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

Maxy has been more assertive yesterday, seeing off the white cat who had sneaked into our house and also pushing Ollie out of the way of her food, which is a good sign that he is on the mend (though not necessarily for Ollie).
Hard to tell in some ways as they both have quite different behaviours - they are both very territorial, but go about it in different ways. Ollie has always patrolled, while Maxy guards.

I hadn't seen on that there is going to be a parkrun at an airport, but that certainly wouldn't surprise me. I've done a parkrun at a disused runway at Newbury parkrun, which is on the grounds of RAF Greenham Common and involved running on the runway (though it looks like they've changed the course a bit since I did it, making it less rectangular). Mind you only half was on the runway - when I did it, they did it the other way round for a change so I went out adjacent to the runway and back on it. I've also done a 5k twice at Southampton Airport on their runway - we were told we had to finish within 50 minutes or the first plane would land, which is quite an incentive.

That does sound like an excellent exhibition indeed - I've probably said that I did Greek and Roman History for my degree and really enjoyed their artwork. (Which reminds me, there's a new live action Asterix film on Netflix, who have commissioned an animated series for later this year or early next year - expected schedules seem to differ.) Strange staff behaviour, though.

We have people here today to do the suntunnel, so hopefully the days of darkness in the hallway are over. My wife has also bought a garden furniture set and has been sitting outside, though my son's hayfever is bad so he hasn't gone out at all.

I'm putting the finishing touches to polishing off old cartoons ready to bung in a book (in A4) and also hope to finish off h2g2 entries I started writing in February and then stopped for some reason.

Gnomon's suggestion of http://web.archive.org/web/20230000000000*/h2g2.com looks intriguing.

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Glad is showing more interest in food etc - good signs indeed That is interesting about different approaches to their territory Makes me think about my sister's 6 cats whenever they visited my parents' house - three staked their claim to particular rooms, and the other three patrolled between the rooms

"I've also done a 5k twice at Southampton Airport on their runway" - aha - that's probably the advert I saw - a 5k but not a parkrun Having to outrun a plane in 50 minutes wouldn't be as much fun at parkrun

Yes I enjoyed the exhibition in the context of my studies, too - not at your level, but it covered Greek Vase Paintings to Virgil's Aeneid, so a good range of artefacts to examine

Yesterday was a bit sad, as bird flu has struck Burton Mere again - last autumn, I counted 15 dead Canada Geese, but yesterday I counted 50 dead Black Headed Gulls and the main pool was eerily quiet The Heronry on the other side of the reserve is doing well, though - the trees were filled with Little Egrets gurgling as well as Chiffchaffs chiffchaffing so overall it was a good day out.

Good news about the suntunnel - hope the installation is straightforward Also good news about your cartoon book being nearly ready

Gnomon's suggestion is brilliant Thank you for the link - I've rescued the text of my Bronte Project already, which is a great comfort, and I look forward to loading the Entries back into h2g2. I plan to update my A4 printed books as well - I can add in the new text and fix the covers at the same time

Best wishes for tomorrow

I forgot to mention I found a matrix number at the weekend and looked it up - very handy that it is an ID, so we know EMTV30 is Queen's Greatest Hits Very technical in relation to memorabilia, though, indeed http://queenmuseum.com/?tag=matrix-numbers

We took back to the vet and they still think he has a heart murmur which will need the vet hospital in Winchester to check out, but he's put on weight and otherwise is fine and healthy. He's gone back to spending much of his time in one of four spots - by the front door, by the cat flap, outside by the cat flap and next to the gate to the garden. He spends a lot of time in those spots just guarding, and in the maisonette would spend much of his time in winter at the top of the stairs watching the front door, or in summer outside on the doorstep. Regardless of whether or not our other was inside or out.

Sorry to here that bird flu has affected Burton Mere, I hope the outbreak is contained and doesn't affect many species or areas.

You've been busy getting back into the Wayback - it'll give me something to do with sorting out the images for them all, but definitely a very positive outcome that's a win for everyone.

My news is that my operation was cancelled just as I was on my way to the hospital I got the phone message . No explanation as to why - I spent much of the day worrying if it meant that there was something wrong with my blood tests and what it might be, but others believe it was either staffing issues or down to unforeseen emergencies at the hospital. In any case I've today had another letter saying my operation will be on the 15th June.

Instead of an operation I had a haircut instead.

As I didn't go to the operation I was able to do the RR10 in the end, so that was enjoyable. It means there's a good chance I'll qualify for a place this year, as to do so means you need to complete 7 of the 9 runs, and I have now done all 4 so far.

The sun tunnel installation went well, thanks - it really makes the upstairs hall much brighter with natural light, particularly in the morning, though we have lost some storage space in the loft. My wife's planning on redoing the bathroom now in the near future - I'm still hoping for a working washing machine and dishwasher.

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That is good news that is back to usual routines

Yes, it was shocking to see the Black Headed Gulls affected so badly - hopefully it clears up relatively quickly I see buzzards were badly affected in winter, according to DEFRA statistics - so strange how it affects different species at different times. This bird flu is like COVID in many ways, but sadly we can't tell birds to social distance or self isolate to try to limit the spread

Yes I'm enjoying the Wayback Machine very much - a great team effort restoring text and images - a win for everyone indeed! Very pleasing to see topics like the Rowan Tree restored after we thought they were lost.

That is disappointing that your operation was cancelled at such short notice... Would be staffing issues and/or unforeseen events indeed. Glad you found things to do instead Your flowers might just last until mid-June, but if not they have been get well soon messages for your washing machine and dishwasher as well as a treat for you

Glad the sun tunnel installation went well and is making a difference

I hope you all have a good weekend. I'm planning to go to an Octopus for a Preemie meeting, as I have a bouquet of jellyfish to give to the co-ordinator

That's an odd way round for the birds to be affected, I'd've thought, that buzzards were impacted first. Normally I'd expect birds like gulls to be impacted first, and then the birds of prey that would feed on their carcasses, such as buzzards to catch the disease after - but I don't know the details of bird flu.

Yes, it is great that most of the entries that were lost are restored again - still frustrating that many conversations are lost, though. (Well, technically some could be recreated if you get everyone who posted before to copy/paste what they said before if their conversation was recorded in the wayback, but that's a tad silly). Also is there any word on the front page?

My plan today had been to take my daughter to the cafe, but sadly there's train strikes so we won't be able to go. So we're off to the cinema to see -man instead. I was able to rebook for next Saturday.

As you were typing this our washing machine appears to have been fixed! Hurray! So we've got about a week's worth of washing to clean now. It'll be nice to have clothes that don't smell strongly of washing powder. The trouble with taking clothes to the laundrette is that their washing machines hold umpteen times the amount of clothes our home washing machine does. Ours holds about a third of our laundry basket, and their washing machine holds a laundry bag plus an Ikea bag's worth of clothing. Here we put a tablet into the drum, there they only allow powder. As we don't use powder I don't know how much we'd use normally to try and work out how to scale up, and their powder tubs at the top are giant buckets, which we've been tempted to try and fill only to end up emptying a whole box of laundry powder at a time and all our clothing smelling of wash powder. (We have a lot of washing as, with allergies, all the bedding gets washed daily).

When you mentioned going to the Octopus for a Preemie meeting I had wondered what the collective noun for octopuses was - only to find out there isn't one, but if there was it might be tangle, or consortium, while jellyfish is either bloom or swarm, but lots of comments suggest 'smack'. So easy to spread disinformation these days...

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Yes, it is an unusual situation indeed... Last autumn I did see a gull feeding on a dead Canada goose, but most of the geese were just left alone to biodegrade and the gulls seemed fine until now. Maybe buzzards were affected in winter because of carrion feeding in autumn, yes. I don't know why the gulls are affected now, unless it is something to do with different strains, like COVID omicron, etc...

Yes, it is interesting that Peer Review conversations are recorded in the Wayback Machine, but would take extra effort to recreate them, yes - good to focus on finding what was lost as the first priority, anyway, and we can see if there's anything else useful after that No news on the Front Page yet and I haven't even heard if the artists e-mail address has been fixed yet, but we might get more information in the next few days

That's good news about the washing machine at last Tricky indeed scaling up from a domestic machine to an industrial machine - laundry basket plus IKEA bag is rather large compared to 1/3 of laundry basket! I didn't realise your family's allergies were that bad - glad fresh bedding helps to keep them at bay. Allergies are strange things indeed, but I'm lucky that mine are mostly avoidable these days (eg tobacco smoke). My animal allergy is also on a sliding scale, so it's not too bad - ones I have tested are: elephants 2 hours to maximum sneezing, dogs 4 hours, guinea pigs 12 hours, cats 24 hours

That's interesting that there's a cafe near you - when I was looking for a nice place to go for lunch on D's birthday I found that there's a cafe in Liverpool - I had heard of the concept before, but thought the only one was in Manchester. I look forward to finding out how you get on next week - sounds lovely Enjoy the cinema!

Ah The Octopus for a Preemie people often talk about a 'tangle' - I thought it was something to do with either yarn in a tangle or the curly legs getting tangled, but that makes sense that it's a collective noun for octopuses! The jellyfish crochet pattern is easier for me than the octopus, so I will present the co-ordinator with a bloom

It is indeed good that tobacco smoke is avoidable nowadays, the law banning smoking indoors and particularly restaurants etc was long overdue. The worrying trend these days is on e-cigarettes, which as far as I can tell are potentially just as deadly - with news stories saying that cheap ones contain nickel and lead and that because it was illegal for shops to sell children vapes, shops were giving them away with other purchases to encourage children to start. My kids say that vaping is extremely common in children they're at school with. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65614078

The bedding is very tricky as it is washed daily but because of hay-fever we cannot hang it out to dry outside in case it gets covered in pollen, so we still have to use a tumble-dryer, which isn't very economical or environmentally friendly, but duvet covers etc aren't easy to dry indoors otherwise. They also get covered in cat hair and washing it daily also reduces the chance of fleas. (Which due to a typo I initially spelt 'felas' - I suppose they are unwelcome fellas...)

The cat cafe is in Romsey, which I've walked to a couple of times and cycled to several, plus it is on the local train line twice (the local stops do a '6' route back and forth).

Yesterday I went on a bike ride to Southampton to make up for not running parkrun (I'd volunteered expecting to be recovering from an operation and unable to run). There they have a replica of the LauncherOne : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-65766005 (the photo is of it at Kensington, London).I hope to put some words together for , once I finish off the

With the - I've polished off all the old doodles I did, which consists predominantly of two series. The earliest involve three fairly basic characters with quite repetitive 1-page plots - they're one-dimensional characters who I've drawn a couple of extra stories in an attempt to make them 1½-dimensional characters. The other series is a parody consisting largely of 2-page adventures, which is the main focus of the as I think there's some good material there, and I've enjoyed doing some more stories for these. Particularly as sadly the last story that I'd originally done I felt was quite weak overall - one of the worst ones, and a disappointing end, so I wanted to go out with a better tale and undo an earlier mistake.

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Yes indeed I appreciate the indoor smoking ban very much. That is shocking about illegal e-cigarettes being so dangerous, and vaping being so widespread in schools As far as I was aware, only a handful of people in my year at school smoked cigarettes, as it wasn't that 'cool' (I was passive smoking at the time, so my clothes smelled as if I smoked, and I couldn't tell if anyone else smelled of smoke...) One of my work colleagues took up vaping instead of smoking, and it seems more addictive - she can hardly leave it alone for 30 minutes. Thankfully at Christmas dinner last year she went outside to vape (at a pre-COVID Christmas dinner, she vaped at the dining table, in a hot room with closed windows, so I had to go outside to breathe).

Yes a tumble dryer might not be wind-powered but does have advantages. True that daily washing also reduces chance of the unwelcome fellas that are fleas. Insects I'm having trouble with this week are those tiny flies that buzz around in one's face, but hopefully hoovering in corners will help to get rid of eggs etc

Wow Glad you got to see the LauncherOne I see it's not travelling very near me, but I'm glad it will be visiting Leicester, the home of the National Space Centre

Intriguing about your old cartoons - tricky indeed when a project doesn't get chance to be properly finished (like many of the stories I wrote in my youth) so that's good you've been able to continue the series to end on a strong note

I had a good weekend - sadly nobody else turned up to the meeting, even though I had expected at least two more people to be there, but the co-ordinator was pleased to collect my bloom of jellyfish and we had a good chat I went to Burton Mere as well, and was pleased to see no new bird flu casualties so hopefully the worst of the wave is abating Plenty of little birds tweeting around, so that was pleasing - I added Willow Warbler to my overall list, as I've not photographed one of them before

I don't know how many people smoked in our school - I wasn't particularly interested and largely kept to myself, to be honest. But I am shocked that you had a colleague who thought that it was acceptable to vape at the dining table.

I was usually quite disciplined in ensuring that I always finished writing the story I'd started before beginning the next one, but these cartoons were self-contained stories that fitted between the gaps of my main cartoon series, so I'd have a multi-page story and then a selection of a few other things, then another story and then another few bits and bobs, so these were the intermissions. I drew 39 different stories with the main characters of between 4 and 24 A4 pages - normally 10-page.

Sorry to hear that the meeting wasn't quite as expected, but at least you had a good chat, and hopefully the bird flu curve is flattening out and excellent news on the willow warbler, so overall your list is increasing and getting closer to target.

I may be having my operation tomorrow in the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke of all places, which I've never been to before, but I'm a bit more skeptical of it actually happening this time. Not sure when I'll be out again. It's much more awkward now as firstly the hospital is in the middle of nowhere in Basingstoke and secondly, while last week my wife had the week off as it was half-term, this week she has to work so the time available in which I can be collected is very limited.

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I only know about the smokers because there was a big conversation about it one day when I was in sixth form - I remember it, as that was when I learned I smelled of smoke... Much better etiquette these days indeed that vaping is also discouraged indoors.

Yes, very pleased to add a new species to my list - I thought 140 might be too ambitious, but I'm now on 139, so it seems more of an achievable target for the year now indeed

Yes, no guarantees that the operation goes ahead tomorrow, but I send best wishes that you get there and back as smoothly as possible, and all the best with everything I'll be thinking of you

Well, with half the year to go you've definitely a strong chance for 140 - are you already breaking the record?

Sadly with smoke there's often no way to avoid the smell, particularly in the old days on buses, trains, as well as potentially parents and/or siblings. Having a meal out almost always resulted in needing to put clothes in the wash immediately afterwards.

So my big news is that I had the operation yesterday.
Had I told you that my wife wants to redo the bathroom, and this is going ahead in the next month? So yesterday I was heading out the door to catch the train when, as I opened it a delivery man said he had a toilet to deliver for me. He said he'd parked along the road and went to get it on a pallet from his lorry, and then wheeled it along the road, and then said that he couldn't lift the pallet off the road onto our pavement from where he was, and that he was only supposed to do a kerbside delivery and left it jammed into the path between the gate and our front door. Which, being heavy and me now late meant I decided to leave it there. He then went to get the paperwork to sign (actually sign paper! I thought delivery people just took photos these days...) So by the time I got to go to the station, I was about 10 minutes late and just missed the train, and ended up on the next one, half an hour later. Which gave me time to buy large 2nd class stamps at least so I could go to a post box while waiting.
On arriving at Basingstoke I had no Wi-Fi reception, which I'd been relying on to navigate to the hospital. I knew it was north of the station and dual carriageway, so I headed that way hoping to get Wi-Fi reception on the way (which I didn't). I did have Strava's GPS, but unfortunately it didn't show the hospital at all - but did show a Costa Coffee in the area where I thought the hospital was. Assuming that the café was based in the hospital, I headed towards that - passing through a cemetery with a faded sign, which I found amusing (and may be in ) and it was a 2-mile walk. At one point I walked through a rather nice park and got fairly close to a coney, which was a nice surprise and it even posed for me to take photos of. My intuition was right, the café was indeed in the hospital and I arrived there 30 minutes early.

I had no phone or Wi-Fi reception in the hospital, alas. After spending ages in the waiting room I went in for the operation at around 3pm. Funnily enough they phoned my wife dead on 4pm asking her to pick me up about an hour before I regained consciousness, and despite saying beforehand that I wouldn't be allowed out until I had shown I can use the loo and been discharged by a , as soon as I woke up they pretty much wanted to kick me out the door. They didn't wait to get rid of me and, unlike other hospitals I've been in - St Mary's, Southampton General, Princess Ann, Royal Hampshire County Hospital - Basingstoke's North Hampshire Hospital, or at least the Diagnosis and Treatment Centre, seemed very much daytime only. They didn't seem to want patients to be around overnight as the place was virtually disserted with most of the lights off when I awoke despite being crowded when I arrived.

Not sure whether chucking people out is just how they do things in Basingstoke, or a post-Covid procedure. Last time I had a hernia op I was there for over 24 hours, now instead of checking I'm alright they went for a 'here's a leaflet of things to look out for - if you get any of these symptoms call your GP and you'll get an appointment 2 or 3 weeks later, any of these other symptoms and go to A&E'.

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139 is a record, yes - it's all the bird species I've seen since I started the Bird Year list challenge in 2018. I had seen 137 by 2022, and you suggested I should be able to get to 140 by the end of 2023, but I thought that was very ambitious! For 2023 I'm at 84 species, and I was at 82 this time last year, so that's pleasing as well

Sorry you had such difficulty with phone reception yesterday - typical when it would be really useful... Thanks for checking in when you could That was lucky about Strava telling you just enough information to find the café in the hospital! That is a bit of a trek from the station, but glad the walk was scenic

That is quite the contrast with the last time you had a hernia op... Could be something to do with post-COVID indeed, to move you out as quickly as possible before you catch anything. Rather rough to arrange pick up before you'd even woken up, though, never mind checked that your bodily functions were OK... I hope your recovery goes smoothly

You did mention that your wife wanted to redo the bathroom, but I didn't realise it was so imminent as for a toilet to be delivered already That was unusual to actually sign a piece of paper! I hope the installation goes smoothly in due course Coincidentally my upstairs neighbour is having a bathroom fitted this week - the skip was delivered in April, but thankfully the toilet wasn't delivered until Monday so it wasn't just dumped on the drive by the delivery people. There hasn't been too much noise so far, but masonry drilling did start just as I was on the phone... Luckily only short bursts, so I was able to communicate in between, and hopefully they can move on to quieter jobs for the afternoon, as I have a meeting

I wasn't sure if it was this year's total or overall - I'm allowed to be confused, puzzled and muddy minded as I'm within 48 hours of the anaesthetic!
I never actually went to the café in Basingstoke's hospital but it was good to know it was there. No real motivation to go as I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything. I've sent photos I took on the way to so that'll be out the end of the month, even though I've not sent in the photo yet - that's next on the To Do list.

We've not got a skip, I assume that when everything is installed they'll take things away? Hope so too. Once again, as there was a bank holiday we've not had our bins emptied last week, so I did indeed end up ordering a third recycling bin as we can't have a month's worth of recycling fitting in two, particularly when we have a whole bathroom's worth of deliveries in cardboard boxes.

Hope you managed to have a quiet day nevertheless!

Oh, and I meant to say a huge thank you again for the flowers - and confirm that they are indeed still lovely in flower today.

I'm up to date with the polishing of the penultimate story (containing the line 'Only Haggis can save the Earth!' which is a bit like 'Flash! Flash! I Love you! But we only have 14 hours to save the Earth!' only without or a countdown. Or, indeed, Queen...

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Sorry, yes - also didn't help that our original conversation about 140 species was lost in the cyber incident, so I should have given more context.

Yes, rather tantalising that Strava directed you to a café on a day when you were not able to eat or drink, but at least it was able to direct you to the hospital via the café! I look forward to seeing the photos you've sent to

Hopefully things will be taken away after new things have been installed indeed Glad you've got another bin on the way - sounds as though it will be useful indeed when you don't get bins emptied on weeks with bank holidays (we are fortunate that our collections are generally rescheduled, so we haven't had that problem ). I am still waiting for the stickers I ordered at the end of March, though, to remind us what goes in which recycling bin... The council have promised that the binpeople will stick new stickers on next time they visit, which should be tomorrow

The masonry drilling continued into the afternoon yesterday but the meeting was cancelled, so that solved that problem At least I've done the work now, so I will be ready for when the meeting does take place, but it was a bit disappointing that I had to rush to prepare for the meeting, and now I needn't have rushed after all...

Yay! I was thinking about your flowers last night, and hoping they were still looking good to welcome you home from hospital, so that is lovely

"'Only Haggis can save the Earth! ' which is a bit like 'Flash! Flash! I Love you! But we only have 14 hours to save the Earth!' only without or a countdown. Or, indeed, Queen..." -

It was a handy educated guess on my part that the Costa was in a hospital rather than a generic retail park, but it all worked out in the end. I do miss being able to bend, though, and lie on my stomach. I always used to predominantly lie on my front when sleeping. but I suppose it is all a matter of time. At least the 48 hours are almost up and I'm allowed to make myself once more.

I wish you the best of luck with the bins and stickers!

I've done a bit more doodling today, but concentrated on the story so no jokes and it feels a bit deflated - especially as I can't draw . I'm not sure that I'll fit all the remaining story into 2 pages of A4 either. While there's definitely a clear evolution of my style of drawing since 1990 in this once I'm done, one thing I've noticed is that the earlier drawings I very much added padding to stretch things out, and now I'm rapidly trying to fit as much in as possible.
Characters also have ears much more often now. I definitely noticed that I didn't used to draw ears for some reason.

Today I've also finally watched 'An Action Hero' so I'll be writing a review of that film, as well as possibly writing up the review for .

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Ah, that is difficult that you're currently not able to sleep in your usual position, but yes as it wasn't even 48 hours since the operation, you'll get there in time Glad the situation is fine today

No sign of the binpeople yet, but there is still time later this afternoon

Sounds very interesting comparing your cartoons over time - that is fascinating about the ears! Ears are tricky - I see I opted to avoid them in my cartoons, too! Tricky also about whether stretching or squeezing is needed in a story - I did plan Horror at HQ A88020704 in advance, to make sure I got from the beginning to the ending in 30 steps, but some episodes are thinner than others indeed.

Glad you're keeping busy with films and Entries while you're convalescing I hope you all have as good a weekend as possible Not sure what I'll be doing yet, but I do have a few things I can choose - arts, crafts, calligraphy and/or charity shopping could be on the list

Later on today it'll be 3 full days since my operation, which means I'll be allowed a shower! And finally get a chance to wash the arrows off my chest that were drawn on there by the .

I don't really plan stories out as I've probably said umpteen times already, but sometimes have a rough idea of where the story is going but may not know how it'll get there until I start doodling each scene at a time. This morning I drew a triangle, which was unexpected until I spontaneously did. My vague plan was to finish with a story that was a bit like a 'greatest hits' compilation with references back to earlier stories which hopefully would be a chance to undo earlier mistakes, but that risks either their callback being so thin as to make their appearance worthless, or if I try to give each a role to play then the plot gets needlessly complicated. Either way I just make things up as I go along and hope for the best.

Hope you enjoy the weekend and don't get caught out by the weather warnings whatever you get up to. Our house is lovely and cool, fortunately, though it was cold in winter.

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That is another good milestone for your recovery that you now get to wash off the arrows as well as being able to make tea

"This morning I drew a triangle, which was unexpected until I spontaneously did." - spontaneous geometry sounds fascinating!

Glad your house is cool The weather has been quite pleasing today - the temperature got up to 30C, but that was while we were in the supermarket, and then the clouds arrived. The rain during the thunderstorm was quite heavy (so some flowers flopped on to my ramp) but since then the rain has been steady, which will do the plants good indeed.

I took some things to the charity shop but didn't find anything to buy in return. Some calligraphy has been done already, and some craft And then I got a surprise in the post! I wondered if one of the large 2nd Class stamps might have been for me when you mentioned them on Wednesday, but I couldn't imagine what it might be Thank you - I am enjoying it very much

That was coincidental that the picture of Katherine Johnson was on the top of the pile on the table at the exhibition! Also coincidental that you picked up a picture called Ada Lovelace at the same time - just this morning I noticed that the Margaret Carpenter portrait of Ada Lovelace is in Downing Street http://artcollection.culture.gov.uk/artwork/2172/ Also interesting to learn about Mae Jemison I must have seen her in the Star Trek: Next Generation episode Second Chances in 1993, but didn't know anything about her (being a medical doctor rather than a mathematician, she wasn't on the poster that inspired my Katherine Johnson Entry). I see the artist who designed the pictures is based in Wisconsin, and Helen Sharman was a Cosmonaut rather than a NASA astronaut so that likely explains why she wasn't depicted. Good that Ada Lovelace is depicted, but the picture is very stylised compared to the actual portraits of her - I can just about see how three different images have been blended together (headdress, hair and posture), but the dress with v-neck and frilly sleeves looks rather incongruous

Speaking of printed things, I found the John Finnemore Souvenir Programme Special today, and particularly enjoyed the sketch about the office worker who refused to speak to the computer, even after having a drink of yellow

Things took an unexpected turn when I removed the dressing as I appear to be have been cut across my stomach rather than the keyhole surgery I'd been led to expect - the standard of communication in the hospital really was poor, I fear. But I'd rather have poor communication than poor surgery. I still have the arrows as I'm also bruised and didn't want to rub at the permanent markers too much.

Glad you had a successful charity shop trip even if you didn't spot bargains this time. We haven't had a thunderstorm here yet, so the weather hasn't broken and is still intense. The weeds in the garden seem to be coping nevertheless. And our new washing line is getting a lot of use - we need to stock up on pegs.

Glad the colouring pages arrived - though sadly it seems that a different illustration has been chosen for Katherine Johnson after all Which reminds me I really should think about sending a picture or two to with a write-up. Have you heard much about Helen Sharman in your travels?

My other news is that I've treated myself to a new SodaStream, which I'm enjoying in this warm weather. Though that said, at the moment on my desk I have a .

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