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

*very at missing Paul Weller

Do they have a Guilfest every year, Caer?

I would be keen to 'do' Elgar too - if it's on a night I can get into nodnoL.

for all the this morning - though bacon butties, orange juice and strong may also help.

The real age thing says that I'm 2 months younger than I actually am.

Though I have to say I don't feel it right now. I'm feeling very delicate after last night's excesses...

And I've got a couple of punnets of apricots for you Deskie, which never made it up to London.

I am trying to get packed for moving into the temporary flat on Monday. Fortunately it actually is fully furnished though I may take up a couple of my own knives anyway. The knives in rental properties are always crap. I am also taking lots of clothes and some books. I ought to take my CD player and some CDs. I really really ought to, since it is Proms season and listening to R3 in the summer is such a treat.

The plan is to leave here sufficiently tidy and clean that the letting agent can show people round as soon as I get the mortgage fixed. But there is a lot of fine-detail tidying to do, so I am taking it one room at a time.

Ok. Deep breath...

Bedroom - Check!
Bathroom - Check!

Ok. Other bedroom and kitchen next, I think.

B

Other Bedroom - Check!
Kitchen - Check!

So now it's just a case of packing what I have already sorted out into the car, and then sifting the the living room for things-to-take and things-to-hide.

Have I mentioned that I dislike housework?

Ben

I appear to be one year younger than my chronological age. The thingummy's main complaint about me is that I don't sleep enough. I know! But my body just doesn't want me to sleep for very long - I always wake up early. Grr.

That happens to me, David, if it is 7.00am I wake up. Simple as that. Late nights are a killer because I cannot catch up.

Kitchen - Check!
Hall - Check!
Living-room - Checkish...

.... There is a limit to what I can in fact hide, and a limit to how much I can cope with in the heat. I am just going to pack the PC into its bag, load up the car and go up to Z's.

I am SO looking forward to life not involving trecks up and down the M6 every weekend....

B

*comes through the library and heads for the samovar*

Meeting and study group at my house this morning. But at least it was cool last evening. I felt like chatting, too, but the site was giving error messages and looping at the signon. See you this afternoon.

The test won't work if you don't put in a region. So, I went back and clicked on North East. It knew I was lying, apparently, because it gave me an error message and asked me to try again later. My advise to the other non UKians is to whistle while you click a region to distract the computer.

I'm about six months younger than I am chronologically. Insert joke about feeling considerably OLDER today.

Have just finished reading the new Harry Potter. Well I never. I think the first three were the best three, nevertheless.

*looks around for something constructive to do with the rest of the afternoon*

**

*looks around for Ben*

Gosh that was a good meet. Or at least the bits I remember of it were excellent. Not so many people as before. But I do know that a lot of people who were going to make it couldn't, which was a shame.

Also it was so hot

And Jimster made some annoucements, they've got a development budget so there's going to be new smilies!

I must go to one of these official meets sometime. Ah well, instead I walked up through the woods and over the moors in blazing sunshine and read the new Harry Potter (picked up at Sainsbury's for slightly less than Amazon are charging).

I tried the age site thingy, but I don't know my height or weight, let alone cholesterol count.

OOoh yes you must do, they are just the most marvellous fun. Thuogh I've been to so many it's actually unusual to meet researchers I haven't meet before. Though it's always good to have a gossip with italics..

I am 1.3 years younger, but I could be even more so, if I had (a) remembered that salads are vegetables (doh) (b) realised that chicken isn't red meat (c) could remember what exercise is and oh yes (d) didn't smoke. Yes, well, I don't drink, do I? (hides glass of white wine on desk: I still maintain my weekly average is less than one unit, which is officially none).

Bagpuss, I am . I went to the meet. I left my home at midday. My home is about sixty miles from London. I arrived at the meet *TEN HOURS* later . So I spent most of yesterday drumming my heels in coach stations and thinking honestly I could *walk* faster than this coach is travelling at the moment.

On the other hand, I arrived so late that I only managed one drink (of lemonade, at that), which Z kindly bought for me, so on a cost-per-minute basis it was a cheap day out. There's really not much purchasing potential on a stationary coach.

DH managed to remember to feed the children while I was away, *and* finished HP6 (which I will be curling up with shortly). We had been checking out all the HP websites for predictions on Friday night, and devising our own. So my journey was punctuated with text messages telling me cryptic things like "One of your predictions was correct" and confirming Harry's OWL results. The ten hours just flew by.

Still ... it was nice to see some Salonistas, although I didn't realise Phil was Phil until after he'd gone .

I stayed overnight with Seraphina and spent a couple of hours pottering around the Thames in central London before starting my (trouble-free) journey home at 3pm. I have sunburnt toes, how bizarre is that? But something terrible happened on the coach home. I accidentally read a paragraph of serious HP6 spoilers in the Sunday paper I'd bought . I can't believe I was so stupid - it was printed *upside down*, I should have realised.

HP ... well, I re-read HP5 this week and found it less irritating than I remembered (I nearly picked up a pencil to start editing it myself the first time I read it). I like the whole HP thing though, the fact that a new book or film is a global event. We don't seem to get many pleasant global events nowadays.

Anyway, must go and write up the weekend before starting on HP6 and having an early night. Yes, that's really going to happen, isn't it?!

Mol

The Beeb did a programme about brain sex tonight - you can find out here if you have a male or female brain:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/index_cookie.shtml

My score is towards the male end of female - which will make more sense if you take the test.

I am 0.4 years older.

And I am somewhat unisex.

I'm towards the female side of male, but more male than female.

Which makes sense.

I swear my score on these things has changed recently.

Which also makes sense.

Well! No new thread today. I had good intentions but ... things ... kept occurring.

Oh well, I'll go to sleep then.

Where does such emotion as guilt come from? It doesn't seem to be related to which I do or don't, it's more like if I am in this mood I can feel guilty about whatever. Does it make sense? Is guilt a part of selfpitying?

I tend to see guilt as taking blame for something. I think one can feel quilty without the self-pity component.

I scored smack dab in the middle on the brain sex test.

All of a sudden, the word 'blame' just looks really bizarre to me.