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

There weren't really many yesterday and not as noisy, fortunately, but we've a few days to go before we can relax again as you say. Thank you for your good wishes.

And congratulations on spotting a Green Winged Teal and ticking off another for the overall list, how are you doing with this year's in comparison to previous?

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I'm up to 98 species so far this year, which is not bad at all - exactly the same total as this time last year

Struggling with rogue traders at the moment - mum needed some house repairs doing, and used a contractor who had done a good job with one task, but then made a mess of this task and it turns out the company is in difficulty. She got someone else out to check the work, but they gave a quote and urged her to accept quickly, so she did without getting other quotes, and it turns out the company is in difficulty I'm hoping to get another quote soon just to get a ballpark figure

Another annoying challenge is online shopping - in July I bought a trinket and it was sent to me quick and easy. This month I bought another one, and the postage has gone up by 5x - almost cheaper for me to go and get it myself... Also naughty of them that they only told me the postage had gone up after I'd bought the item...

A funny was this afternoon - my boss's boss called me in a fluster about how he needed to change my job description because he wanted me to do some training of other people - luckily I could assure him that training of other people is already in my job description and I ran various sessions in September

Mum was able to get rid of the second rogue trader - he tried to claim he had bought the materials so she owed him money, but he hadn't measured up in the morning, so wouldn't have known how much to buy... She did get another quote in the afternoon, and it was in a better ballpark, so that's a relief

Excellent bird list progress!

Rogue workers are definitely a worry, and so easy to fall prey to. Even when you think you're going to a national company and so be able to avoid them - like B&Q - you end up getting cowboys who can't do bathroom installation....

And it seems from your experience even going with people who have worked well in the past has its risks if they are in difficulty, and pressure you into signing without thinking.

We're in the dilemma of having a damp bathroom but no idea who we can trust to do the remedial work, as everyone we've had quotes for has said the damp has a different cause and needs something different doing to resolve.

And talking of potential rogue traders, the roof people are here - can you imagine the luxury of being indoors on a rainy day and not having water dripping from the ceiling and down the walls?
Sadly they've been knocking, banging and drilling all day so my

Talking of drills and rogue traders, I went back to the dentist yesterday for my appointment. I went in and said I'd had severe toothache, but the dentist didn't really pay attention, and then jabbed my mouth with an injection - which really hurt - and then said that because my mouth was swollen, he couldn't do what he'd intended. Just as I was thinking, 'couldn't you have decided that before you jabbed me?' he then started drilling - making me think, 'you just said you couldn't do what you were intending!'
So he did some drilling and then said I have to go back next month once the infection has gone, and he wrote me a prescription. So I went to Boots to get it and was told there was a 15 minute wait, so I had no choice but to go to the record shop...

I�m impressed that you actually have job descriptions. I know I had a job description about 10 years ago, but I've changed job role several times since then and never signed a new contract. Everything comes under 'Any other relevant duties' in any case...

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Very true that a brand name is no guarantee of quality either

Yes, the first company advertised that they could do driveways and roofs - turns out they are good at driveways, but not good at roofs, but they make more profit on roofs so they suck people in...

Sorry you're still struggling with the damp situation - messy indeed if the contractors can't even agree on what the problem is. All the best for your roof situation

Also shocking about your mouth treatment If any profession needed good communication skills, that is one, but such skills are in short supply If you lived closer, I could imagine the guy was one who is up here, who said an X-ray was very important, but then didn't do it when I booked it because he was running late, and when I asked a question with my mouth open he didn't answer, but then answered later and said he would have done a better job if I hadn't made such annoying noises... For my next checkup I'm going to try a different place and hope they can communicate better All the best with it all and I'm glad you got to go to the record shop to salve the situation somewhat

I am very lucky with my job description, that my old boss designed it very carefully to be sufficiently flexible without relying too much on 'Any other relevant duties commensurate with the grade' Not good that you haven't had a contract update, though, after all the changes they've made to your role...

Yes, very pleasing that my bird list is at the same level as this time last year - definite potential to reach 105 species, so we shall see

We had a VC briefing today, in which he said that yes, he will definitely be stealing our hard-earned pay rise, but there will be a £200 December bonus. The VC hates the word 'Christmas' and will go to extreme lengths to avoid saying it, and to forbid anyone else from saying 'Christmas' in anything related to events taking place in December. Which is odd, and surely discriminatory to say that if anyone wants to celebrate Ramadan or Hannukah they are allowed to say 'Ramadan' or 'Hannukah', but the second someone says 'Christmas' that is disapproved of?

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That is 'funny' about the December Bonus... Perhaps he feels self-conscious about the December bank holidays because they are named after Christmas, whereas there isn't a bank holiday named after eg Saturnalia, but he wants people who celebrate different festivals to feel included even so. Can get him tied up in verbal knots, though, indeed...

I hope you all have a good weekend. My sister plans to visit, so that will be good. My cousin has found some family history for us to look at, as well, so that will be interesting.

How has your weekend been? Yesterday was the annual silent film - and this year they did a Buster Keaton short film double bill which I attended, 'Sherlock Jnr' and 'The Navigator' (both 1924). Both of which were incredibly funny and have been described as 'the first action films'. The stunt work stands up to this day. They were shown in the Turner Sims concert hall, which is where the lecture I attended a week or so ago was. That has been put on YouBend here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkUWjS1ZzhA - in fact if you go 51:45 minutes in and know exactly where to look, you can see me.

Today's been my first CC6 of the year - I missed the last couple due to minor injury and so returned for the hilliest one of them all. I was also surprised to see that a third Winchester running club has started competing, making 3 Winchester clubs where only two years ago there was only one...

Hope you have a wonderful family weekend

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Glad you enjoyed the silent film day again Glad you had some good running sessions as well Does sound a bit suspicious that there has been another schism in Winchester, as there was one club and now three!

We had a very good weekend - the family history resources my cousin found were fascinating, so I looked up all sorts, including Quentin Crisp, disabled people and of course my own grandparents I even found the record of my dad aged 1 in the 1939 Register

Excellent to catch up with my sister, too One funny was that we enjoyed your cartoon about the Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes shampoo - useful indeed to have distinctive shapes when one is in the shower with water in one's eyes (my sister recently picked up some shampoo, and only when she was using it and not getting any lather did she realise that it was conditioner - the only difference between the shampoo and conditioner was the small print shampoo/conditioner at the bottom of the bottles...)

From what I've heard now, the 'new' club isn't actually a new splinter from the existing Winchester split, but a fitness club that started a running club that's become England Athletics affiliated. As they are affiliated they are eligible to participate. It does seem that the league is getting increasingly Winchester-heavy though
Of course, even if the club origins themselves were independent of the split, it is possible that many of the club's members may have moved to it from the other two. I did a quick search and it looks odd as 'Winchester Fit Club Ended in March 2024' keeps coming up, so was that when it became a running club?

I can't tell you how much I appreciate having a shelf in our shower now - it means I can keep all the shampoo etc at eye-level, so don't have to bend down to try and look at things, which of course encourages the water to run into my eyes, and with shampoo at eye level means I can actually see it in focus. But yes, very helpful to have a distinctive blurry shape to look for.

This week we have the worry about what to do with my daughter, who is refusing to go to school as she is terrified of upcoming mock exams and how to best support her. And my bike's rear mudguard slightly snapped this morning, which is leaving it dangling off the back.

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That is intriguing about the fitness club morphing into an affiliated running club. Highly possible that there is overlap between the groups. Would be 'funny' if the league morphed into the Winchester League and the other clubs schismed

Sorry your daughter is struggling again So difficult when children are so anxious, to explain that the mock exams are helpful to get used to the process - the results don't matter, as people will do better in the real thing when the process is more familiar... All the best with it all

I had a funny phonecall this morning - a mobile phone number rang and the person didn't say 'Hello', or 'Ahoy Hoy' or anything, they just said, 'Which department is [Name] in?' I said, 'Who are you?' and they said, '[Name]'. I said, 'You're [Name]?' and they said, 'No - I just want to know which department [Name] is in.' Sounded very suspicious, but they then deduced it was a wrong number and went away.

My cousin and I did more family history yesterday evening, just before our website credits expired I found A88035654 in Buckinghamshire in 1939 I'm not sure the filenames transfer when you download a file from Facebook Messenger - I found page 1 and 2 of the 1921 Census for A88037184 and the 1939 Register for his parents (members of the armed forces were recorded separately in 1939).

That is a strange phone call - sounds a bit like a phishing enquiry...

Thank you very much for the census records, they definitely seem to tie in with the story I've been told about cousin Charles, in that his mother passed away and his father re-married, which led to a family argument and his leaving home, getting into trouble before finally finding his place in the RAF where he was extremely respected before his death. Also makes you wonder about the attitudes of the times too with how everyone is described.
Sadly the filenames don't save on , they are renamed things like 12345678987654321, which is unhelpful. But I suppose they do get more photos every day then were taken by all of humanity in the entire 1930s (or something like that I'm sure I read somewhere, though perhaps take with a pinch of salt) so keeping a file title of 'Dad.jpg' probably would lead to duplication...

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Yes, the call did sound like phishing, so I avoided saying anything that might have been exploited...

It is interesting how the two documents illustrate the story in a few words Makes sense that finds it easier to rename the files with codes in case of duplications, given the volume of photos it has - something like Skype or Teams is organised differently around 'groups' so duplicate filenames are accounted for

More fun with job descriptions today - after wanting to add to it last week, my boss's boss was wanting to take things away from it this week, but I assured him it is fine as it is (the main challenge is the age-old one of having a reasonable amount of work to do on average, but ~50% of it falls into September...)

It was a funny day weather-wise here - it rained overnight but was quite warm, so this morning we had thick fog. I was very glad not to have to travel out in it. Instead I contributed to another oral history project about attitudes towards disabled people, which I'm hopeful will be useful. The weather brightened up this afternoon, which was pleasant

I wrote this at about 10:30pm yesterday and I didn't realise it didn't post, but after reloading the page this morning and going on the back button, it seems to be here!

Today's the day before my wife's birthday! Which will also mark the time to start thinking of Christmas and I usually start writing the crossword on the 16th.

Today I had two floor-to-ceiling glass wardrobe doors fall on me. We have built-in floor-to-ceiling wardrobes either side of the chimney, so the bit in the middle isn't very deep. And somehow the kittens managed to knock the two middle doors off their rail so they fell. Fortunately the glass didn't break, but they came out its frame. I found that out when I picked the door up by the frame and the glass fell on my foot...

This evening my wife and I were invited to our neighbour's house to discuss the leaking roof that sits between our property - it was very enjoyable to actually pop in and sit and chat with our neighbour and be social. We've said hello, passed each other parcels and that sort of thing, but never really had a chat for a couple of hours. It is also funny seeing similar but different layouts, as in some ways his is the mirror image of ours, but of course the furniture layout is different, his lounge and dining room have been converted into one room slightly differently, he has a step to his back door and we don't.... The main differences in the houses is the bathrooms, as the original houses weren't built with internal bathrooms so every house has had a bathroom attached since slightly differently.

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Wow, that was lucky that you were able to retrieve the text from overnight!

Also lucky that you were able to retrieve yourself from underneath the wardrobe doors I know cats are good at changing computer settings by standing on the keyboard, but I didn't know they had skills to take doors of their rails, too

Glad you are getting to know the neighbours thanks to the roof. Fascinating indeed about how different houses can be, even with the same basic architecture. It is funny in my block of flats - one next-door neighbour's is like mine, where the front door leads into the living room, then through to the dining area and the kitchen, but the other neighbour's has the front door leading into the dining area, then the kitchen, and the living room is at the back. Coincidentally I had a roof conversation today - useful, but will mean that the quote the roofers quoted is likely to go up, because the landlord of another neighbour was criticising everything from the TV aerials down to the drains...

I hope your wife has a good birthday today All the best with crossword compiling - I look forward to seeing it

Ooo - I just remembered a link for you http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newsliverpool/venue-where-the-beatles-played-for-first-time-at-risk-of-being-lost-forever/ar-AA1u1GU6 - interesting that The Beatles were first credited as such on the Wirral rather than in Liverpool I've been to the Neston Institute (as was) a few times

There's very little that a cat can't do without determination or sheer force of personality/destruction. These two are by far the least placid and graceful we've had, though they do have their sweet moments.

You know how when you are young, your relatives give you colourful birthday cards - often with cartoon characters - and then you get age-related birthday cards until you are 18 and you get beer-themed cards for a few years. And then it is wine-related, or pictures of bicycles, and then nostalgia such as Star Wars themed cards, or cards with insults about how old you are on them? Now it seems my wife's relatives think she has entered the bouquet and bowl of flowers stage in life...

Crossword compiling has been fun - I've got a new size grid this year (never done one 14 rows deep before, but that is only because I'd intended it to be 13 rows deep and then realised something and thought that this is the only year I'd be able to have the clue that way, and so added a bottom row even though I'd already established where the bottom was one row up. Hopefully it doesn't look too obviously tacked on last minute, but it was
Grid done, I'm writing the questions now.

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Yes, it is amazing how cats are contradictory, sometimes being elegant and sometimes being elephant, eg walking on tiny ledges versus knocking stuff off shelves

Fascinating birthday card tracking - interesting about the fashion for flowers for your wife this year... I don't receive enough birthday cards to draw statistically significant conclusions, as my family is small and my friends are online, so I appreciate your analysis

Your crossword grid looks great at the new size - the bottom row is cleverly linked in

I had a good day today. There was a talk at the botanic garden that was very good - by a garden designer I met some years ago. She just about managed to avoid mentioning the time she (unsuccessfully) tried to get grass to grow upside-down, and it was pleasing to see how her designs had progressed - she has even been on TV a few times eg being interviewed at Chelsea Flower Show I met a few people I know so we all enjoyed a cup of tea and a chat afterwards.

We were quite lucky with the weather - it was bright this morning, but during the talk we could hear the rain lashing down on the roof of the lecture theatre. It rained and rained while we were having tea, but by the time we were leaving the rain had slowed to a drizzle. A few flash floods around, but not too bad - we were able to go round the puddles as the road wasn't completely saturated.

I was in a health and safety meeting today with our kitten Calico cuddling up to my arm to sleep. As she does, whenever she felt I wasn't paying her enough attention she tapped my chin to get me to stroke her more, so as I watched and saw myself in the corner on Teams, every now and then I saw her paw raise slowly to tap my chin. I wonder what the others in the meeting thought of it all...

I don't think the bottom row is particularly well linked in, as while there are connections, most of them wouldn't matter much if the bottom row was removed. The 2-letter words would just be standalone letters, and so make sense, and most of the other words would just be one letter shorter, so either not end in S and be singular other than plural, or another whole word. There'd be only two words that would suffer, the corner one and one that I was pleased was able to work, though it did mean that a long across word could no longer work and so it ended up being changed with a short word and the end half of the original word. But it is done, and so off to the testing stage. Though there's nothing like having finished writing a Christmas crossword to make me want to write a Christmas crossword, as I always am frustrated that there are so many words and phrases that I still couldn't manage to fit in.

Glad to hear that you've had a good weekend with an enjoyable weekend complete with a talk at the botanic garden and good weather for the time of year.

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