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

There are so many pidgin english languages :D
I love to listen, especially on Hawaii, but i don't get it when it's really heavy.

Well, it was almost but not quite like English...

So many unfinished entries, so little time...

[GDZ]

Languages are fun I'm lucky in much the same way as Ti in having a good ability to quickly make languages sound right. I've tried as well as I could to read something from a menu in Italy - only to have the waiter answer me in Italian and then had to apologise that I actually don't speak the language.

Heriditary luck is whatvit is in my case - my father was very musical but not good at grammar - my Mother the complete opposite. I've apparently received enough of both to make languages come quite easy to me. Quite a blessing in my line of work

Could somebody make use of a spare "v"?

Erm, okay...

A doctor is a shoveltooth. That's got a v in it.

Music's the other thing I'm crap with. I love to listen to people speaking a foreign language, in itself it can also sound very melodic, and I love to listen to music too. But I'm hopeless with either of them.

The only foreign language I managed to learn was English and I had to put a lot of work into it at first. I never managed to learn French, even after having it at school for 4 years. I still wonder if I would have been better off with choosing Latin instead.

I think I'm rather good in understanding foreign languages in written text, I often can at least understand what it basically is about. I'm not so good in composing any sentences myself.

Having heard you speak English Tav, I'd say the effort you put into it was worth it

My alarm is on my mobile phone. I have several as I am often getting up at different times during the week. The alarms range from light melodies to klaxon styles depending on the purpose of the alarm.

[Mags]

I had an alarm of a different kind last night. Having dropped off shortly after midnight (which is good going consider the clocks change), I was woken at 4.30am by the phone ringing. (This also disturbed DH, and our daughters who have phone extensions in their rooms).

Something had triggered the alarm at the Almshouses in the village. And I'm chair of trustees, so when that happens, I get an automated phone call. It keeps phoning until I get to the phone and press 8 on my keypad. But this didn't seem to work - in the end I unplugged the phone.

And then spent over an hour visiting the almshouses (which were *not* burning down or being burgled), trying to get hold of spare keys because I thought I needed to get into the empty almshouse to switch off the alarm (I was wrong, but I haven't dared phone the two people I had to call at 5am to confess this yet), losing my own car keys, finding them again ...

Crawled back into bed just short of 6am and was just drifting off as the proper alarm went off. I took a half day today and had a rather nice nap this afternoon after all that!

Anyway, we still aren't sure what triggered the alarm in the first place, but the reason I kept getting calls was because a second alarm went off. We *think* what happened was that the person in number 1 keyed in the wrong number when he tried to switch off the first alarm; this escalated his alarm, and woke his neighbour, who thought it was his own alarm; he then keyed the wrong number into *his* keypad, and that escalated the second alarm. Because in the end we got everything switched off just by keying the correct numbers into the pads. But those alarms are dreadful - they are so noisy, it becomes difficult to think (which is difficult enough at 5am).

I'm going to spend this evening writing a Procedure, I think ...

Mol

*Chloe enters carrying a digital tape recorder. Taking a central position in the room, she presses the play button, and Lil's voice is heard*

My apologies. I am experiencing my fourth illness this year, and I'm not pleased about it. This one is gastro-intestinal, so I thought I had better ride it out in my apartments. Please continue to make yourselves at home.

*Chloe clicks off the dtr and leaves the room*

Oh Chloe? Please come back?

*scribbles a note with get well wishes, silly balloons and little hearts over the i's.*

Oh. She left already.

*puts note on mantlepiece, hoping it will be picked up eventually*

Poor Lil, this really isn't fair.

* adds another get well soon card to the mantel *

I wonder if there's a market for Get Awesome cards?

*floats in looking somewhat wan*

Carriere, one extra dry ginger ale, please. And two cherries. Henceforth, this order is to be called a Styx cocktail.

Thank you for the well wishes. I spent the time feeling curiously withdrawn, not much interested in the outside world. One of the cheap ebooks I read turned out to be full of sex scenes, very explicit, rather boring. Pornography exists, so people do read this stuff to get aroused, but I find it ... mechanical. Tab A, Slot B.

But I learned a new thing: Cooper's Droop.
http://www.tawdryknickers.com/2011/08/coopers-ligaments.html

Hope you are on the mend Lil.
Filled up my diesel car with petrol on the way to work Sunday evening. First time I have ever done this . Got quoted £150 - £200+ to fix it. Or I could disconnect the fuel line from the fuel filter and syphon it off myself. I even managed to find a clear piece of tubing so I didn't get a gobfull of diesel. Problem fixed.

Talking about alarms, we had an early-morning text - my brother-in-law's fiancee is in labour, so we're waiting to hear more...

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