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

{Courtesy}

*tiptoes cautiously around the backlog*

Do come to the meet, Teuchter. It is going to be hot and horrible, but full of friends.

I spent today cleaning the flat with Carol-the-cleaner. On Monday I move into a temporary flat in Halifax, well just outside Halifax, and my logistics over the next few days suck like a great big sucky thing. A giant vacuum-cleaner perhaps, or a baby black hole.

I've got to take books and my CD player and some music and clothes and things up to Birmingham tomorrow so I can take them up to West Yorkshire on Sunday, (oh... my... god... I need a B&B for Sunday night... ) and I am trying to sort out the logistics on the flat here so its ready for the agent to show people round without me necesarily having to come back before they do so. In practice, I think I'll be back before then but I want to not have to be, so I want to leave it looking clean and tidy even if it isn't.

So *lots* to do before driving to Birmingham and taking the train to London tomorrow (it seemed like a good idea at the time...).

The temporary flat has a phone, so I infer that it has a phone line. This will at least give me internet access in the evening, which means I should be 'back on net' as my dear Pa used to say a million years ago. He meant the radio network. He'd have loved the Internet.

Tonight Z and I are off to the poshest restaurant in Cheltenham for a celebratory meal. I almost lost out on his graduation altogether yesterday because of a migraine. He yanked me off, wincing at loud noises and sunshine, to his GP who gave me a script for some more horse-pills. We think we scared the receptionists, because I kept on going into the loo to be sick while we were waiting. They produced (1) a glass of water (2) a plastic bag to be sick in if there was someone else in the loo and (3) a sharps bin (empty) to be sick in if I didn't fancy the plastic bag all in the space of about 90 seconds, and then hustled me into the consultation room in the time it takes to growl 'queue-jumper'.

But at first it looked as if the horse pills hadn't worked, and I'd miss the celebrations. Fortunately after a snooze they did, and it was a lovely day. His family seem almost normal, you know. You really shouldn't listen to half of what he says about them!

Apart from that, it is just TOO HOT! I am an English , with a penchent for scandinavia. I prefer -20 to +20 any day of the week, and its nudging up around 30 at the moment. I don't do hot.

Ok. That's me. I'll nuzzle around the backlog for a bit, and catch up with y'all when I've got a phone line next week.

ya all.

Group

B

Ben! - we missed you.

I also admit to having a penchant for the expletive 'F***wit'. We refer to our neddy neighbours as the Kwits. Funny how they all have the same first name though - Fu.

My neighbors are a mixed bunch. There's some college students living all together, three sets of elderly snowbird couples (the wife of one of the couples is this frail, skinny little thing who swears like a sailor; she goes out in her backyard and screams obsenities at another neighbor's dog who craps in their yard), and one family with a dog named Charles. They don't call him Charlie or Chuck, only Charles. When they try to get him to come in at night you can hear them shouting "Charles! Charles! Oh, Charles!". It sounds like they're calling for their butler.

I learned f*ckwit back in the late 70's when I lived in Birmingham, from my friends. Along with slightly more moderate epithets like 'twit' (possible a contraction of the word for some other kind of wit) and 'prat', which I believe is a twit with malice aforethought.

Hooray for cute kitten pictures. It beats having to look at cuteness through streaming alergic eyes. I like the "fearless" Goldie picture, good enough to compete on http://www.ratemykitten.com/.

Good luck with that, Amy. In my experience everywhere you apply for a job throws in some extra requirement, just to make life difficult for you.

Whatever goes around comes around. The teenagers at the shopping centre were yelling 'wicKED' at each other this afternoon. I used to think that that was somewhat outdated (and marked the user out as a bit of a wazzock (how's that word for dating an adolescence) in 1990. And here it is again, in exactly the same tone of voice. Except I don't think we ever said anything was m*****f***ing wicKED. *sigh* We'd've been spanked and grounded.

I am listening to Mendelssohn (hurrah for the Proms) on BBC1 and have been shelling peas. Very peaceful and domestic despite the lack of S (but hurrah! I can watch SF and detective shows all evening). He has said he wants to escape from the Fete Worse than Death in the afternoon and come to the getting-hopelessly-drunk part of the London Meet. Bless.

*pauses, and can be seen vaguely conducting the last movement of the Violin Concerto and smiling dreamily*

Oh dear, I wish I liked Tippett this much. I feel I'm somehow letting the side down by sidling away to another channel. But my heart is almost entirely Medieval through Baroque in its resonances and not many composers after Beethoven get much of a look in. Except Elgar. Elgar I like.

Lil, I promise I am TRYING to paint something for you. At the moment it's ghastlily blobby, so I'm going to try and do another version with less oopses.

I'm making mistakes too. But it's enormously relaxing to play with.

Re neighbours - our nice ones, immediately next door, have gone on holiday for 3 weeks leaving their two sons 'home alone'. I agreed to keep an eye on things - especially the watering of fruit and veg plots in hot weather.

Now, these guys are both in their twenties - so should be quite capable of looking after things but aren't. I've been steeling myself to 'have words' with them about a number of things, including the delightful stench of dog crap wafting across the fence.

Anyhow - I was through there just now, checking on the progress of the hose I turned on earlier, and had a very pleasant and non-confrontational chat with Boy 2, the upshot of which is that they will deal with all the plants and hanging baskets on the patio and I will tackle the rest of the garden. That should save me quite a bit of time in the evenings - I was finding that by the time I came in from work, watered their garden, watered my own and made our dinner - it was just about time for bed.

with your logistical problems Ben - my domestic concerns seem minute in comparison.

*waves* at everyone, especially Teuchter and Agapanthus.

Good luck with the house hunt Mr D. When A finds out if he's got funding for his PhD I think we'll be doing the same thing. GOsh. Except we're not married.

I had a lovely graduation. Apart from Ben getting a migrane. I'm really lucky to have a GP that does same day appointments.

There's a move towards saying that ceremonies such as weddings are graduations are meaningless today. But I think that's missing the point. I do now actually feel like a grown up graduate.

The only disapointment was that the Hippocratic Oath isn't called the Hippocratic Oath any more. Instead it was called 'Duties of a Doctor'. Still it was nice and I did feel that it meant something.

I also feel actually feel like a graduate now. I feel that I'm not conning myself. I keep staring at the certificate to check that it's actually true.

I'm a slave of time!

Cyde

Congratulations Z.

Hi Ben.

Good luck Amy.

I hope everyone who is going to the meet tomorrow has a grand time.

Ok, David. I have put the correct collective noun for librarians question to some folks. Here are the suggestions:

catalog
volumn
knowledge
organization
brain
dream
collection
site
encyclopedia
service
inventory
research
memory...and the predictible
shush

It has given us an enjoyable day, at least.

[tartaronne ] has hopefully made the final editings of the finally edited articles of the final cut

In short. I think my work is done. I really don't make any sense, do I? I'll go see a thriller on tv and then sleep for twelve hours.

[GDZ]

i missed the online mmorpg talk, but i just want to say come october it will be 3 years now that i've been playing ffxi. huge time sinks, but you can say that about anything, really.

Ag, my heart is firmly sailing on La Mer with Debussy. That is, when it's not eating goulash (all of the Salon versions!) and listening to Brahms' Hungarian Dances.

*off to meet up with Marv and MR at the Harp, a local Irish pub*

Courtesy

I'm glad you're becoming a full-time Northerner, B. Some good local cuisine like Yorkshire puddings and keema madras will soon sort out your poorly stomach.

I'm off for a week at the seaside later today. I'll be staying in the holiday flat my parents hire at Lytham St. Annes. I've just picked up my holiday reading matter from a special midnight opening at my local bookshop.
I can report that the Prime Minister gets a mention in the first sentence of 'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince'. Personally, I thought Voldemort was a scary enough baddie. No need to bring Blair into it too.

> Am now considering antibark collars. There are two kinds - ones that spray citronella when the dog makes a noise and ones that give them a shock.

Kelli, I've heard good things about the shock collars. It's not a big shock like a taser. It's just a little sting. The dog learns that if there's something important to bark at, it's okay to bark. But random barking at passerby is discouraged.

> buy a bog house that we can all live in as a family!

I envision a bog house as being like Baba Yaga's house - a shack on chicken legs, that occasionally travels to other locations.

> I'm debating whether to get World of Warcraft because I've heard it's ace

WOW is indeed ace. Say goodbye to your social life. Of course, everybody has been playing it for some time, and you'll have to do some catch-up.
> My uncle (the soon to be married one) 'cured' his doggie of barking at the neighbours by getting a water-pistol.

That's how we cured the cat of coming in the kitchen and yowling whenever anybody was doing anything. Eventually all we had to do was reach up to the top of the fridge and he would jet out of the room.

How about an index of librarians? Or a file of librarians?

I'm off for a week at the seaside too, I leave Saturday morning. Same sea, different side? I'll look really hard at the horizon to see if I can spot Ormy.

I think that makes 4 or 5 salonistas that will be away next week. It should be quiet around here.