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

Welcome to the Atelier! If you’ve just wandered here for the first time, be aware that we have a forum page at A304354, where you will learn about our customs, guidelines, and what this place looks like. As to who we are, that’s best discovered by plunging into the conversation and meeting us.

We have new members to welcome – hello to Apachama, to Neil-ogism and also to V! Not to mention a second Lil, the redoubtable Lil (ACE), to be known inside the salon as Lilac in order to avoid confusion. As David B noted, they have been duly warned about the rifts, the orange buttons, the blue fuzzy pants and the dangers of feeding carbs to the unaus. Which reminds me, we also welcome Flamedancer, our new wolf. Has anyone seen Diogenes lately?

Someone is always last to the forum, but should it really be Ormondroyd? He arrived at 1254, but has been MIA for so long that your hostess would rather bestow on him the Order of the Prodigal Entity. That leaves tartaronne... but she also has been away for yonks, albeit not as long as Ormy. I will leave the decision on this weighty matter to the salonistas.

To Wandering Albatross goes the Special Prize for Backlog Mastery. He returned from holiday to find about a thousand posts waiting for him, and manfully read them all. *Chloe hads WA a gilded baton which looks rather loggish when inspected closely, as well as a bottle of wine*

Great thanks to our scribes for assisting with the harvesting of high points, low points and talking points from the last conversation. For each of you, Magwitch, David B and Teuchter, we have made up these gift baskets. *Chloe steps forward and proffers to each scribe a basket containing the traditional quill pen, moleskine notebook, and tee shirt, as well as a bottle of wine, a generous chunk of Wensleydale cheese and a loaf of genuine adobe baked sourdough bread*

1st LED Roll of Honor
GDZ – First to the Forum
Marv
ltp
Teuchter
mini {42}
Hypatia
Z
Vip
Titania
Mysterious Stranger
Br. Magwitch
===
Bookmouse
FG
Bald Bloke
Montana Redhead
Phil
Mr. Dreadful
Ben
Witty
Kelli
Beatrice
Revisited 50
Mol
Amy Paper Lady
Agapanthus
Solnushka
Todaymueller
Gandalfstwin
lentilla
Santragenius
SpaceCadette
B'Elana
Wandering Albatross
Milla
Pedros Ecosse
David B
Bagpuss
The Thinker 131
RV50
J’au
Pit
Tartaronne


At the beginning of the conversation, as salonistas arrived and found Comfy Chairs, we were still trading off favorite Python skits and visuals. Lil introduced a new relay-scribing method which met with general approval. Gandalfstwin had to have a beloved dog, Lady, put down and Hypatia found herself in the shadow of new development construction. Lil's Birdie demnstrated extraordinary athletic prowess in hunting birds indoors.

Mr. Dreadful lost his job, joining the growing throng of unemployed salonistas. Marv started his New Job and was asked incessantly how it was going. Swine flu came dangerously near Kelli's boys.

When MR's D became poorly, a plethora of cures for heatstroke were offered, but in the event, the problem turned out to be something else PMS-related. Lentilla considered moving to another state, while MR found her classroom re-purposed.

And then the salon celebrated the much-anticipated wedding of Z and Ben, which took place humanistically at the Ring of Brodgar. As a rather unusual conga line formed, salonistas feasted on wedding cake and waited to hear details from the newlyweds. All kudos to Milla, who cleverly coined the perfect name for the newlyweds, henceforth to be known as the Zens.



Mags takes up the baton...

The conga continued apace, followed by a stone circle
Marv discovered that he's more conscientious than the rest of his new team. MR started to pack for her move in (wait for it) ... December. Dr Zen's move to Barrow was more imminent and included a bargain removal service (and two angry cats).

Sporky came back far too briefly.

There was much travelling, Ben's brother went back to Australia, WA left for Portugal, Bea returned from China replete with a video of the eclipse and Santra went to bonny Scotland.

Giant rabbits were discussed and Mags acquired a slightly smaller one.

Illness and accidents abounded. Swine flu reared its ugly head, with colleagues of Danny B and Ag and Mag's son being diagnosed with it. Kelli's son had chickenpox and mini managed to hit her own head with her laptop.

Hyp experienced a rather expedient library evacuation which was, thankfully, a false alarm. Various cataloguing methods were dissected.

A new thespian was unveiled - Milla - playing the prison laundry woman in Wind in the Willows, which she enjoyed.

Children and their ability to follow instructions, or not, were part of the debate and some of us adults, too, admitted to not being able to go beyond 3 stages. mini explained why.

Taff started a five week holiday. (if only he knew )



Here, the owl grasps the baton between his talons...

Beer, cider and other alcoholic beverages were compared, contrasted and discussed at length, prompting a bout of reminiscence between Taff and new arrival Pit.

Dr Z officially moved house and started his new job.

Kelli finally achieved a crop of edible tomatoes, along with an excessively long cucumber.

Talk of cider and horticulture moved on to discussion of apples in their various forms, whether for eating or for cooking (which you then eat...) and the merits of various varieties found in the regions where the Salonistas reside.

The favourite views of the Salonistas were discussed, with various web links to demonstrate them to everyone else. We were unsure whether it was the actual view that we liked or the memories associated with the views, or perhaps a bit of both.

Mini became an ACE and was congratulated by all.

tartaronne made a surprise reappearance, to much general delight.

At this point, Teuchter caught the baton. Alas, due to unco-operative joints, the baton was fumbled and dropped several times before scribing duties were eventually completed.

There were discussions on bodies of water – lakes, lochs, voes, fjords and ponds. And ice. This brought us onto place names, always a favourite topic, and the meaning of the word inver.

We also discussed forgetting anniversaries and birthdays; collective nouns for motorbikes; whether or not yeast was an ingredient of stock/broth; oral allergy syndrome; Greenland and saunas; jam and the making thereof; difficult hotel and library customers; chickens and garden produce; fires in north California; the death of Les Paul; chickens; serial killers; the uses of BMI measurements; rotten eggs; Top Chef; migraines; the meaning of dreams – and those of a less dry nature; the death of Ted Kennedy; and insomnia.

A discussion about morning routines and breakfast habits led FG to wonder why no-one was admitting to getting some early morning mattress action.

We had a long discussion on the differences and similarities between healthcare systems on both sides of the Atlantic - and another long discussion about secondary and tertiary education on both sides of the Atlantic. We talked about whether or not lives would have been lived differently in the knowledge of future health problems – and how useful recreational drugs might be if ones days were numbered.

Each of us gave a personal summing-up for the benefit of new salonistas. Later, many told us how much the Salon means to them and Hypatia made an excellent post summing up the nature of the Salon, the importance of its friendships - and its dissimilarities to Chatrooms.

As usual, we wondered about absent friends - especially Irv and Sporky, about whom FG was able to give us an update.

The Salon had a bad bout of Irritable Vowel Syndrome – leading to reminiscences about the header games we’d once played.

Agapanthus managed to be her usual entertaining and amusing self – even when writing about life with chronic pain and disbelieving medics – and had some good advice about retraining oneself to sleep at the right time.

Bald Bloke and Phil went to a beer festival at Earls Court – but didn’t bump into each other. They didn’t meet up either.

Marv expressed an interest in doing a brewery tour of Europe – and expanded that wish to include a wine tour of France, Spain and Italy, and a whisky tour of Scotland; got new spectacles; and played WoW again.

Kelli’s household finally became pox free and she celebrated a wedding anniversary, hit her first weight loss target – 61/61 – and acquired a pair of chickens.

B’Elana drew our attention to the H2G2 MOT and several of us headed over there to make our feelings known.
Solnushka announced that not only does she have a job for September but, for a short while, she’ll have three jobs; her MiL arrived to stay.

Phil had a mini-meet with Sol – and got to meet B; and went to a music festival

Z became a Registrar, managed to track down a cooker manual, acquired a roommate, went to a Chilli Festival with Mrs Zen, went onto working nights – and came off again; was upset to find his elderly grandmother in hospital; went walking in the hills on his own; and had a birthday.

MR bought an ice-cream maker, wished she could penalise students who failed to alphabetise their references; overheard some very noisy neighbours; got a roommate; found herself in a tricky social situation; found a great car mechanic.

Hypatia ate pho; anticipated a board meeting where there were unknown quantities in the form of new board members; got a fabulous haircut, prompting Lil to book her own appointment; was stunned to have a pleasant experience at City Hall

Teuchter gardened; had a recurrence of RFA symptoms; and enjoyed a visit with Kelli and the cyber-nephews

David made lamb crumble and was persuaded to share the recipe.

Lil noticed fizziness in her nether regions; duelled with state capital officialdom, involving a forty minute hold on the phone; had a second MRI - with much noise and exhaustion – which revealed no change in the syrinx but a slight improvement in the intervertebral discs; got some significant news about J; strained her shoulder, making life difficult.

Mol started planning the new term’s Guide Meetings and did a first-aid course

Lentilla sold masks at a burlesque show and talked about the process of having her MS diagnosed

Amy P planned to make blackberry jam – leading to a discussion on various methods and equipment.
Bookmouse had a pacemaker fitted and worried about her husband’s job security.

GDZ celebrated three years with his J, and saw Def Leppard in concert

Mag’s family, sadly, had to bury two family pets under the pear tree; and inadvertently shut the cat and the rabbit in a room together, without the need for further digging under the pear tree.

SpaceCadette worried about an impending and long awaited disability hearing. We were delighted when the judge awarded in her favour.

KerrAvon bemoaned having to spend time HTML formatting, especially when a pile of comics was taunting her.

Titania gave us a selection of interesting links and worried us when she had an intriguing slo-mo reaction to Ripley’s reappearance in the Salon.


Other Topics of Discussion:
cricket
simulated ways to fly to Tahiti
inland seabirds
stupid tourist questions
The weather - natch.
Astronomy
Amanda Palmer
Zuccini (cougettes) and pickles
Neighbours and annoying behaviour
Appraisals and the meaningless corporate language they employ.
The joys of Edinburgh.
Pho. We often discuss pho!
the Ashes



And there you have it, the summary of 9AX. During that reading the bots have had plenty of time to clean and refurbish the wet bar, the samovar, and the IIEM. Please come back in and make yourselves at home.

[]

*Matina brings Vip an irish coffee in a FTTF mug, together with a tee shirt, as this is Vip's first first-to-the-forum*

[Bel]

Now to read scribings.

Did I make it? Did I make it?

Poop.

Yoo Hoo

*Rushes in from tidying the kitchen.*

Gosh, that's the closest I've been FTTF in quite a while!

Blushes at the recognition of his efforts. Admires his loggish scroll, pecks at it, hmmm a tad woody, but ahhh Primativo

As usual, ladies and gentlemen, for scribing!

Well, now, what that heck is ?

*bump*

Wonderful scribing all

mini

First LED. Yay!

Great scribing.

Great scribing.

*skids in sideways*
Whee!
First LED, I think!

to check scribing

First LED whooo . Nice scribing everyone . Now I have had a half sleep , So now I am ready to start my week off .

Hmmm - sneaking a new page in while I purchase food to keep my family alive, I see...

Rainy & dreary now - so I go a little back in time to check what happened while it was still dry

Signing in.

Neil

First LED?

*Flamedancer lifts her head and wonders at the commotion*

Is it that time already

[BB]