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

The woman missing the money asked me not to report it to the police. She doesn't want to have to make a report. She lives out of state and travelled about 230 miles to be here and help with the dedication exhibits. It's upsetting.

I got an email from an exgf of mine from high school yesterday. just spent the last 3 hours catching up on IM. Wow, a lot has happened. For Marv's sake, I will clarify who it is, pre-M.

So the BF and I went to dinner tonight, and had a decent time, even if we did talk about politics!

And afterwards, a department store was having a HUGE sale, so we went shopping. I bought 3 pairs of shoes -- I love shoes -- and two skirts. All of them were super cheap. I got the Ralph Lauren skirt I've been admiring for months (but wouldn't pay the price) for 27 bucks.

I am a happy, happy girl.

[p] - up early on a sunday and wondering waht to do...

Me too, Phil. Think it'll probably be a day in the garden - or tackling the ironing mountain while The Archers omnibus is on.

* MR
I wish I could get shoes to fit my peasant's feet. I feel like one of Cinderella's sisters in most shoe shops - nothing fits. And I'm difficult to please - I want a good fit AND comfort.
Why is it the the first 'fashion' compromise most women make is in footwear? My sister and I fear that we're turning into our mother - from the feet up.

I'm a bit cavalier about names. Pronunciation and spelling. It comes from having a surname from birth which people can neither spell nor pronounce, although it was short enough that they'd have a stab at it - and get it completely wrong. Unfortunately, the sitcom 'Keeping up appearances' rather spoiled it for me: there's a woman in it who insists that 'Bucket' is pronounced 'Bouquet'. My surname looked as though it could be pronounced 'Boil', so that's what everyone did, and when gently corrected would say 'Oh, like the Bucket woman on TV' which really ticked me off. There was also the issue of trying to persuade people to stick the two dot's over the 'i' (like 'nieve'). To date I only have one official document where they managed to do that though.

Then I went to Russia, and of course had everything spelled in cyrrilic script. My surname miraculously got spelled phonetically, so everyone could pronounce it - but Russians don't use surnames much. You are either first name, or in formal situations, first name and patronymic (Boris Yelsin is Boris Nicholiyevitch, for example). Which foreigners don't really have, although as my father's name (it's based on your father's name, natch) is Paul, we can get 'Pavelovna', and B went through a stage of using my second name when introducing me when he didn't want to explain how foreign I was, so I was Anna Pavelovna for a while. This was particularly useful as the Russian's couldn't do my first name. Pronunciation or spelling (too many sounds/ letters which don't exist). For visa purposes, and in terms of people trying to get their mouths round it, I've been Hizzer, Hidder, Hedder, Hitter and Hiter, and you have to imagine the pron of 'H' as the 'ch' sound in 'loch'. Oddly enough, though, never 'Ever, which is what it is in my home town when you allow for their inability to do 'th' and habbit hof hdropping htheir haitches.

Then I accidently changed my name when getting married (don't ask). No problem in Russian, obviously, it's a nice Russian name. Although then work asked me to use my maiden name so they didn't have to keep reassuring students that I am actually foreign. But in this country it's too long for anyone to have a stab at, despite the fact that if you did say it out syllable by syllable it is phoneticly spelt. But they see the 'dts' towards the end and evidently decide it's a consonant cluster too far, so I am now 'Mrs I'm sorry I can't pronounce you name'.

What gets me is that when phoning people up and they ask my name I, after long years of practice with my old name just said it and started spelling it immediately. Then they don't believe that it is actually 'dts'. Then they tell me it won't fit on the data base (I have a fairly long first name too). Then they get all confused by the fact that I then have to explain that B's surname is one letter different to mine (female/ male versions). Then they ignore that anyway and call him/ address all our mail to Mr and Mrs Female Version of the Name - as it's me who does most of the interacting on our family's behalf.

To be frank, after we've gone through all of that - and it's taken me a year's worth of bills to get BT even approximately close, except for the one time they got the names right but changed the flat number - I haven't the energy to get into the Mrs/ Ms debate with companies/ utilities/ the government, and just let them choose. My middle name is also going by the board and B has given up on his patronymic, although I feel a bit bad about that as he says he feels like he is dishonouring his (dead) father by letting people leave it out on official documentation.

I've told B that I confidently predict that any grandchildren we might concevably have will have given up long ago and chopped the name off before the suffixes.

I know what you mean about the bucket thing. I get that alot too, my surname is Cassell but its pronounced castle. it dates back to Germany somewhere so it should really be Kassell. I get the bucket/bouquet thing all the time when i correct people. I dont get why though when cassell sounds posher than castle!

Im up this morning for church, im in the creche today which will be fun!

I think im coming down with something again, ive got a really bad cough and im coughing stuff up. My asthma has decided to annoy me too!

Think its Calella's fault!

H says that he told me so when I told him that Phil agreed I didn't need a new PC. I just want one, that's all. *sulk*

As for a Mac, not entirely practical because as far as I'm aware (and I could very well be wrong) you can't tinker with the innards or build them from scratch. My pcs have to be kickass gaming machines as well as a business one, which is why we tend to the build them. Also the family are Cisco/MS trained, which makes it easier to stick to an OS that I know will get fixed when necessary. Mac designs are so funky though and I'm dead impressed with a friend's top of the range laptop, she is a graphics designer.

Went shopping yesterday and fell in love with two pairs of Clark's summer shoes. I shall be going back to get those Hless

Morning all.

<>

Yeah but Z, do you really want to live in a Conservation area, as it will be when Longbridge goes to the wall?

Morning all

B

Morning it is...

Indeed.

Today is Dedication Day. I'll post a report in my journal either tonight or in the morning.

Help help, I am being forced to sort through and tidy the appalling pile on top of the cupboard in the living room while S goes to the supermarket...

B as for your immovable lightbulbs - my parents have those. They have to use a little sucker on a stick to 'grab' the bulb, and then they twizzle the stick to unscrew the bulb, pull the bulb off the sucker, stick new bulb on sucker, and twizzle in reverse (elzziwt?). Or do as my stepdad does and smash the bulb to get a grip on the metal bit the filament came out of. One day he will cut and electrocute himself in one fell swoop.

My ear felt better yesterday and is now sore again today. I am sulking.

Good luck, Hypatia . I hope it all goes to plan.

Major project ahead today, thoroughly cleaning the kids' room. Skipping church to do so.

Teutcher, unless you wear something over a size 10 US, you can find shoes here. I got a pair of everyday summer sandals, a pair of dressy brown sandals, and a pair of sequined flipflops. The later to go with a skirt I bought...

Is that bad, to have shoes you buy to go with only ONE outfit? I simply can't resist shoes. I just can't.

I have the following shoes:
1 pr sneakers
1 pr dress shoes
2 pr boots (one dress pair, one cold weather)
2 pr sandals (one for around the house, one for outside)

I need to get rid of the dress boots, can't remember the last time I actually wore them.

Shoes. Hmm. I must be missing a girl gene. I own a scruffy pair of trainers, a smart pair of suede trainers, one pair of ankle boots, one pair of flip flops, one pair of very elderly plimsolls. And a sort of shoe graveyard containing the very broken walking boots that need throwing out, the red suede boots that need resoling, the neat little shoes that give me horrible big blisters, and the very smart Victorian governess lace-up ankle boots I wore for my wedding. I hate buying shoes and get quite cross about it when I absolutely have to.

Oh, and the big sheepskin boots (like woolly wellies) I got long before ug boots became fashionable and will still have long after people go what? when ug boots are mentioned. They make great slippers in really cold weather and are machine washable.

Mr Elephant - hope you enjoy the series! Let us know what you think
Marv - aye, for sure, it ain't too different from when you caught it. But now people tell me I got some facts wrong >_<
Lil - I owe you an email pronto, for sure. Things been happening!