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

Sacre Bleu!

[GDZ]

I once got very arm wavy when a Russian collaugue mentioned how refreashing she found Bush's constant referal to his God in his speaches. Actually, perhaps 'touching' is a better word. Personally, I find it genuinely quite shocking.

Well done on breaking the barrier, Ag! Keep up the momentum!

As Ag intimated it's my ambition to build a house too - probably a bloke thing going back to our pre-historic instincts. I'd be happy to restore a derelict (perhaps a first step to see if I'm up to it before trying a whole house from scratch) - although finding a building to meet my desires may well be trickier.

One of the main reasons I want to self-build is to get a decent basement/cellar, which they don't seem to do in UK.

We love Grand Designs too, building our own home is a somewhat unobtainable dream as the price of land is astranomical in the SE. H would aslo be good at a self-build or property development as he can turn his hand to most things. Failing that he is good at project management. We can but dream.

It is odd, but according to my Dad we have never got the hang of building proper water tight cellars in the UK until the last few years. It's a booming business 'retro-fitting' basements, costs a small fortune though.

The Church was the State for centuries and I don't think it's quite got over not being so. Is the CofE still the largest landowner in GB?

Got a little packing to do today as H and I are off to see friends tomorrow and staying over.

Well done, MR. You are an inspiration. I must try to accomplish something today - my eyes are a bit better but I'm still feeling quite poorly.

d'E, does Gummo have a grass seed stuck between his toes? Mind you, dogs and cats will go onto three legs at the slightest problem, just because they can.

My dad has built two house from scratch (and all by himself, no subcontracting). He started the first one when I was four and we moved in when I was nearly eleven. I gained by having unrivalled access to a building site but we had no family holidays or days out and I rarely saw my dad.

Like many men, I suspect, he preferred (and prefers) the creation of the structure and lost interest when it came to the decorative parts. Neither building has ever been finished off beyond the barest minimum required for the council to sign it off as habitable. The second house is better finished than the first because my sister-in-law kept a careful eye on him and vetoed design decisions where it was obvious he was being cheap or just being a bloke.

It seems to me that building your own home takes three times as much money as you expect and four times as much time.

[SG V] 'ning

Hello all. V. tired. Not sleeping well. I think I'll try to build a barricade of physiology text books (the biggest and heaviest volumes in the library, for some reason) around my desk and sleep behind that. No-one will notice, will they?

D

*whisper* It's my non-birthday today. I'm thinking of looping back round and being 17 all over again.

Today is also the day the Titanic sank, Leonardo Da Vinci's birthday, and Tax Day in the states. Fun fun fun!

Velcro on kilts! Now I *am* hyperventilating - with horrified shock!

I am extremely heterodox about kilts: I saw a really cool canvas utility kilt being worn by one of the blokes running the pub we Met in while on the Scottish Tour at Easter. At first I thought it was leather, which would have been even cooler, but it turned out to be canvas. But I think trad kilts should be just that - traditional, with belts and buckles and sporrans and so on, and non-trad kilts being just about anything goes, velcro included, if needs be..

I *am* a stickler on length though - just above the knee. Anything else is pants. Well, anything else is a skirt, really. But still pants. (Oh I am getting myself all confusled now).

But velcro? C'mon....! I think NOT.

Ben

Probably not, just make sure you build the baricade well. You don't want to be hurt or killed by a rogue textbook!

Grand Designs is well, grand. A lovely idea to build something unique for us, but probably cost far too much and the planners wouldn't like something new to be put up in the area where we are.

The ice cream van round our way plays the Liberty Bell March (you know the one from Monty Python). MMMM, ice cream. We must make our way out to some more of the farms that make lovely ice cream in the country near us.
I do like living on the edge of the countryside

Hi everybody!

Mrs. D and I watch Grand Designs regularly... I mostly watch it for the "how the Hell are they going to pull off THAT stupid idea?" factor.

I've no real desire to build a house but if we could get the cash together it would be nice to convert. I like old stuff.

Happy non-birthday Kat!

Ice cream vans in Swindon play the almost-but-not-quite-identifiable jingly-jangly tune.

<>

I've got a kilt with velcro on... but it's my LARPing kilt so it doesn't count.

Kat, does that mean you are 18 today?

J is very, very good at practical projects, his big problem is time. When we moved into our current house he ripped out the ensuite bathroom, knocked down walls, rebuilt them in different places, did all the first fix and plumbing and most of the decoration (he doesn't mind this bit) all on his own. I am justifyably very proud of him A few weeks ago he built us a bed from scratch. He ikes to have an ongoing project to keep him busy, and I am running out of power tools to get him as presents - starting to get into the realms of heavy-duty stuff now! Trouble is, the new bathroom took the best part of a year to get finished in the half-weekend pockets of time he had available.

He is trying to plan our finances so that he could take a year off of work to build his own place, but I don't think that is a realistic proposition given that we plan to have children *relatively soon. His current idea is to build us an extension so he can learn everything he needs to in order to build a house.

Am going to get him a subscription to the Grand Designs magazine as a wedding present.

MR, well done for getting that lot finished! I am frequently achieving precisely nothing at the moment

k

*within the next three years - although I'd get knocked up on the honeymoon if he'd let me

Happy birthday, Kat! I'm sure no one minds you being 17 again. I've been 27 for several years now .

Hrmphrmphrmphrmph.

*Considers inspecting Mr D's kilt, but decides that might upset Mrs D*

Hrmphrmphrmphrmph.

*Rolls eyes at Ben*

I dunno... some people, eh?

It means my passport believes I'm 18 but I don't think I'm grown up enough to be 18 so I'm going to be 17 until I feel old enough to be 18...so basically when I've got my act back together and am doing something rather than hiding behide severe depression, BPD and whatever else I might like to have at that second...

ooh a present! *shakes it* There's a very thin one from Mikey under the table mat...because I'm still pretending that it's not my birthday. I can't decide if I deserve a birthday or not, and whether it's something to be pleased about, and...anyway you don't all need to know all that.

Oh...dad's just pointed out that according to Einstein's theory about time I'm not actually 18 yet because I flew *backwards in time* when I flew to Seattle so I have to wait for it to be gone 7:30am here now. It's only 2am!

Dad got mam a subscription to Grand Designs. She was tickled pink, which just shows what my family is like. I think it's the planning and potential that she likes more than the actual doing. So she has many build-your-own-house things as well as many gardening books...

Kat

Well, I wouldn't be 18 again if you paid me! I was driving in to work this morning and found myself thinking how much *easier* life is now I've grown up. Yes, the stakes are higher, but at least I get to call most of my own shots.

Now - do I get from the machine, (which I amn't hungry for, and don't *really* want), or do I go downstairs for a ciggy?

Ben

{[J'au]}