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

A dishwasher, eh? You wusses. You wimps. I have a dishwasher in this house and I have never used it. Never. I store watercolor bowls -- old margarine tubs and so forth in the top section, and a few pan lids in the bottom.

Washing the dishes is my zen activity. Even now, in my weakened state, I wash up, dry the dishes and put them away, run a cloth around my tiny counter area and feel serene.

Some call it smug but I say serene.

You say that now, Marv, but I've known at least 1 other confirmed baby-hating bachelor who is now a happily married father. Anyone know/remember Evil Roy? I still say that one reason he didn't swing over to Sacramento when he was in San Fran for the second time in 2005, as planned, was that he learned that his travelling companion and I were conspiring to get a photo of ER holding Faith (OK, so in reality, his travelling companion, also an Aussie, had an unexpected chance to visit with his brother again). Then again, ER *was* a decade or more older than you, Marv, when he met his wife...

I remember Evil Roy Met him in Melbourne, actually. No women or babies around him at that time...

Mornin All

Cloudy and damp.

It's always the way, isn't it? Confirmed bachelor/ spinster points out that s/he hates weddings and doesn't ever want to marry. Everyone leaps in to tell him/her s/he hasn't met the right girl/boy/humanoid yet. Confirmed bachelor again points out, no, really, not going there. Everyone brings up anecdotes of other confirmed bachelors who did eventually meet the right humanoid and who are now happy as Larry (who on earth is Larry, anyway?). Stalemate.

I have to say, I know three Confirmed Bachelor/Spinsters who finally succumbed to the right humanoid. One is deliriously happy, and decorating the nursery, one is OK, but does point out it only works as a marriage because her husband leaves her the heck alone most of the week, and one got divorced eight months later.

I'm happily married myself, to one of the sweetest, most easy-going men in Britain, and I still have days when I think 'S, dear-heart, you have made me tea, and done the washing-up, and praised my cooking, and let me watch Star Trek: Next Generation, and smiled as I drooled all over Patrick Stewart, and put on a load of laundry, and now you are quietly working on your photographs next door, and I STILL want you to GO AWAY.' Marriage is hard on the congenitally anti-social. Despite the obvious and sometimes lavish benefits.

Favourite cooking appliance - torn between bread machine (we've had it seven or eight years and use it every week) and fancy Italian espresso and cappucino maker, which is noisy, and a pig to clean, and requires Zen patience and Niels Bohr cleverness to master. But, you know, it makes good coffee. (For me. S can't master it at all. He makes English tea-room coffee with it. But I can't remonstrate, as he doesn't like coffee himself and is only doing it as a favour).

Oh, and I love my knives too. Specifically the medium 'normal' knife. I use it for almost everything.

Marv, I have to say, it surprised the hell out of me, when I ended up married. Never planned on it at all. 'Course, M was the nicest and most laid-back man I've ever known. He's a tough act to follow, so doubt I'll ever wed again.

Favorite appliance? My electric kettle (and not just because it's almost the only kitchen item I kept when I moved up here).

Phil, sorry I didn't wish you a Happy B'Day sooner! Hope it was fab. or , your choice...

[wanders off to brew up a spot of ]

Enjoy your week of nights, Tod
Hope the flitting goes well, Mini

Kitchen equipment, hmm. I'm lost without my Sabatier knives and recently discovered how awkward it it to be without a kettle.
Always used to think how fab it would be to have an oven which cleaned itself - and now I have one, I'm too scared to use that function.
I suppose my current favourite appliance, if you can call it such, is the electronic scale that calculates weight and calories and stores everything in its memory.

Thinking about kitchen equipment, and Lil's zen moments at the sink, started me wondering about favourite and abhorred kitchen tasks.
I love prepping veg - and hate cleaning oven tins, being stupid enough to have bought one of the few types which can't go in a dishwasher.

I admire your upfront stance, Marv; it's honest and unequivocal. Too many girls find themselves years into a relationship with Men Who Won't Commit - #2 being a recent casualty.

Ag, Hyp and I are S's number one fans. What a lovely, lovely man - and so patient and kind with your elderly friends

And now - I'm off to pack. Am meeting Mr T off the Beijing flight and we're going to Lyon for a few days. He has meetings - and I have a couple of good books. At least we'll have a few hours together.
Will do a Santra, if I get a chance.

Good luck with the de-fleching, Ben.

Hmmm.. I like my knives too, Global, Porsche, MAC and Sabatier. The Sabatier cook's knife and Global paring knife get the most use. Two latest gadgets are the electronic scales that hang hang on the wall when not being used and a tab grabber for holding recipes.

Dang that second hang.

My knife is my most used kitchen thing. Had it since I was a student and it's still going strong. There bays I guess the electronic scales are the most usefull item. Xf use them all the time weighing out stuff so I know what I'm eating.

Off for some days learning. How to support mac os x. It's not like it's been my job for the last few years...

I was startled to discover I'm an introvert the other day, sure, I like people and am fairly good at socialising, but socialising drains my batteries and being on my own charges them. That's why I like driving so much.

Anthony Storr wrote an excellent book called "Solitude" saying that as a society we value sociability to the point where we use it to assess mental health, but that you can be mentally healthy, helthier in some cases, and prefer your own company. Look at me, sane as a badger and happy as larry on my own with the cat and an unspecified number of fleas. (Incidentally I was highly amused by your story Kerr about being flea-ridden in the Very Important Meeting, did it jump on to the Very Important Person?)

The monitor on my pc is buggered, and my work-pc won't VPN in to work any more. This means I need to drive there and back to plug in to the network for a 15 second update so that it will condecend to VPN in again. It's not the driving, it's the parking.

Whinge. Moan. Gripe. At least I've got a job to go to. Half full. Cheerie-cheerie-cheeriness.

Actually, I do mean all the above. I love my job.

B

>>Hope the flitting goes well, Mini>>

*wonders if 'flitting' is in any way related to the Swedish word 'flytta' (to move) considering the context T used the word in*

New word learnt today (had to look it up): Cerebellum

...thanks to Calvin and Hobbes

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2009/05/19/

I've thought that before, and I think it must be, there's a collection of meanings around movement: flight, flighty, flit, flitting, fly, flea, fled, etc. Must be connected.

A fly and a flea in a flue... etc.

Right. Phone call then drive in to update PC then drive home then work.

Sorry to have missed Phil's Birthday. Here is a specially designed Chinese fighting kite. With added razorblades. Just don't press the orange button.

Favourite kitchen appliance. Hand held blender. Splendid thing. Surprising how many things it can cope with. Less keen on it since it nearly took the end of my finger off. Still, serves me right for sticking my finger inside it and pressing the on button. What? I was attempting to clear a blockage caused by an experiment to see if it would cream flour and butter (no).

Have a dishwasher. Don't use it. Unfortunately we get our hot water all in at extortinate cost, and the dishwasher, of course, runs on the also extortionately priced electricity. Mind you, for the man hours I spend washing up at the moment... Have just finished washing up after making the Star scrambled eggs. Two pans and a saucepan. Assorted cutlery. Chopping board. Spatula. Grater. Plastic items such as plates, cups, distraction aids and suction pads. My bowl of wheatabix. My coffe cup.

Tommorrow he gets cereal.

In a past life I was clearly the man hiding behind the newspapaer at the breakfast table refusing to talk to anyone. Not sure that the worst thing about current job is the neeed to be jolly before coffee. And the very small amount of coffee I am allowed to be jolly on.

A Russian doing a bad impression of a Russian doing a bad impression of a Russian, Kerr? Oh that has made my week.

[LTP]confirmed bachelor, (but is happy with a mistress's type relationship)
Favourite kitchen appliance: Microwave

-*wonders if 'flitting' is in any way related to the Swedish word 'flytta' (to move) considering the context T used the word in*-

The linguistic links between the north-east of Scotland and Scandinavia are a constant delight to me, Ti.

Apparently it's from the old Norse word - flytja


Any chance of wo*k stumping up for a new monitor, Ben?

Had an idea this morning. Perhaps those of us currently unemployed in the UK, myself included, should think of becoming MPs? It seems there may be a number of vacancies in the offing

Must. Go. Pack.

Bon Voyage, Teuchter, enjoy Lyon

I'm sitting right across the table from a colleague who comes from Lyon. Should I solicit input for good places to go, Teuchter?

Oh, and we discussed Facebook speaking Pirate recently. In the languages available area, there's now an anti-virus programme speaking Klingon (link disappeared, sorry) and Google now also speaks cartoon-ish:

http://www.google.com/intl/xx-elmer/