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

Excellent roundup - thank you

The tea multiplication exercise was impressive!

Super impressive about the t-shirt printing - that's service

Wow - lucky it meant you had a t-shirt to change into as well after getting beer on you as well as in you... I hope your camera recovered OK...

Very interesting summary of the antics of Ei - I know the name, but it looks like all but one of the pubs near me that I used to associate with the name have closed or changed hands... The Castle Inn has seen some changes since it was first licenced in 1550... A strong Conclusion to your Entry indeed...

Glad you enjoyed reading about this year's weekend (again) and the novelty hasn't worn off yet. And yes, getting through 4 of in 20 minutes was a challenge…

I'm sorry to hear that you've been infested with Ei near you too. It seems so crazy that a company was able to get itself into a financial mess to begin with by expanding through getting further and further into a debt it cannot pay off and it now is allowed to exacerbate the problem by short-sightedly making their pubs uneconomical to run, putting the vague hope of substantial short-term gain ahead of long-term sustainability. It really is the pub equivalent of Carillion.

I'm very pleased with my T-shirt, I'm getting quite the collection now.

<BB<

I recognise some of the things mentioned:

Whistling while breating in and out. I do that too (haven't tried it while running though). Apparently there are not that many people who can whistle on the intake, but it saves you from imploding on longer pieces of music.

Just like the waning number of pubs around, I also experience the ever decreasing number of billiard tables available. (We have a yearly event where we play billiards (not pool or snooker)) Every time in a different city. Our most recent event (in a reasonably sized city (120k+ inhabitants)) yielded one pub where they had tables but also a party, one where they just got rid of it last year, one closed for refurbishing and one with tables but closed because the landlady was seriously ill and that was it. This is the general trend we see the last few years.

When I learnt to whistle I found it easier to on the inhale than exhale to begin with, and still find it easier to reach higher on the intake. I still find it surprising that people are surprised that I whistle when running, though. Whistling is breathing after all, and you have to do that.

I must admit I don't know about billiards tables on the Island. There are a few snooker halls, but as I've not been in them I can't say whether they also have billiards tables too.

<BB<

It is a pleasure to read about the event through your vivid descriptions, as I wouldn't particularly enjoy it in real life with the difficulty of getting on old buses and into old pubs, so I enjoy it vicariously very much

"It really is the pub equivalent of Carillion."

Yes indeed - a very strange business model...