizing.

I am feeling more on top of things at the moment, and not before time!

Ben

[tartaronne] still behind with the blog after spending three days playing with grandson

X/X in latin test. I think I have what you call A-levels from 35 years ago - and a bit of French and Italian.

Now I'm going to cast my vote for the 'leftests' party running. A coalition of socialistic and marxistic parties. The candicates do a good job in parliament although they only have a few seats.

They have a young woman in front. Former bz and punker. She says: Don't ask me if it can be done - (i.e coming through with the ideals for a better society.) Of course it can be done. Only a hundred years ago people thought that it was impossible to have women vote and secure old age pensions for everybody....

I really admire her. She thinks straight and optimistic and doesn't let herself be goaded into all the old-men's-muddle.

Yay, GDZ! Go for it! And I meant to say that you should go for the girl too! The only way a girl likes being asked out by personable young men over any other way is often. So there too.

Nightmare day yesterday. Third tutor was ill, and you can see what a finely tuned machine our work is when the entire place spins out of control with the loss of one person for one day. *Grids loins.* Once more unto the breach, dear freinds...

US sizes are a size smaller than UK, US12=UK14 for example. Which is why I like shopping in GAP and Talbots.

H is working at home today, which will cramp my style , won't be able to have the radio on for a start.

I think a day of not quite so much running around. I'm going to go and pack up my old desk, I may even consider moving the stuff but it's probably not that urgent.
Hooray for Ellen MacArthur for sailing single handed (no that doesn't mean she had one hand tied behind her back ) round the world faster than anyone else

Confession 1: I like GAP... But then, I'm tall and thin as a (whatever you're thin as in decent English ) Actually, the whole family quite likes GAP. My bank account is quite pleased that I don't think there's one in Copenhagen

Actually, I bought stuff for all of us in the US. Matching shirt, T-shirt and scarf for the Mrs (all fit - how's that for husband talent - and all liked ), T-shirts for the kids. Only complaint so far is from 11. Her T-shirt is too long. It actually _meets_ her jeans

Confession 2: While I have a lot of respect for the young woman who gets tartaronnes vote, she doesn't get mine. She's one of the too few politicians today who is a politician out of a true political drive.

(btw, I dropped a short posting and a link to BBC's Q&A on the Danish election in the global politics thread)

As I have always done, I will be voting for a woman - not 100% decided but likely the current minister for the environment.

I hate loosing my wallet, it's scary how much stuff is in it, and how much it costs to replace it.

My clinic this morning is being cancelled so I'm spending my time in the common room doing bookwork and watching Trisha, (a cheap british version of Jerry Springer today it's 'I'll disown my daughter if she marries a transsexual..'

It's almost like being a undergraduate Arts students..

The sizing is different in every shop in the UK too Lentilla, or at least the cut is different - I can squeeze my way into a Next size 14 but won't contemplate attempting a M&S size 14 until I'm knocking on the door of a 12 in Next.

*and* I am FINALLY under twelve and a half stone - not a dehydrated fluke but really under 12'7 and been that way for 5 days. That is less than 175 pounds for our US chums and under 80 kilos for our European friends. Never been here before (except on the way up) so am really quite chuffed.

Santra, hard luck losing the wallet That *really* sucks, especially as it sounds like you have misplaced it rather than had it stolen. You know it'll turn up again about a week after you have stopped and replaced everything?

Good suggestion about the Ant Art ltp - amy could you take a photo of the picture? It won't be as good as scanning it in but would give us an idea

k

Congratulations Kelli

Wow, Kelli! Respect!

Z - I find it makes me very smug to contemplate something I found out when I was an Arts undergraduate (yes, I did get up late when I didn't have lectures and slob about listening to Radio 4 (didn't have a telly or it WOULD have been Trisha). Nevertheless, S, who was then a Science undergrad, and I once had a bit of a tiff about the whole 'lazy Arts students get away with doing b****rall all day while we Science students spend all day in lectures and labs' thing. So we counted up exactly how many hours S spent working a week, including studying, time in library, essays etc. It came out at about 35 hours a week. He was a dedicated lad, bless him. Then we worked out how many hours I spent at work. It came out at 40 hours a week! HAha! and probably more most weeks becasue I was mad keen on getting through my reading lists! Hahahahah! Caveat - I do know that medicine students get the longest hours of all. But I did so like not being a stereotype after all.

Clothes. Oy vey. I am a size 16. Or 18. Or in a few shops a 20. Sometimes I have a 18 bust and a 16 bottom. Other shops, I am the other way round. So I always have to try on - there's no way I can swan in, pick up a 16 and swan out again. Aren't the lighting and mirrors in changing rooms just the worst? Don't they want us to like what we look like in their stupid jeans? And then the shops that won't stock anything above a 14 or a 16. Swine. One huge selling point of the place where I got my wedding dress was the assistant's lovely lovely attitude. They didn't have the particular dress I wanted in my size (they did have others!) so I had to try on a size 12 with the lady holding it shut at the back. Humiliating, you'd think. But no, her attitude was entirely 'the silly dress is too small, but look at your lovely waist' and not as alas I have too often suffered 'you need the extra big fat cow dress, don't you? And I'm not leaving you alone with the stock, you might tear something trying to force it on.' Oh, and at the not-so-nice dress shop, the assistant loudly announced I was a 20 before I'd taken my (very bulky) coat off! I was so pleased when the 20 she brought me was too loose. Hah! And then she pinned me into a size 24 to see how flattering wearing a sack could possible be, announcing it would 'hide my waist', which it did, which is stupid, because I do actually have a good waist and really want to show it off.

Goodness, what a long rant. I was going to add something about havign to go to Rigby adn Peller for a very unattractive corsetty thing (looks mighty fine UNDER clothes). But I've bored you all long enough. Have some expensive . I am.

much sympathy (and I had many similar experiences so know whereof you speak) for you over the dress shop people. I get a bit cross when thin girls complain that they had to be pinned in to the size 14 sample so couldn't quite imagine how it would look in a 10. I can see how that can be annoying (like when they put you in a 24) but nowhere near as bad as not being able to get it on your body *at all* ("most of our samples are sizes 10 and 12, you are planning on losing weight aren't you?"), and then not being able to get *any* of the sample dresses on and trying to pretend you aren't crying as you skulk out of the shop to find a rock to crawl under. Ugh.

There were some good experiences too, but the bad ones are the ones that stick and nag at you at 3am...

Have started to look for substantive underpinnings, my search of figleaves for a basque in my size returned no results at all so I think I'll be heading to R&P to get one custom made, or not bothering at all and hoping that the boning in the dress is sufficient to keep the girls from sitting on my lap...

I don't know who is responsible for Next sizing, but hooray for them anyway. They seem to have a much better idea of the shape of women. Even my pear shape can find trousers to fit me there.

We have almost as much trouble dressing J because he is tall and skinny - will have to send him in to the Gap to see if their sleeves actually reach his wrists.

Kelli, my cousin who got married five years ago told me the perfect thing to say to the shop assistants from hell. She's a big girl too, and had the whole, 'well, we've only got a 12, you are going to lose some weight for the big day aren't you?' So cousin simply said 'Lose weight? After it's taken me all this time to put it on? You must be joking.' The rest of the fitting took place in silence.

My (not at all clearly made) point about the ladies who thought I was bigger than I am was that though they had nicer dresses in stock, they only showed me the specially-made-for-large-ladies ones, which were too large, and the normal dresses were too small, and I was stuck in this stupid limbo and despite the fact it's laudable that they do cater for big women, I so so hated being in the category of 'well, you could slim into the normal dresses or wear the on you unflattering big dresses, but no, you can't have a nice dress that fits, becasue you're too fat for that, and yet not fat enough to be allowed off the dieting hook' I found it quite stressful. I haven't been reduced to tears yet, simply because if they said all their samples were in a 12, I walked straight out of the shop without trying any at all. I'm not very brave.

R&P have the most wonderful variety of sizes, so you needn't necessarily have to get a custom-made underpinning. I always found figleaves a little unhelpful too, and I'm not that unusual a size, so R&P may well be the bunnies for you.

The thing about being in that not-ready-for-the-specially-designed-huge-dresses-yet-too-big-for-the-samples is that the dresses *do* come in perfectly reasonable sizes, but some dress shops choose not to get in any samples of those sizes. Why? Is it that they make enough money off the slimmer girls to not care about alienating the bigger ones? It just doesn't make any kind of business sense to me. Maybe over the years they have found that their revenue is higher if they have to squeeze people into things that are too small rather than pin them into dresses that are too big? There must be some reason for it...

Anyway, enough whinging

The pups graduated from puppy school last night - they have certificates to prove it

"I'll disown my daughter if she marries a transsexual"...

... well you could always refer to that in a chat-up line!



Oh, and Kelli, Contessa have a lovely line in basques, cup sizes, underwires, matching knickers and all. I bought the black one because I just look grubby in cream, but look creamy in black, but they are sure to do pretty white ones.

And what Ag said about the inconsistency in English sizing.

B

Just been to look - Contessa don't have anything in my size either They seem to stock most of the manufacturers that specialise in bras for the, ahem, gifted but still no joy on the basque front. They do have some nice bras that will fit, a bit cheaper than bravissimo and figleaves too

"You know it'll turn up again about a week after you have stopped and replaced everything?" Yes - and it'll be a week no matter how long you wait, won't it?

Well, to give it a chance, I got a temporary driver's license this morning - no fee involved yet *crosses fingers*

But credit cards etc are due for renewals - once they're blocked, you must get new ones. And new pin codes