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

Ah Yes, it does have wide impact when a large employer starts to struggle. Especially for people who can't move long distance to find new opportunities, being dependent on the local area being able to provide suitable jobs. Good luck with it all

My projects are going OK. I had a meeting with the IT guy's boss (he deliberately didn't invite the guy so we could both get a word in edgeways) and agreed a plan of action, so that's progress. The daunting data project reappeared this afternoon, so that was a solid two hours work. Another project I worried wasn't necessary but my boss assured me it was - I managed to get out of doing it when I was busy with the data project last month, and then this month I found some time to help but was told it wasn't necessary after all!

"Coincidence, no correlation." - That is cute about the kittens. My sister has recently adopted two older cats, so her clowder is currently 6 cats.

That is pleasing that you cycled through Bitterne while Bitterns are currently out and about

The Garfield Movie looks fun, and the animation looks much more cute than Garfield: The Movie I found Wreck It Ralph on iPlayer at the weekend, and I enjoyed that Calhoun was an interesting character - at first her lines came across to me a bit like 'if we get a female character to say it, it won't be misogynistic, honest' but then the 'tragic backstory' scenes were poignant. I can't remember now where I found it, but a few years ago I played the Sugar Rush bouncing tree game - I never did get the medal, but now I understand about the double-stripe branches breaking Plenty of details to look out for in the film indeed

Latest from work - this month apparently has been 'Solent Success Month' and we've been e-mailed to say
"Tomorrow to celebrate Solent's success, staff in the office will be given FREE ICE CREAM!
Next week we're probably firing you."
Or as Marie Antoinette might say, "Let Them Eat Flake!"

Still, my latest work-themed is pretty much done. Half of it is strike related, half not. I might completely alter the order and put all the strike pages together even though the strike was pretty much a two days a month and gap between in real life.

Today was my son's first taster day and he would not go to his taster day as he was in a nervous, frozen state - and we need him to know what he wants to do when he's going back to school in September.
So I had to walk him to the college taster day in the end - he definitely was not going on his own. When he arrived he also stood for ages by himself at the back, not going through the gates. I worry that he's not in a relaxed enough frame of mind to take in what's going on and decide whether it is the right fit for him or not. It doesn't get any easier....

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"Let Them Eat Flake!" - hmm... That is what might be called an unusual definition of 'success'... Glad is progressing well - will be interesting for you to try putting the strike pages together to see what it looks like. On the one hand I can imagine it will make a strong theme, but on the other hand it might give the impression of being a short time rather than evoking the sense of it being an event over a longer timescale - interesting

Sorry your son is struggling with the transition to a new school, even though the GCSEs were not so bad... Different times compared to when I went to school, so I can't imagine what might help All the best with it all

I had a funny-but-not-funny today - back in December, I went to a different office, and discovered that the locks on 2 out of 3 disabled toilets were broken, so I raised Helpdesk Tickets when I got back to my home computer. Within an hour, I received notification that one of the Tickets was Completed - I thought that was great service. A week later, I received notification that the second one was Completed, so that was good. Today I went to the building again, and discovered that the lock that had been 'Completed' within an hour was still broken - I think what had happened was that someone had assumed the two tickets were for the same lock, even though I specified the different room codes Hopefully it will be actually fixed within a week this time

The good news is that we were indeed given ice creams today - not quite what I would call a hearty meal. Also apparently several people who are at risk have been informed that they are at risk of definitely being kicked out of work by the end of next month, unless they volunteer to resign - and I've not heard anything, so I may well be safe from unemployment, if not necessarily redeployment.

Definitely an unhelpful response if the problem wasn't fixed.
It isn't an excuse but I wonder whether the tickets you raised used Cherwell/Unity. That is one of the ticketing systems we use and is frustrating in that you can't see the details of what you want to read as it doesn't let you look at the text of what has been written easily, preferring instead to ensure that you have their logo on screen at all time. And if you blink it logs you out.

Time compression always seems to happen with the comic books - so a story that takes a year to write takes place over a day and a four-scene page's dialogue maybe taking a minute or two to say.


Not long to go now before I pop to the Netherlands for parkrun and then Tankfest on Sunday! I hope you have a great weekend.

Illustrative that the free icecream was given out the day after the hot weather, but I hope you enjoyed yours anyway.

Shocking about the ultimatum... All the best to you

A sad thing at mine is that staff numbers have reduced recently due to some (unconnected) bereavements. Also sad is that the powers that be delete people's webpages instantly I knew of the people, but didn't know them well, so I would have liked to have seen what they wrote about themselves on the website... At least some brief obituaries were posted on the staff intranet.

Ah, yes that's a different kind of time compression, that it takes so much longer to draw a comic panel than it does to read it... Reminds me of a lovely Korean comic book series I was reading a few years ago - it took so long for each new book to be finished, the UK publisher went bankrupt before the story was completed. A new publisher took it on, but the text was translated differently so it was hard to follow the action between books. I didn't finish the series, but at least I could imagine the ending would be how I would like it

Yes it was disappointing about the tickets - could well be Cherwell/Unity not showing the different room codes at first glance so it looked like a duplicate... I received an e-mail today to assure me they did fix it in December, but they will investigate and try to fix it again

I hope you have a great weekend and all your running around goes well I'm not sure what I'll be doing, as my mum got a surprise hospital appointment today - all went well, but she has to rest so we won't be going to the supermarket together. My sister might visit

Happy weekend!

Sorry to hear about colleagues passing away, even if you weren't close.. Were they academics? I don't know if our staff have blurbs on the Solent website anywhere, I guess maybe academics do to try and persuade people to sign up for the course for marketing purposes, but I don't know for sure.

Yesterday just I was planning on logging off and going I was hit by an urgent query, which I rushed through and then rushed out the house, but inadvertently put on my boots rather than running shoes (as I hadn't planned to take more than a backpack and the shoes I was wearing), so that was a minor mistake.

After getting to the airport, as Southampton is so small it was really easy to navigate - but unfortunately Amsterdam Schiphol is a major international transport hub, and rather big. Wickedpedia claims it is the 4th busiest in Europe and 14th busiest on . The airport is much more pleasant than Amsterdam Centraal station, and the journey time of an hour compares very favourably with a whole day in my opinion too. From there the transport links to the Hague were super-convenient with the train station beneath the airport and fun double-decker trains to the Hague regular (of course I sat upstairs). Our hotel was a deceptively convenient walk from the station and checking in was easy, except for having to pay a vague Hague tax for being in the Hague - but unfortunately because it was 10pm all the restaurants nearby had closed.
As is usual for the Netherlands, every outside surface was constantly cycled on by bicycles going in all directions. Telling what is and isn't a cycle lane is rather difficult, so I adopted the 'everything is a cycle lane' survival strategy. The Hague was definitely busier than the quiet towns I visited last year.
Next morning we got up and were told that because it was Veterans' Day, the roads in the city centre were closed and all trams and buses in the centre had stopped running - but if we walked out about 15 minutes we could get to where roads were open and were doing U-turns instead of going into town. From there it was an easy ride to Zuiderpark, which is 2-miles or so south of the Hague. Finding the parkrun from the bus stop was nice and convenient as it stopped outside the entrance.
As the closest Z to the UK, I'd say maybe 100 runners were British from the UK there to do their Z, and maybe 30 were local. When they did the 'First Timers and English Briefing' virtually everyone followed.
Despite the hiking boots the course was flat and easy, except for dodging the deer and geese, with quite a nice amount of wildlife in the park. Afterwards we got the bus back and found a cafe that did breakfast - I had a banana waffle. We returned to the hotel and I had a shower and checked out and hoped to meet back with my friends a little later and had a wander to see what was going on for Veterans Day.
As I was doing so they completely closed the road and I couldn't get back to the hotel and had to wave bye to them from the other side. I watched the parade for ten minutes, glad to have seen it, especially as there was a brief flypast (even if I could only hear it and not see any aircraft clearly) but decided that it was time to get back - only to discover that all the roads to the station were blocked off and I couldn't cross. So I followed the parade route round for an hour, and there were still squadrons marching playing and tanks and historic vehicles. I asked some policemen how to get to the station. One unhelpfully said that the roads would open after the parade ended, and when I asked how long that would be, simply
The second said, "follow the road right, then left, then right and there is a garage". I hoped that was some form of underpass or subway, and in fact after walking for about five minutes I was able to get to an underground carpark which was closed because of the parade, but had an entrance on both sides of the road so I could emerge the other side and then get back to the station.
I rushed to the station and zoomed to the platform and got on a train and ended up at the airport , getting through security and ending up at the right place, only to find that my flight was an hour later.
But hey, I successfully popped over to the Netherlands for 24 hours, completed my alphabet by doing a parkrun beginning with Z in the third country I've done a parkrun in, and the Netherlands celebrated with a victory parade and flypast, so quite a day to remember.

Wishing your mum all the best and lovely, recuperating rest.

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I looked up who the people that everyone was cheering were that I photographed, and proof that the Dutch Prime Minister and Princess Margarita were there can be found here: http://www.rexfeatures.com/livefeed/2024/06/29/20th_veterans_day,_the_hague? which I may use when I get round to sorting photos.

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Happy Weekend to you, too!

Well done for getting round parkrun in a good time even with the extra challenge of non-running shoes and dodging deer

Absolutely typical that urgent things arrive at the last minute when you'd like to have some time to tidy up and plan for the next activity... Glad the airport was straightforward to navigate in a rush. The train journey to Amsterdam is pleasant, but yes several hours of travel has to be part of the holiday rather than just getting you there... I don't recall Amsterdam Centraal Station in any great detail, but that's probably because the hotel I stayed in was just outside it, so I didn't spend long in there. That is convenient about the train to the Hague directly from the airport Also good that the transport to the parkrun was convenient That is impressive that the parkrun is famed for Z tourism!

Excellent that you got to see the parade etc, but scary that you nearly got stuck. A bit similar to the time I went to the Cheshire Show one year - just as we decided to leave, there was a parade of cows and we couldn't get to the exit - but there was no urgency for us to get home, so we could just be patient. Better for you to be early rather than late to the airport, even though it was extra rush...

"completed my alphabet by doing a parkrun beginning with Z in the third country I've done a parkrun in, and the Netherlands celebrated with a victory parade and flypast, so quite a day to remember." -

Yes, the colleagues were academics, and had webpages advertising their work with the aim of inviting PhD students and other academics to collaborate. I see a few people have similar blurbs on the Solent website http://www.solent.ac.uk/research-innovation-enterprise/research-at-solent/people

Mum didn't rest very well yesterday (doing lots of odd jobs around the house), but at least she didn't have the strain of lifting my wheelchair into the car, so that was helpful Hopefully she will settle down even more today (yesterday she took some medication to help her stop feeling nauseous, but got the side effect of it being a laxative) as my sister is visiting so can lift the wheelchair into the car Supermarket shopping by myself went OK as there were only a couple of things I couldn't reach and other people were helpful. The main difficulty was with the self-checkout, as it required a member of staff to type in a code every time it complained 'unexpected item in the bagging area!' - 'it's a bag!'

What I remember most about Amsterdam Centraal station is the International platform, which had two flooded urinals and one toilet cubicle for the male passengers and so far from adequate, with no seating either. To ensure everyone going on the Eurostar had been checked, they had to stay in a small shed on the platform, which definitely was not intended for 600 passengers. But I believe they are revamping it, so hopefully this will be rectified in the near future.

Ah, yes I've worked closely with one of those academics listed on the Solent website in the past, though of course most of the people I know are support staff. It has been a bit of a worrying day today with the redundancies, and of course that meant there was another celebratory success lunch (very poor taste) as rumours spread round the office over who is at risk, who has definitely been booted and who is competing with their close co-workers and colleagues to keep their jobs. One person in my current team who worked here for 30 years is gone, so I now know 7 people who have definitely been fired or taken/taking 'voluntary' severance since this time last month.
I'm being moved out of my current team and demoted but don't know what I'll be doing in August yet - but I've been assured I will have a job. And the staff bike shed has been demolished over the weekend.

Wishing all your family all the best - despite the difficulty of supermarkets. I've given up trying to get the tills to understand the concept of own bags, despite the own bag button. They don't understand the concept that bags might contain things before additional shopping is purchased.

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Ah, that is far from adequate... Lots changed since I went there - it was a lot faster in those days...

That is poor taste about success celebrations being scheduled alongside redundancy notifications Sorry about the forced demotion, but glad you still have a role - all the best with finding out what it is Demolishing the bike shed is horrible icing on a horrible cake - I hope you can find somewhere else for your bike

Yes indeed the self checkouts struggle with the concept of own bags... One was heavier than a plastic bag, yes, but I thought the other one would be OK. Maybe because it was a different shape to the own-brand plastic bags it confused the scales

Mum has settled down, so that's good She met some friends yesterday, so they looked after her, and on Sunday my sister did visit, so mum was more rested then, too

Exciting that the Guy Martin programme is coming up - I'm hoping my mum's DVD player is a DVDr (and I'm hoping I can find a DVDr - I only recently disposed of some part-used ones...). If not, my TV can record to USB, so that's another option if necessary - you definitely need to keep that programme for posterity

I found out the problem with the toilet ticket I raised. The maintenance manager asked me to meet him to help him understand what I was complaining about. He showed me that the lock works perfectly well when the door is slammed into place. . . When I tried he accepted that not everyone can slam the door like that, especially disabled people who can’t put their shoulder to it. . . He assures me it will now be put on the list to be fixed soon

On Monday I found that there's a bike shed in the sports hall so took my bike there, but the ground-level bike areas were all taken so I had to lift the bike to shoulder-height to a raised bike rack.

Hope your Mum's doing well.

Sorry - I meant to write more but I went out for a run and now I feel completely exhausted and am struggling to stay awake

At least you got the door situation sorted!

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Processes are a bit annoying for mum, but overall she is doing OK since the stays in hospital She has a test, then gets an appointment with a specialist, but the specialist doesn't have the test results. Then she has another test, gets another appointment with the specialist, but the specialist doesn't have the test results. A couple of her friends have had similar experiences, though, so they are sharing knowledge and supporting each other

Mixed news on the project front - I found out that the other guy's project wasn't discussed at the management meeting, but neither was mine, so we're still no further forward Try again next week

Interesting news that a few more episodes of Modern Life is Goodish are coming up

I've got an excursion coming up - a bit like your Z excursion. I got a ticket for Wimbledon and it looks to be easier to get there from South rather than North Are you expecting to be North rather than South next week?

That seems a bit of a vicious loop for your mum to be in - has it been made worse by the Junior strike?

Talking of strikes, our Union district rep has just been elected Labour MP for Poole - and I do mean 'just' - only 18 votes in it. Which is great news for him, however it is a bit bittersweet on the grounds that we rather need him at the moment what with the multiple redundancies

The other main election news is of course that for the first time since 1832, the Isle of Wight has finally elected two MPs, after over a Century of being by far the largest electoral constituency.

Next week I'm expecting to be a normal week, no travel plans anywhere so were you to be nearby I'll be happy to meet up.

I do at present seem to have picked up an infection in my tooth, which is painful and annoying, with my right jaw puffing up (though hidden behind the beard).

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Ah, you could be right there - mum had the tests last week, and then there were a few days of strikes and then the appointment with the consultant was this week - likely that there was no capacity to process the test results in the meantime.

Wow, that is a tight margin, but impressive that the union rep skills have led to becoming an MP. Will be interesting to see if his new position will help the campaign in a different way

Interesting news on the Island, too - fascinating to be half-and-half. No surprises in my area - the boundary changes shifted candidates around a bit geographically, but familiar faces were successful.

Sorry you're under the weather just now All the best with that Not quite sure yet what I'm doing next weekend, but would be good if we can meet up for a bit

I hope you all have a good weekend Not sure what I'm doing this weekend yet, either, but maybe some birdwatching

I had wondered whether the Isle of Wight would go Green, with the Greens ahead of Labour in the East, but there the Tory candidate won, whereas Bob 'Sausage' Seely - the last Isle of Wight Conservative MP - lost in the West.
Funnily enough the last time the Isle of Wight had two MPs was before 1832, and of course it was in 1832 that the Tory Party became Conservative.
It was a shame that they didn't call them Isle of Wight East Medine and Isle of Wight West Medine to reflect the 13th Century names of the Hundreds or Liberties either side of the river Medina.

This week has been stressful with work as well as home, so I'm not sure if that has played a part in the tooth infection, it really is painful all along my lower jaw but hopefully will be better soon.

Have a great weekend with whatever you get up to, whether birdwatching or not.

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That is a shame more wasn't made of the history of the Island in splitting it back into two. This lot of parliamentary boundaries aren't very history-focused, though - in my area some constituencies now cross council boundaries, so that makes it confusing about who is responsible for what.

Sorry you had a stressful week - could have contributed to your immune system being below-par indeed

I did have an interesting weekend. Started early with a lovely presentation by our honorary graduate Baroness Floella Benjamin - she was lovely on Playschool and even lovelier in real life F11007?thread=8314722

The supermarket was weirdly busy and some areas were low on stock, but I managed to find most of what I was looking for. Then today I went to a local history talk at the botanic garden - not the best, as the speaker hadn't updated part of the talk since 2007, although other parts had been updated recently. I learned some things, but when he was talking about people I had met earlier this year, I knew more than he did... One funny thing was that I met a fellow wheelchair birdwatcher who I often see at Burton Mere - very strange to see each other in a different context! We both agreed that the botanic garden is nice, but Burton Mere is easier to get round and provides more fun with birds

Another funny was that I was watching tennis with mum this evening, and mum suggested changing channel just at the moment your dad was on the Guy Martin programme Mixed success with recording the programme so far - my mum's DVD player can record, and I found a DVDr disc, but the DVD player didn't like it. We've recorded the programme onto the telly box for now, and will try to find a DVDr that is acceptable to the DVD player

Hopefully an appointment we have tomorrow may help with my daughter's situation even if it is in a town about an hour's drive away.

That was a long time ago - but got to agree with you on the loveliness of Floella Benjamin (I think in a previous I had a page in which she is described as the 'loveliest person in the world )

I was quite impressed with the Guy Martin documentary (although I did start getting worried when he spent time discussing his lawnmower). I thought it would be one of those documentary with about 10 minutes of real content padded out to an hour by starting off spending 15 minutes saying what will be in the documentary, five minutes after a break summarising that, five minutes of content, five minutes of saying what will be after the break, five minutes summarising the previous five minutes of content, five minutes of new content and five minutes summarising that content.
And Dad was in it lots! I also spotted James twice and I was mercifully hidden except in the line-up. If you are able to get it recorded I would be in your debt, and of course happy to reimburse you for price of DVDrs.

Glad you had a successful supermarket trip and 'enjoyed' a trip to the botanic garden for a hit-and-miss talk, but got a chance to see a friendly face.

Did I tell you that I'd been trying to get a dentist appointment since March, only to be constantly told that the dentist I'd had had left and I couldn't see anyone before they hired a replacement? Well, I was phoned this morning to be told that the dentist they finally let see me is leaving at the end of the week, so I'm not sure where that leaves me.

There's a good chance that my wife and son will be away with my father-in-law this weekend, so in many ways a friendly chat would be a welcome distraction if you are in the area. I'm feeling much better today, so that's good. My face is regaining its original shape and everything.

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I hope all went as well as possible with your daughter's appointment

Yes, I remember the Floella panel and of course now can't find it or our conversation about her loveliness

Mixed progress on the DVD front again today - I thought PC World would have one, but I went there and they didn't. I then looked online and found the phenomenon that Dave Gorman discussed - 5 discs for 7.99 or 10 for 8.99 and I only want one... I think I've found one, so that will arrive soon for the next phase of testing

I'm so glad the programme contained plenty of content and your dad's contribution was appreciated - I look forward to watching it all if/when it is recording

That is a palaver with the dentists Glad you're feeling better, anyway - did you get antibiotics?

My usual accommodation is fully booked this week, so I'll be staying near Titchfield Abbey - is that a place you could get to?

I had another lovely day yesterday - I had lunch with a friend from uni who graduated 20 years ago We keep in touch sporadically via but at the time I always used to feel a bit boring, as I rarely could get a word in edgeways. I learned I was more of an important part of her uni experience than I realised - I used to write post-it notes for her if I hadn't managed to tell her something, and she kept all of them. She remembered our discussions about wheelchairs, access and things like where to get good wheelchair gloves from. She even remembered showing me how to whisk eggs to make an omelette (as my beginner attempt involved stirring the mixture in a bowl for ages ). At lunch I still didn't get many words in edgeways, but it was great to catch up, and I'm glad to know she is doing well as a teacher with a husband and child and

Speaking of reminds me it has gone really annoying - when someone posts a photo album, I can view 6 or 7 pictures and then the arrows disappear so I can't see any more pictures If I come back later, I can see a few more, but then the same thing happens again... I'll try again just now, as I see you've put a couple of interesting albums up recently

Managed to fix it - I opened the photo album in a new tab rather than the popup window, and then could refresh the page to get the arrows to come back Excellent photos of your Z excursion and Tankfest