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

Tibet? Uh, any particular reason?

*Thinks about the doctor's absent letter* That is very poignant. Poor man. And especially, his poor friends and family. It's no fun being close to a suicide. Mourning complicated by guilt and rage.

In times of strain, I always want to run away to the Shetland Islands. I've never been before, you understand. I just want to go somewhere where the rest of the world can't follow me very easily. With archeaology, good views and sheep.

[Mr. D ]

Ben, I love the idea of the funeral firework! Pink sparkles in mine please, and an enormous boom.

Lil, I take it you told the police about seeing him waiting for a letter?

I was tempted by the idea of colonic irrigation before the wedding - somebody told that it can reduce bloating and help you los a couple of inches. Not tempted enough to actually *do* it you understand...

How are things going with no3 Teuchter?

k

<>

Twang 'im into a tree I say!

[Amy]

*Trips over 105 posts in blog to make an announcement. Falls face down. Gets up quickly, though, as if nothing has happened*

Good to see you back, Teuchter

s, s and s for those who need.

I'm going on a holiday tonight . We drive to Italy to celebrate Sig. S.'s dad's 80th birthday. Return after a week to bring 16 back to school and help 18 move out and into a flat with a girlfriend. And then Sig. S. and I are going away - just the two of us - for 4-5 days. Where to, we don't know yet. It possibly includes visiting grandchildren and the nature in the south of Sweden.

Sig. S. and I have never been on a holiday without children before. What, with four kids ranging from 16 to 32 ! I wonder what will happen. Will we get bored or get to know each other a-new?

Up till now and the rest of the day I have had and have a lot of w**k to finish (of course ) - and that is why I haven't kept up in the conversation.

The only set-back is that I miss out on joining the ambassadorial legation and only with my name-tag can help campaign for Hypatia ('hyp, hyp, hyp og hop, fremad i gallop' is from a Danish children's song. Hyp is what you say when you tell a horse to get going - 'and hop, forward at a gallop').

But I'm sure you'll all do at good diplomatic job at King 2legs' Court and at supporting our very own candidate.

See you.

Have a lovely time tartaronne, get up to lots of naughty things

ooh, lucky tartaronne!

Do you know, today it is actually cold. About 13 C outside. I have put a woolly tank-top on over my shirt. S went to work wearing a vest under his shirt for the first time since March. Summer is over. And I have realised that my jumpers are in a parlous state of bobble, fray and worn patches. I am actually going to have to go through them all and throw some of them out. And, of course, knit some nice new ones...

I'm wishing that I'd worn a jumper today, tis a bit chilly. But of course if I *had* worn a jumper it would have warmed up nicely and I'd be too hot.

I was fooled by the sunshine - am now freezing at my desk!

Has anyone here grown butternut squash before? I planted one seed from a squash I bought from sainsburys for dinner, thinking it probably would amount to much. The plant is now 20 feet across and has entirely taken over the end of my garden! There are lots of little squashes on it and a few bigguns, but they obviously aren't ripe yet. Is there any way to encourage ripening so they don't all get zapped by the first frost? Or should I be wrapping the monster up over night? Or will they ripen if I pick them now?

k

Something I've just got to share....

My team at work are going paintballing as a combination Team Building exercise and Jolly, and three of us were chatting about it earlier on: G, who is a rather bumbling bloke in his mid 40s, me, and R who is a Catholic Assyrian Iraqui, who left Iraq at the age of 10.

G was talking abou some heinous office crime like using the last of the paper in the printer, and mentioned that the paint-balling would be more entertaining with an AK47. R said "have you got an AK47?" and G looked suprised that his remark had been taken seriously but went into plonker-mode and said "well, I'm not telling - you'll have to guess".

R then said that he'd learned to shoot with an AK47, which slightly startled G and me. Turns out that this sweet, cute kid with big brown eyes and the gentlest nature you could find in a man learned to shoot with an AK47 at a childrens' training camp in Iraq at the age of 9.

G looked a bit non-plussed and I just said "is it very politically incorrect of me to say that sounds like fun?". R said it had been great fun for the kids, less so for the parents. But these iddy-diddy kids shooting frigging great rifles! Hmmm.....

B

*absorbs the backlog and can't think of owt to say*

Look at it this way Ben, I bet you weren'tmuch older than 10 or 12 when you started playing with rifles. Look at learning to shot AK-47s in Iraq as culturally analogous to shooting cans with .22s.

Yep, I was about 10, and it was bunnies, and the 22 had telescopic sights and a silencer!

It's just that R is that rare combination of cute, sweet, gentle and male, (he must score like a bandit), and looks fa-a-a-a-r too nice to have learned anything in an Iraqui training camp.

B

It was quite possibly said Iraqi training camp that taught him the advantages of playing up his sweet, cute and gentle qualities. A non-threatening male is a male that no-one wastes lead on.

[GDZ]

I find a military training camp for 9 year olds considerably more sinister than Dad or Uncle Fred teaching a kid to hunt or target shoot. For one thing, Dad isn't training you to kill Kurds or Iranians or 'fill in the blank'. Unless Dad lives in McDonald County, of course.

That's in Missouri, for all the Scots online. Don't want them to misunderstand. It is notorious for survivalist compounds. It can be an unnerving place. It is south of me. I can drive to the heart of survivalist country in about 40 minutes.

Can I still misunderstand and assume that in McDonald County they train the kids to kill Campbells?

Gosh, I wish we had a quotefile.