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

My father doesn't do Morris Dancing, though, he just enjoys playing the melodeon for personal purposes.

I don't know what the puppet I'll be using on the day will look like – I'll probably be a number of different puppets and characters in the background, particularly in crowd scenes. It won't look anything like the real Dr Bunsen Honeydew, though. But we've only rehearsed the first few minutes and not got as far as the ghosts as yet. Not sure how well it'll look but it is fun nonetheless.

That is weird behaviour with your car tyre warning light – is the warning light on the blink?

The good thing about my mismatching gloves is that they're both made by the same firm – muddyfox – so they're vaguely the same style and almost the same colour. So if you weren't looking closely - and who would be? – you wouldn't spot that they're odd. It was definitely colder here this morning – the number of weeks in which I can get away coming to work in shorts and t-shirt are now limited, alas.

<BB<

"he just enjoys playing the melodeon for personal purposes."



Ah, yes that will be good if there are extra puppets to play the 'extras' then it will make more variety in the show, given that they can't have cameos by the real Dr Bunsen

It does make me wonder if the warning light can only tell me one thing at one time, hence it keeps turning on again a few days after I arrange a fix for each tyre it tells me about, but the tyres genuinely do have problems when the light turns on... We shall see what the car tells me later today...

Ah, that is good that the gloves are reasonably similar - I did imagine you wearing one small green 'thinsulate' glove and one large white fleece-lined glove, which would have been more noticeable

"the number of weeks in which I can get away coming to work in shorts and t-shirt are now limited, alas"

Yes indeed It is pleasantly sunny here just now, but the weather is forecast to be more autumnal in the next few days...

Did you have a revealing conversation with your car in the end? Was there a moment?
It is another cold, but dry day on the way to work today. It is one of those quiet weeks where not a lot interesting is happening, just the usual rush to set-up courses that are starting on Monday…

<BB<

No, the car was just telling the same story as before - no more moments yet...

Yes, it was a quiet week here until yesterday when a project arrived that needs to be finished by the end of today Well done for managing all your last minute course rushes

The weather is funny - with it being so cold yesterday, the heating in work cranked itself up to full blast, but today it is warmer outside, although quite wet still, and hence it is approaching sauna temperatures indoors again

I hope you have another good parkrun at the weekend I don't have any specific plans this weekend, again, but hopefully I'll get a chance to attempt to add more bird species to my list

Yesterday here was quite quiet, in that all the women in the office vanished to attend a 'Women Leaders' conference, so there were only a couple of people still here. They seem to have two or three women-only events here a year, but in 12 years I've never seen a men-only one. But the instant they have a 'Bloke's who really just want to be left alone to get on with stuff' conference, I'll be right there.
It was an odd day yesterday, in that it was a day in which I opened the front door to discover that someone had left a B&Q trolley outside the front door, and later on a couple of people decided to shout at me while I was cycling. One shouted the usual swearing while another shouted, 'Yer sponsored by Red Bull!' I have no idea what that is supposed to mean…? (At least I don't get 'Oi! 'Arry Potta! Where's yer broomstick?!' any more, like I did 20 years ago)

Tomorrow is my 250th parkrun in total and 200th in Eastleigh, so I'll bring . I invited people I work with and who live in the nearby area to come along, but I imagine that as it is October and cold and possibly wet, it'll be the usual people there and no-one else who wouldn't be there normally anyway. The family might come along to support. Other than that, we've nothing planned for the weekend. Next couple of weekends will be busy, though. & next week!

<BB<

As men aren't underrepresented in leadership roles, but are overrepresented in suicide statistics, there are some dedicated events here this week about improving mental health and reducing risk Well done on making the most of the quiet office, anyway, at your own 'blokes being left alone to get on with stuff' conference

Fascinating indeed how some days seem to attract oddness - very strange about the trolley, and a shame about the ... I think you can take the Red Bull comment as a compliment about your cycling speed, though! 'Amusing' about people who think they're being so original when they make the same comments as everyone else, eg about 'Arry Potta, or 'have you got a licence for that thing?'... (I only mentioned traffic lights to you because my cousin told me he doesn't drive a car because of them, so I'm sorry that's another old chestnut that you get...)

Congratulations on your 250/200 parkrun Good to see there was a ceremony, and you got to wear a sash - well deserved celebration indeed

I enjoyed my weekend - I went earlier than usual to the usual place A87875987 and added two more birds to my list, as a Sparrowhawk posed for me, and a Black Tern made a rare appearance, performing acrobatics in front of us to catch flies There was a Peregrine, too, which is always a pleasure to see, although it was again too far away for my camera to take a properly recognisable photo! I know what the blob is, though, so it is on my list as being 'seen and photographed'

I shall plan to put your Entry on Social Media at the weekend I'm sure you'll have another good time

Ah yes, happy world mental health day!

I wasn't going particularly fast at the time of the Red Bull comment as I was going down the wide path where there are often walkers, so that can't be it. Cycling's not about going as fast as you can for as long as you can, but going at a speed appropriate to your surroundings and events likely to occur around you.

I suppose everyone gets the same comments over and over. Apparently someone who works at the Bank of Scotland Museum up in Eddie- often is told 'you don't look like you're deaf' – I don't know what that means either…

Over the weekend I successfully ran my 250th parkrun and 200th at Eastleigh, and yes I had a sash to wear. It didn't particularly fit over the shoulder so I tried and found a more comfortable way of wearing it, and it looks like a picture taken by one of my running friends may well be the most-liked picture of me ever

Sunday morning was another unusual day, beginning as it did with defenestrating a .
The defenestration occurred in the usual way. I was in the kitchen doing the washing-up when I heard a lot of screaming. So I went in the lounge to discover my wife and daughter stood on the pouffe, while our was sniffing around the sofa next to the window. I gathered that a had been brought into the house by and was hiding under the sofa, so I picked up the sofa with my left hand, grabbed the with my right hand and was about to put the sofa down again when ran underneath it, trying to hunt her prey. I tried to encourage her to leave the area by waving my foot in her general direction so I could put the sofa down, but to no avail. So there I was next to the window with a heavy sofa in one hand, a in the other, screaming relatives nearby and an inconveniently located, stubborn beneath my .
So I did the only thing I could do, which was use my -holding hand to open the window and then I released it into the wild through the medium of frog flinging. That hand regained, I was then able to get away from where I was dropping the sofa.

Other than that, it was a fairly quiet weekend. Good to hear you had a good weekend and managed to find some more birds, including the fastest living thing.

<BB<

All the best to you for World Mental Health Week too

Ah, that is a strange comment about the Red Bull, then! Yes, 'You don't look X' is another old chestnut...

I managed to find the picture of you with the sash like a backpack Easier for moving around with indeed

'Defenestrating a ' and ' flinging' are superb phrases! Well done for sorting out all the variables with all your limbs! Impressively stubborn indeed!

It was one of those weekends, with wildlife inside instead of outside - I had abdabs over a rather large spider, but managed to hoover it up rather than having to call for help like I did with the spider's two sisters earlier this year... Strange indeed what scares people - half my brain knows that the spider won't do anything terrible to me, but the other half just goes into meltdown so I can't control my body... My mum is scared of spiders, too, so I sympathise with your wife and daughter both being scared of the , but mum is scared of moths and they don't bother me at all, so fear is not entirely inherited... Fascinating...

I put the Peregrine blob on just for fun! My sparrowhawk photo is much better, though - I enjoyed studying its 'bird of prey' bodyshape and features as I haven't ever seen one so close before

With the Red Bull comment the only thing I could think of was is it a reference to an event that Red Bull sponsor, which I think include the jumping off the pier birdman thing as well as the soapbox racing. I've given up and come to accept that I shall never know the answer.

It was definitely easier to run with the sash like that, but didn't look as impressive in the photos. Anyway, for half an hour or so I could pretend I won a beauty competition and was 'Mr 250'. If you saw the photo you might have seen I mentioned the on that site too.

Fear's funny like that. I encountered lots of when I had a summer job working in greenhouses, some fairly large, so I did get quite used to them, but I do feel anxious in crowds. I can understand a phobia of moths – and crane flies ('daddy longlegs') too as they're so unpredictable. I wonder whether the more unusual a way a creature moves, the more 'other' it seems and more likely to be considered scary? Are animals that scuttle or slither or flutter in unpredictable patterns are more unnerving than animals that maintain a steady direction and speed? The more ungainly the gait, the more graceless, gawky and gruesome it appears? jumping is unusual rather than the cute walk of, say, a hedgehog. Or indeed elegant grace of a sparrowhawk. A sparrowhawk is larger than a moth, but somehow less 'other' and so less fearsome, though by having more sharp bits than a moth is far more likely to give you an injury

Today I hope to play boardgames at an after work event in town, so I'll see how that goes.

<BB<

"for half an hour or so I could pretend I won a beauty competition and was 'Mr 250'."



Yes, I did see the mention on too

"The more ungainly the gait, the more graceless, gawky and gruesome it appears?"

Yes, I think you're right, there I can tolerate most 'water spiders' because they move quite slowly, so they give me more time to predict what they are doing, whereas the big 'orrible ones can run across the floor faster than me, and swerve and scuttle in unpredictable patterns indeed so they are scary. Whereas you are more familiar with them from the summer job, so they are less 'other' and less scary. I view moths as being like butterflies, so they are more familiar to me, whereas to my mum the fluttering is unpredictable and unnerving.

"A sparrowhawk is larger than a moth, but somehow less 'other' and so less fearsome, though by having more sharp bits than a moth is far more likely to give you an injury"

Yes indeed! Some people are afraid of birds, though - my colleague is, perhaps because of viewing feathered animals as 'other' in comparison with furry pets...

I hope you got to enjoy boardgames last night

Another quiet day here today – although the new hand-in hatch at the far end of the office, the one they recently installed and made a lot of noise cutting out of the wall and making a metal shutter for, that you need to be a giant to use - is currently out of action due to a pipe leaking from above.

Yesterday's board game café went well – I arrived as did two people that I work with who regularly go to the board game club. There they had a vast pile of boardgames and we played one called 'Small World'. This was a fantasy game involving planning to capture a map with different species with different abilities available to play – each species has a finite number of tokens, which means that there's a limit to the amount of the board that can be conquered before they run out, so during the game you get to put the original species you were playing with 'in decline' and effectively abandon them and play with a different species. It was quite a complicated game to set up, but as we were among the first to arrive various other people came along and joined in the game, so it is a good way to meet people. One person had only been in Hampshire three days, having moved to Winchester from Staffordshire. It seems likely that we may well do that again next month.

There's a plan to purchase some farmland near Newchurch which, if it goes ahead, could lead to beavers being reintroduced to the Island. This, though not as dramatic as the white-tailed eagles, would be a beneficial addition for the Island's wildlife: http://www.hiwwt.org.uk/iowappeal

<BB<

All the best for World Mental Health Day - a few events are going on here today, but I didn't book any, so I shall just go for a pleasant walk shortly There was supposed to have been a storm last night, but it didn't seem to have happened - the weather is sunny at the moment, but may change later, so I will make the most of it

My car is still telling the same story, even though to my eyes the first tyre that deflated is again looking flatter than the one the car is complaining about, but a mechanic will be looking at the car tomorrow, so that will be helpful

That boardgame sounds clever, especially that although it was hard to set up, people could join in later Sounds like it will be worth you going to the café again next month, so you can explore the vast pile of games some more!

That would be beneficial for the Island, to have even more protected land for wildlife, where beavers could be reintroduced as well as things like water voles It is a high target, though, so I hope all goes well with that - A87875987 has been struggling for months to raise a fraction of that amount for its latest appeal, but maybe the tight timescale will encourage people to help the Wildlife Trust more quickly...

Same here - there are a few events taking place today but I didn't book any. There is a thing later this afternoon about community engagement, which is quite possibly of interest if I'm allowed to get away from my desk. It is nice and sunny here today, but the forecast for tomorrow and the weekend is sadly lots of rain . Oh well, I may well take damp photos if I end up writing a Beer, Bus & Boojum Blog for .

Hopefully you'll get your car fixed – if it doesn't work and the car just won't ackle, do you have back-up transport plans?

You can never have too much protected land, especially when there are always lurking plans to build bijillions of new homes on every available inch everywhere. After National Trust land, Forestry Commission, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and a RSPB site, hopefully enough of the Island will be safe from the bulldozer for a year or two. Although I do have my worries about the Forestry Commission, even if the government backed down from selling off our woodlands back in 2011. So I must admit I've sent the wildlife trust a few pennies to hopefully help them secure that land. What are the RSPB aiming to raise money for? I had a look at the website and nothing jumped out at me to say they were urgently in need of funds, unlike if you look on the Wildlife Trust page.

<BB<

Oh, and at nammet-time today I found the 1920 silent version of 'Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde'. This is the perfect time of year, I find, for silent horror…

<BB<

Yes, lots of rain here today so it was a miserable drive to see the mechanic, but we got there... So much spray on the motorway it was like fog, and one road was nearly flooded right across again, but I was able to avoid the deepest water.

Wasn’t fun at the mechanic’s either - I had booked a tyre check, but when I got there they said the tyres didn’t need checking, they just need reinflating every time they go down... Luckily the receptionist was a woman so she couldn’t be accused of mansplaining, but she did do some impressive physicsplaining... She told me the warning light always comes on in cold weather, then goes off when the tyres are warmed by driving, but she didn’t know why. If that’s what my car was doing, I would know why, as I know the temperature, volume and pressure of a gas are related, but the weather is not particularly cold and I only brought the car in because the light was on all the time Anyway, the car is happy now for at least a week, and it will be serviced in November so if there are any more problems they can be checked then

Yes, difficult about the plans for more houses (bijillions is a good word...) - step one should definitely be to see if existing buildings can be used instead of green belt... Brown field sites can be good for nature, too, like the Port Sunlight River Park, so it needs to be a balancing act... Ensuring the land is being formally managed is important to keep the bulldozers at bay, though.

The RSPB’s appeal is important but not urgent- they are raising money to make the other half of Burton Mere wheelchair accessible.

Have a good weekend . I’m hoping to go to a lecture about wildlife, indoors in the dry. I look forward to seeing your photos, even if they are damp

"This is the perfect time of year, I find, for silent horror…"

Excellent. Yes indeed

Speaking of silent horror, I had more abdabs over another 'orrible spider yesterday - it was quiet, but I was noisy 'They' said in Spring it was a good year for bigguns, and it is indeed now the bigguns are all running round trying to mate... The last one was well behaved, and put its legs in so it went easily into the hoover, but this one stood its ground for ages and then ran round the computer but I got it third time lucky

Your Entry is doing well on Social Media I saw the notification that some of the are not well, so I hope you're managing to get round OK

It's been a very damp weekend all-in-all, I fear I've not had dry since Friday. And on Friday I was home looking after my daughter, she has not been at all well since getting quite painful toothache last week which seems to be affecting her quite badly.

On Thursday I watched the 1920 silent 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde', which again was based on the 1887 play more than the novel, but was still very impressive. I think I still prefer the Hammer Horror 'Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde' followed by the 1931 adaptation, but John 'Drew's Grandfather' Barrymore was very impressive in the role.

Ah, the RSPB appeal is indeed important, but possibly not urgent. The good news there is that the land is safe and, being owned by the RSPB, is in no danger of being built on. Whereas who knows what would happen if the wildlife trust don't manage to raise the funds?

I hope your car has been behaving and you managed to get around and enjoyed your indoor event

The & event went well as far as I was concerned, despite the stormy, windy wet weather. The only downsides were that my feet were wet throughout and I lost a . I did parkrun on Saturday morning, you see, on an all-grass course which was very muddy with lots of puddles, and had only taken one pair of shoes with me.
We take it for granted now that windscreen wipers work together and move in the same direction at the same speed, whereas on classic they don't necessarily. I put a few photos online at nammettime today, I did.

There was a minor disruption with buses not able to meet the demands of the number of people wanting to get on them this year – I didn't see any relief buses whereas last year many routes went round two at a time. Apparently this led to an incident outside Ventnor Rugby Club where there wasn't enough room on a for everyone wanting to get on. A few people were excessively drunk and were drunkenly aggressive towards the driver, who felt he hadn't paid good money to be abused and sworn at and decidedly to quit. Which is understandable – who would want to face abuse? - and just a shame that some people wanted to ruin it for others. And there were a few breakdowns too – which meant that the timetable was adjusted a little. Didn't really have any problems with it, though.

<BB<

Wow, that was a wet weekend for you - I hope your have dried out now so they won't turn into mushrooms, but that is a shame about the . Sorry your daughter is not well at the moment - I hope she soon feels better

After Friday I managed to stay dry - I quite enjoyed another charity lunch, as hot soup was just right for a damp Saturday, but the was more of a bath sponge than an edible thing The lecture was good, too, not least because I met people I know and had a good chat. The talk was very interesting, but then the lecture theatre got really hot so the organiser fell asleep and left the lecturer answering questions for half an hour instead of 15 minutes! I was glad to get out into the fresh air after that. My car has been behaving so far, so that is pleasing.

"The good news there is that the land is safe and, being owned by the RSPB, is in no danger of being built on. Whereas who knows what would happen if the wildlife trust don't manage to raise the funds?"

Yes indeed...

"We take it for granted now that windscreen wipers work together and move in the same direction at the same speed, whereas on classic they don't necessarily. "

I enjoyed looking at the photos yesterday Glad you weren't too affected by the disruptions. A shame indeed that some people couldn't be patient with the volunteers and caused trouble, but glad the timetable was able to be adjusted to sort most problems out...

Glad you got to watch another Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde film "John 'Drew's Grandfather' Barrymore was very impressive in the role." - excellent

Good to hear your car is working again and that your

My are still damp today, unfortunately – but they have been dry in between. When cycling along the road you're usually forced to cycle along by the gutter by passing cars, which of course is where all the puddles are. I also could do with getting new shoes without holes in for work. As for my daughter, we're taking her to hospital for an X-Ray next week so we'll see how things go then, but she should be okay in the meantime. (She doesn't like , though, unlike my son and I. Not even ).

leads to and thus to so sorry to hear Good to hear your car is working again and that your weekend went well, complete with interesting lectures that you weren't shivering during and catching up with people.

My are still damp today, unfortunately – but they have been dry in between. When cycling along the road you're usually forced to cycle along by the gutter by passing cars, which of course is where all the puddles are. I also could do with getting new shoes without holes in for work. As for my daughter, we're taking her to hospital for an X-Ray next week so we'll see how things go then, but she should be okay in the meantime. (She doesn't like , though, unlike my son and I. Not even ).

leads to and thus to so sorry to hear that it was disappointing and not as edible as you prefer.

I just had another thought regarding our film discussion and Director's Cuts. An unusual example of a film which had lots of scenes edited out of the original theatrical cut is 'Jersey Girl' (2004) which, despite the name, wasn't set on the Channel Islands but in the USA and should have been titled 'New Jersey Girl'. This film was made when Ben Affleck was being broadcast absolutely everywhere, as was his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez with whom he starred in film 'Gigli' (2003) – and the day-to-day state of their romance was being constantly commented on in the media. Both Affleck and Lopez were hired to be in '(New) Jersey Girl', with Affleck paid $10million and Lopez $4 million to star in a story of a man who falls in love with Lopez, they marry and have a baby but Lopez snuffs it. So he has to raise his daughter alone, initially resenting her for disrupting his career and for his wife's death, but in the end he meets a new woman played by Liv Tyler and everyone lives happily ever after - except for Lopez.
Only when it was released to test screenings it was quickly apparent that the last thing audiences wanted to see was a film in which Affleck and Lopez appeared together as they were of being bombarded with them. So despite having paid $4 million for her to be in it, many of the Lopez scenes were removed from the version of the film actually shown in order to hopefully persuade audiences to actually see it.

I've received an e-mail today, which is my favourite piece of understatement:

"Dear Customer,

Unfortunately due to a technical issue, your sailing from Southampton on the 20th October has been amended to 10:30. We apologise for any inconvenience."

The 'technical issue' being that Red Funnel lost their , which I am afraid has led to their being called a bunch of ws.


<BB<

Glad your managed to dry out in between, to keep the fungus at bay - yes, the gutter puddles are impressive lately ... Do you have to watch out for loose chippings on roads that have been resurfaced, too?

Speaking of fungus, the mouldy bread problem strikes again here - I just opened a new loaf for lunch and saw a small white circle on the first slice but thought it couldn't be mould because it had been an unopened loaf so I ate it. The next slice had a green circle on it so there was no doubting what it was I'm sure it was just penicillin so my stomach will be fine, but the bread must have sweated somehow, to cause that so soon...

Ah, I didn't realise your daughter didn't like - looking at the smiley drink options she can have a mocktail instead

Yes, the was another thing that had white circles in it, but they were baking powder clumps, so it made for strangely fizzy as well as dry texture but my stomach was OK

I can see why Kevin Smith would want to create a director's cut of Jersey Girl, but it is still a question as to whether people would want to watch it - was it released in 2014 as he planned? I see the short version's box office takings barely covered the production budget, so that must have been disappointing to him. A fascinating concept that such a premise is a 'Comedy Drama', and I can only imagine what putting more of the 'before' in could do to the tone of it...

I heard about the Red Funnel That is excellent understatement indeed I can imagine that is just too apt a pun to ignore!