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

I usually assume that I will come back, and that assumption has been met many times. Does someone know something I don't know about the future?

If they ever attempt to take Aunt Elsa's ring , just put it on and freeze them!

My preferred luggage is my trusty old 90 litre backpack. Much more comfortable to carry around than a suitcase.

If you asked my kids, the bare minimum would include a large powerbank and charger plus phone. I would put in a general purpose knife, if I could get away with it (customs and such tend to get difficult)

Interesting responses. This was inspired by an almost daily reading I do on social media.

There's an account on Twitter called AJR Refugee Voices Archive. (@AJRefugeeVoices) They do a wonderful thing: collect oral histories from elderly people who came to the UK as refugees in the 1930s. I like to read their stories, like this one from Ruth Jackson.

Ruth had a rough time at first - threatened in Germany, separated from her family, she landed at an unfriendly boarding school. Then war was declared just as her sister was about to join her. She felt really alone. Then she was sent away from the school.

Ruth went to stay with the Yardley family in Letchworth.

"From the point of view of money, education, & everything else, I couldn't grumble, I did much better than a lot of them. But the one thing that I needed was love.

One day there was a football match going on in the fields beyond where we lived, & there was a policeman standing outside our gate, & I saw him. To me, he'd come for me. I knew he'd been posted there so I couldn't leave the house. I didn't think that he'd been posted there because of the crowds of people coming after the football match.

Anyway, it was teatime, & Jean called me for tea. I stood behind the curtains watching that gate & I said I couldn't come. So Mrs Yardley said go & drag her down to tea, see what's the matter. She came up to my room & said 'Mother says you are to come down to tea'. I said ‘I can't'. Why can't you? I looked out & said: he's standing there, he's going to come in for me. So she went down & told her mother.
Then to my horror, Mrs Yardley went out of the front door, down the long drive, to the gate. She talked to the policeman & he came in with her. I thought: I thought she was a nice person, I thought she was on my side, & now she's actually getting this policeman in, & making it easier for him to get me. So I certainly wouldn't go downstairs. After a lot of persuasion I finally did go downstairs. They sat having a cup of tea. And Mrs Yardley said, ‘This is Inspector whatever', & he gave his name, & I thought, well, that's a funny thing. So he said ‘Well thank you very much, Mrs Yardley, for the tea, nice to have met you, Ruth, bye, bye. I've got to go out to make sure that we haven't got too many people up in the fields misbehaving. I thought: how funny.
And how clever Mrs Yardley had been, that she'd called him in to have a cup of tea. To show me that I needn't be afraid of the police.

And here's her photo: http://x.com/AJRefugeeVoices/status/1863522995165118636/photo/1